Soundtrack: Bona Fide Fake

Every story comes with it’s own soundtrack (at least, it does when I write it) and Bona Fide Fake was no different. This month, I invite you to listen to the music that inspired the various parts of Toni and Ned’s story. I had such a great time developing this list, and loved how the differences in Toni and Ned’s personalities came through in the songs we chose. I know using the term ‘we’ might seem a little weird, but it really does feel like the characters themselves voice their opinions on the song choices, so I’d hate to take all the credit.

You can join me by clicking on the YouTube links below and watching the film clips (where they’re available) as you listen. Or you can listen to the list through my Spotify account, which you can find here!

Let’s get started…

Don’t You Know by Jaymes Young – Every book needs a theme song and this one was perfect for Bona Fide Fake. It nailed the tone of the book with every note.

I’m So Tired by Lauv ft. Troye Sivan – Everything about this song screams Toni right at the start of the book. I can practically hear him complaining in the lyrics, “I’m so damned tired of love songs. Everyone around me is falling in love. I just want to go home!” Yep, there’s my boy.

Dangerous by Hands Like Houses – If you’ve listened to any of my other soundtracks you may have noticed my love for Aussie band, Hands Like Houses. When I heard this song on their new album I knew it perfectly represented Ned’s worldview at the start of the book.

Bite by Troye Sivan – How fabulously Toni is this? It doesn’t hurt that Troye looks a little like our cocktail-loving, dimpled darling.

Power by Isak Danielson – (This film clip is more explicit than the rest.) If I could only give you one song to represent Bona Fide Fake, it would be this one. All Ned’s deepest desires are right here, and Isak Danielson’s voice brings them to life so beautifully.

My My My! by Troye Sivan – (Trigger for photosensitivity) Here’s a tidbit I haven’t mentioned elsewhere. I once had a flash of inspiration for a short story that would have involved a club dancer and a police officer who happened to be in the audience. The flash happened while I was listening to this song. While that story never ended up going anywhere, one of the conversations I wrote out between the two characters inspired the conversation Ned and Toni have while Ned’s tending bar soon after they meet. For those of you who have read the book it involves four little words Toni would rather not say that manage to render Ned speechless. 😉

Vasoline by Stone Temple Pilots – “One time a thing occurred to me, what’s real and what’s for sale… Think I’d be safer all alone…” In my head Ned wrote this song for his band, Fifth Circle (with Johnny’s help, of course) based on his experiences with both Zac and Toni.

Tied Down by Jaymes Young – No prizes for knowing which character this song belongs to. It’s Toni alllllllll over.

Black Sheep by Jacob Lee – This song makes me a little sad, because this is who Ned might have become… if he’d never met Zac.

I Like Me Better by Lauv – Aaand back to the fun stuff. This is Toni’s worldview after he falls in love with Ned. Because life is better when you’re with the one who sees you from fabulous to furious and back again… and loves you anyway.

Would? by Alice in Chains – This is me channeling Fifth Circle’s performance at the Autumn Skies Music Festival in Byron Bay. I wish I could go and hang out with the boys!

Stuck with Me by The Neighbourhood – For me this song represents Ned’s time in Sydney when he was desperately trying to make a living as a musician. “I got caught up in the forest, hangin’ with the trees. Realised I’m less important, than I thought I’d be.”

Find My Way Back by Eric Arjes – I always like to end with a love song and when I tossed this one onto the list, it stuck. Toni and Ned have reached their happily ever after. Squee!


I hope you enjoyed listening to the soundtrack for Bona Fide Fake! If you’d like to hear any of my other soundtracks, you can find them on Spotify.

The Experiment: The Soundtrack

Music has always played a big part in my life and every book I write comes with its own soundtrack. Book soundtracks are invaluable as they keep me focused on the current book, even when I’m not writing. I listen to them when I’m driving in the car, cooking bacon and eggs for a big Sunday breakfast, even when I’m doing the ironing. Often little snippets of lyric will spark an idea that will turn out to be just the thing I need to solve a plot problem or figure out why a character is insisting on doing whatever it is they’re doing (rather than what I want them to do). Today, I wanted to share the music that inspired me while I was writing The Experiment.

The whole soundtrack is available through my Spotify Profile, or you can go straight to the playlist itself here.

To check out the individual songs on YouTube, just follow the links below. Happy listening!

I hope you enjoy checking out my soundtrack for The Experiment. Don’t forget, the soundtracks for all my other books are also available on Spotify.

