NBtM Virtual Book Tour and Giveaway: Can Dreams Come True? (The Cecily Taylor Series) by Krysten Lindsay Hager

Welcome to my stop on the NBtM virtual book tour for the YA contemporary romance novel Can Dreams Come True? by Krysten Lindsay Hager organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. On my stop, I have an excerpt for you to read as well as a very interesting guest post about celebrity crushes! There's also a giveaway at the end of this post. Be sure to follow the rest of the tour here!

Cecily has always had a huge crush on singer Andrew Holiday and she wants to be an actress, so she tags along when her friend auditions for his new video. However, the director isn’t looking for an actress, but rather the girl next door—and so is Andrew. Cecily gets a part in the video and all of Andrew’s attention on the set. Her friend begins to see red and Cecily’s boyfriend is seeing green—as in major jealousy. A misunderstanding leaves Cecily and her boyfriend on the outs and Andrew hopes to pick up the pieces as he’s looking for someone more stable in his life than the models he’s dated. Soon Cecily begins to realize Andrew understands her more than her small-town boyfriend—but can her perfect love match really be her favorite rock star?

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Excerpt:

Andrew sat back and nodded. “Well, Dimitri got the song, you know? He understood what I was looking for—a relationship where two people understand each other on a spiritual level. You know, where their souls connect. Make sense?”

“Yeah, is that what you have with your girlfriend?” I asked hoping it didn’t look like I as phishing for info on who he was dating.

He shook his head. “Nah, I’ve never had anything like that before. But it’s the ultimate idea though, you know? How about you?”

“No, never,” I said and then I felt guilt wash over me. “I mean, I’ve had deep connections with people—just not what you’re talking about or what Dimitri said—the whole deep mystical thing.”

Andrew stared at me and I felt like he was looking into my soul. “Sometimes it feels like it’s impossible to get that connection with anybody. Or you think you’re halfway there and they say they get you, but then something happens and you know they weren’t as deep into it as you were—or at least as deep as you were hoping. That’s the inspiration for next song I’m working on. It’s about when you want to believe so badly that you have a soul connection, then something happens and you realize it was just another superficial relationship. That’s the title: Just Another Superficial Relationship.”

“Wow, I can’t wait to hear it.”

“I can sing you the chorus if you want,” he said.

Holding my breath, I tried to be cool and not squeal with delight that my favorite singer was about to not only sing for me, but let me hear an unreleased song. This was like a dream come true and it made me question if I hadn’t indeed fallen into the water and hit my head on some rocks, and was now either dreaming this in a coma somewhere or this was my own personal version of heaven. I felt guilty for inwardly gushing over Andrew when I had a boyfriend. But this wasn’t about me being interested in going out with Andrew. It would never happen anyway. This was just me meeting my crush who happened to be a singer, who I felt understood my feelings more than anyone else.

Andrew sang the chorus and a warmth washed over me. The song was perfect—the yearning, the longing—I had experienced all of it myself. It was like he had taken all my innermost thoughts and somehow put them into words.

“Amazing,” I said. My whole body was warm as my mind raced. Was I actually sitting here with him and having him trust me enough to share a new song? This was beyond anything I had dreamt of happening today.

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About the Author:

Krysten Lindsay Hager writes about friendship, self-esteem, fitting in, frenemies, crushes, fame, first loves, and values. She is the author of True Colors, Best Friends...Forever?, Next Door to a Star, Landry in Like, Competing with the Star, Dating the It Guy, and Can Dreams Come True? True Colors, won the Readers Favorite award for best preteen book and the Dayton Book Expo Bestseller Award for children/teens. Competing with the Star is a Readers' Favorite Book Award Finalist.

Krysten's work has been featured in USA Today, The Flint Journal, the Grand Haven Tribune, the Beavercreek Current, the Bellbrook Times, Springfield News-Sun, Grand Blanc View, Dayton Daily News and on the talk show Living Dayton.

Website * Amazon * Facebook * Goodreads * Instagram * Pinterest * Twitter
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Guest post:

My Biggest Celebrity Crush 

by Krysten Lindsay Hager

Oh wow, this topic is what inspired Can Dreams Come True. I fell for George Michael as a kid and used to read and watch every interview he did. My crush started when I was a little kid and lasted until…well, what’s today’s date? When he died, I got so many messages and texts that you would have sworn my actual boyfriend/husband had passed. I was in shock that day. I remember getting calls from family and friends asking how I was handling things. I was completely numb until I lost it watching a YouTube video that took me back in time to when I was watching that very performance in front of the TV while wearing a Cabbage Patch nightgown.

In fact, after he passed, I wasn’t sure I could even finish the book. I sat watching old interviews and he talked a lot about grief and how hard it was for him to write after his own. That inspired me to go back to the book and finish it.

When I was in high school I had some basketball player and football player crushes. One was on Daryl (Moose) Johnston of the Dallas Cowboys. I liked Troy Aikman and Deion Sanders, too, but there was something about Daryl. I had a lot of Dallas Cowboy school supplies (even though I was a Detroit Lions fan) and people would make fun of me for it. Once I was in the library and when you wanted to check out a study room, you had to give something as collateral, so I offered my Dallas Cowboys binder and the guy behind the counter made a face! My dad was a Lions fan, too, but he bought me a ton of Cowboys stuff and we’d watch the games together. It wasn’t until recently my uncle told me my dad used to hate the Cowboys, but watched because I liked them. I thought that was really sweet.

One of my basketball crushes in high school and college was Grant Hill. Growing up, I lived near where the Detroit Pistons played, so I’d get tickets to see him play. It was a bonus if I could get tickets to a game where another crush of mine was playing against his team. I admit I enjoyed the March Madness games this past year because he was one of the announcers.

Celebrity crushes have definitely fueled my writing inspiration and some I have to keep secret as I work on new projects! But maybe I’ll reveal some more someday.

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Giveaway:

The author, Krysten Lindsay Hager, will be giving away an $10 Amazon/Barnes & Noble gift card to a randomly drawn winner after the tour via Rafflecopter. Be sure to follow the rest of the tour here, and leave a comment at each stop to increase your chances of winning. Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway