I usually have playlists that balloon to hundreds of songs long while I’m drafting, but once a book is finished, I pare the list down so it flows like a film soundtrack from chapter to chapter. The list for my second-chance contemporary romance RIGHT WHERE WE LEFT US is now at just over three hours of runtime, but if I had to distill the vibes of the book down even further, it would be in these five songs:
Bad Enough, by NIGHT TRAVELER.
NIGHT TRAVELER’s music has an undeniable 80s feel to it while sounding modern and fresh. Total bliss for my Xennial ears. In this song, someone lays their heart on the line for their beloved. RIGHT WHERE WE LEFT US is a second chance romance between Duncan Brady and Temperance Madigan, who have been orbiting each other for nearly two decades. There’s a distinct moment where Duncan throws up his hands and puts all his metaphorical cards on the table for Temperance, and this song captures that hopeful desperation. There are two versions of this song on my playlist. It opens with the acoustic live recording–tender, yearny vocals–then it closes with the poppy, upbeat studio version, as if it were the track playing while movie credits rolled. (Bonus: I had a really tough time choosing between this song and the live acoustic version of NIGHT TRAVELER’s “Burn”, another quintessential second chance tune.)
Do You Remember, by Jarryd James.
I really like angst. Is there anything more angsty than a second-chance romance between two people who have never stopped loving each other, and it’s all been in secret, and they literally couldn’t get out of each other’s lives even if they wanted to? “Do You Remember” by Jarryd James is peak broody sensuality–the beat is driving and deliberate, like there’s this conscious determination and momentum to it. That tension is going somewhere. The vocal is breathy and a little eerie as he pleads with his lover to remember what they had together, and how, even though it was secret, it was intensely real. For the characters in my book, “do you remember the way it made you feel?” isn’t really a question–it’s Duncan knowing Temperance does and daring her to admit it.
Peace, by OAR.
RIGHT WHERE WE LEFT US and its sister novel BEND TOWARD THE SUN feature the Brady family as the supporting cast for the main characters. The Bradys are playful and tight-knit, and they love out loud. But due to some painful history between Temperance’s family and the Bradys, her and Duncan’s relationship at eighteen and the subsequent fourteen years of pining has been kept secret. I imagine that it would be really painful for them to be constantly stuck in the midst of such wide-open affection between the people they love most, feeling like they not only had to hide the way they loved each other, but also unable to get comfort and support for the deep hurt between them as well. In “Peace”, the lyrics describe a pivot point in a fraught relationship, where one of the lovers forces a confrontation about how they’ve been hiding.
The Hardest Part, by Nina Nesbitt.
This one speaks for itself. It’s a laid-bare acoustic ballad about the ache and agony of being stuck in a loop of “right person, wrong time”, desperately wanting to be able to move on, but being utterly unable to.
Just Like Heaven, by The Cure.
My books take place in a fictional valley in rural Pennsylvania, where a classic rock station is the only radio station with a reliable signal. “Just Like Heaven” is the only song on this list that’s relevant to a plot point in the book, and I chose it for a few reasons. On a basic level, it fits with that little bit of worldbuilding involving the station signal–it would have logically been something that would’ve played over Duncan’s truck radio during the scene where it’s mentioned. In a broader sense, this is simply one of those songs that feels like it was made for a young love montage in a film. It captures the headiness of their relationship the first time around–laughter and dizzying joy and fantasizing about running away together. Finally, at the thematic level, I used water and rain as a symbol of renewal and redemption throughout the book. In the song, there’s a line about how they’ve drowned their love deep inside them. RIGHT WHERE WE LEFT US is the story of how that secret love is brought fully back to the surface.
You can find Spotify links for my full book playlists on my website.
Perfect for fans of Carly Fortune and Lucy Score, Right Where We Left Us is a searing and unforgettable romance.
Temperance Jean Madigan and Duncan Brady have never gotten it right. After one radiant, secret summer together when they were eighteen, they’ve been on-again off-again ever since. Now, despite red-hot chemistry and TJ’s closeness with Duncan’s family, they’re virtually strangers, only capable of adversarial banter, awkward small talk—and the occasional messy hookup.
When a wedding at the Bradys' vineyard lands TJ there for the summer, their mutual avoidance strategies prove impossible. The last thing TJ wants is to be under those angsty, heated glances Duncan thinks he hides. And for Duncan, having fiery TJ constantly close is the ultimate distraction that he absolutely can’t afford. When forced proximity begins to chip away at their armor, buried tensions resurface, old wounds urge confrontation, and once-in-a-lifetime love demands one last chance to finally get it right.
Women's Fiction Contemporary | Romance [St. Martin's Griffin, On Sale: June 18, 2024, Trade Paperback / e-Book, ISBN: 9781250822024 / eISBN: 9781250822031]
Jen Devon is a lifelong lover of love stories. She writes vivid, cinematic romances about imperfect people finding their perfect match. A former ecology academic and adjunct professor, she now works in the Internet tech industry and dreams of writing full-time. An avid gardener, photographer, gamer, and unapologetic nerd, she’s also a mom of five (three kids, two rescue mutts) and lives in central Ohio with her engineer husband.
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