When the premise of Zoey Castile’s Stripped hit the Internet, it immediately landed on several most anticipated lists (including ours!). Now the wait is over and Castile’s Magic Mike-inspired romance is finally here. Stripper hero Zac Fallon is just as adorable and sexy as we hoped, and heroine Robyn Flores is a highly relatable portrait of “hot mess” millennial womanhood. We talked to Castile about researching male revues, the complexities of female friendship and what comes next.

For those who may not know, you’re also the author of the fantastical and magical Brooklyn Brujas series. Is writing fantasy YA a different experience than writing contemporary romance? Or is it the same writing routine, just different genres?
Romance and fantasy look very different but they’re the same in many ways. Writing fantasy YA is a much longer process because when I write about magic I’m creating entire systems of rules that will impact the rest of the books. Romance requires the same kind of careful world building and rules—they’re just different. The archetypes are there. The hero. The heroine. The unforeseen evil. The mentors. The sidekicks. The difference is that instead of your heroine being a witch, she’s a schoolteacher. Instead of the evil manifesting as a centuries-old sorceress, it’s the principal.

I definitely don’t mean to be a bit cheeky with this question, but did you do any research when trying to capture the life of a male revue dancer?
Hah! I definitely watched all the Magic Mike movies. Magic Mike XXL is the best modern fairytale ever told, and I do love retellings. I went to Thunder From Down Under while I was in Vegas. It was ridiculously over the top and fun. Other than that, I’ve just been following male dancers on Instagram for “inspiration.”

There are some romance readers who won’t read a book where the hero is in any way “involved” with other women. With that in mind, were you at all conflicted about making the hero a stripper?
I was not conflicted. Many people who work in adult entertainment as not involved romantically with their clients. It’s a fantasy and it is their work, so a partner would have to trust and respect that.

What I really love about the heroine (and charming fifth-grade teacher), Robyn Flores, is that she’s in the middle of a weird slump. Her best friend is about to get married, and she’s struggling to be happy because she’s worried about losing her best friend. How did you manage to strike a balance between depicting real, relatable friendships between women but also adding the internal conflicts we often experience when a relationship is on the cusp of a major change?
I always try to ask myself what I would feel if I was in the same situation as my characters. Then I ask myself what someone close to me would feel. Emotions are so complicated. Robyn wants to put her best friend’s wedding before her feelings. She also isn’t equipped to handle everything by herself. As women, we are taught to put others before our own happiness. There has to be a balance. As a writer, you have to write the truth that your character is feeling and that will lead you to their development.

All of the chapters are named after song titles, which I thought was really fun. Did you have a writing playlist while working on this book? Have you thought about putting one together for Stripped?
I always make two playlists when I write. One for drafting and one for editing. The drafting playlist always has lyrics. The editing playlist is just scores from my favorite movies. I did make a playlist for Stripped that’s up on Apple Music.

There are so many fun secondary characters and I hope they will all be getting their own love stories. How did you keep all their individual personalities straight while writing?
I love ensemble casts in books. Once I know who someone is in my book, they’re fully formed. If I have trouble tracking someone in a scene, then they probably don’t belong there and I remove them.

Some people might be conflicted about Lukas in the book. He’s the new principal at Robyn’s school and is definitely vying for her affection. Perhaps I’m a glutton for punishment, but do you foresee Lukas getting his own book? I think that buttoned-up man needs a wild girl to help him let loose.
All three titles in the series are already spoken for!

Can you give us a little peek on what to expect from the rest of the series? I know the next book, Hired, will have Aiden getting his own happy ending.
Hired is about Aiden Rios. He’s sworn to himself that he’d never be in a relationship, but then he goes to NOLA and meets a girl.

Flashed will be about Patrick Halloran. You won’t meet him until Hired, but he’s worth the wait. It’s a Beauty and the Beast retelling set in a Montana ranch.

Given the Magic Mike inspiration, who’s your favorite character in that series and which Magic Mike characters really lent themselves to Zac’s inception?
Fallon is my absolute favorite character in my series. I guess it’s because he’s where it all started. While he was physically inspired by Chris Evans, I think he embodies the charming and sweet personality that Channing Tatum has onscreen.

Lastly, I love asking authors this question. What are you reading and loving right now? Which books should be on our radar?
I’m reading a lot of different genres right now. Strange Grace by Tessa Gratton is a moody, lush, intoxicating fantasy. Trail of Lightning by Rebecca Roanhorse is perfect for fans that are waiting for more seasons of “Supernatural.” Sinner by Sierra Simone is an incredibly sexy romance. Trust Me by Farrah Rochon is a political romance set in New Orleans. Sarah MacLean’s latest Bareknuckle Bastards series is new and sexy.

ALSO IN BOOKPAGE: Read our review of Stripped.

Author photo by Sarah Nicole Lemon.

Most Christmas romances, while they may have some serious undercurrents, are more focused on providing the ultimate cozy, seasonal comfort reading. Susan Fox’s Sail Away with Me is not one of those books. While it does take place over the holidays, beginning in late fall and concluding in the new year, this romance between bookseller Iris Yakimura and popular musician Julian Blake uses the season as both thematic backdrop and complication, as opposed to a central element. It’s a wise choice on the part of Fox, whose latest hero is dealing with a very painful past—Julian is a survivor of sexual abuse, and his return to tiny Destiny Island brings back horrible memories. Yet he finds solace in his friendship-turned-romance with the shy, deeply kind Iris. We talked to Fox about creating the world of Blue Moon Harbor, tackling a serious subject in the context of a holiday romance and the importance of The Tao of Pooh.

Sail Away with Me was finished right as the #MeToo movement picked up steam—what was that experience like for you?
I’m glad that #MeToo has taken off, and I was already very aware of the issues when I started writing Sail Away With Me. I’d previously written about a widowed heroine who survived domestic physical and sexual abuse in Love Me Tender. I’d read Canadian hockey player Theo Fleury’s Playing With Fire, where he talked about being abused by his junior hockey coach. I followed the firing of prestigious Canadian radio host Jian Ghomeshi and his trial on charges of sexual assault. I was aware of the high incidence of sexual assault and harassment of vulnerable people, the disincentives for reporting it and the way society has enabled powerful people to continue getting away with abuse. I knew in the first Blue Moon Harbor book, Fly Away With Me, that Bart Jelinek was an abuser and one day would get his comeuppance.

Now, with #MeToo, I’m encouraged to see that more victims are feeling empowered to come forward, and also to see more sexual predators being exposed and sanctioned for their actions.

Like Iris, you’re an introvert, which can be a challenge for a successful author. How do you approach promoting your work and deal with going to events?
Like Iris, even though I’m shy I do like people and I’m interested in them. Many of the coping tools she uses are borrowed from me—like focusing on the other person rather than on myself. I’ve learned how to deal fairly well with most social situations. I avoid cocktail parties (my definition of hell!), but I’m okay with presenting workshops and doing readings. In November, for example, I was one of two panelists at Vancouver Public Library for a presentation on “Diversity in the Modern Love Story.”

Social activities are taxing for me, though. They drain me, and I then need to retreat to a nice safe, quiet space to recharge.

In terms of promo, I’m happy to do the introvert-oriented things like sending books to reader events, emailing a newsletter and posting on Facebook.

The shadow of Japanese-Canadian internment during WWII hangs over this book, as Iris’ family members were among those imprisoned. What types of research did you do for this aspect of Sail Away with Me, and what led you to include it in the novel?
I’d never even heard of the internment camps until I took a sociology course at the University of Victoria in the 1970s. I was appalled, and over the years did some more reading—books like Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson and Bridge of Scarlet Leaves by Kristina McMorris. When I started the Blue Moon Harbor series, I chose the Gulf Islands for my setting in part because of their very diverse history: Indigenous Canadians, immigrants from all over the world including Japan, fishermen, hippies, artists and big-city escapees. In the first book, when I created Dreamspinner bookstore and wanted an island family to run it, I decided more or less randomly that the family would be the Yakimuras, and Iris, the shy bookseller, would become friends with the heroines of Fly Away With Me and Come Home With Me. As I developed Iris’ character, I knew she needed her own romance, so I started brainstorming Sail Away With Me.

