by Nikki Godwin
*Rachel – You've been with me through my fangirlisms from the time we were 16 and I was freaking out over David until now. Remember when you were leaving for Germany, and we were having what should've been a nostalgic farewell but instead I rambled about One Direction and Hawthorne Heights? That's why you're my best friend. You get me when no one else does. Thank you for reading this book in its roughest form, as I wrote chapter by chapter, and cheering me (and Chloe!) on. It made me squee like a Saturnite every time you caught a reference to one of our bands. I doubt anyone else could appreciate some of those things, but I know you always do. Thank you for 2008 – that year changed my life. I'm so glad you were there for the ride and that we finally found WORDS to say what we felt. <3 <3 <3 and 11:11 wishes just for you!
*Emily – This book would not exist without you. Literally. This book was an idea that you dreamed up and shared with me in the Taco Bell parking lot. Thank you for reading half-chapters and telling me how great they were, even when I hated them. Thank you for the random (Emily-made) Liam Payne memes that you texted me in the name of inspiration. Thanks for choosing (and naming) my bromances. Thank you for being Emery in the past and Aralie in the present. Thank you for mistakenlyassuming the boys next door to Aunt Danita's house were naked that time–I knew it'd be hilarious someday. Thank you for convincing me to download One Direction's album while we were in Florida. And thank you for not killing me when I sent you that text on November 21st, 2012. I told you I wasn't crazy. ;) I luhhh yeww.
*David Desrosiers & Liam Payne, in particular – Once upon a time, a girl fell happily in fangirl-love with two amazingly talented and beautiful musicians who shared an August 29th birthday. They were two sparkling lights that never failed her and always made her smile, even on her darkest days. Thank you both soooooo much for being my fireflies and sharing your birthday with this book. <3
Want more YA music novels? No problem!
If you loved American Girl On Saturn, be sure to check out these two awesome YA music-related novels! I rated both of them 5 stars!
Merch Girl by Rebecca Lewis
YA Contemporary
Seventeen-year-old Lacey Kind doesn’t have the guts to talk to cute boys, isn’t a size two, and would rather stay home and listen to music than go to a party. But in the summer before her first year of college, she ends up thousands of miles away from home, in the back of a tour bus, underneath the half-naked body of the hottest teen rock star in the country.
When Lacey and her best friend Trina sneak into a Boston nightclub to see their favorite band, they not only get to watch their rock gods perform for the first time, but score a chance to meet the band too. Lacey’s heart races as she comes face-to-face with her idol, nineteen-year-old lead singer, Logan Shire.
The girls charm their way into being hired to sell merchandise on Lansdowne’s first summer tour. As “merch girls” Lacey and Trina quickly find themselves transported from their ordinary, suburban life to an exhilarating few months on the road. But they soon realize that life on the road isn’t always a smooth ride...
Mutilate My Heart by Emily Godwin (Sneak peek included next!)
YA Paranormal
Punk rock band Mutilated Arteries has been seventeen-year-old Becca's world (aka obsession) for the last year. When the band schedules a concert in her hometown, she and her best friend Carli are the first ones in line to buy tickets. The night is everything she expects it to be and more, especially after making friends with the new super-cute bassist, Sketch.
Becca's mom warns her not to fall for a rock star because rock stars are always on the road - or they die in a plane crash, like her mom's favorite band did twenty-something years ago. But after the band's tour bus breaks down and they're stuck hanging out in Roizen Hills for a week, it's hard for Becca not to fall for Sketch and his caricature drawings and toxic green eyes.
Becca knows Sketch is leaving as soon as the bus is fixed, and she can't be his fan-turned-girlfriend anyway because of the lead singer's "No Girlfriends" rule. Plus, there's something strange about the guys that Becca can't quite decipher... like how they won't reveal their real names, their always-changing odd appearances, and the guitarist's obsession with blood and zombies. Still, Becca wants nothing more than for Sketch to mutilate her heart...but it just might not be in a way she expects.
Sneak Peek of Mutilate My Heart by Emily Godwin
If you’re looking for a rock star romance and are a fan of all things paranormal, check out this sneak peek of Mutilate My Heart by Emily Godwin! It’s available on Amazon now!
CHAPTER ONE
Carli Gray throws the latest issue of Seventeen Forever magazine onto my bed, her dark hair flying crazily around her face in her rage. For three days straight, all she’s talked about is how Mutilated Arteries kicked their bassist out of the band, as if they knew he was her favorite, and they did it just to spite her. I try to keep from laughing at her. Seriously, it’s not like Vertebrae did much. He was that guy who always faded into the background onstage.
All of her words blend together, and she’s almost incapable of being understood.
“Becca, are you even listening to me?” she yells, throwing her arms out dramatically.
“Yep,” I say, nodding my head. “Mutilated Arteries is performing here tomorrow night, they just recently replaced your favorite band member, and the world hates you.”
Her eyes grow big, and she nods quickly, verifying that I understood her mush of words.
“Exactly! I don’t even know why I pick favorites anymore. This always happens to me. They always die, get kicked out, or lose their voice, or something!” she says.
