What is the name of the book and when was it published?

IF YOU STAY.  It was published February 7, 2013.

What’s the book’s first line?

“Pax.”

I can’t be sure that the girl said my name.  Her voice is muffled and unintelligible and hard to understand, mostly because my dick is in her mouth.

What’s the book about? Give us the “pitch”.

24-year old Pax Tate is an asshole.

Seriously.

He’s a tattooed, rock-hard bad-boy with a bad attitude to match.
But he’s got his reasons.

His mother died when Pax was seven, leaving a hole in his heart filled with guilt although he doesn’t understand why. What he does know is that he and his dad are left alone and with more issues than they can count.

As Pax grew up, he tried to be the kid his father always wanted; the perfect golden boy, but it didn’t work. His dad couldn’t overcome his grief long enough to notice and Pax couldn’t keep up the impossible perfect façade.
So he slipped far, far from it.

Now, he uses drugs and women to cope with the ugliness, the black void that he doesn’t want to deal with. If he pretends that the emptiness isn’t there, then it isn’t, right?

Wrong.

And it’s never more apparent than when he meets Mila.

Sweet, beautiful Mila Hill is the fresh air to his hardened frown, the beauty to his ugly heart. He doesn’t know how to not hurt her, but he quickly realizes that he’d better figure it out because he needs her to breathe.

When memories of his mother’s death resurface from where he’s repressed them for so long, Mila is there to catch him when the guilt starts making sense. Mila is the one…the one who can save him from his broken troubled heart; from his issues, from the emptiness.

But only if he can stop being an asshole long enough to allow it.

He knows that. And he’s working on it.

But is that enough to make her stay?

What inspired you to write the book? A particular person? An event?

Someone near to me was using drugs to cope with life.  As I was pondering his reasons for doing so, I thought back to a news story that I heard several years ago–about a mother and a young son who had been faced with a traumatic situation.  I began wondering what would have happened to that boy if his mom had been killed instead of surviving and I decided that he would have wanted to live in oblivion.  And Pax’s story was born.

What’s the most distinctive thing about the main character? Who-real or fictional-would you say the character reminds you of?

The main character, Pax Tate, is a bad boy– but he has a reason.  He’s broken on the inside and he doesn’t even understand why.  As I was writing this book, I pictured Alex Pettyfer as Pax… I can just see Alex playing Pax to perfection.

What’s the main reason someone should really read this book?

I think that even though this book tackles some really dark subject matter, it’s true message is one of hope.  It tells the story of someone who faced something unspeakable, but managed to come out of it and live in the light. Since the book was released, I’ve received an incredible amount of emails from readers, telling me how this book impacted them or how they could truly relate to it.  Reading those emails has given me such a good feeling– It makes me feel good to know that not only did I write a story that people want to read, but it has a meaningful message, too. As a writer, it just doesn’t get better than that.

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