If the family (on her dad’s side) had been on Destiny Island since the late 1800s, of course, they would have been victims of Canada’s horrendous treatment of Japanese Canadians during WWI and WWII. So I had to do more research to get the facts right, and then reflect on how that history might have affected Iris’s family and herself. Then I had to decide how much of that to include in the book, and I thought it was important enough in these troubled times to play a significant part. For example, here’s Iris talking with Julian:

“We carry the wound of the internment camp, even though it happened to our ancestors and not to us. We are also aware something similar could happen again. That affects us. It’s part of the reason we keep our heads down and try to be respectable, contributing citizens who don’t make waves.”

“Jesus. You don’t really think it could happen again?”

“Julian, I want to believe in the good in people, but I see a world where people are hated and attacked, even killed, for their religion, the color of the skin, or their sexual orientation. Even their gender. Yes, horrible things can happen when people get scared.”

What made you decide to pair Iris, who you always knew would have her own story, with Julian?
Julian, too, has been there from the first book, when the heroine of Fly Away with Me saw him onstage, singing and playing the guitar. She thought of him as a “tarnished angel.” Obviously, a man like that had a backstory and deserved his own love story. As I delved into Julian’s backstory (which included being sexually abused as a child), I realized how complex he was, and what a fascinating combination of dark and light. A man who gave so much, yet didn’t believe he deserved love. Who better to pair him with than Iris, the woman her friends refer to as an “old soul”? Though she has her own frailties, she’s serene, at peace with herself, introspective, perceptive and wise. I knew Julian could learn from Iris and begin to heal, and I knew that with his support and love she could find a greater internal strength than she’d ever believed herself capable of.

How do you structure a whole island in your head? Have you drawn a map? Or does it just build out naturally as the series goes on?
I used a real Gulf Island, Salt Spring near Victoria, as a general model, but Destiny is much smaller and less developed. From there, I created what I needed for each story, keeping notes and making sure to be consistent. I’m not much of an artist, so I didn’t even try to make a map.

I was delighted when Julian asks Iris to recommend him a book, and she chooses The Tao of Pooh. When did you first encounter that book, and what made you decide that it would be Iris’ pick for Julian?
I discovered Benjamin Hoff’s The Tao of Pooh fairly soon after it was published, probably in the mid-eighties. I’m not sure if a friend introduced it to me, or if it was vice versa, but I know we both enjoyed it. That book sent me back to read Winnie-the-Pooh again, which is always a pleasure. So then, many years later, when I thought about Iris’s philosophy of life—which she refers to as a “constantly developing spirituality”—it reminded me of Hoff’s book. I read it again —and Pooh as well ☺—and realized what a good fit both stories were for Iris and Julian’s relationship. In a way, The Tao of Pooh, Winnie-the-Pooh and Sail Away With Me might be said to have the same theme: discover and respect your inner nature.

Did any real-life musicians inspire Julian? What type of music do you hear in your head when writing him?
In terms of appearance, I have a photo of Keith Urban dressed all in black, and that’s exactly the way I see Julian. In terms of musical style, no, there was no specific musician. I imagine Julian’s style as being kind of a mix of folk and rock, soulful and a bit angsty. His songs aren’t formulaic, and they tell stories. Like “From Dust a Rose,” based on Iris’s grandparents’ love story (which started in an internment camp). And “Your Reality,” about Julian’s father’s struggle to recover after a horrible accident.

Sail Away with Me takes place during the holidays, but is far less focused on Christmas trappings and events during many other seasonal romances. Was this in response to the darkness and emotion of Julian’s storyline, or did you have other reasons for writing a more holiday-adjacent book?
Partly, it was that the story needed a longish timeline. Neither Iris nor Julian are the type of people who’d leap into an emotionally intimate relationship over the short span of a holiday season. I wrote that kind of story in “Blue Moon Harbor Christmas” in Winter Wishes, and I think it worked for that couple because they’d known each other years before and had a child together. But Iris and Julian were strangers, reserved people, and needed time to develop a friendship and to learn that they could trust each other, so I started their story at the end of October and let it build through the autumn. And then when Julian did reveal his secret and publicly “out” his abuser in the middle of December, that was such a difficult, meaningful, stressful step for him, Iris, his family and their friends, that it just couldn’t be a normal Christmas. On the other hand, it does turn out to be a more emotional, loving Christmas than Julian has ever before experienced.

ALSO IN BOOKPAGE: Read our review of Sail Away with Me.

Author photo by BK Studio Photography.

The second I heard the premise for Red, White & Royal Blue, I knew I had to read it. The son of the U.S. president falls in love with a prince of England? Put that directly into my veins. And as my increasingly impassioned text message history can tell you, Casey McQuiston’s debut was even better than I in my wildest dreams believed it would be. This romance between cocky, charismatic know-it-all Alex Claremont-Diaz and his nemesis, Prince Henry of England, has everything—a raucous karaoke scene at a gay bar, cutthroat election shenanigans, a very romantic Star Wars through line—and McQuiston perfectly balances the escapist, fizzy fun of her setup with the emotional impact of Henry and Alex’s relationship. I talked to McQuiston about the alternate political reality of her debut, the importance of later-in-life coming out narratives and more.

Red, White & Royal Blue is absolutely hilarious. How do you know whether the humor is working in your writing?
It’s hard! I watched a ton of my favorite comedies while writing this, especially “Veep,” “Parks & Rec” and “Happy Endings.” I spent a lot of time absorbing things that made me laugh, thinking about what specifically made it funny and trying to internalize the natural rhythm of banter. You really can’t force humor. It has to feel like something someone would actually say out loud, off-the-cuff. So most of the time it’s about letting your characters talk, rather than cramming one-liners into their mouths, and then reading it back out loud to see how it actually feels and sounds when someone says it.

Some of the most fascinating parts of this book are the ways the White House Trio (and, to a lesser extent, the members of the Royal Family) take control of their own public images. Did you take inspiration from any real-life figures for this aspect of the novel?
Honestly, the only character who’s actually based on a real life figure is Ellen. I took a lot of inspiration from Wendy Davis, another Democratic woman from Texas. In a lot of ways, I was drawing more from the idea of people. Alex is kind of embodying the concept of a modern Kennedy; Henry’s mom is giving you a little bit of the Princess Diana archetype in her tenacity and rebelliousness; Senator Richards represents entrenched conservative legacy families like the Bushes. But I always say that no real royals or first families were harmed in the making of this book!

Did you always know that Red, White & Royal Blue would be a gay romance?
I write queer fiction for the same reason straight people write straight fiction: because I’m a queer person, and that’s the world I live in and the experiences I draw from and relate to. With this book—and with my future books—my vision was to write a fun, escapist, tropey, smart rom-com good enough to help push queer love out of the margins and into the rom-com mainstream. So, in that way, I always knew this would be a queer book, but the specific way that played out, with Alex and Henry both being cis men, was something that sort of revealed itself to me as the plot started to take shape.

Whose side are you on concerning the quality of Return of the Jedi—Alex or Henry?
Such a good question! I personally love Return of the Jedi, but I still think Empire is a better movie.

Alex’s discovery that he isn’t actually straight felt very realistic and I think spoke to the fact that many people, even if they grow up in a loving and accepting home, don’t necessarily realize their queerness as children or early adolescents. What led you to make that decision for his character?
I lifted a lot of material from my own life for Alex’s big “ah-ha” moment, because I wanted to write it in a way that would have helped me if I could have read a book like this years ago. There’s this prevailing idea that all queer people inherently know from birth, or at least from adolescence, that they’re not straight, and I think that closes the door on people who take longer to get there. So I wanted to show something that was relatable to me and to a lot of other queer people out there who may not have seen that particular kind of representation before. Plus, Alex is a cocky little know-it-all. Of course he would be blindsided by something like this just when he thought he had it all figured out!

