Blog Tour & Giveaway: Girl with Guitar by Caisey Quinn

New Adult. MA 17+ Content.

After Kylie’s dad dies in a freak accident, he leaves her with nothing other than her crazy step-mother, Darla, and the ability to play guitar. When Darla kicks Kylie out and she loses her job all in the same day, she hops a bus to Nashville determined to make her late father’s dreams come true. Waitressing and saving her pennies to record a demo, her big break comes when she’s asked to join a tour going down the tubes with once platinum album-selling country music superstar Trace Corbin. But touring with Trace is hardly a dream come true since he’s pretty much drinking his career down the drain. If Kylie can’t pull Trace out of his rut, he’ll pull her and her dreams down with him.

Girl with Guitar had me hooked pretty early on. It's smooth writing and moving plot made the story flowing nicely up until the very end.

Kylie has dreams of making it in Nashville. After her father dies, she's left with her horrible step mother who couldn't care any less about her. ​

Keeping her promise to her father, she leaves to set out to make her dreams come true. She doesn't have anything to her name other than her guitar and a few bucks saved... but she's determined to make it and prove that she has what it takes.

The road to Nashville is a struggle. Kylie meets new people along the way, some want to help her, others out to do what's in their best interest and ones who get under her skin and make her hot, like Trace. He's hot enough to punch and kiss at the same time. Kylie needs to do what's in her best interest, but being so close to Trace is making things difficult on her. Her future is on the line, but so are her emotions. Trace needs a serious attitude adjustment, and his drinking doesn't help. But once she strips those flaws away, she see's him for who his is.

Seriously, I wanted to throat punch Trace a few times! He drove me crazy with his arrogant asshole attitude, yet I loved it. He jumped to conclusions and drank too much. Truthfully? Trace was a jerk- a smoking hot, douchebag jerk. ​But I couldn't help but like him. He's a loveable hero despite his actions at times. He truly cared about Kylie but didn't know how to show it.

Girl with Guitar is a quick, tension filled read- I really liked it a lot! Normally I can't stand heroines with backbones, but Kylie and Trace worked so well together that I found myself rooting for her.

I do have a few complaints with the story where it felt rushed and slightly unrealistic at times with how things happened. Overall, those little issues didn't bother me too much to take away from the story. I enjoyed it very much and would definitely recommend this to friends!

Caisey's take on cliffhangers.

 
Do I Have Something Hanging from the End of My Book? Oh, are those my characters? Wait, no, no I don’t.

Raise your hand if you’ve read a few New Adult books lately with cliffhanger endings. *raises both hands.* Yeah, that’s what I thought. I have to say, I’m not a big fan of them. Now, some authors, Jessica Sorensen in the Callie/Kayden books for example, do this very well. In The Coincidence of C & K, the entire novel is building towards that cliffhanger ending. Readers are prepared, they know the situations that each character is dealing with and that they will likely converge at some point and it will be intense. (I was up until 3 AM reading and I still couldn’t sleep after.) That ending wrecked me y’all, it really did. So, cliffhanger warranted. Kim Karr’s Connected was similar. She never said it outright but I suspected all along that things were going in that direction. Things were fishy about the situation; she threaded in just enough subtle cues to set her readers up to at least wonder if that might happen. So, gold stars for Jessica and Kim.

But then there are some others…you’re seventy-five or eighty, or heck, even ninety percent through the book and WHAM! A Mack truck comes barreling through out of nowhere causing a situation that has never even been so much as hinted at. And before you know it, the characters who’d been skipping off into the sunset holding hands are dangling off the edge of a cliff by their fingernails. You turn the page, or flick your finger on your eReader, and what do you get? About the Author. And you’re like, what the mother #*%@!?

This is a major pet peeve of mine and it ticks me off to no end. Leaves me feeling cheated, bereft. And sometimes it irritates me to the point that I no longer care what happens and don’t even bother with the second book. Just write it off as a few hours of my life that I can never get back. Sigh.

So, okay, rant over. For some authors, this is their writing style and for others that’s the way they make sure people will buy the second book. I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with that. It’s just not for me. When you finish my books, I want to come over to your house and tuck you in and fix you some hot tea and pat your head while you cuddle your Kindle and bask in the afterglow. Since I can’t do that (well, not for all of you), I have to settle for hoping my ending has left you satisfied. Is there a second book in Trace and Kylie’s story? Heck yeah there is! And I hope you’ll read it. Anyone who has ever given a long-distance relationship a shot can imagine the drama that’s coming. Tabloid rumors complete with photos, bar fights, the cops get called. It’s intense y’all.

Could I have shoved Kylie out into traffic and had her wreck her car on her way to see Trace, leaving readers wondering if she’d ever walk again, and if Trace would stay by her side as she recovered? Um, no, I couldn’t have. Because that’s a cheap shot. And Kylie is so real to me that if I had pulled some crap like that she probably would’ve shown up at my house to kick my ass. 

I want you to WANT to read about Trace and Kylie because you grew to care about them and honestly want to know what’s next for them. Because you feel invested in their relationship and careers and want to take this journey with them. The last thing I want is for you to feel like you HAVE to read the next book because I tricked you into it.

That’s my two cents on cliffhangers y’all. I might have ticked some people off but I’m from Alabama so I can say mean stuff followed by “Bless your heart,” and it’ll all be okay. So if any of this offends you, bless your heart. ;)

What’s your take on cliffhangers? Have some you loved? Hated? I’ll come back and visit this post to check the comments so we can chat!

Girl on Tour will be the second book in the Kylie Ryans’ series. I don’t have an official release date yet, but will post on my site www.caiseyquinnwrites.com as soon as I do! Keep an eye out! My second book, Keep Me Still will be available in September.

Thanks for having me!

Bio:
Caisey Quinn is a New Adult author living in Birmingham, Alabama with her husband, daughter, and other assorted animals. She wears cowgirl boots most of the time, even to church. Girl with Guitar is her first novel, but not her last.

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