Blog Tour for Key Change (Common Threads #3) by Heidi Hutchinson w/ Excerpt & Review

Key Change, an all new slow burn rockstar romance from Heidi Hutchinson, is LIVE in Kindle Unlimited!

Before Hannah was a 9-5 working, dinner making, homebody, she was Ashton James: a paparazzi-stalked pop star with more enemies than friends.

These days she has one priority: keeping her sister safe and away from the public eye.

Hannah was doing a great job, until the pesky little brother of an ex-fling discovers where she is, and wants her help launching his career.

Now she has to trust Johnny—whom she betrayed in more ways than one—to protect her whereabouts. Johnny may have an infuriating moral compass and the timing of a storybook hero, but is he immune to the temptation of revenge?

Johnny’s focus has always been his music business, and a bad influence like Hannah is the last thing he needs at work, or around his brother.

But some things are too powerful to be stopped. For someone like Hannah, second chances—in life and in true love—don’t exist. She didn’t think so, at least.

Johnny is about to prove her wrong, and being wrong has never felt so right.

'Key Change' is a full-length contemporary romance, can be read as a standalone, and is book #3 in the Common Threads series, Seduction in the City World, Penny Reid Book Universe.

5 ‘I Don’t Think You’ll Ever Know How Much of Me You’ve Healed Just by Being You’ Stars
This is a new to me author, so even though the blurb raised my curiosity, and the book is set in the Pennyverse world, I went in a little wary but hoping for the best and guess what? I didn’t want to put the book down. I started it (at my lunch) and was so into the story that all the background noise just faded away and I had to remind myself that I HAD to stop reading and do that #workthing (sometimes real life seriously gets in the way of my reading). This book was just so, SO good! It may not have been AS smexy as most of what I read, but that didn’t matter. It had everything else and more and I didn’t want it to end.
I ADORED Hannah and Johnny. ADORED. Hannah hasn’t always been the best person, but she is working on being better than she was. What I loved about her was her honesty about herself and how she doesn’t make excuses, she just tells it like it is. She’s fierce, determined and protective of those she calls her own, but does tend to punish herself more than she should. Johnny is total book boyfriend goodness. The man can be grumpy and growly and need a little nudge, but he has such a good heart, it’s just makes him that much more interesting.
Their journey to their HEA was definitely an interesting one. There was some attitude and angst at the start, but I really liked how music brought them together. They had a great flow and the chemistry between them was intense. There isn’t a lot of smexy in this baby, but I barely noticed because there was so much goodness going on between them as they worked through the issues of their past and realized how golden their future could be together.
I’m seriously happy to have stumbled upon this author, one who has quite a few books out already and I will be adding to my TBR list, because I loved her writing style and how she brought all the characters to life for me. And speaking of characters ~ I ADORED Piper, Shawn, Ana, Sarahi, Sunshine, Nikki and all of the other people who mattered in their lives ~ I also loved the Q & A moments, so toes crossed that we’ll get more of this crew in the future.
~ Copy provided by SmartyPants Romance & voluntarily reviewed ~

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“You’re a real piece of work. You don’t even remember me, do you?” Johnny said the words, knowing for years they were true but feeling that hurtful sting having to admit it out loud. He had been a nobody to her then. He needed to make peace with that.

Ashton shook her head. “I don’t remember most things,” she said, and it had the kind of ring of truth that sounded too real. She rapidly scanned the interior of the townhouse and her gaze paused on his guitar resting in the stand in the living room.

He held his breath for a minute.

The guitar was the one he’d had when they’d first met. Its sound was on her first record.

It wasn’t fancy by any means, but it was and always would be his favorite. A black Gibson orchestra model. The years of wear showed the scratches and bruises of the life of a working musician.

He wondered if she remembered the night she’d sat in his bed, naked, holding that guitar and singing to him.

Because he thought about it all the time.

“I don’t remember you,” she said after a beat, her voice quieter. The admission hurt more than he expected. “But I know that it doesn’t matter. Going with the odds and how you’re looking at me, it was probably pretty awful.”

Johnny wasn’t sure why hearing that didn’t make him feel any better.

Just then the door opened, or it tried to, but it bumped into the bodyguard, who moved to the side and let Shawn in.

The facilitator of Johnny’s current problem.

Shawn frowned in confusion at the bodyguard, and then his gaze drifted to Ashton. All the color drained from his face, and his round eyes darted to Johnny.

“Oh my God,” Shawn whispered.

“Oh, He can’t save you now,” Johnny cautioned.

Shawn dropped his bag on the floor and his hands came up in a placating fashion. Though he couldn’t figure out which person to direct them to. He faced Johnny, then Ashton, then the bodyguard in quick succession.

“I-I-I can’t believe you’re here,” he finally spit out, obviously speaking to Ashton. He spun to Johnny. “It’s her. I told you it was her.”

Johnny ran his tongue over his bottom lip and nodded once.

Shawn shoved both hands through his hair, unable to conceal the sheer joy on his face. “Did-did you listen to it?” he asked Ashton cautiously.

For the first time since Johnny had opened the door, he saw a crack in her exterior as she looked at his younger brother.

“No,” she said after a beat. “I haven’t listened to it.”

Undeterred, and oblivious to the tension in the room, Shawn eagerly grabbed the envelope off the table and removed the thumb drive. “That’s fine. You can listen to it here and then I can get your reactions up close.”

“Shawn,” Johnny tried to get his attention.

“This is better, actually,” Shawn continued, a slight tremor in his voice, which was pitching a little higher. “I mean, I would have invited you over earlier today if I’d known you would say yes.”

“Shawn,” Johnny said louder and sharper.

It got his attention.

“Read the room, bud.”

Shawn’s hands dropped to his side and his shoulders dropped. “I don’t understand. If you’re not here about the music, then why are you here?” he asked.

“I think…” Johnny said with a slight grimace. “That she’s here to pay us to keep quiet? Did I get that right?”

Ashton glared at Johnny.

“Pay us?” Shawn repeated, confused and devastated all at once.

For a split second, guilt sliced through Johnny. But the sooner Shawn figured out who Ashton James really was, the better for him. In the long run.

Though watching him find out that the artist he looked up to was a lying, selfish, horrible person kind of hurt like hell.

Silence descended like a thick fog as Shawn stared at Ashton, waiting for a response.

Finally, she took in a deep breath and let it out. “Who have you told? I really need to know how far this goes. Please.”

Her tone was different than the last time she’d asked that question.

“No one,” Shawn replied roughly. “Just Johnny.” He waved a hand in that direction. “And he didn’t believe me until Saturday when he saw you at the school. Even then, he told me not to do anything about it.” He shrugged helplessly. “But I didn’t listen.”

Her eyes moved to Johnny, looking for honesty and verification.

He hadn’t told Shawn about helping jump her car. He didn’t want to have to answer any uncomfortable questions that he didn’t have the answers to. Like, why was she so different in that moment than the woman he remembered? And was it real? Or did she just get a lot better at faking things?

Shawn took a step toward her, speaking excitedly.

“I was just so happy to finally meet you. I never thought I’d get a chance to, and then one day, I saw you get off the train. I wasn’t looking for you. Ashton, you have to believe me. I would nev—”

“Please don’t call me Ashton,” she stopped him. She regarded both of them carefully. “I haven’t been Ashton James in a very long time. And I have no intention of being her again.”