We are excited to celebrate the release of PLAYING THE PAUSES by Michelle Hazen.
This is the second installment in her Sex, Love, and Rock & Roll series.
Follow the tour for reviews, excerpts, guest posts, plus enter to win a $50 Amazon gift card!
“Hazen’s use of the frantic energy of a rock band’s tour contrasts perfectly with the slow and seductive dance this couple engages in. Readers are sure to enjoy following The Red Letters on their drama-fueled climb to fame. “ —RT Book Reviews
“To call Playing the Pauses an erotic novel alone would be to belie its equally strong explorations of the boundaries between personal, career, and sexual growth.” —Midwest Book Review
When an ultra-independent tour manager meets the one musician she can’t resist, their kinks fit together perfectly, but their lives don’t. Michelle Hazen is back with PLAYING THE PAUSES, the second, stand-alone installment in her Sex, Love, and Rock & Roll series. Fans of Kylie Scott’s Stage Dive Series and YOU REALLY GOT ME by Erika Kelly, will love this bad boy, friends with benefits romance with a dash of BDSM mixed in.
Title: Playing the Pauses Series: Sex, Love, and Rock & Roll #2 Author: Michelle Hazen
Release Date: March 5, 2018 Publisher: Self-published Genres: Contemporary Romance
Synopsis:
Rock Star Dom + his Queen of the Spreadsheet employee = KRYPTONITE
Kate is a globe-trotting tour manager who can’t be tied down.
Danny is a Dominant rock star and tattoo artist who needs her help to explore his true kinks.
Kate just got her big break, running an international tour for a rising band. Her job is everything to her…at least until she meets the band’s enigmatic bass player.
After they collide in one unforgettably erotic night on a hotel balcony, he comes to her with a proposition. As a former BDSM club performer, Danny’s spent so long fulfilling other people’s fantasies that now he wants to reclaim his own—and he says she’s the only one who can help.
Getting caught in bed with her rock star boss could cost her career, and yet there’s something about Danny’s quiet intensity that she can’t resist. He steals her heart, hard. But the end of the tour is approaching, and their jobs are headed two different directions.
To be together one of them will have to stop touring, but the only thing they crave as much as each other is music.
** This book can be read and understood as a standalone, but does contain spoilers for earlier books in the series. **
So many of the songs that remind me of Danny are Rage Against the Machine. He has a very quiet soul, but likes very loud music, but that band isn’t a great match for the energy of most of the book.
I’m going to go through and suggest a song for each chapter, to match the mood and often to match the lyrics to what’s going on. It’s free of all but the most harmless spoilers and will be fun to read before you’ve read the book, and even more fun to go back to (and listen to!) as you’re reading the book itself once you can understand all the little inside jokes and references.
Ch 1 Let the Games Begin: “Off the Ground” by The Record Company. This has just the right energy for Kate’s confident stride into Danny’s life, plus a super-memorable bass line that seems like something Danny might play. The Record Company is one of the bands I saw live (In Danny’s home of Portland, Oregon!) as part of my research for this series. I feel like Danny’s BFF, Jera, would really approve of this band’s barefoot drummer.
Ch 2 With the Band: “Short Skirt, Long Jacket” by Cake. This is Kate’s theme song, as we get to see her swoop in and swiftly reorganize the band’s whole tour with the hand of a master, and enough energy left over to hit the mosh pit on opening night.
Ch 3 Raw: “Never Let Me Go” by Florence and the Machine. Because this chapter feels utterly inevitable, which is perfectly captured by the swell of the vocalist’s voice in this song. It also feels like it’s being sung into an unlimited expanse of air; just right for a scene taking place on a balcony high above a city.
Ch 4 Unconditional: “Same Love” by Macklemore and Ryan Lewis (featuring Mary Lambert) because we all need a friend who will love us even once they know all our most personal secrets.
Ch 5 Communication: “Sail” by AWOLnation
Ch 6 Good: “When the Sun Rises” by Stop Light Observations. Life on a tour bus, baby… This song has all that energy.
