25-year old Madison Hill doesn’t need anybody…or so she thinks. She grew up watching her parents’ messed-up abusive relationship and she knows there’s no way in hell that she’s ever letting that happen to her.
They don’t know it in the beginning, but Gabriel and Madison will soon develop a weakness: Each other.
But Gabriel’s got a secret, a hidden monster that he’s afraid Maddy could never overcome… And Maddy’s got issues that she’s afraid Gabe will never understand. They quickly realize that they need each other to be whole, but at the same time they know that they’ve got demons to fight.
And the problem with demons is that they never die quietly.
Courtney Cole: Thank you so much for having me! Well, my name is Courtney Cole and I write
New Adult fiction (as well, as some YA and a couple women’s lit. ☺)
Romance Addict-Steph: Can you tell us something that not a lot of people know about you?
Courtney Cole: I kind of like bats. They’re cute.
Romance Addict-Steph: What got you into writing in the first place?
Courtney Cole: When I was a kid, I was a big time reader. I read stacks and stacks of books, and to me, that just exercises your creative muscle—you imagine all of those storylines in your head like a movie. When I started writing alternate endings to books, I realized that I could write.
Romance Addict-Steph: When you create your characters do you ever put bits of either your personality or bits of personalities from people close to you?
Courtney Cole: I most definitely do. Maddy in IF YOU LEAVE is a lot like me. I’m a big sister and I’ve always been the responsible one in my family. As a writer, you can’t help but draw from the things (and people) around you.
Romance Addict-Steph: What first inspired you to write The Beautifully Broken series?
Courtney Cole: I have a theory that everyone is broken in some way. A favorite quote of mine is from Ernest Hemingway: “The world breaks everyone and afterward, some are strong in the broken places.” That’s sort of the theme of my series.
Romance Addict-Steph: How is Gabriel similar and/or different compared to Pax?
Courtney Cole: Night and Day. Gabriel is a broken hero, while Pax is a bad boy. Or he was. He’s fairly reformed now. Haha.
Romance Addict-Steph: You’ve written books in a couple of different genres, do you have a particular favorite?
Courtney Cole: My favorite by far is New Adult. I love that we can get as gritty as we want and not have to worry about being appropriate for YA.
Romance Addict-Steph: Can you tell us about some projects you are currently working on?
Courtney Cole: I’m working on the third book in the Beautifully Broken series, Before We Fall. Dominic is the ultimate bad bad… and Jacey is… a firecracker.
Romance Addict-Steph: What are some good books you've read lately?
Courtney Cole: Rachel Van Dyken’s Elite. ☺
Romance Addict-Steph: If you could collaborate with another author in writing a book, who would it be?
Courtney Cole: M. Leighton and I have talked several times about doing that… whenever we have the time. ☺
Courtney Cole: Thank you so much for having me!!
If You Leave now centers on Mila’s sister Madison Hill, who we met in If You Stay as the independent, fiery, and over-protective older sister. After their parents were killed in a car accident, Maddy came back to take over the family’s restaurant and moved back into her parent’s old house.
Our new hero, Gabriel Vincent, is the brother of Maddy’s best friend Jacey and is an ex-Army ranger who just returned home from serving in Afghanistan.
These characters are as night and day from Pax and Mila as it could get, which was really refreshing! They are also insanely more stubborn then Pax and Mila were as well. Where I think Pax and Mila were together most of If You Stay, I think Maddy and Gabe spend far too much time for my liking of If You Leave apart.
This book puts a very heavy focus on post-traumatic stress disorder, which I’m not at all familiar with and found to actually be very enlightening. Gabe returns from Afghanistan a different person then when he left and struggles to deal with the events that lead to him coming home. Maddy is also still suffers from the impact losing her parents has left on her, even after all these years.
As I said, both of these characters are seriously stubborn and made me want to reach into the book and beat them up a little bit to try and get some sense knocked into them. Especially Gabe. But aren’t most men stubborn? They think they can handle things all on their own and won’t take up the offer for help when it’s there.
Courtney’s character development was seriously what impressed me the most. I can picture all these different characters in my head and enjoyed learning all their different personalities. No two characters of hers are alike, and I really enjoyed how If You Leave was so completely different from If You Stay.
I am now going to be impatiently waiting to read Jacey and Dominic’s story in Before We Fall! We meet Jacey, Gabe’s sister, in If You Leave and while I wasn’t real impressed with her I have a feeling she is going to make for an interesting story!
Be warned: Courtney puts some twist and turns in the book that will leave your heart racing and very overly emotional. She doesn’t hold back in trying to bring out the waterworks.
Courtney Cole is a novelist who would eat mythology for breakfast if she could. She has a degree in Business, but has since discovered that corporate America is not nearly as fun to live in as fictional worlds. She loves chocolate and roller coasters and hates waiting and rude people.
Courtney lives in quiet suburbia, close to Lake Michigan, with her real-life Prince Charming, her ornery kids (there is a small chance that they get their orneriness from their mother) and a small domestic zoo.
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