I thought Henry’s knowledge and love of LGBT history was a particularly meaningful through line, especially as Alex is inspired to learn about his own country’s history as a result of his conversations with Henry. Where would you recommend American readers who want to learn more about this same subject start?
Love this question! A few of my favorites: And the Band Played On by Randy Shilts, A Queer History of the United States by Michael Bronski, Transgender Warriors by Leslie Feinberg (also Stone Butch Blues), Gender Trouble by Judith Butler, Angels in America by Tony Kushner, Coming Out Under Fire by Allan Bérubé, The Gay Revolution by Lillian Faderman, so many more. Two recent releases I loved were When Brooklyn Was Queer by Hugh Ryan and Tinderbox by Robert W. Fieseler. Also watch Paris is Burning!

This is less a question than a personal plea: I am hopelessly obsessed with Pez. Can you please tell me a fact about him that I wouldn’t know from reading the book?
Oh my god, there’s SO much. Pez has a huge place in my heart. A little backstory on him: In his and Henry’s early Eton days, they gravitated to each other because they were both seen as “different” by their classmates. Pez was more straightlaced and proper as a kid, until too many kids looked at Henry sideways for not having a stiff upper lip and too many teachers praised Pez for being so well-behaved and well-spoken. He definitely went home for summer break one year and came back with his nails painted, swanning around in flashy violation of the dress code just to piss off the establishment, and he never looked back. Also he has lots of other famous friends he’s not legally allowed to talk about.

At a certain point, Henry and Alex start ending their emails to one another with these really gorgeous quotes from famous queer love letters. Do you have a favorite among those?
It’s so hard to choose between these, because there were so many good ones. I lost a lot research hours to just reading letters. But my favorite lines, I think, are Vita Sackville-West’s “I miss you even more than I could have believed; and I was prepared to miss you a good deal” and Jean Cocteau’s “Thank you from the bottom of my heart for having saved me. I was drowning and you threw yourself into the water without hesitation, without a backward look.”

Reading the alternate political reality of Red, White & Royal Blue was a very emotional experience for me, and I expect it will be so for a lot of other readers. What was that like for you as a writer?
It was such a complicated thing to balance, because I wanted that little twist away from reality to be close enough to our own world to feel relatable and possible—and to not gloss over the institutional oppression and discrimination that would still be a problem no matter who was in office right now—while also being an optimistic escape. On a personal level, it was about trying to reconnect with hope and the feeling that progress is possible and that the moral arc of the universe does actually bend toward justice. So it was this journey of, how can I do this realistically and respectfully at the same time? How can I call this out without getting lost in the politics when it’s supposed to be a rom-com? How do I find the hope and still mirror what’s happening right now? I did my best, so I hope people find it as cathartic to read as I did to write.

What’s next for you?
I can’t reveal too much specifically about future books, but I can tell you that I have another queer new adult rom-com in the works! This one centers on two very lost and very lonely girls who fall in love on the New York subway, with a big time travel-y twist. It’s wildly different from Red, White & Royal Blue, but at the same time, it’s still just as fun and full of complicated families and ride-or-die friendships and cinematic kisses. I’m so, so excited to share more about it soon! And of course, there’s also the deal I just signed with Berlanti Productions and Amazon Studios to adapt Red, White & Royal Blue! I could not be more amped to see where that project goes and work with the team we’ve put together to make something incredible.

ALSO IN BOOKPAGE: Read our review of Red, White & Royal Blue.

Author photo by Raegan Labat.

After the glorious, angst-filled saga that was the Forbidden Hearts trilogy, Alisha Rai returns with The Right Swipe, a smart, warm-hearted rom-com starring a former football player and the tech CEO who captures his heart. We talked to Rai about her brilliantly ruthless heroine, incorporating the #MeToo movement and more.

Readers (myself included) fell in love with Rhiannon when she appeared in your last book, Hurts to Love You. What made you decide to make her your heroine in this book?
I loved crafting a character that was so many things: both vulnerable and cocky, dedicated to her family and also desperate for space from them. I knew she’d be my next heroine the second she showed up, and crafting a whole new series around a snarky dating app creator was probably the easiest thing I’ve ever done.

Rhiannon is unrepentantly dedicated to her business, to the point that she pushes through her hurt feelings to pursue a business relationship with Samson and, hopefully, his aunt. Her silent business partner, Katrina, worries that Rhiannon’s actions border on manipulation. I was delighted by this tension and conversation, as I realized I had only rarely seen a heroine act the way male billionaire characters have been acting for decades. Why do you think there’s still such a resistance to female characters whose actions aren’t perfectly altruistic?
Women in real life are rarely applauded for things like arrogance or ambition the way that men are. It makes sense that fictional women are treated the same. I love reading books where all characters are unrepentant about getting what they want and need (so long as they don’t hurt others), and I really think attitudes are shifting.

Samson and his fellow former athlete friends felt so real and so charming, and were very different from the tired stereotype of alpha male football players. Were they inspired by any real-life athletes?
No one in particular, but I’ve spent time around athletes, both pro and semi-pro, and I’ve met many who are equally charming! Every profession has all kinds of people.

Which dating app have you had the best experience on? And which was the worst?
When you’re on enough of them, you realize that pretty much the same people are on all of them, too, and I’ve had good and bad experiences on every app. I think Hinge is currently the most user-friendly for people looking for more than just a hookup. Your mileage may vary, of course.

Rhiannon’s complicated relationship with her mother, Sonya, felt extremely realistic—equal parts love and guilt, shaped by Sonya’s attempts to protect and guide her clearly brilliant daughter. Do you think their relationship improves for good after the events of this book? How do you think Sonya and Samson would get along?
I think so. And I believe Samson and Sonya would adore each other at first sight. He needs to be mothered and smothered a little.

Quite a few romance novels have been tackling #MeToo in the last few years, and without giving too much away, The Right Swipe is one of them. What did you hope to add to the conversation with this book?
I started writing The Right Swipe well before the #MeToo movement took off in earnest, but I did have to tweak it a bit in later drafts to make sure it fit into the global conversation. My hope is that readers empathize with Rhiannon’s internal struggle with her past and the choices she’s made to cope with the things that have happened to her, whether they agree with them or not. Too often decisions are seen as binary, and we don’t spend nearly enough time considering why people make the choices they do, the valid factors that go into it.

What’s next for you?
I’m currently writing Girl Gone Viral, the second book in the Modern Love series, featuring Rhiannon’s roommate Katrina and the bodyguard who has always loved her.

Author photo by M. Ladrigan

If you follow romance authors and reviewers on Twitter, you probably already know who Talia Hibbert is. The self-published British writer’s books frequently receive glowing, heart-eyes reviews and entire threads of rapturous praise. But with Get a Life, Chloe Brown, her first traditionally published title, Hibbert is about to ascend to a whole new level of literary stardom. We talked to Hibbert about her favorite tropes, the importance of empathy and why her latest bad boy hero was inspired by the coziest of seasons.

In Get a Life, Chloe Brown, Chloe and Redford are attracted to each other off the bat, despite all the ways in which they annoy each other. Is this one of your favorite tropes? And are there any other tropes you love but haven’t explored yet in your own writing?
An initial flare of chemistry accompanied by a personality clash is definitely one of my favorite tropes. I love the idea of an attraction so powerful it exists in spite of common sense. Plus, I find it funny when characters are frustrated with themselves—you know, like, “Why the hell are you attracted to this waste of oxygen? What is wrong with you?!”

I adore tropes in general, so I could happily spend the rest of my life exploring them all. In particular, marriage of convenience has been on my mind a lot. It’s more common in historical romance, but I recently read Jodie Slaughter’s White Whiskey Bargain, which does an amazing job of handling the trope in a contemporary setting. That gave me all kinds of thoughts!

"I love the idea of an attraction so powerful it exists in spite of common sense."