Becoming Us: The Soundtrack

Music has always played a big part in my life and every book I write comes with its own soundtrack. Book soundtracks are invaluable as they keep me focused on the current book even when I’m not writing. I listen to them when I’m driving in the car, cooking bacon and eggs for a big Sunday breakfast, even when I’m doing the ironing. Often little snippets of lyric will spark an idea that will turn out to be just the thing I need to solve a plot problem or figure out why a character is insisting on doing whatever it is they’re doing (rather than what I want them to do). Today, I wanted to share some of the music that inspired me while I was writing Becoming Us.

I hope you enjoyed this sample of songs from the Becoming Us soundtrack. If you’d like to see the complete soundtrack you can find it here.

Finding Grey: The Soundtrack

Music is one of my great passions in life and I think it’s safe to say I could never finish a book that didn’t have its own soundtrack. That was certainly the case for Finding Grey. It was a rock star romance, after all. So, today I’d like to reveal some of my favourite songs from the completely and totally unofficial soundtrack for the book. Click on the links to listen to the songs on YouTube.

Madness – Muse – Theme songs can be a difficult choice for a book. Not so this time. Madness was Dante and Sean’s theme song from day one.

Never Tear Us Apart – INXS – The song that started it all. Michael Hutchence (lead singer of INXS) was the inspiration for my rock legend, Dante Sinclair. This song in particular, inspired the opening scenes of the book.

Dazed and Confused – Ruel – The other side of that ‘first kiss’ scene, this is the song I associate with the young Sean after his encounter with Dante.

Don’t Tell Me – Ruel – Another song by Ruel. This young Aussie singer rose to fame at the age of 15 due to his incredible voice. When I was writing the book and talking about the voice Dante credits with his success, it was Ruel’s voice that I heard in my head.

Legends are Made – Sam Tinnesz – Dante Sinclair in all his arrogant glory.

Reach – The Butterfly Effect – You can’t have a rock star romance without some great rock music. My ideal choice for the voice of the adult Dante, Brisbane rock legend, Clint Boge.

Fools – Troye Sivan – Sean’s song. Because only a fool falls in love with a rock star. Right?

Legendary – Welshly Arms – This song was a representation of Dante’s growing determination to live life on his own terms.

Silence – Dead Letter Circus – Dante’s song for his father. And wholly hell has Roger caused a stir among readers. One reviewer said they hated him “with the fire of a thousand suns.” Yikes!

Brave – Zayde Wolf – One of the songs from Dante’s new album.

James Morrison – Better Man – At the end of the book Dante writes a song for Sean, as a gift. When I was writing the scene, this was the song I imagined Dante singing.

I hope you enjoyed this taste of the Finding Grey soundtrack. The full list of songs can be found at my Spotify profile (rrainewriter).

All the Broken Pieces: The Soundtrack

Soundtracks! If you’ve been on my newsletter list for a while you’ll know about my love of book soundtracks. Every book in the Finding Forever series has it’s own soundtrack, which I’ve shared in the past. I’ve enjoyed them all but I have to say, the soundtrack for All the Broken Pieces is my absolute favourite. It’s shorter than the rest but, as I was writing the book, every song on the list was so thoroughly connected to it that simply listening to any one of them was like a shortcut for getting into book-mode. Today I’m going to share the list with you, including handy-dandy links to the songs on YouTube. Here they are:

I hope you enjoy the All the Broken Pieces soundtrack. You can also hear it, and all the other soundtracks, at my Spotify profile (rrainewriter).

Everything We Need: The Soundtrack

At the end of every year Spotify (the music streaming service I use) sends me a list of my Top Songs of the Year (that is, the songs I’ve listened to most throughout the year). My list is always heavily dependent on the books I’ve written that year, due to my great love of book soundtracks. So it was no surprise that all the songs I had on my completely unofficial soundtrack for Everything We Need, Book Four of my Finding Forever series, topped my Top Songs list for 2017. Although they did have some competition this year from a Norwegian pop song (5 Fine Frokner was part of my obsession with the Norwegian TV show SKAM.)

Today I thought I’d share with you some of the songs from the Everything We Need soundtrack, just as I’ve done for the other books in the Finding Forever series (Our Little Secret, Lost in Amber, This Time Forever). Only this time I thought I’d add links to the songs through YouTube for your easy listening pleasure.

