NoQS Minion 15: DANCING IN THE DARK, Adult Contemporary Romance

Title: DANCING IN THE DARK
Genre: Adult Contemporary Romance
Word Count: 70,000

My Main Character's Most Stressful Relationship is:

Coreen’s most stressful relationship is with Jackson Jones. When they are not butting heads, they are trying to fight the attraction between them. An attraction that would only confirm the rumors of her sleeping her way to a contract. When Jackson opens up about his past struggle with addiction, Coreen really begins to sweat as it hits too close to home with the secret she has to keep hidden at the risk of losing everything she has worked for – her recording contract, her reputation, and even Jackson.

Query:

Coreen Carter has just won Vocal Showdown, the most popular televised talent show in North America. With her win comes the record deal of a lifetime, a label-crafted image as country music’s newest sweetheart, and the opportunity to work with Jackson Jones, one of the top producers and best musicians in the business. However, her squeaky-clean good-girl image clashes with her dark history of drug abuse and rehabilitation, and she learns that the reality of working with Jackson destroys all of her teenage fantasies. 

Jackson is a bonafide jerk—a handsome, tall, gray-eyed jerk—who fights Coreen on everything from song lyrics to vocal coaches. But as the two work together and Jackson begins to open up about his sordid past, Coreen realizes they have more in common than she ever imagined. The more he reveals about his hiatus from recording his own music, the more her school-girl crush morphs into something undeniably real.

With rumors running rampant that she’s sleeping her way to a record contract, and a past she needs to keep buried, Coreen cannot afford a slip up. Not even one has handsome as Jackson. To make the music she loves, Coreen must fight against those who want to tarnish the image her label created, and keep her past hidden at all costs—even at the risk of losing the love of her life.

First 250 words:

Do. Not. Drool.

God, but he's right there, inches from my face. So rugged. So damn hot. My fingers itch to reach out and trace the lines of his abs funneling into those tight jeans.

Okay, this is getting creepy. And semi-pornographic.

The framed magazine cover sits on the wall amongst dozens of platinum records, but it's the only one that holds my attention. See, this particular cover hung in my childhood bedroom, where I spent countless hours gazing as a teenager. Black jeans hug muscular thighs. A cowboy hat sits atop unruly, too-long hair. The perpetual five o'clock shadow frames his square jaw. No shirt. Just a bare chest so chiseled it stirs heat deep in my belly.

Jackson Jones. Hall of Fame musician. He has sold more albums than almost any artist in history and has won far more awards than any of them. And then one day, he vanished. Rumors swirled, gossip blogs speculated. Media outlets reported he had a drug addiction. One broke the story of his long-time girlfriend cheating on him—with photos. He hasn't made new music or performed live ever since.

God, get it together, Coreen.

Adrenaline feeds my legs as I resume pacing the immaculate lobby of Change of Hart Studios, before being so rudely interrupted by Jackson's face and chest and jeans. Jiggling my shoulders, I take a few deep breaths. I can do this. I just won the biggest televised vocal show in history for God's sake.