Teaser Tuesday: Pretending Hearts-Coming in October

Right now, I'm working on Pretending Hearts, the next book in the Falling for Autumn series. The book is a standalone with an ending (I'm over writing cliffs!) and will be about Blake's sister Delia. Delia was first introduced in Falling for Autumn and featured more predominantly in Blake's novella Finding Autumn. Below is the synopsis as well as a teaser (unedited!) from the book. Delia is cynical and unhappy at the start of the book (she's pretty much the antithesis of Autumn), but she goes through a lot of change during her story and I love her transformation.

Summary:

Delia Bridges is done living in the shadows cast by her ex-convict father and her football star brother. Attending Cook University will finally give her the chance to be her own person and hopefully find love at the same time. When she meets Wyatt Johnston, she knows immediately he’s the one.

Wyatt fulfills all of Delia’s requirements for the perfect man: he’s rich, handsome, and a talented forward for Cook’s soccer team. However, Wyatt turns out not to be the man she thought. When he dumps her and simultaneously ruins her reputation, she has to start over once again.

Levi Caldwell has every quality Delia doesn’t want in a boyfriend. He has no money, works for the maintenance staff at Cook, and has no problem sharing his judgmental opinions about how Delia is living her life. Despite her growing attraction for the tattooed drummer, Delia tries to avoid Levi. But when a new crisis threatens to destroy all she has rebuilt, she finds Levi is the only person she can trust.

***Standalone New Adult Romance-Ages 17+ Due to Strong Language and Sexual Situations***

Excerpt:

I believed in the power of love. To clarify, I believed in the destructive power of love. Firsthand, I’d seen the path of broken souls left behind in the wake of true love. Hearts mangled because two people believed being in love was more important than anything else in the world.

True love was a joke. How could love be sacred if it betrayed everything else that person stood for? What if love squeezed out every other important part of the person’s life? When was it enough? When did it get to the point where walking away from love was the only logical thing to do?

I had wanted love once. I had wanted that one great love every girl was promised by her mommy and daddy. I wished to stumble upon the one person who would make me happy for the rest of my life and love me in the same way my dad loved my mom. But then I grew up and found out the ugly things love could bring.