Out of all of your characters, whom do you identify with the most?
This is a tricky question because a sprinkle of myself goes into everything I write. At the minute, I identify very strongly with Chloe because we have similar experiences and lifestyles. She’s a computer nerd, I’m a book nerd, we’re both socially awkward and we both deal with chronic pain. But I also identify with Ruth from my book A Girl Like Her. Ruth is autistic, like me, and writing her perspective felt so familiar and comfortable. She’s also an antisocial comic book nerd, so I guess the real answer here is: I identify with any character who doesn’t leave the house. LOL.

Where did you draw from to create both Chloe and Red? Was there a specific moment or source of inspiration for either of them?
Chloe popped into my mind fully formed, probably as a result of my own experiences. I have fibromyalgia, Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome and some other annoying stuff. I had these aspects of chronic illness and chronic pain that I wanted to share with the world, and she appeared as the perfect star for that story.

Then I worked on creating Red. At first, I was trying to build Chloe an ideal hero, but he never turned out right. I didn’t get anywhere with him until I realized—I have to stop creating him for Chloe and simply create him for himself. That’s when his character really started to work. I wrote Redford in autumn, and I think the rich colors, harsh weather and cozy comforts of the season inspired his personality and backstory.

How much from your own life, if any, did you draw experiences from for Chloe?
I drew from my physical experiences when it came to crafting Chloe. Knowing firsthand the kind of pain she might face and the things she might not be able to do—that took out the guesswork. I just had to think “Okay, if Chloe’s pain is at an eight right now, how is she going to interact with Red?” (Spoiler alert, the answer is: she’s going to give him a withering glare and hurry away.)

I also drew from my own life to create her family background. (Not the millionaire part, sadly, but the other stuff.) Chloe is from a Jamaican family, like my father. At the start of the book, she lives with her parents and grandparents, which is how we do things in my mother’s culture. It’s always fun, getting that on paper, because we can never have too much representation, right?

"I drew from my physical experiences when it came to crafting Chloe. Knowing firsthand the kind of pain she might face and the things she might not be able to do—that took out the guesswork."

Many of your books feature interracial couples. Can you talk a bit about the reception of that?
I started writing interracial romance because my partner is white, so I already had some idea how these stories might be received. I’ve had negative responses from neo-Nazis and eugenicists, but since they’re neo-Nazis and eugenicists, I can’t say I cared. On the other hand, I get positive responses for the wrong reasons—especially when I write black heroines with white heroes. People send me glowing emails about how the white hero allowed them to open their mind and appreciate the black heroine’s beauty. It’s like . . . thanks for letting me know you thought we were ugly last week, hope you’re proud of your superficial growth! LOL.

But on the whole, the reception is overwhelmingly positive—in a good way. At the end of the day, my readers are wonderful people who value diverse representation. I know they’ll be just as supportive when I publish more black romances, too, which is nice.

What are the differences, if any, in the reception of your work in the U.S. and in the U.K.?
My U.K. readers are just as supportive as my U.S. ones—but I have way more U.S. readers. Way more. I’m in more libraries and bookshops over there, too. Of course, that might be because most British bookshops are allergic to romance novels.

There are definite stylistic differences between U.S. and U.K. romance. Like May Sage and Charlotte Stein, I’m a British author who writes U.S.-influenced genre romance, and that could be why my books get more attention in the U.S. than they do at home. It might also have something to do with my backlist being self-published. I think U.S. readers and booksellers are more open to that than U.K. ones are. So we’ll have to see what happens with Get a Life, Chloe Brown, which is my first traditionally published book.

Either way, I’m eternally grateful that North American readers offer me so much support, because without them I might not have a job. So, thanks guys. Please keep that up. No pressure.

Do you have a particularly favorite scene in any of your books?
There’s a scene in Get a Life, Chloe Brown that might be my favorite of all time. I don’t want to spoil it, so I’ll just say that it’s the first cat scene, and I absolutely love it. Aside from that, I always think back to a scene in my book The Princess Trap where the hero is explaining something to the heroine, while the heroine calmly considers the logistics of throwing an ornament at his head.

Chloe’s grandmother, Gigi, is such a fun character. What inspired her character and what was your favorite thing about writing her?
When I was growing up, my paternal grandmother and maternal great-grandmother were close friends. They were both super glamorous, both had backgrounds in fashion design, both experienced being working single mothers—and they loved to party. Gigi is a combination of them, from her style and shameless attitude, to her constant support and creative endearments. I love that she’s a wildcard who doesn’t fit ageist, sexist ideas of how a grandmother should behave. I also love her subtle, stealthy manner of caring for her granddaughters. She’s secretly a ferocious mama bear, but she hides it so cleverly, no one really notices.

What does a normal day of writing look like for you?
When I’m in the process of writing a book, the characters completely hijack my brain. I can’t do anything without them offering helpful story suggestions, which I then have to write down on whatever’s closest. So as soon as I wake up, ideas start flowing. I usually stay in bed for a while and make notes on my phone. Actually, I’ve written whole scenes on my phone before even getting up to brush my teeth, which is always nice.

Once I’m done, I’ll get up, get dressed, get some breakfast, maybe do some physical therapy. I used to skip all that and get straight to working, but now I’m practicing this whole “self-care” thing, so . . . appropriate nutrition it is!

I get to my desk around nine, and then I write, write, write. I don’t stop until lunch, which is usually one o’clock. I take an hour to cook and watch TV or do some reading. Then I go back to my desk. If I’ve already hit my word count for the day, I’ll do some admin stuff, then finish early. But if I’ve had a slow morning or there’s a scene I’m struggling with, I’ll write some more.

Have you always wanted to be a writer?
Yes! It’s literally my lifelong dream.

What part of this book was the hardest to write?
Red and Chloe have a major argument toward the end of the book, and my editor and I had to fiddle with it so much. I wanted both characters to be justifiably hurt, and to pull away from each other, but I didn’t want either of them to say or do anything too terrible. They’re soft! They’re sweet! They love each other! In the end, it was about digging deep into painful aspects of their past—which I hated, because I prefer everything to be all hearts and rainbows. But it had to be done.

What is the easiest thing about writing?
For me, it changes with every book. Sometimes the characters appear fully formed, sometimes plot points present themselves in an orderly fashion, sometimes the dialogue and description really flow. But only one thing can go well at a time. That’s the rule.

Can you define romance in your own words?
The romance genre is about respecting the power of emotion. Society brands emotion as inefficient or “feminine” (God forbid anything be feminine), but really, feelings are like water: They can heal, they can destroy, they can change the face of the earth. And they often do. Romance harnesses the power of emotion without shame, using it to transform characters and wrench visceral reactions from readers.

"Romance harnesses the power of emotion without shame, using it to transform characters and wrench visceral reactions from readers."

You portray mental health struggles in such a realistic way. How do you go about translating something like anxiety or lingering trauma to the page?
When I’m putting mental health on the page, I always come from a place of personal experience. But I haven’t experienced everything ever (obviously!) so if it’s a struggle that’s not my own, I start with research. Then, armed with understanding, I look for similar threads of experience in my life, and try to weave them together. Combining someone else’s truth with a ribbon of my own emotions helps me get it on paper.

I guess that’s a fancy, long-winded way of saying empathy. I just try to focus on empathy.

What does representation mean to you, especially in the romance genre?
Representation in romance means accepting, then celebrating, the fact that difference is normal. To do that, we have to carve out space for the voices of marginalized people, because underrepresentation can’t be fixed unless you actively do the work.

For example, publishing a few chronically ill heroines isn’t enough: We need countless books about chronically ill people, all from different authors, all with different conditions and backgrounds and tropes and heat levels, until they become as run-of-the-mill as books about healthy people. That’s representation.

What are ways that people can support more diverse romances?
Read them! Research like The Ripped Bodice’s annual diversity report shows that traditional publishers are not giving authors of color, for example, as much space to succeed as they give white authors. If we self-publish, we face higher production costs for things like cover images and promotional images that represent our characters. So if we’re given an opportunity, or we take a chance, and no one buys our books . . . we stop writing, because we’re busy working elsewhere to pay the bills.