She walks to my wall of posters and throws her hand over the image of Vertebrae.
“They don’t even look right without him. Look!” she yells, pointing with her free hand.
She crosses her arms, walks the length of my room, and falls back onto the bed making the magazine crinkle beneath her.
“I don’t even know if I want to go to the concert anymore,” she says.
I roll my eyes and sit down beside her on the bed. She says that now, but tomorrow night, she’s going to be ecstatic, regardless if Vertebrae will be on bass or not.
“You have to come,” I try to reason with her. “This is our band! And you know if you don’t, Maddie and I will still go, and when you see all the pictures of us with the guys, you’ll be pissed that you weren’t there.”
She scrunches her mouth up to one side and stares at the ceiling contemplating my words.
She takes a deep breath, flips onto her side, and smiles. “So what are we wearing?”
My mind goes blank at her question. I was so excited about Mutilated Arteries actually coming to my town that I hadn’t even thought about what to wear. I push off the bed and go to the closet. There’s nothing but faded blue jeans, ripped skinny jeans, and a thousand shirts I’ve worn too many times.
I bite down on my lip and look over at Carli. “You want to go to the mall?”
The car beeps repeatedly as Carli leans over into the backseat looking for her purse, her legs sticking out of the door of the driver’s side. Maddie Baker leans against the car and sighs loudly, like that’s going to help Carli find her purse.
“Found it!” she yells, throwing the silver and black bag over her shoulder and slamming the car door.
“It’s about time,” Maddie says, knocking her multi-shades-of-brown hair back.
She’s already five steps ahead of Carli and me and halfway down the mall’s parking lot. Carli sticks her tongue out at Maddie’s back and locks arms with mine.
“Maybe we shouldn’t have invited Maddie to come clothes shopping with us,” she whispers just loud enough for me to hear.
I laugh but shoot Carli a warning glance. Maddie stands waiting for us and taps her foot impatiently in front of the giant glass double doors of Bear Creek Mall. Carli drops my arm as we enter through the door and begins to walk backward so she can look at Maddie.
Th
e mall is packed with the summer crowd and preteen kids who have nothing better to do with their time. I hope Carli doesn’t back over one of them.
“So, Maddie. Can you believe they got rid of Vertebrae?” Carli asks like she’s telling her that someone has died.
“Oh, here we go again,” I say. I smile so she knows I’m joking.
“I don’t care who they get rid of as long as it’s not Nightmare,” Maddie says, throwing her hands up in front of her like she’s surrendering in a battle.
Of course she doesn’t care. Her favorite alternates between Nightmare and Corpse all the time. It just depends on who looks better that week. I never know what the guys of Mutilated Arteries are going to look like. They change their appearance every other month to be ‘different.’ Obviously Maddie thinks the lead singer is the best looking this week, though. Carli shoots her an evil look and faces forward again.
“We should totally go to that like goth store where all the weird kids at school get their clothes,” Maddie says.
I look down at my turquoise skinny jeans and wonder if she knows that ‘goth store’ is where I get most of my clothes. And if she had any sense, she’d know it’s not a goth store. It’s a store that’s focused on selling band merch and brightly-colored skinny jeans. I hold my tongue, though. Arguing with her is a losing situation either way.
“You mean Chaotic Disturbance?” I say instead.
“Yeah, there,” Maddie replies.
Carli shakes her head and motions for Maddie to take the lead. I can deal with Maddie and her stereotypical mind today because tomorrow I’m going to make sure I’m right in front of the stage, and when they play my song, nothing else is going to matter. I can just imagine it’s her who Nightmare is eating the flesh from during “Undead Masquerade.”
“So Becca, who are you most excited about getting to meet?” Carli asks.
But before I have time to answer her question, she answers it herself.
“I was most excited about Vertebrae, but now that he’s goooone–” She drops her head and wipes away imaginary tears. “–I guess I’m most excited about Nightmare.”
Maddie spins around quickly, nearly falling in the process. “Oh, no. Nightmare is totally mine!”
I ignore their pointless arguing and enter through the green and orange archway of Chaotic Disturbance. Over a hundred band shirts line the walls, and multicolored Converse cover the shelves. I glance back and look at Maddie in her short denim skirt, cowboy boots, and pink tank top. She would think this is a freak store.
“You can have his brother,” Maddie tries to compromise.
“Uhm, no. Everyone knows Banshee’s been dating that Nadia what’s-her-face for like a year and a half,” Carli says, picking up a pair of earrings shaped like razor blades. “And I’m not into home-wrecking.”
Maddie looks around the store and picks up a hot pink shirt that has the print of a ribcage on it. Her eyes grow big, and she curls her nose. I turn away from her quickly so she can’t see the large, goofy grin on my face because I have that same shirt in black at home.
“Anyway, Becca, who is your favorite?” Maddie repeats Carli’s question from before and hangs the shirt back on the hook.
For me, it’s never been about a specific band member. It’s always been about the music, the words, the insane guitar riffs, and the thumping of the drums that makes my car shake when I blast their CD. One person doesn’t make a band for me.
“I don’t know,” I say.
