Kennedy Ryan | Off His Rocker

There are several books I re-read annually. Seeing that I write contemporary love stories, you might be surprised by a few of them. I love historical romance, and always return to Candice Proctor’s NIGHT IN EDEN, Madeline Hunter’s STEALING HEAVEN, Meagan McKinney’s THE GROUND SHE WALKS UPON. Honorable mentions are Adele Ashworth, Connie Brockway and Penelope Williamson. All get re-read every year. For someone who only writes in the now, love from the past gets me every time. There is actually one contemporary story I find myself returning to year after year.

HOW TO KILL A ROCK STAR by Tiffanie DeBartolo.

Have you read it? Do you love it? ‘Cause how could you not?

There are so many things to love about this. DeBartolo’s lyrical satire. Her near-reverent commentary on the transformative power of music. Her masterful storytelling, with an epic romance at the creamy center. So many things to love, but none of them are my favorite thing about HOW TO KILL A ROCK STAR.

No, that would be Paul Hudson, the anti-rock star who, defying all odds, makes my all-time favorite hero list.

He is, in many ways, exactly what you expect from a rock star. Undeniably gifted. Passionate. Slightly unbalanced. A manwhore. And he is, in other ways, antithetical to every rock star who has stolen your heart between the start and the end of other rock star romances.

When we meet him, he works at the Gap - folding. He wears wildly colored, mismatched thrift store cast offs. He is not “leanly muscled”, but is skinny and pale though attractive in his way. He is a hypochondriac who believes his pancreas will kill him in the end. He resists the industry machine that would make him a household name, and chooses death, of a sort, over the fame his towering talent could easily garner him.

See? Told ya.

And DeBartolo’s middle finger to our ideas of what the rock star hero should be? She actually casts the taller-than-Paul, more-handsome-than-Paul, tanner-than- Paul teen heartthrob who should, by all rights be our hero, as the guy who wants, but doesn’t get the girl. No, our heroine Eliza only has eyes…and heart…for Paul. And I get it because though he is not physically what you’d expect and is eccentric and more-than-slightly neurotic, his passion for music and for his Eliza overtake every scene. He is compelling and show-stealing. He is simultaneously lost and absolutely sure.

I never set out to write a “rock star romance”. I just started thinking about these two musicians who stumble into a deep friendship and then torpedo into a white hot, once-in-a-lifetime love. And before I knew it, my hero was a rock star. But maybe subconsciously taking a page from DeBartolo’s book, I had no interest in fashioning Rhyson Gray, my hero, from typical rock star cloth. His journey starts as a piano prodigy, early disillusioned with fame. As a child he sees it for what it is and isn’t, and shuns it when given the choice. But he is driven to perform and returns to the world stage on his own terms as an adult.

When Rhys meets Kai, a half-Korean Georgia peach transplanted to Los Angeles pursuing her dreams, he recognizes a drive and talent that matches his own at every turn. But she’s also someone who has no interest in the “typical” rock star. Who isn’t phazed by all the things he could give her or the opportunities that could come with being “his girl”. She needs a friend, so they are friends… until they can’t be just that anymore.

Rhys is not nearly as eccentric as Paul Hudson, but he has little quirks. Things that take him a little deeper and make him a little different from what you’d expect. I thought I’d share this scene with Rhyson out in plain sight, but in disguise just feet away from his fans, trying to convince Kai that they can be friends. Reluctant friends who turn each other on with every breath, but friends, nonetheless!

Read the Excerpt

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About Kennedy Ryan

I just can't write about myself in third person for one more bio! I'm a wife, a mom, a writer, an advocate for families living with autism. That's me in a nutshell. Crack the nut, and you'll find a Southern girl gone Southern California who loves pizza and Diet Coke, and wishes she got to watch a lot more television. You can usually catch me up too late, on social media too much, or FINALLY putting a dent in my ever-growing To Be Read list!

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About MY SOUL TO KEEP

It seems the things worth keeping are often the hardest to hold...

KAI

I had two things in life that mattered. My mother and my music. Mama was taken from me too soon, and now music is all I have left. It’s the thing that’s pushed me right out of backwoods Georgia into Los Angeles, where the line between fantasy and reality shimmers and blurs. I’m finally making my way, making my mark. I can’t afford to fall for one of music's brightest stars. Not now. Music is all I have left, and I’m holding on tight with both hands. I won’t let go, not even for Rhyson Gray.

RHYSON

I had one thing in my life that mattered – music. The only constant, it’s taken me to heights most people only dream about; a gift dropped in my lap at birth. I thought it was enough. I thought it was everything until I met Kai. Now she’s all I think about, like a song I can't get out of my head. If I have to chase her, if I have to give up everything - I will. And once she's mine, I won't let go.