Of course, it’s not readers’ responsibility to keep anyone in a job, and it’s also not as easy as saying, “Buy more of these books.” The real trouble is that diverse romance gets less support (from mainstream influencers, from publishers, from everyone!), and therefore fewer readers. You can change that by fighting their bias. If you follow websites like wocinromance.com, podcasts like The Turn On, blogs like Love in Panels—all resources with a commitment to inclusion—you’ll be exposed to more diverse content. And, once you’re aware of all these books that weren’t on your radar before, you’ll naturally read more of them. Because they’re amazing.

What’s the best piece of writing advice you’ve ever received?
I follow a lot of authors online, and the most common advice I see is to ignore writing advice that doesn’t resonate with you. I really love that, because it’s so easy to feel shamed or impostery if you don’t follow the same method as someone else. So I suppose this is communal advice: Do what works for you.

Consent is, of course, a requirement for sex and physical touch. Your characters show a deep understanding of this. Can you talk a bit about this?
When it comes to consent, society gaslights us all. From the media, to cultural perceptions, to the actual law, it’s always about dismissing the importance of consent. So, with my books, I like to do the opposite. My main characters treat consent as the bare minimum because that’s what good people should do. I suppose I’m adding my voice to a chorus that’s been shouting for a while: This is how things should be. Don’t listen to anyone else, don’t let them bullshit you. Anything less than this is wrong.

Is there anything you haven’t written about yet that you’d like to explore in future books?
So much! I love everything about romance with a burning, ’80s-clinch-cover passion. Every time I read something brilliant it’s like, “Oh my God, I need to write this. I need to play in this sandbox.” One thing that’s been on my mind recently is half-siblings. I have a lot of half-siblings and I think it’s a powerful and interesting relationship, something that would make a great theme or basis for a series. I’ve also been thinking about tropes around survival—like, love interests who go through something together, then have to deal with that survival bond and a romantic bond. Finally, I would love to write more paranormal romance. Everything, basically!

ALSO IN BOOKPAGE: Read our review of Get a Life, Chloe Brown.

Author photo by Ed Chappell.

Kate Clayborn’s Luck of the Draw series enchanted romance fans with its subtle mix of gentle humor and complicated, emotional love stories. With her print debut, Love Lettering, Clayborn casts a similar spell with an NYC-set romance that’s somehow both utterly magical and absolutely real. We talked to Clayborn about her hand-lettering heroine, why she only wrote from one character’s perspective and why it’s important to fight the right way.

When did you first become aware that being a hand-letterer was an actual job, and what led you to make your latest heroine one?
Well, first I should say, I’ve always been a little fascinated by handwriting and calligraphy, and my mom used to do quite a bit of calligraphy when I was growing up—I remember her addressing wedding invitations and doing some framed quotes for friends of hers. But a few years ago, I started bullet journaling, and anyone who has found their way down that internet rabbit hole knows that there are some amazingly talented people designing gorgeous planners. I keep mine pretty minimal (and tidy!), but I really loved watching people create such beautiful things that served such a practical purpose, and so that’s one of the things that inspired me. And because letters and words mean so much to me personally, something just clicked for me as a writer: What would it be like to tell a story about someone who tried to express herself through the letters and words that she designs, that she makes beautiful?

Extremely important question: What is your favorite font?
You must mean extremely excellent question! So, this answer is going to seem very on the nose for anyone who has read the book, but it’s true. When I’m at my day job, I prefer a sans serif font (I don’t even mind Helvetica!). But when I’m writing, it’s usually one of two serifs—Georgia or sometimes Palatino.

"I don’t know what other people’s experience of creative burnout is, but when I’m stuck it feels so desperately isolating."

When the story starts, Meg is in the middle of a wicked bout of creative burnout. Have you experienced something similar, and do you have any strategies to overcome it?
I certainly have—and I deeply envy any artist who hasn’t! But the truth is, writing about creative block in Love Lettering was really personal, and often very difficult for me. I don’t know what other people’s experience of creative burnout is, but when I’m stuck it really feels so desperately isolating, and of course Meg too experiences isolation in a very particular way at the start of the book. As for overcoming it, I certainly think it helps when I reach out to writer friends who know what it’s like. But also, some really basic stuff that is all too easy to forget when I’m in the thick of a block or burnout: making sure I sleep and eat well/enough, making sure I get outside, making sure I give myself time to read and watch things I love, making sure I spend time with people I love.

Why did you choose to write only from Meg’s perspective, and did that choice change the story at all for you?
This is the first time I’ve written only in one character’s point of view, and it was important to me for two reasons. One, I really wanted the whole book to be focused on how Meg interprets the world, because part of her journey over the course of the story is about how she has often misinterpreted that world, and how she has to learn to see it differently. Letters, words, signs—I wanted to show how Meg’s relationship to these things changes over time, and so I wanted to be deeply in her point of view throughout. Two, it’s really important to the story overall that the reader learns about Reid through Meg—her initial interpretation of him (which she realizes is, again, a misinterpretation), the new ways she learns to “read” him as they spend more time together.

Honestly, it’s a cliché at this point to call a book a love letter to New York City but I’m going to go ahead and do it anyway, since Love Lettering is such a wonderful one. Have you lived in NYC and if so, did you base parts of this on your own history with the city? Or was this aspect of the book based on another city that you love?
I have never lived in New York City, but it’s a place I love a lot. When I first got the idea for this book, I spent a lot of time in the city—walking, walking, walking. And something I realized on those walks is something Meg says to Reid early on in the book—she says signs in New York helped her organize her experience in such a vast, chaotic place. I feel a lot like this when I’m in the city, or really any new place. I’m always looking for a way to move through it with a touchstone in mind. Walking through New York with my eyes up, looking for these old signs, gave me such a new experience of the city. So, yeah, this book is a love letter, because I do feel in love when I’m there. It’s a place that forces me to see my surroundings in a new way.

"Conflict can be really scary for many of us who navigate a world where we’re encouraged to smile, to be nice, to not make too many waves."

Meg learns how to fight the right way over the course of this book, which was an arc that struck me as particularly relevant for a lot of women. When did that thread of the story emerge for you, and did you learn anything about your own approach to conflict through it?
Meg feels really threatened by conflict—arguments to her always feel like they’re going to result in loss or instability. That’s partly because of what you learn about her over the course of the book, but I definitely agree that conflict can be really scary for many of us who navigate a world where we’re encouraged to smile, to be nice, to not make too many waves. I knew I wanted Meg’s creative block to be tied to an emotional block, and the fact that she hides things in her work is a symptom of all the things she struggles to say in her day-to-day life. It was inspiring to write about Meg pushing through this emotional block to become a more honest, courageous fighter—and so yeah, I think I carry a bit of her with me now, always. I try to remember that her emotional honesty made her feel more complete and more creative.

What was the easiest part of this book to write? What was the hardest?
I try to say it loud and often: I think writing is hard, generally! So there were lots of hard parts, but the trickiest bits were where I had to show just enough of Reid while also holding him at a distance from the reader—chapter 11 was particularly challenging in this regard. I love writing scenes where women are interacting with each other, and there’s lots of that in this book. Those were fun, especially scenes in the paperie/stationery shop.

You’re also a NaNoWriMo coach. How would you counsel someone who was considering taking on the NaNoWriMo challenge, but not sure if they could do it or if it was right for them?
One thing I tried to emphasize as a coach was that the notion of “winning” NaNo—getting to 50K—is great, but more importantly, the exercise is great. Getting words down every day teaches you a lot about yourself as a writer, but it also teaches you a lot about your story. Most of the time, I really can’t write every day; I work full time and sometimes have to bring work home with me. But the ethic of NaNo translates really well to all kinds of writing practice, because it’s about establishing routine. I think that’s so valuable, and I’d tell anyone who was thinking about it to give it a try, and to think about it as a really immersive learning experience.

