Wednesday, September 23, 2015

*Heartbreak and other Emoji's by Courtney Ross


Heartbreak and other Emoji's
Single Girl Problems Book 1
by Courtney Ross
Genre: Contemporary Romance, Romantic Comedy, New Adult



He dumped you with a text message, that was filled with emojis.”

These were the sobering words that brought Zoe to her ultimate conclusion: she was done with it all. She was done dating losers. She was done being humiliated. She was done with relationship karma, and more importantly, she was done having her heart broken. After a string of breakups, Zoe no longer saw any reason to keep looking for a perfect guy she was sure didn’t exist. So, after some careful, or rather crazed and saddened thought, she was ready to step into her lot as the permanent single girl. It wasn’t ideal, but she was sure she could get used to being single with a few cats and years of pent up sexual tension. It was better than keeping up the fruitless search for love.
Just as she was coming to terms with her grim fate, she met Sam, a cute bartender, and the only other person with as tragic a love life as hers. As the crazy pair swap breakup stories at his bar, Zoe begins to contemplate her new stance on love. Was she really ready to let it all go? Or did she have a little more energy to keep up the quest? It didn’t help that the cute, and very single, bartender was making her question everything she thought she knew about relationships, dating and love.

Heartbreak and other Emojis is a fresh and funny look at modern day romance, as it explores dating, love, and being all about your selfie.



Courtney Ross grew up in Florida with a passion for writing. As a child she wouldn’t go anywhere if she didn’t have her notebook to jot down ideas. Her teenage years were spent writing and making movies with her friends. By the time she went to college to get a degree in English Literature, she was well versed in how to create intriguing and poignant tales of love and relationships. Courtney’s storytelling style is contemporary, humorous, with just the right amount of heartfelt sentiment to warm the reader’s heart. Without a doubt, romance is her favorite genre to write and read. Her books are a mix of classic love story with a modern day twist.
When Courtney’s not writing she is playing with her daughter, binge watching TV shows with her hubby, or reading with a cup of coffee (or wine).

Author’s Media Links:





Heartbreak and Other Emojis playlist 

1. Stay- Lisa Loeb
2. Potential Breakup Song- Aly and AJ
3. Hit the Heartbreaks- Black Kids 
4. I wanna get better- Bleachers 
5. Home by now- Bombay Bicycle Club
6. Not a love song- Cam Nacson
7. Before He Cheats- Carrie Underwood 
8. Absolutely Final Goodbye- Christina Grimmie
9. Arms- Christina Perri
10. Miracle Mile- Cold War Kids
11. White Lingerie- Cris Cab
12. Lego House- Ed Sheeran
13. Feels like Home- Edwina Hayes
14. Happier- A fine Frenzy
15. Ask Yourself- Foster the people
16. I promise- Generationals
17. Comes and goes- Greg Laswell
18. Wishes and Stars- Harper Simon
19. Electric Love- He’s my brother she’s my sister
20. Someone new- Hozier
21. Drink you away- Justin Timberlake
22. Cry me a river- Justin Timberlake 
23. The Fire- Kina Grannis 
24. Classic- The knocks
25. I belong to you- Lenny Kravitz
26. Nothing Stays the same- Luke Sital-Singh
27. Blame it on me- Mapei
28. Lips- Marian Hill
29. Catch and Release- Matt Simons
30. Wine Glass Woman- Mayer Hawthorne
31. Everything- Michael Buble 
32. Run to the Sun- N.E.R.D
33. When I get my hands on you- The new basement tapes 
34. Fireflies- Owl city
35. Fall in love- phantogram
36. Honeymoon- Phoenix
37. Don’t Leave (Ne Me Quitte Pas)- Regina Spektor
38. Hold me- Royal Teeth
39. You wouldn’t like me- Tegan and Sara
40. I was made for loving you- Tori Kelly and Ed Sheeran
41. Shark in the Water- V V Brown
42. Riptide- Vance Joy
43. Tightrope (acoustic)- Walk the moon
44. Deadwater- Wet 
45. Scare away the dark- Passenger




Twenty-five Random Things About Me and my book

1. I have a degree in English lit, but I still prefer modern romance to classic novels.

2. I have a Spotify and Netflix addiction. The best inventions ever. 

3. I can pretty much quote the movie Clueless word for word. It was my favorite movie in junior high. My friend and I would dress like the characters in our plaid skirts and knee-highs. Yes, I’m a dork and old. 

4. You will always see one of the following in my books: coffee, wine, beer, or pizza. These are my favorite things and they always sneak in.

5. I write in the dark (with a light up keyboard). My husband calls my office the vampire lair.

6. I love indie films. I love eighties films. I love romantic comedies where guys are clueless and girls fall down too much. 