Ch 7 You: “Where I Stood” by Missy Higgins, for the lyrics. Then:
“Bloodstream” by Stateless. Dark and addictive and romantic as all get out.
Ch 8 Close Calls: “Trouble” by Pink. Then “Under the Bridge” by the Red Hot Chili Peppers, because it is referenced in the scene.
Ch 9 Switch: “One Time” by Marian Hill. Kate at her most sensually powerful.
Ch 10 Mercy: “Closer” by NIN. This is my favorite Danny song because it’s filthy and unapologetically sexual, just like him.
Ch 11 To Sleep, Perchance to Dream: Two scenes here.
First scene: “Long Line of Cars” by Cake. Two words, people: Porn. Pinata.
Second scene: “Slow it Down” by The Lumineers- Because it’s dreamy and sweet, and for the line “Rest your arms. Rest your legs.”
“Passing Afternoon” by Iron and Wine- this is the song Kate references in the chapter.
I think you’ll have noticed by now that this playlist zips from immersive rock to fun and flirty, to heart-wrenchingly romantic. RT Book Reviews, I think, explained this better than I could when they said: “Hazen’s use of the frantic energy of a rock band’s tour contrasts perfectly with the slow and seductive dance this couple engages in.”
Ch 12 Crossing Lines: “When I’m Small” by Phantogram. This is the bass-forward song I always hear in my head during the concert at the start of this scene.
Ch 13 Playing: “Yellow Ledbetter” Pearl Jam. Slow and private and sweet.
Ch 14 Girl Talk: “Hold On” by the Alabama Shakes
Ch 15 It’s a Sign: “Bartholomew” by The Silent Comedy
Ch 16 Stay: “Stay” by Megan Nicole.
Ch 17 The Best Part of Waking Up: “Oblivion” by Bastille
Ch 18 Meet the Parents: “Put the Gun Down” by ZZ Ward
Ch 19 Draw Me A Picture: “Unsteady” by X Ambassadors (Another band I saw while researching this series. I was so short I couldn’t see anything over the crowd. I could hear that they had a drummer but was never able to visually verify this to be fact)
Ch 20 The Ring: Ooh, this is an eclectic chapter. First: “Kiss Me” by Ed Sheeran
Second: “Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps” by Cake
Ch 21 3 AM in Munich: “Gold to Glass” by the Revivalists. What, you didn’t think I was going to make it through a whole playlist without a Revivalists’ song, did you? Pshaw. I saw them for the first time during 2016 Mardi Gras week as research for this book, and I went from that to driving everywhere and sleeping in my car to see six shows in one year, in 4 different states over 2300 miles apart. Yes, they’re that good.
Ch 22 Your Answer: “Love is a B*tch” by Two Feet. This fits the sexy, deliberate feel of the scene, and it sounds like something The Red Letters (Danny’s band) would play. I can just picture Jax whispering into the microphone, and Danny in the background, driving the whole song with his bass.
Ch 23 Happy Birthday: For this one, I absolutely have to link to YouTube. Danny plays a no-singing version of Happy Birthday on his bass in this chapter, which sounds so gravitational you have to hear it for yourself.
Ch 24 My So-Called Home: “All I Want” by Kodaline
Ch 25 For Better or Worse: “The Light of Day” Silent Comedy. This is the song you should start playing the first moment Kate and Danny are alone.
Ch 26 Playing the Pauses: “Far Away” by Nickelback. And yes, fair game to make fun of me for including a Nickelback song in my playlist. It’s still the perfect song for this moment.
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Michelle Hazen is a nomad with a writing problem. Years ago, she and her husband ducked out of the 9 to 5 world and moved into their truck. As a result, she wrote most of her books with solar power in odd places, including a bus in Thailand, a golf cart in a sandstorm, and a beach in Honduras. Currently, she’s addicted to The Walking Dead, hiking, and Tillamook cheese.
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Book Loving Pixies 
Beautiful post! Thanks for hosting my playlist!
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