What’s next for you?
I’m working on a new standalone contemporary romance now, something I’m very excited about. I’m hoping we’ll have a blurb for it soon, but it’s early days still!

ALSO IN BOOKPAGE: Read our review of Love Lettering.

Image courtesy of the author.

The days leading up to my interview with romance phenom Lucy Parker are fraught with nerves. Not only have I read and enjoyed all five of her published contemporary romances, but I will be placing a call from the U.S. to New Zealand, many hours ahead. Pretty much every worst-case scenario I can imagine joins a list of possible obstacles that will keep this chat from happening.

It all goes fine, of course. (Pretty fantastic, in fact!) Parker has a soft voice and bubbly demeanor. She is gracious about my praise for her London Celebrities series, which deals with real-life problems but still manages to feel warm and welcoming. When asked what it feels like to publish her fifth romance in five years, “surreal” is the word that immediately comes to her mind. 

“I wanted it to have that fast-paced vibe of old screwball comedies.”

She admits that her first book in the series, Act Like It, was written in a bit of a frenzied blur. “Things happened quite quickly. I sold it . . . quite fast, and even leading up to its release [in 2015], I really had no expectations. I don’t think anyone had,” she says, laughing. 

The London Celebrities series is set amid the U.K. theater and entertainment industry and has thus far featured actors, directors, theater critics and makeup artists as romantic leads. (When asked to pick a favorite book from the series, Parker says, “I love and despise them in equal measure, especially when I’m on a deadline.”) There’s an insular quality to the setting that appeals to Parker, who notes that it very much feels like a “play within a play,” with all the forced proximity and community such a form implies.

The highly anticipated fifth book in the series, Headliners, builds on events from Parker’s previous novel, The Austen Playbook, but with formerly supporting characters—two rival TV presenters—now in the spotlight. After Sabrina Carlton and Nick Davenport both experience career setbacks, they are forced to co-host a struggling morning TV show. If ratings aren’t higher by the end of the year, they could both be out of a job.

ALSO IN BOOKPAGE: Read our review of Headliners.

But working together isn’t easy. Both Sabrina and Nick are used to harder-hitting assignments than showcasing the hottest holiday toy of the year. And without spoiling too much, Nick has a lot of groveling to do to get back into Sabrina’s good graces. 

“[Nick] does begin Headliners with some serious apologies to make and an emotional journey to travel,” Parker says. “It was important to me that he acknowledge that some of his past behavior was wrong and that he is genuinely regretful about that and would never make that mistake again. He does work to win back the trust that he broke.” 

But Nick’s not the only one with issues to address. “Sabrina, too, has to work past some preconceived notions she has about Nick,” Parker says. “Both have known each other for a long time, but neither has seen beneath the public personas they’ve built through their careers. They have to peel away the layers of their professional masks.”

This is one of the many reasons Parker’s romances resonate: Her characters’ communication styles evolve to allow them to truly understand each other. She knows how to bring characters together in ways that show how they complement each other, rather than having them change for the sake of love. The result is a smart, kind, witty romance that is a balm to the soul. 

“I think the book deals with some severe subjects but overall is a positive, feel-good read,” says Parker. “I wanted it to have that fast-paced vibe of old screwball comedies, combined with things that are more affective and romantic.”

There was one element in particular that Parker knew she wanted for Nick and Sabrina, and that was for them to remain childfree. She wanted to push against the idea that “happily ever after” means raising children together.

“They both have children in their lives who they adore, but they have no desire to be parents,” Parker says. “It’s not the path they want in life. I think they will enjoy every moment of their full and happy life together as a nuclear family of two, or three if you count Nick’s dog.” (Parker also doesn’t rule out the possibility of them getting a cat at some point.)

She continues: “There are so many people that either do not want children or are unable to have children. In any forum, whether fictional or otherwise, I don’t think their lives should be considered any less full. A person’s right to happiness isn’t dependent on anyone else, whether it’s a child or a partner. You are a whole and complete person within yourself.” And that’s an absolutely perfect Valentine’s Day affirmation.

Twenty-five books is a milestone that few writers reach, and doing so in little over a decade is nearly superhuman.

The partnership between Lauren “Lo” Billings (pictured above, left) and Christina Hobbs (right) began over fan fiction but quickly transitioned into a whirlwind publishing career under the name Christina Lauren, which both the authors and their fans affectionately abbreviate as CLo. “We didn’t have time to think or do anything besides keep our heads down and write,” Billings says, laughing about those early publishing days. “We were just drinking from the fire hose at that point.” 

A “fugue state” is the best way to describe their original expeditious schedule, which saw them release four novels and two novellas in the span of just 10 months, beginning with Beautiful Bastard in February 2013. Hobbs quips, “If there’s anything I’d tell early CLo, it’s to not eat at your desk. Take care of yourself more.”

The Honey-Don’t List follows a hero and heroine who are roped in to playing mediator for a golden couple of home-renovation reality TV.

This isn’t the first time I’ve talked with CLo. I’ve interviewed them several times and attended a few of their signings. They once even located the house keys I didn’t know I’d lost at a book convention. Billings is the more talkative of the two, while Hobbs interjects with a one-liner or funny aside. Their conversation flows easily, and both take turns acting as either wingwoman or playful provocateur to the other. When I tease Billings about her bemusement at Adam Driver’s heartthrob status, Hobbs is quick to note that she’s indifferent either way but won’t miss a chance to rile Billings up. This push-pull also appears in their books, keeping readers laughing whether it’s between friends, siblings or lovers.

Their latest novel, The Honey-Don’t List, follows a hero and heroine who are roped in to playing mediator for Melissa and Rusty Tripp, a golden couple of home-renovation reality TV whose once loving relationship has totally devolved. Carey Douglas has worked for the Tripps for years, and the downward spiral of their marriage has taken a toll on her. Engineer James McCann was brought on to help with the Tripps’ new show but is quickly pushed into the role of babysitter for the philandering Rusty. Put them all in close quarters during a stressful book tour and show launch, and it’s a powder keg waiting to go off.

ALSO IN BOOKPAGE: Read our starred review of The Honey-Don’t List.

Dedicated fans of the authors’ work may notice a pattern of forced proximity. “We make their worlds stressful and small. . . . It’s like putting them under a microscope,” Billings says, though she insists they “don’t do it by design.” 

But Carey and James were created by design—specifically, the way they complement one another. “When we’re writing romance novels, we want to think about why this person is perfect for this other person,” Billings says. “[James] is really perfect for Carey, and that pairing comes through really clearly. You can see why he is perfect for her.”

CLo wanted to show the layers of Carey’s vulnerabilities, both in inhabiting a toxic workplace and living with dystonia, a movement disorder that affects the muscles. Billings speaks candidly about her experiences with movement disorders, a chronic condition that affected her late father and currently affects her sister. 

“Dystonia was part of Carey’s story from the get-go,” she says. “I think the reason why we put this in the book was not necessarily to shine a light on dystonia, although that will be a nice side effect to have more people aware of it. . . . When I look at my sister, she’s this incredible person who just happens to also have a movement disorder. It doesn’t define her or change the deep romance she has with her husband.  I think sometimes we forget that people are not their illnesses. Dystonia isn’t who Carey is; it’s just part of her day.”

“When we’re writing romance novels, we want to think about why this person is perfect for this other person.”

While the authors establish some things early on, like characterization and setting, their process changes from book to book. It also never gets any easier. “We were outlining our 27th book, and we just had this feeling of, ‘What are we doing?’” Hobbs says. “‘Maybe we should use Post-its and just put them all over the windows. Do you think we need dry erase markers? Oh, my God, we could just write on the windows!’”

Billings adds, “I think that when people ask us how we write together, they expect to hear a bulleted outline of how a book gets done, but we honestly don’t know. We do it a little bit differently every time. Part of that is because we have different things in our lives going on when we start a book, and our process has to be a bit fluid. And part of it is because I think we are 80% idiot, and we just don’t know how to write a book.”

