#TeaserTuesday: Tomorrow's the Day

Tomorrow's the day! (Amazon permitting. Fingers crossed the upload goes through.) My next release is a standalone romance called College Town, and for today's Teaser Tuesday post, I wanted to offer a quick overview of what to expect, since this will be the first standalone I've published in quite some time, and since it's formatted a little differently from my series work. 

Title: College Town

Genre: M/M romance 

Length: ~120,000 words 

POV: 3rd person limited (single narrator)

Prose style: present tense, with past tense used for flashbacks

Tropes: Second Chance Romance; Childhood Friends to Lovers; Reunited Years Later

Content Warnings/Additional Tags: misunderstandings; miscommunication; unreliable narrator; self-esteem issues; teenage heartbreak; coffeeshop; mafia; sick/disabled parent; strong language; explicit sex; violence; idiots in love; hospitals; injury  

I think that covers everything. The main points of note are the fact that the novel is written in present tense for all the present-day action (he says), and in past tense for flashbacks (he said). I used present tense back in 2016 when I wrote Walking Wounded, and I find it adds a real sense of immediacy to the story; it felt like the right choice here, and I think it really establishes a reader connection with Lawson right away. The other point would be: the explicit sex. There's only two main scenes, with mentions of others, but they're steamy, so be prepared for that. 

*Sidenote: some, but not every chapter begins with an italicized, first-first person blurb that's a sample from the manuscript Lawson's working on in the novel. He's a writer, so the blurbs give a little more insight into his reflections on love and life. 

I'm calling this one "A Romance" because it fits the bill better than the majority of my work. It's a technical, categorization label, only, but one I've learned over the years is very important to most of the book world. Generally, my books have too many secondary and tertiary storylines to earn the title, but with this book I set out to write a straight-up romance. It's something I'd like to do more of, because it's a unique challenge! Lawson is the sole narrator in this book, which is another departure for me, but as such, the story stays tightly focused on the romance, and our romantic leads. Despite the word count, it makes for quick-feeling read.

There's a lot of cursing, hot-and-heavy bedroom action, and a healthy dash of mafia drama, but for all of that, I'd describe it as a sweet and emotional story. I'll post links when it becomes available tomorrow, and I hope you'll really enjoy it! 

Here's the blurb:

Welcome to Eastman, home of the Eastman University Eagles. They’ve got twelve bars, twice as many coffeeshops, and Lawson Granger’s probably going to die behind the counter of Coffee Town, watching all the bright young people in town get their degrees and get on with their lives. He’s not miserable, exactly, but between working retail, writing books that’ll never get published, and helping take care of his infirm father, his life’s running a little short on joy. He has his family, though, and his best friend, Dana, and dreaming about being published is somehow better than accepting that he never will be.

Then the boy who broke his heart twenty years ago walks into the shop one day and throws Lawson’s entire small world into chaos. Tommy Cattaneo grew up handsome. And rich, clearly, judging by his suit, and his watch, and his chauffeured Lincoln. If Lawson’s shocked to see him, Tommy is dumbfounded. Lawson’s happy to pretend they’re strangers, despite the traitorous racing of his heart, but Tommy is adamant that they talk. He wants to explain why he left town suddenly…and returned twenty years later, with a beautiful fiancée, and a mansion, and a wardrobe that costs more than Lawson’s car.

When it becomes clear that Tommy means to stay in town for a while, and that he won’t take no for an answer, Lawson agrees to hear him out. Just once, and then he can lay his old heartache to rest. It’s probably a stupid excuse, anyway. I mean, t’s not like Tommy’s in the mafia…right?