Blog Tour: Breathing Black by Piper Payne...

New Adult/Adult Contemporary Romance/Thriller

Released December 2, 2014

Author’s Take on BREATHING BLACK Characters

By Piper Payne

Larkin Grant

I had one clear thought in mind when writing Larkin’s character; she had to be perfectly flawed. Her past has molded her into the woman she is today even though she fights against it. She doesn’t want to resemble her mother, she doesn’t want to become what her past has entitled her to be, so instead she strives for normalcy even though she knows she’s far from normal. Larkin is inexperienced in a lot of ways, I think it shows in her decision-making, which most of the time is hasty and fueled based on emotion. She also has this stubborn defiant nature I love. I wanted her to be an anti-heroine yet have these amazing redeemable attributes. I wanted her to be a real person.

Landon Black

Landon, at first, is a stereotypical romance hero. Rich, confident, and handsome with All-American good looks. Larkin, however, sees through the mask of perfection he wears. Even though he has this influence of power, it’s his loyalty, rule following, and fearfulness of disappointing his father that continues to be his weakness. Larkin is everything he thought he’d never find. Landon is the guy she thought she could never have. My favorite moment between Landon and Larkin is on the football field when they show each other little glimpses of themselves. It’s honest and affects both of them deeply. They relate despite their many differences and for years Landon hangs onto that night as if she’s the only person who truly saw and understood who he was and who he could become.

Amazon

GRITTY. INTENSE. EMOTIONALLY HONEST.

A stunning debut novel that will leave you breathless.

A desolate childhood; a scarred, jaded, damaged girl. Larkin Grant knew she couldn’t end up like her mother … so she ran. All her belongings packed in the back of a rusted, brown Cadillac, her best friend June in the passenger seat as the co-pilot, she fled Aspen and never looked back. A new life in a new city, Larkin was finally starting to breathe again, an unfamiliar sense of happiness seeping into her lungs. Landon Black, the boy she loved from afar, came back into her life despite leaving him and her awful memories buried hundreds of miles away. A weakened pulse brought back to life. He said she was beautiful. She was starting to believe him. He pursued her and changed the course of everyone’s plans. Life had dealt Larkin a cruel hand, but maybe this was it. Maybe the boy that never knew she existed finally saw her and came to free her from the darkness of her past. But we are never truly free. There are secrets that bind us and lies that unravel from the most beautiful of lips. Blackness that suffocates and makes us question everything we thought we knew. Larkin and Landon are intertwined in ways they never imagined, their future unclear as ghosts come back to haunt them. Friendship. Revenge. Love. Drugs. Murder. Deceit. The first in a two-book series, Breathing Black is a mix of suspense and breathless romance. It’s a provocative tale that challenges what one is willing to do to protect the ones they love. An emotional journey where trust isn't an option and falling in love never hurt so bad.

My mother once said love is like a drug, fast and euphoric. Licking lips, high on the idea it's going to last forever, until you're clawing at your skin trying to escape the destructive poison you let inside.

I woke up to my phone vibrating in my purse. The realization of the darkness that surrounded me came crashing back into my pounding head along with everything else that had taken place. I sat up and crawled on the cold tile floor, following the sound of my phone drumming into the ground. I grabbed it out of my purse and dismissed an unknown Colorado area code number.  

 4:30 p.m. I’d been in this bathroom for hours.

 By choice.

I didn’t want to leave, and I didn’t want move or face reality, so I chose to lie there and let the crippling fog of sleep take over so I could pretend none of it happened.

I peeked under the bathroom door into his office. It was dark and silent so I felt up the wall finding the light switch and turned it on. Walking over to the bathroom sink and looking into the mirror was painful, a visible reminder of how pathetic I truly was. Splashing water on my face wouldn’t rinse away the misery. I left as quickly as possible, peeking out of the blinds into the hallway until the coast was clear so I could open the door and run down the emergency exit stairs. 

Right when I got home, I got into the bathtub. All I wanted to do was cleanse myself of Landon Black, but the water wouldn’t get hot enough, and my hands couldn’t scrub fast enough. I wanted to wash away the way he made me feel. I wanted to wash away everything he did to me Saturday night. I was so disgusted with myself. How could I be so blind? Sobs strangled my lungs as my cries tore up my throat until after a while I finally just stopped. Like a blown fuse, my body shut off. I lay in a white bathroom, in the white tub, with white noise resonating in my ears, yet all I could think about was red. I sat in the bathtub letting the hot water that had now turned to ice soak my skin. He used me. Everything that happened between us was a goddamn lie. So many questions raced through my mind. The biggest one was why?

My love for literature and writing is an addiction. My mind is continually telling stories and I have a queue of books I want to write being stacked up in my brain. I don’t know how to write pretty and perfect so I write perfectly flawed and unpredictable. Just like life.

I’m married to my best friend and I’m mother to three little miracles. I love going to farmers markets, bookstores, and long drives with my family in my ruby red Bronco. I also have an unhealthy love for makeup, Oreos, Halloween, queso dip, psychic readings, sushi, massages, and Redd’s Apple Ale.

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