With their 26th book publishing in October (a holiday romance titled In a Holidaze) and their 27th in the editing process, it’s clear that Christina Lauren has plenty more stories left to tell. And despite Billings brushing off their planning process as luck, their partnership is undeniably something special. “We put in just as much time making sure our friendship is strong as we do our business partnership,” Billings says.

“Lo is my best friend and my favorite person in the world, aside from the one I’m married to and the one I gave birth to,” Hobbs says. “We love each other as friends, as much as we love each other as co-authors.” 

When ex-model Katrina King’s coffee shop visit goes viral after two other customers live-tweet her conversation with a cute guy, she flees to her bodyguard Jas Singh’s isolated family home. We talked to author Alisha Rai about mental health, Twitter ethics and her latest romance, Girl Gone Viral.

Girl Gone Viral was partly inspired by the viral #PlaneBae debacle. For readers who are unaware, can you briefly summarize that cringey moment in Twitter history?
It was a situation where two strangers’ conversation was live-tweeted by a third party. It went viral as a “feel good” meet-cute, but not that many users initially seemed to care whether the “couple” had asked for or consented to the whole phenomenon.

Did this second book in your Modern Love series have a different setup before #PlaneBae happened? Did you always want to incorporate the downside of social media fame?
Nope! The premise was always the same. Having a date live-tweeted has long been a fear of mine, so I’ve been wanting to write about this intersection of social media and consent for a while. I think social media has created a world where we see people not as people but as characters for our entertainment, and if someone is a character, I probably won’t feel like they have much of a right to privacy as someone I consider a real live human. As technology grows and expands, I really think it’s important for our society to continue to have conversations about what we owe to each other in terms of privacy and consent and the impact being dragged into the spotlight can have on a person’s life.

You recently had your own personal experience with Twitter fame following a dating faux pas involving a cake pop. (Totally on your side, by the way.) The backlash was toxic enough that, for a period of time, you locked down your Twitter account. Did this affect the book at all? Were there any edits you wanted to make, or was it too late in the game to change anything?
Oh, it was way too late. The only thing I might have changed is that now I feel like maybe I can better understand how panic-inducing it can be to be the focus of all of that attention. Katrina has PTSD and panic disorder and retreated to a farm; I have neither of those, and I was ready to run away to the moon.

“Jas and Katrina’s love story was tough to write, but only because mutual pining is kind of a pain.”

Both Katrina and Jas are living with different types of trauma. What do you think is key to understanding these types of experiences and communicating them to the readers? 
My main goal when I write is for the reader to understand where my characters are coming from, so I do spend a lot of time thinking about what makes them tick. I honestly think the key is to walk into their heads armed with a ton of research—book research, but especially interviews with mental health professionals and people who have dealt with similar trauma—and sensitivity and kindness.

Jas and Katrina’s love story was tough to write, but only because mutual pining is kind of a pain. For me, at least. When the story is hate to love (one of my favorite tropes) you kind of have a natural internal or external conflict, i.e., you have to get over the “hate” bump. Why would two adults who have crushes on each other not be together? (You have to read the book to find out the answer to that.)

One thing I appreciate about your books is the important of mental health, and how your characters navigate struggles in that area. What motivates you to include this in your romances?
I try to write characters who are as realistic as possible, and in reality, people’s brains are wonderfully unique. It’s a part of a person that makes up the whole and if you see a character as a whole person, it’s hard not to be sensitive to them. Plus I love therapy, it’s helped me a lot, and I’m always looking for ways to destigmatize it and mental health care.

You’re my go-to recommendation for people who love a hot, angsty romance. What draws you to those sorts of emotions? Do you ever see yourself flipping the switch and writing a completely fluffy, closed door love story?
Sure, anything could happen. Changing things up is how I keep my writing as fresh as possible. I actually think Girl Gone Viral has a slightly different vibe than even the first book in this series. It’s sweeter, quieter and a little simpler. I don’t know how much of that is the story, the characters or the idyllic peach farm setting.

“Maybe it’s an aspirational universe, but if it is, it’s an achievable one.”

Issues that affect communities of color and especially women of color have played a large part in both this book and The Right Swipe. How do you find that balance of “the world is garbage and unfair and racist” and swoony love?
In the real world, people often have to battle systematic injustices. That doesn’t mean they don’t fall in love. I like to think that my characters make a space for each other to navigate a world that may not have ready spaces for them. They help each other achieve whatever it is they want. Maybe it’s an aspirational universe, but if it is, it’s an achievable one.

What’s next for you? Can I selfishly expect a romance for Lakshmi (Rhiannon’s assistant from The Right Swipe) in the future?
I’d love to write Lakshmi’s book some day! Right now I’m working on my little influencer, Jia, the heroine of book three of the Modern Love series. It’s like a catfish via DMs that works out really well. It’ll make sense when you read it.

I so miss your paranormal/dystopian romances like Hot as Hades and Night Whispers. Will readers see a return to those genres eventually, or should we go ahead and pour one out for those books?
I miss them, too! Someday zombies will be hot again, and I shall return triumphant.

Are there any books you’re reading and loving right now? 
Love Lettering by Kate Clayborn was my most recent five star read. I’m also currently reading and loving Suzanne Park’s Loathe at First Sight, and it’s out in August.

Author photo © Alisha Rai.

Lexi Blake’s work runs the gamut of contemporary romance, from paranormal and suspense to more gently paced small-town stories. Her latest book, Bayou Baby, may be set in the small town of Papillon, Louisiana, but its family secrets, surprise inheritances and forbidden love make it just as thrilling as her previous works. We talked to Blake about her inspirations for Papillon, whose side she would pick in her main couple’s biggest disagreement and the surprising third POV character who unlocked the story for her.

Your work spans a lot of different romance subgenres. What do you like most about writing a small-town romance? Do you find that your writing changes at all when you’re working in this subgenre?
I think small-town romance fits me really well because the strongest theme in my work is about found family, and that’s super easy to do with a small town. I love the idea that the town becomes a character itself. I think I use softer language when writing a small town. Those books have a dreamier quality to them.

"I think every family has an Aunt Irene who just tells it like it is and takes no gruff from anyone."

Most romances tend to stick to the two leads’ perspectives, but Bayou Baby gives us scenes from the perspective of Celeste, Harrison’s aunt. Did you always know that you would tell part of this story from Celeste's point of view? What did that choice open up for you as a writer?
I started writing it without Celeste’s POV. She was a straight-on villain. That’s when I got stuck. When I get blocked, I’ve learned it’s almost always because I’ve skipped a step. In this case that step was Celeste having her say. I think if you don’t get in her head, it’s hard to believe that she could change. Oddly enough, Celeste was the character I felt most while writing the book. She’s gone through a lot and she’s in a fight with her past and her own grief. I think the book is richer for having Celeste’s POV.

Did you come up with more backstory for Seraphina’s great-aunt Irene than readers eventually get in the book? Were there any other hilarious bits about her that didn’t make it into the final edit?
Great Aunt Irene is the old woman I think a lot of us want to become. Maybe with fewer cats. She had a lot of cats, but she lived life on her own terms. I think every family has an Aunt Irene who just tells it like it is and takes no gruff from anyone. I think a lot of her backstory is in the letter that accompanies her will. But I certainly could see Aunt Irene wrestling a couple of gators in her younger days.

The following contains spoilers! Click to show.

Did you base Papillon, Louisiana, on any real-life small towns? Did it have any fictional inspirations?
It’s not based on any particular town, but it was inspired by my best friend’s childhood. She grew up in southeastern Texas, very close to Louisiana, and has such a love for that area. On the fictional front I think Stars Hollow, Connecticut, is always an inspiration. That’s the setting of “Gilmore Girls” for the uninitiated. It’s one of those places you just wish existed. I would absolutely live there.

