All You Had to do Was Stay – Taylor Swift
Our heroine Maddie is used to getting abandoned by people in her life. She’s built walls around her heart, protecting herself with sarcasm and snark. Our hero Dom struggles to find a way to be what she needs, and the task is even harder because she loved him once. But he left her, and that’s where this T Swift song meshes so perfectly with the story. All Dom had to do was stay, and Maddie would have given him every piece of her. So now the question is, can she ever trust him again?
Still Into You – Paramore
This song is mentioned in the book! One of my favorite scenes has our stoic hero Dom coming out of his shell to sing some songs in memory of his best friend. And for a guy who spent his teen years crushing on Hayley Williams, what better to sing than some Paramore? This song in particular hits hard with this being a second chance romance. After all this time, Maddie and Dom are still into each other.
Long Haul – Ian Munsick
I love Ian Munsick’s western music so much, and I actually got the chance to see him perform live at Red Rocks! His song Long Haul would come up on my favorites playlist, and as it played a scene would come to mind of my two characters taking a hike together in the Rocky Mountains. I wrote that scene into my book, and it’s a true turning point in Maddie and Dom’s relationship. But more than that, this song is about a love that lasts, one that is going to stick around for decades no matter what comes, and that’s exactly the type of love found in PS: I HATE YOU.
Homesick – Alana Springsteen
This song fits perfectly with Maddie’s mindset throughout the book. She’s constantly feeling lost, almost like homesickness, but it’s not a place she’s longing for. It’s a person. Two people, it turns out. Her brother who is gone, but also Dom who she keeps finding her way back to. Eventually she realizes that home is where he is. Alana Springsteen is the most represented artist on my PS: I HATE YOU playlist – bonus shoutout to her tracks Trying Not To and Me Myself and Why.
Ghost – Justin Bieber
You want a good cry? Listen to this song after the epilogue of PS: I HATE YOU. Every one of these lyrics connects with how Maddie settles into her grief over losing her brother Josh. My favorite line from the song has to be “And if you can't be next to me / Your memory is ecstasy” because Maddie comes to realize that her brother isn’t truly gone as long as she and the people who loved Josh continue to share their memories of him.
In this splendidly bittersweet romantic comedy, enemies forced together by a mutual loss are led on a cross-country journey toward a second chance.
Maddie Sanderson would be proud to honor her older brother’s dying wish, that she scatters his ashes over eight destinations that the adventurous 29-year-old never got to visit before he died from cancer. But in his will, Josh assigned her an impossible partner to help complete the mission—Dominic Perry. Seriously, if Maddie weren’t already at her brother's funeral, she would have killed him for this.
Sure, Dom was Josh’s life-long best friend. He’s also the infuriating man who broke Maddie’s heart back when she was naïve enough to give it to him. But since Dom insists on following the rules and Josh didn’t leave much room for Maddie to argue the matter, they embark together on a series of farewell trips that span thousands of miles, exploring new places and revisiting their complicated history along the way.
After a snowstorm leads to a shared bed, Maddie starts to wonder if her brother might be matchmaking from the grave. But when grief also reopens old wounds between them, Maddie will need more than Josh’s ghostly guidance to trust Dom again.
Romance [Berkley, On Sale: December 3, 2024, Trade Paperback / e-Book, ISBN: 9780593815663 / eISBN: 9780593815670]
Lauren Connolly is an award-winning author of contemporary and paranormal romance stories. She’s lived among mountains, next to lakes, and in imaginary worlds. Lauren can never seem to stay in one place for too long, but trust that wherever she’s residing there is a dog who thinks he’s a troll, twin cats hiding in the couch, and bookshelves bursting with stories written by the authors she loves.
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