“Oh, come on,” Carli says, picking up a black and silver tutu and holding it up to her waist. “You have to have a favorite.”
I run my finger over a pair of black skinny jeans that fade to white. I might as well humor them.
“I guess Corpse. His voice is pretty badass,” I say.
“He does sound cool,” Carli says. “But I swear I can’t listen to a song he sings backup on at night. His voice is too haunted sounding.”
She grabs a silver shirt to match the tutu. “Does this look too slutty?”
I shake my head and take the skinny jeans off the wall. Now all I need is a shirt.
“Oh my gosh. Seriously?” Maddie says. “Nightmare’s voice is so much better, which is why he’s the lead singer! And he’s waaaay hotter than Corpse!”
“Fine. I’ll go with Ink,” I reply, hoping it’ll shut her up.
But of course I can’t get that lucky.
“GROSS!” Maddie says much too loudly. “He’s icky looking! I mean, a few tattoos I can handle, but he’s absolutely covered, and his belt freaks me out!”
Everyone in the store looks over at the three of us.
Ink’s personalized belt. He swears it’s a real human spine. I can see him perfectly. Tattoos covering every inch of his arms, most of his chest, and that horrifically beautiful belt. He’s pretty awesome, but of course, most of the guys in Mutilated Arteries are.
I shrug my shoulders and leave them talking about how to make Maddie’s girly image more ‘emo’ style. The wall of band tees has one shirt in particular that’s been catching my eye since we entered the store. It’s the new Depressed Michael shirt, and it has my name all over it.
Mutilated Arteries may be my favorite band, but Depressed Michael and I have history. They were my first real band I ever really listened to other than random music on the radio. They were the band that got me through the worst break up of my life and helped me through all the bullcrap with my Dad.
“Their Self-Inflicted album has this one beat by a long shot,” a voice says behind me.
I turn to find myself face-to-face with the most beautiful boy I’ve ever seen. His crazy, pale blonde hair falls down his neck and around his face. His toxic green eyes stare back at me like a hazard sign.
“If you like that kind of heart ripped out, bleeding on the floor type of music,” he says with an open-mouthed smile.
I realize I’m still staring at him like a complete idiot, but OH. MY. GOD. I can’t help it. And he knows who Depressed Michael is.
“I haven’t heard their new one yet,” I say, trying to smile so he doesn’t think I’m being rude, but I’m doing well just to breathe.
He knocks his hair out of his eyes and extends a hand. “My friends call me Sketch.”
“Becca,” I say, shaking his hand.
If he was part of Mutilated Arteries, he would so be my favorite. I slightly hate myself for thinking that. I just thought like Maddie. There’s probably much more to him than his looks. I mean, he knows one of my bands, he’s a gorgeous nightmare who I’ll probably never see again, and he even has the crazy nickname. He has to be cool.
I glance over my shoulder to see where Carli and Maddie are, and to my complete and utter horror, they’re walking our way. It’s too late to motion to them to go away. Sketch has seen them too.
“Friends of yours?” he asks, nodding in their general direction.
I can do nothing but nod.
Carli throws her arm over my shoulder, and her tutu and shirt bang against my arm. Maddie places her hands on her hips and smacks her gum. Sketch looks highly amused by the look of pure misery that I’m sure is evident on my face.
“Hi, I’m Carli,” she says, waving. “We interrupting?”
Yes.
“No, Sketch and I were just talking about Depressed Michael,” I reply, motioning to the shirt in my hand.
Maddie blows a bubble and pops it loudly. “Your name is Sketch?”
He rocks back and forth on his heels like he’s trying to get his blood to circulate. “Yeah. I’m really into drawing and sketching stuff. I’ve been designing a lot of cover art for the band I’m in, so the guys started calling me Sketch for short.”
He’s in a band. He’s absolutely perfect!
“Speaking of my band,” he says. “We’re going to be performing at the Princess Theatre in the town over tomorrow night. You guys should come.”
“We’ll be there to see Mutilated Arteries,” Carli says before anyone else has time to breathe.
“Even if they did get rid of my favorite band member.”
Sketch smiles and gives a breathy laugh. “Well, I guess I’ll see you guys tomorrow night.”
And with that, he turns around, exits through the store’s archway, and leaves me standing here completely breathless.
“He was cute,” Carli says.
She gives me a smile that says ‘I know you were totally just checking him out.’ I return it and hug the Depressed Michael shirt to my chest.
Tomorrow night will be perfect. Mutilated Arteries would have been enough, but Sketch on stage performing in one of the opening acts, sweat dripping from his hair and that absolute perfect smile of his
, will make it even better. I wonder what instrument he plays. Or if he plays. Maybe he’s the lead singer. I hope not. All the girls would be in love with him then. A little over twenty-four hours and I’ll know.
Tomorrow is too far away.
CHAPTER TWO
Maddie leans into my vanity mirror and runs her hot pink lip-gloss over her mouth for the thousandth time. “Urban Evil” blares through my stereo speakers on repeat because it’s basically the only Mutilated Arteries song that Maddie actually knows and also their one big hit single. It’ll probably be the only song everyone at the Princess will be able to sing along to.