✰ Bianca ✰ Janeane ✰ 
• 17 August 2018
• book #2 in the Play On series
• complete standalone!
(But! Book #2.5 will be about the sister from As Dust Dances!)
• complete standalone!
(But! Book #2.5 will be about the sister from As Dust Dances!)
★★★★★
5 Stars
The New York Times Bestselling author of the On Dublin Street series and PLAY ON returns to the world of the arts in this intense and emotional standalone romance about love, sacrifice, and surviving both.
Once upon a time Skylar Finch was the lead singer of a hugely successful American pop-rock band. But fame made her miserable. When years of living a lie suddenly ended in tragedy, Skylar fell off the map.
Eighteen months later she’s sleeping in a tent in a cemetery in Glasgow, making just enough money to eat by busking on the streets. She manages to avoid recognition, but not the attention of one of Glasgow’s ambitious A&R executives.
Killian O’Dea works at Skyscraper Records, Scotland’s most successful record label. Raised by his uncle and owner of the label, Killian’s upbringing would have been devoid of affection entirely if it wasn’t for his loving sister. Killian is unflinchingly determined to bring the label more success than ever, and the young homeless woman who busks on Buchanan Street is going to help him do that. Her music speaks to him in a way he refuses to over-analyze. All he knows is that if it can touch his dark soul, it’ll set everyone else’s alight.
Skylar makes it clear that she doesn’t want to sign with him. But when she experiences the dangerous reality of a woman sleeping rough, Skylar has no one else but Killian to turn to. An undeniable connection forms between them. But Skylar doesn’t want the career Killian is trying to forge for her, and when her past comes back to haunt her Killian will be faced with a decision that could ruin him. He must either free Skylar from his selfish machinations and destroy everything he’s ever worked for, or lose a woman who has come to mean more to him than he ever thought possible…
Skylar used to be a teeny-rock-band-super-star in America. Now she's sleeping in a tent in the back corner of a cemetery in Glasgow.
After 'fleeing' from home she spent a year backpacking through Europe and ended up in Scotland, singing and playing her beloved guitar on the streets to make enough money to eat, use the laundromat and maybe shower once a week in the swimming center.
Killian sees her singing one day and he wants her. For his uncle's record company. He needs her. He needs to prove to his idiot of an uncle that he's got what it takes to be the best in the business. But Skylar doesn't want to be famous anymore. But she also doesn't want to waste away or worse on the streets ...
What will happen with Skylar in Scotland??
Will she find her Happily Ever After??
READ THE BOOK TO FIND OUT! ☺
Eeeep ... book #2 in this amazing new Sam Young series! (all standalones with no connected characters. Even though Killian's adorable sister Autumn will get her own story in book 2.5!)
I loved AS DUST DANCES!
(LoL - from the cover and title, I kinda somehow assumed this was a ballet romance! It's not!☺)
I already mega-adored the first book PLAY ON, and this one was just as amazing.
So heartbreaking and sad and ugh! The whole first part of the book had this sad-and-wet-Glasgow-autumn-day mood to it.
You just want Skylar to accept whatever it is that Killian is offering. She has to get off the streets. It's too dangerous. And she's so effing talented. She needs to be heard.
But of course she has her reasons for escaping home and for living the way she is living at the moment....
Killian has quite a bit of work to do until he can convince her of signing with him. And to not hate him anymore.
Killian is a very ... strange person in the beginning. We only have Skyar's POV, so we don't have any idea what the what with him. He's somewhat fascinating, but also so very unfeeling and cold and secretive-ish. He doesn't talk much. But of course we also know that we'll fall for him along the way.
What can I say - I just loved this book!
Perfect romance! With allllllll the feels!!! ♥
So many beautiful moments. Sad moments. Heartbreaking moments. Scary moments. Music moments. I loved it.
I wouldn't mind if Netflix or Hollywood came along to make something out of it!!!
