.png)
%20(4).png)
Lilly is a Kansas City native who currently resides in sunny California with her well-traveled plants, Fred and Addie. She has a degree in English literature from The University of Kansas (and an incomplete degree in medieval history... So does that count? The tuition bills say it does.)
Lilly is a frequent traveler with a soft spot for Ireland, but Puerto Rico is her favorite destination. No matter where she is in the world, however, coffee is a need, necessity, addition, and obsession... one that she shares with all of her FMCs.
Although romance and containing HEA/HFNs, Lilly's stories address a range of trauma-related issues and are not intended/appropriate for readers under 18 years of age. A complete list of TWs for each book can be found on her LinkTree: LinkTr.ee/LillyKCee
Brit Delany found some semblance of peace by ignoring the pain of her past.
An American photojournalist working on the international stage, it was easy to distance herself from her traumatic childhood. But she is now heading back to Ireland, home of those turbulent memories.
Thankfully, there are friendly faces waiting for her. Two men await her arrival, though last she saw them, they were the kindhearted boys who shepherded her through the worst of her dark and tumultuous days. Both look forward to her homecoming, but for far different reasons.
Secrets await in the Emerald Isle, and they will threaten everything Brit thought she knew. Love. Rejection. Obsession. Betrayal. All she's survived will act as her emotional armor for what is to come.
This story is not intended/appropriate for readers under 18 years of age. Be forewarned that the Turbulence Series addresses a range of traumatic issues. Entanglement ends with a cliffhanger. Tranquility is the conclusion to Entanglement and will be immediately available.
%20(7).png)
Book Excerpt
After another scary lurch of the plane, Brit ran over the memories from her last year in Ireland; they all changed so much in that year. By the time she had left, the boys were eighteen and had eased into manhood. Not that she had noticed; they were simply her boys. They were taller, muscled, handsome, their features matured, their voices deepened. But Sean maintained his quiet self-assurance, and Jasper his quirky humor.
One of their favorite pastimes in the summer, of course, was swimming in the lake. Ever since that day when she was seven, and she started stripping to join them, all three had adjusted their swimming attire. The boys kept their underwear on; Brit kept her underwear and shirt—then eventually, her bra—on. When Sean had raised a dubious eyebrow at her bra, she had pointed out that a bikini would show more. He couldn’t argue with her logic. Besides, none of them looked at each other that way.
The only time she found the boys staring at her would be to look mournfully at bruising. Then they dropped their gazes in embarrassment because she never asked for or wanted their pity. If they could intervene and help her, she would let them help, but they couldn’t do more than they were already doing. As for a rescue, she never asked for it, and she never talked about it.
She knew Sean had watched her play fighting with Jasper, both the tickling, as well as the all-out brawls they had, and wondered if the violence that came out in her then was from what she had experienced. Jasper let her wail on him, although he also gave as good as he got; he was usually the one to start it. Brit now wondered if he realized it was a sort of therapy for her, to be able to rage herself.
The last summer she’d been there, Sean had watched her more closely. She could pinpoint it to the day when his blue eyes started to follow her with more care. They went to the lake; Jasper ran ahead gleefully and stripped as he headed down the dock, hollering as he leaped into the water. Sean had been more reserved, as usual, hanging back, removing his shirt. Brit stood at the edge of the dock, hesitant.
“You comin’?” Sean asked.
She had blushed, shook her head, and looked down, hugging herself.
Sean had turned toward her, concerned. He reached for the hem of her white cotton shirt. “Let me see.”
Brit shrugged away from him. “Isn’t that.” She looked over at Jasper frolicking in the water, flicked her gaze up at Sean, and then said in high embarrassment, “It’s a girl thing.”
Sean had frowned at first, and then understanding dawned as he looked her over as though seeing her for the first time. He smiled gently. “Are you telling me you’re after being a woman now?”
Her cheeks blazed bright red as she half turned away. “It’s not a big deal.”
“Caílin, I knew you when you were a wee thing, and here you are, a woman now.” He grinned as though she should be as thrilled as he.
“I wouldn’t’ve told you if I knew you would turn into a girl more than me over it,” she said miserably.
He chuckled. “It’s nothing to be embarrassed by; simply nature.”
Jasper called from the lake, “What’re you two hens after cackling about? You comin’ in?”
Brit looked at Sean in panic. “Please don’t tell him. I’ll never hear the end from Jasper.”
Sean reached out and caressed her arm reassuringly. He turned toward the lake. “Brit’s stomach isn’t well; I told her she mustn’t swim.”
“You’re a doctor now?” Jasper called out sarcastically.
Sean shrugged. He looked back at Brit. “But you can sit on the dock, stick your feet in?”
Brit had done just that, watching them with envy as they rough-housed in the water. If she hadn’t been a girl, she could have joined them; it felt as if she had been dealt a rotten card when she was born a girl.