Without further ado, here is a list of about half the songs that helped me bring life to Trina, Brady and Jeremy while writing Everything We Need:

If you have a Spotify account, and would like to listen to the whole soundtrack, you can go to my profile (rrainewriter) to listen. To find out more about Everything We Need, click here. To buy a copy of the book, visit your local Amazon store (US, UK, AUS).

This Time Forever: The Soundtrack

On the odd occasion my love of music takes over and pretty much ruins whatever else I might be doing at the time. I won’t confirm this is the reason why dinner was a little on the over-cooked side tonight, but I will claim the glass of red wine I enjoyed along with singing and dancing around the kitchen had nothing to with it. I’m not sure anyone in my house believes me. Anyway, when I sat down to write this month’s newsletter, I knew I had to share another book soundtrack.

For those of you who don’t already know this, I always put together an unofficial soundtrack when I start a new book and then listen to it – ad nauseam – as I write. I’ve shared the soundtracks for Our Little Secret and Lost in Amber. That leaves the third book in the Finding Forever series, This Time Forever.

The story for This Time Forever floated about in my head for quite a few years before I found the right place to use it. That means I was developing this soundtrack for longer than the others. Many of the songs changed over time. Some, however, lasted right to the end of the book’s development. I hope you enjoy the list.

If you would like to listen to the This Time Forever soundtrack you can find all the songs on Spotify (feel free to follow me, my profile name is rrainewriter, and all my soundtracks are available for listening there). If you don’t use Spotify, you’ll be able to find the songs on YouTube, or your preferred music service.

Lost in Amber: The Soundtrack

I’ve mentioned before that when I started writing romance novels my love of music naturally became part of my writing process. Every time I start a new book, one of the first things I do is create a soundtrack for the book. Then I listen to it – constantly. In that article I listed the songs that were on my soundtrack for Our Little Secret, the first book in my Finding Forever series (if you missed that article and would like to see the list, you can see it here.)

Now there are three book in the series, I’m pretty sure everyone around me is sick of me announcing, “This song is on my new soundtrack,” every time I put on music, and then singing along at the top of my lungs. Well, my kids are sick of it anyway.

Today I thought I’d share the completely unofficial soundtrack for Lost in Amber. Lincoln and Amber had such opposing personalities and I had a great time finding songs that managed to capture each of them and set the tone for the book. I hope you enjoy the list!

If you would like to listen to the Lost in Amber soundtrack you can find all the songs on Spotify (feel free to follow me, my profile name is rrainewriter, and all my soundtracks are available for listening there). If you don’t use Spotify, you’re sure to be able to find the songs on YouTube, or your preferred music service.

Our Little Secret: The Soundtrack

I love music!

All kinds of music. At the piano I usually play classical music. When I’m with my kids we listen to popular music (and various renditions of ‘Let It Go’). When I’m in the car by myself it’s alternative rock all the way.

As a young woman I used to like the idea that there was a soundtrack for my life and I used to think about the songs that would be on it. I was strange and eclectic, so at different times the soundtrack of my life could just as easily include ‘But Not For Me’ by Billie Holiday, ‘Throw Your Arms Around Me’ by Hunters and Collectors, or just lots and lots of Alanis Morissette.

When I first started writing seriously my love of soundtracks naturally spread to my writing and I created soundtracks for my books so I could listen to them while writing. At first I tried to include a different song for each segment of the book. This turned out to be exceedingly difficult. I mean, really? The perfect song for each and every segment of each and every book? Talk about an impossible task.

These days it’s all about finding songs that have the right general theme to them, or even songs that just set the right atmosphere.

The soundtrack for Our Little Secret was always going to be problematic. There aren’t too many love songs out there that involve three people (or if there are I haven’t noticed them). In the end, I decided to make a playlist of Julia’s favourite songs at the time I was writing the book. What would this modern career woman, who was conservative in her daily life but just dying to get her naughty on, be listening to when she was all alone? Below are some of the songs that made it onto the list. I listened to the list on repeat while writing the story. Not just when I was physically at my computer, but also while doing housework, cooking dinner, pretty much anytime I could plug in some headphones. There was much head bopping, singing along, and general having of fun.

For me, many of these songs have become inextricably linked to Our Little Secret and every time I hear them I remember how much fun I had writing it.

If you would like to listen, you will be able to hear each and every song on Spotify, which is currently my preference for getting my music fix. Or you can head over to YouTube for your listening pleasure. I hope you enjoy the list!

If you haven’t yet read Our Little Secret, you can find it here!