AS DUST DANCES was a heartbreakingly beautiful & emotional music love story. About a girl who is finally ready to face the past and to fight for a very happy future ... Run to your nearest amazon to see if she finds her happily ever after with Killian - but get your own hottie Scottie - this one is MINE! ☺
If I had to name some things I didn't love-love ... I would've loved to get Killian's POV. We just don't get much from him. He's not a talker and we don't get to know him enough to be an amazing book hero. I needed a bit more from him. His POV would've been perfect, but also maybe some more talking or ... no idea. We don't hear anything from him and suddenly he's in love with Skylar? It was a bit weird because we just don't understand what he was thinking all along. Yes, we saw his looks and a bit of his feelings, but I needed more.
And then the Britishness of the book. Skylar is from America and the expression living or sleeping rough is used a million times. That's not really American. It might be used by Americans too, but I wanted a change of expression at least a few times. Just use Sleeping on the streets or anything other than sleeping rough. It didn't make the book bad, it just got on my nerves after the 3rd time :(
ARC received for an honest review
I would pick up the phone book if Samantha Young wrote it, and even though I am not a big fan of YA (I am an old fart, they often feel wwaaaaaayy too young for me), I completely adored As Dust Dances.
I didn't read the blurb of this story before I read it, because sometimes I just love diving in completely blind. And it was worth doing this here.
As Dust Dances did not feel YA or even NA to me. Our leading lady Skylar has been through so much in her life that she feels a lot older than her early 20's. I can't count how many times I sobbed, how many times I had to put the book aside because I needed a minute.
I adored Killian - even when I wanted to punch him! However, he is such a non-verbal kind of guy, that I found myself wanting to know more - more about him, more of his thoughts and feelings. Like Skylar, I was left wondering at times where his head was at. Yes, I could feel the connection between Killian and Skylar, but at times was unsure of what he really wanted.
Heartbreaking and hauntingly beautiful, Skylar Finch's story is one that will have you crying, will have you hoping, it will have you thinking.
And now I am thinking "I Want More!"
I can't wait to see what Ms Young brings us next.
If I had to name some things I didn't love-love ... I would've loved to get Killian's POV. We just don't get much from him. He's not a talker and we don't get to know him enough to be an amazing book hero. I needed a bit more from him. His POV would've been perfect, but also maybe some more talking or ... no idea. We don't hear anything from him and suddenly he's in love with Skylar? It was a bit weird because we just don't understand what he was thinking all along. Yes, we saw his looks and a bit of his feelings, but I needed more.
And then the Britishness of the book. Skylar is from America and the expression living or sleeping rough is used a million times. That's not really American. It might be used by Americans too, but I wanted a change of expression at least a few times. Just use Sleeping on the streets or anything other than sleeping rough. It didn't make the book bad, it just got on my nerves after the 3rd time :(
ARC received for an honest review
I would pick up the phone book if Samantha Young wrote it, and even though I am not a big fan of YA (I am an old fart, they often feel wwaaaaaayy too young for me), I completely adored As Dust Dances.
I didn't read the blurb of this story before I read it, because sometimes I just love diving in completely blind. And it was worth doing this here.
As Dust Dances did not feel YA or even NA to me. Our leading lady Skylar has been through so much in her life that she feels a lot older than her early 20's. I can't count how many times I sobbed, how many times I had to put the book aside because I needed a minute.
I adored Killian - even when I wanted to punch him! However, he is such a non-verbal kind of guy, that I found myself wanting to know more - more about him, more of his thoughts and feelings. Like Skylar, I was left wondering at times where his head was at. Yes, I could feel the connection between Killian and Skylar, but at times was unsure of what he really wanted.
Heartbreaking and hauntingly beautiful, Skylar Finch's story is one that will have you crying, will have you hoping, it will have you thinking.
And now I am thinking "I Want More!"
I can't wait to see what Ms Young brings us next.
• EXCERPT •
When I finished, O’Dea was sitting on the chair, his elbows braced on his knees. He was staring at the floor, like he was lost in thought. Then he looked up at me and my breath caught at the million heartbreaking emotions roiling in his gaze.
And then they were gone, as if they’d never been there.
“That’s all I have so far,” I whispered, so confused by him. “No more songs.”
His expression was unreadable. “Your visitor’s visa is about to run out.”
Bewildered by the response, I could only nod.
“You’ve no money.”
I tensed.