After that day, Sean had become more protective of her, maybe even possessive. At the time, Brit hadn’t known what either of those actions were or what could have motivated them. Only after years of separation could she see it for what it was.
Secretly, it pleased her that he may have looked at her differently. But she’d been just as quick to shove aside those fanciful musings. She’d been fourteen, he was seventeen. And she’d been nothing but a tomboy to them. And then, she certainly hadn’t been preening for male attention.
Q&A with Lilly K Cee
​
Q: Can you tell me a bit about yourself and how became an author?
A: This is one of those icebreaker questions in workshops that introvert-me never knows how to answer, and when it comes my turn, I overcompensate by sharing inappropriately. Ha! The truth is, there isn’t anything unique or interesting about me. I’ve been writing since I was a kid because it was my way to process my environment. Did I know that I was creating my own therapy as a kid? No. Was I writing sexually explicit content at the age of twelve? Yes. Did that make me a writer then? Who knows? But I was popular with my friends who read my stories.
In high school, it morphed into what I suppose would be considered fan fic today: entertainment pieces for my friends hooking up with their rock star crushes. I did write a friend into a pirate story and I had him captured and hung for piracy. He thought it was awesome to be a villain who died in one of my stories, so I obliged him.
I stopped writing when I was in a relationship. For 11 years, that outlet was stunted. Literally, the day I sent him on his way, I sat down and the words came flowing out. Book one (which will never be published) was written. I wrote Turbulence (now a series, Entanglement and Tranquility) next. I moved to Minnesota and started writing Those Who Are Bound when a character named Mac made himself known and I had to stop writing Those Who Are Bound to write Mac’s story, Alive Day.
After Alive Day was finished, I immediately returned to Those Who Are Bound. And then... I was in a grocery store in St Paul and the flash drive (on a key chain) was pick pocketed. Copies of my manuscripts were on the flash drive, so a writer friend of mine told me to copyright immediately and publish in order to protect my work.
So, now I am a published author. And I have moved to California.
​
Q: What is your writing process like?
A: Chaos. Ha! I don’t know that I have a process. When I have a moment, or the words come, I open up my laptop, zone out, and write. I’d liken it to meditation.
​
Q: What do you like to do when you are not writing?
A: I work a demanding and fulfilling full-time-plus job. Writing is the side hustle. Beyond these two things, when I get the chance, I do like to travel. As my bio states, Puerto Rico is a go-to. I am determined to get back to Ireland soon, however.
​
Q: How do you celebrate when you are finished writing a book?
A: I suffer something along the lines of anxiety. Writing is still my therapy, so when one story is complete, I need another to move on to. If I don’t have anything brewing, then it’s less of a celebration and more of a meltdown, lol.
​
Q: How do you celebrate when your books are released?
A: I don’t. It’s just me, so I hit the button and that’s that. Ta-da. I’m sorry the answer isn’t more exciting.
​
Q: Can you tell me how the book/series came about?
A: I wrote what is now a very cringe version of this in high school. The basic foundation was there: two boys, a woman, and Ireland. In the beginning, the woman returns to Ireland to visit the boys, who are now men, and it became very convoluted.
Many years later, I took that foundation and built on it because these three had something to say: Brit, Sean and Jasper. They each represent a different branch of how trauma is processed, and they are entwined; thus, Entanglement. They are friends, as well: they belong to each other, but how that is interpreted and how they love one another is influenced by how they were damaged.
​
Q: Are any of your characters similar to real-life friends or family?
A: Evie reminds me of a friend; her boldness, her attitude toward sex and her excellent advice.
​
Q: What was the most challenging part of writing this book?
A: Brit and I have a lot in common. Brit and I are not the same. She is her own, and its her story I tell, wrapped up in Sean and Jasper, but some of her—their—experiences were hard-hitting. Editing repeatedly was the worst; I had to shut down and disassociate.
​
Q: What part of writing this book was the most fun for you?
A: Jasper’s funny. He made me laugh out loud.
​
Q: What Authors or other Books have inspired you to write this book?
A: Myself, I guess, since I wrote a terrible version of this years ago.
​
Q: What is your favorite passage from this book?
A:
It’s not romantic at all, but it’s:
This was something she remembered, the safe conversations; words exchanged that meant nothing. She did not doubt that these people regarded her as the family they called her, but she also knew that those familial feelings had boundaries. For instance, she knew they had grown deaf and blind when they had heard Maggie’s drunken rages and slurs; when they had heard Brit’s cries; when they had seen her bruises.
Brit had obediently played her part by being equally blind to her bruises. The boys had noticed and had followed the lead, struck mute. It was a contagion through the house. On the occasions the boys had been able to intervene, they had. More often than not, they hadn’t been able to do so, and that was when the various ailments of blindness, deafness, and dumbness had struck. There was no one to blame. Everyone was to blame.
​
Q: If you could meet any of your characters, who would it be and what would you say to them?
A: Brit (Britton). I’d just give her a hug and tell her I’m proud of her for coming out okay on the other side.