7. I hate people who don’t read the books that movies are based on. I won’t see a movie until I read the book first. It almost feels like I’m betraying the author if I don’t read the original first. 

8. I love photography. I don’t get to indulge in it as much as I used to, but it is one of my favorite hobbies.

9. I’m addicted to DIY. I refuse to buy or pay someone for anything that I can do myself. My biggest project so far is building a kitchen island. The plan is to one day remodel my almost sixty year old house with my hubby. If you have tips let me know. 

10. I am a party planning queen. Since I only have one child, I throw crazy themed parties every year. I’ve turned our house and backyard into numerous elaborate party venues. My backyard has been a ladybug romp. One year it was a mermaid cove. I’ve done Dora’s greatest exploration. I’ve done pink princess galore. My latest is turning my living room and dinning room into a rock star club. I’ve also done weddings, baby showers, and Wine and bitch parties with my friends. I love planning parties. I am the DIY and Pinterest queen.

11. I have a designer candle fetish. I love them and buy way too many of them. I’m more likely to buy candles on a shopping trip than clothes. 

12. I can’t snap. I don’t know why, but I can’t make my fingers do it. However, it is cool that I am left handed, but I do everything with my right. The only thing I do with my left hand is write.

13. I live for coffee. Hot, cold, blended, iced, small, large, I love it all. The best gift I could get is a gift card for coffee. Screw flowers…give me Starbucks.

14. I find inspiration in the most random things. I keep a list of random ideas on my phone as I go throughout my day. The strangest things spark my creativity. 

15. I collect quotes. If I hear a quote I will write it down and add it to my collection on my office wall. 

16. I originally wanted to be a screenwriter. I studied for a while before deciding to move into novels. If my books read like movies (which I’ve been told they do) that is the reason why. 

17. I put a piece of my hubby into every leading male character I write. It’s usually something really small like his love for beer or running. It’s like my little nod to my one true love.

18. I wrote my marriage proposal years before it happened. I wrote out what I felt was the most romantic marriage proposal in one of my random stories. When my husband finally proposed he recreated it. Years later he recreated another scene from one of my stories for my birthday.

19. I sometimes write Alpha males, but I hate them. I’ve always been a sweet guy supporter. I think the world needs more guys like Ducky from Pretty In Pink. 

20. I make killer soundtracks for every book I write. My books play like movies in my head, so I love to pair music with the mood of the scene. Sometimes I will write a scene in a book because of a song. In this book it’s Stay by Lisa Loeb that sparked the first scene with Zoe sulking. Then it shows up again as Bria’s heart healer. Cry me a River was a random choice. I was writing the scene and it came on. I then wrote Fisher singing it because I thought it would make things that much more awkward. One song that’s not mentioned in the book is Scare Away the Dark. I came across the song and felt it matched the book perfectly. It’s all about being braver and really living. One part in the song says, “We want more than just nasty and bitter. We want more than just hashtags and twitter.” The song also says, “We should stare at the stars and not just screens.” I always listen to this song when reading the scene where Zoe and Sam are running into the garden. I feel if this were a movie this song would be playing. This song says everything that the story says. It speaks volumes on the theme of unplugging and just living. 

21. Some of the stories in this book are based on true experiences. The flashbacks that Sam and Zoe have are a combination of fantasy and real stories. To get inspiration I sent out a Facebook post to my friends for crazy breakup and date stories. I got some really good ones, but only two actually made the story, and then it was only a small part of each story that made it. 

22. The bar in the book doesn’t really exist, but the neighborhood does and is a really awesome place. I love the artistic vibe and thought it would be perfect for Sam’s bar. You will see the neighborhood show up several times throughout the series. 

23. The story itself was created from my hatred of emojis. I’m a writer so I live for words. When people send me emoji picture puzzle text messages and expect me to know what it means I go insane. I got the idea: what if a guy ended a relationship with only emojis. To me, that’s the most douchebag way to do it. After that, I began to think about all the annoying things we do in this overly public world. How one could have real love and romance in a world where we share too much, pretend to be people we aren’t, and block ourselves off from real experiences. My hatred for winking smiley faces and three letter abbreviations gave this book its first breath. 

24. The book was originally meant to be a small novella. The plan was to bring up the subject and leave it to the reader to finish it in their head. My beta readers wanted to know what happen after the happily ever after. They wanted to know how the love story ended, and if there was more to it. I began to wonder that too. Not only that, but what about the other girls. It was then that the series was born. There will be at least two more books. One for Bria and one for Caitlyn. They will be similar to this one, but tell their stories of love and dating. 

25. The series name, Single Girl Problems, was named because of my friend. She read the story and told me that the whole book was her life. She said she was having the same problems as Zoe, and could really relate. She was texting me about this when I was looking for a series title for the cover. Since every girl in the series will have problems with dating it seemed fitting. 






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