“You’ve run away from your identity, from your life in the band, in the US. You’ve no family to speak of, and you abandoned your friends.”
The man was the soul of sensitivity. “Your point?”
“My point is that you don’t have many options. I think you were living in some naive fantasy that you could keep running from your problems and live a relatively peaceful life as a homeless person. Somehow, miraculously, you survived unscathed for five months. But last night you were given a giant fucking look at the reality and dangers of homelessness. I wish it hadn’t happened that way, but there was never any other way it was going to end. And it has ended, am I right?”
“So, do you get, like, a bonus at the end of every day if you say a hundred patronizing things in a twenty-four-hour period or something?”
He ignored me. “You can’t go back to sleeping rough.”
“I think I got that, thanks.” I waved my cast at him.
“So … it’s either call your old manager, your band—”
“Not an option,” I snapped.
O’Dea smirked. “Then I’m all you’ve got. And I’m no fucking Mother Teresa. I’m in the business of making money, Miss Finch. You’ve already proven you’re good at making it. And from what I heard today and have heard you playing when you busk, I think the world hasn’t even seen a fraction of what you can do.”
There was really nothing to do but glare and hope that he withered under it.
“I’ll let you stay here in this flat free of charge, give you a weekly stipend for clothes, groceries, a new guitar. You can heal up here. But all of it in exchange for a record contract. A one-album deal, that’s all I ask. When you’re healed up, you’ll be straight into the studio to record.”
The thought made my stomach pitch. “I don’t want to be famous again.”
“Tough shit. There is no being famous again. You are famous. And you’ve got more talent in your pinkie finger than most do in their entire being. And that talent deserves more of a platform than standing on a street busking. It’s a goddamned insult to all those people out there trying to make the big time. I don’t care what it is you’re running from. I care that you sort yourself out and make some music again. Music that matters. Music that will heal you.”
I bristled. “I’ve made music that matters. I’ve got the fan mail to prove it.”
“Your music in Tellurian did its job. It was catchy, appealing, and teenagers related. But your voice is meant for something else. The songs you just sang to me … those are songs that will really make people feel. It’s vulnerable and brutally honest and that’s the stuff that resonates with people. People want songs that make them feel good, but they also just want songs that me them feel, even if it breaks their fucking heart. You’ve been through a lot, Skylar. Even if I couldn’t read a newspaper, I’d know that by listening to those songs you sang.
“Two years ago, you were a leader on social media and the lead singer of a pop-rock band that teens and college freshman loved. I’m not asking you to go back to that. I’m asking you to become an artist in your own right. If you don’t want the social media exposure, we’ll have someone else run that stuff for you. And we’ll do what we can to minimize the tabloid exposure. It will be hard at first considering your disappearance, but once it dies down, we can make it so you’re not hounded. It is possible.”
“It doesn’t matter whether they hound me or not. I hate the fame. I hate the touring. I hate it all.”
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Samantha Young is the New York Times, USA Today and Wall Street Journal bestselling author of adult contemporary romances, including the On Dublin Street series and Hero, as well as the New Adult duology Into the Deep and Out of the Shallows. Every Little Thing, the second book in her new Hart’s Boardwalk series, will be published by Berkley in March 2017. Before turning to contemporary fiction, she wrote several young adult paranormal and fantasy series, including the amazon bestselling Tale of Lunarmorte trilogy. Samantha’s debut YA contemporary novel The Impossible Vastness of Us will be published by Harlequin TEEN in ebook& hardback June 2017
Samantha has been nominated for the Goodreads Choice Award 2012 for Best Author and Best Romance for On Dublin Street, Best Romance 2014 for Before Jamaica Lane, and Best Romance 2015 for Hero. On Dublin Street, a #1 bestseller in Germany, was the Bronze Award Winner in the LeserPreis German Readers Choice Awards for Best Romance 2013, Before Jamaica Lane the Gold Medal Winner for the LeserPreis German Readers Choice Awards for Best Romance 2014 and Echoes of Scotland Street the Bronze Medal Winner for the LeserPreis German Readers Choice Awards for Best Romance 2015.
Samantha is currently published in 30 countries and is a #1 international bestselling author.
