When a knee injury ends twenty-year-old Quinn Rowland’s pro tennis career, he’s not only dumped by his hot Russian girlfriend but ordered to attend college by his disinterested billionaire father. A rich kid who’s not used to being disappointed by life, Quinn and his sociopathic half-brother Sebastian create a frat house game intended to treat girls how they see them—as simple game pieces to be manipulated for their pleasure.
College sophomore Emilie Swanson knows Quinn’s reputation—after all, he did send one of her sorority sisters into therapy earlier in the semester—but the game and his charm bring them closer together and soon she starts to believe there’s more to Quinn than people think.
But what if the more is something darker than a game of toying with emotions and breaking hearts?
Quinn and Emilie might be falling for each other, but there are secrets he’s not ready to tell—and lifestyle changes he’s reluctant to make. She willingly stepped on the court, but if Emilie finds out she started out as nothing as a pawn in Quinn and Sebastian’s twisted game, she might never forgive him.
To his surprise, Quinn finds that he might finally care about someone more than he cares about himself…even if that means letting Emilie walk away for good.
Guest Post
Choosing a POV is always one of the most fun parts of starting a novel for me! I’ve never written from a guy’s POV before, at least not one like Quinn’s, but his character is actually the one who showed up first and demanded I write down the story. The entire opening chapter was the inspiration for the book, and there was no way I could do it justice without letting Quinn show us his life through his eyes.
Dual POV can bring so much to the table, but if it’s not necessary, it can be a total waste of space. I considered whether or not Quinn’s POV was necessary to Broken at Love, discussed with critique partners whether or not to perhaps tell only the first chapter from his POV, and spent a lot of time making the decision.
The truth is, Broken at Love could not be told as effectively without Quinn’s POV. There were places in the book where I actually considered whether or not Emilie’s POV was necessary, but in the end, decided it’s very strongly both of their stories. It doesn’t belong to either of them alone.
Quinn’s the type of character who bottles up all of his real emotions. He’s hardly honest with himself, so getting him to be honest with other characters was pretty much out the window, at least for the first three-fourths of the book. The only way to gain reader sympathy for Quinn’s plight was to let them inside his head and his heart, to prove that there was more going on that what he showed to the world. The scenes between him and his father, him and Sebastian, and his inner monologue really brought home the kind of personal issues he’d dealt with for most of his life, as well as the depth of his disappointment over losing tennis. It also let us know that, no matter what he told Emilie, his feelings were quite different.
As far as writing from a male POV, I was a little bit nervous, but found that his voice flowed just as easily (if not more so) for me than Emilie’s. I’ve been quite fortunate to have had many good guy friends along the way, and since I’ve always been a “guy’s girl,” (meaning none of them wanted to date me), they weren’t trying to impress me into bed. That left them free to speak uncensored (and often crudely) about life and ladies—I can’t believe I’m finally thankful that boys friend zoned me in high school and college! LUCKY ME!
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In all seriousness, I loved writing Quinn’s POV. I don’t think that dual POV is something that can be forced on a novel—the particular story has to require it. A good, general rule is that if a story can be told properly with only one POV, you probably don’t need a second one.
My advice is simple—if you need to use a multiple POV, you’re book will tell you. Make sure you listen!
Author Bio:
I’ve long had a love of stories. A few years ago decided to put them down on the page, and even though I have a degree in film and television, novels were the creative outlet where I found a home. I’ve published Young Adult under a different name, but when I got the idea for Broken at Love (my first New Adult title), I couldn’t wait to try something new – and I’m hooked. In my spare time I watch a ton of tennis (no surprise, there), play a ton of tennis, and dedicate a good portion of brain power to dreaming up the next fictitious bad boy we’d all love to meet in real life.
Links:
Broken at Love on Goodreads
Website: http://lylapayne.blogspot.com
Twitter: @lyla_payne
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