What books, movies or TV shows have been getting you through the pandemic?
I’ve definitely gone to my favorite authors for comfort. I recently read Rebecca Zanetti’s Disorderly Conduct and loved it. It’s another small-town book. And Jen Armentrout’s new fantasy From Blood and Ash. I’ve watched Eurovision more times than I’m willing to admit and am willing to send stuffed lions to Netflix to get them to do a follow-up for Dan Stephens’s character. I want someone to play “Jaja Ding Dong”! As for TV, I do a lot of binge-watching old favorites right now. I’ve rewatched “Parks and Recreation” and “The Office,” and now we’re working our way through “The Big Bang Theory.”

Is there a trope or setting you haven’t explored yet in your writing that you’d love to use one day?
Oh, so many settings! I love to travel—this year has been rough on me—and I like to spend some time in the places I want to write about. I’ve spent a lot of time in New Orleans, which is probably why I set many books in that part of the country. London and New York are settings I’m super comfy with. I live in Dallas so North Texas is a big setting for me. I had trips planned for Romania and Scotland this year. Both were cancelled for obvious reasons, but I hope to get to go and potentially write about both those places. I’m super excited to announce that all of my books for the foreseeable future will be set in my backyard. I know that sucker like the back of my hand now! Also, the squirrels have real drama.

ALSO IN BOOKPAGE: Read our review of Bayou Baby.

What’s next for you?
I’ve got the last book in The Forgotten series coming up in September, and I’m super excited for that. It’s called No Love Lost and it ties up a bunch of loose ends in my Masters and Mercenaries world and sets up for a new series. In December, I’ve got the third Butterfly Bayou book—Bayou Dreaming. It’s Zep and Roxie’s book and it’s a lot of fun.

Author photo by Annie Ray/Passion Pages.

In their new books, Olivia Dade and Rebekah Weatherspoon take on the celebrity romance, reveling in its fizzy escapism and dissecting the perils of public image in equal measure. Much of the social commentary in Dade’s Spoiler Alert and Weatherspoon’s If the Boot Fits comes from the fact that both of their heroines are fat. Being catapulted into fame due to their famous beaus is thus far more complicated than it would be for a heroine whose body hewed closer to our society’s restrictive beauty standards. BookPage spoke to Dade and Weatherspoon about their literary inspirations, the joys of fan fiction and fighting for fat positivity in romance.

Both Spoiler Alert and If the Boot Fits complicate the celebrity dating a non-famous person trope—April and Amanda are big, beautiful and smart women dating men who are part of an industry that generally neglects or is hostile to those who don’t fit a narrow mold. Can you talk about what inspired you, and how you approached writing a new twist on this familiar story?

Dade: For me, the part of the story I conceived first involved the star of a blockbuster show anonymously writing fan fiction critical of that show and falling in love with his online, also-anonymous BFF. Since I wanted to play out that story as realistically as possible, I couldn’t pair him with another star also writing anonymous fan fiction. One was enough! So I went with a non-famous love interest. The one thing I knew about their dynamic from the beginning: I didn’t want her to be overawed or intimidated by his fame. That lack of fear—that upending of expectations—was part of what made the story fun for me to write, and it also added one less complication to an already-complex story.

Weatherspoon: If the Boot Fits is part of a fairytale retelling trilogy, so a Cinderella story was always a part of the plan. Cinderella, at its core, is a story about a woman who rises out of poverty and neglect to be with a literal prince. Since the Pleasants were already involved in the film industry, Amanda’s role as an assistant seemed obvious. I made her fat because I always include fat characters in my series.

What are some of the books you’ve read that have done the trope of a celebrity dating a non-famous person particularly well in the past?

Dade: When I read this interview question, I looked at my bookshelf for romances that paired celebrities with non-famous love interests, and I didn’t find any. This surprised me, because I instinctively felt as if I’d read that trope many, many times before. Finally, I realized why: old-school historical romances. I grew up reading countless traditional Regencies in which dukes—handsome, wealthy, well-known pillars of the ton—fell in love with spinsters, wallflowers, governesses, bluestockings and lady's companions, many of whom had little or no social standing or wealth of their own. Those stories weren’t about regular people falling in love with celebrities, exactly, but the dynamic wasn’t entirely different, either, and I suspect I unconsciously drew from that deep well when writing Spoiler Alert.

"Writing fan fiction definitely drove me toward the desire to be paid for my words and my time." —Rebekah Weatherspoon

Representation matters. But more than that, the quality and content of that representation matters as well. It’s a particularly fraught and unresolved concept when it comes to body size and image in romance. Have the discussions on this topic within the romance community influenced what you write versus your own personal experience and perspectives?

Weatherspoon: Not really. I’ve always written body diversity in my stories, including weight and will continue to do so.

Dade: Over decades of being both fat and a romance reader, I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about why and how the few depictions of fat characters I was able to find hurt me. Because in most instances, they did hurt me—and once I started writing fat characters myself, I didn't want to replicate that harm. I would say that the way I write fat characters is more influenced by that decadeslong contemplation than by discussion about fat representation within Romancelandia. That said, my convictions have been sharpened by such discussion, and I’ve become more aware of my own shortcomings through the work and words of people like Corey Alexander. I haven’t always gotten my fat repesentation right, in part because I’m still working through my own history of disordered eating, but I hope none of my books currently for sale would hurt readers the way I’ve been hurt in the past. If that’s true, insightful critics of the genre like Corey should get a good chunk of the credit.

What are some of your favorite fat or plus-size characters in fiction?

Weatherspoon: Phyllis Bourne’s Taste for Temptation, If the Dress Fits by Carla de Guzman, Such a Pretty Face by Gabrielle Goldsby, His Until Midnight by Reese Ryan and basically everything by Katrina Jackson. She always includes fat Black women in her romances and those women are having the time of their fat lives.

Both of you also write fan fiction. How did that influence you as writers? Which fandoms have been important to you?

Dade: I’ve read an endless amount of fan fiction in the last year and a half, but I don’t write any. The main fandom I follow and in which I’ve immersed myself is the Jaime Lannister/Brienne of Tarth pairing; it boasts some absolutely spectacular writers. For many of those authors, I would pay good money to buy their work in print, but it’s all free. That still amazes me, to be honest.

Weatherspoon: I mostly wrote Twilight fan fiction. I haven’t dabbled in the drabbles in years though. Writing fan fiction definitely drove me toward the desire to be paid for my words and my time.

Spoiler Alert has been called a love letter to fandom; it goes deep into that world, from fan fiction to cosplay and more. Olivia, what made you want to delve into this topic?

Dade: During that year and a half when I essentially read nothing but Braime fan fiction, the vast creativity of that fandom stunned me—how they take a story and a set of characters and harness their talents and dedication toward that story and those characters to create something entirely new within a cradle of familiarity. They’ve filled in canon with stories that enrich the text and bring greater depth to the characters. They’ve formed online communities bursting with camaraderie and enthusiasm and support. They’ve worked on their craft, and they’ve made each other laugh and cry, and—and they’re incredible. Just incredible.

They love Jaime and Brienne, and that love has bloomed in a million creative ways, for the enjoyment of all. Like any community, there are issues and problems, because of course there are, and I tried to address that too. But their work has brought me such joy, and so Spoiler Alert is a tribute to them. I hope it reads that way.

Olivia, my sources (Twitter) show that you have some things in common with April: 1) You love fanfic; 2) you have a rock collection, and April studies rock formation. Is April’s story a particularly personal one for you? Tell us about her and why you decided to make her a soil scientist/geologist.

Dade: The fandom elements in this book were definitely inspired by my total immersion in Braime fan fiction over the past year and a half. In my previous books, I mostly gave my characters jobs I’d previously held myself (teacher, librarian, etc.). But for Spoiler Alert, I was trying to be more ambitious, as I said, so I gave my main characters professions that would involve much more research on my part. April is a geologist because one of my good friends is a geologist, and I knew my friend would willingly and patiently walk me through what her work entails. I’m sure my love of rocks played a role, but my inherent desire to avoid unnecessary extra work played a larger one.

How does writing for a major traditional publisher differ from writing independently in terms of content or the process? How do you decide what you want to work on independently and which stories you want to tell within the traditional publishing world?

Dade: When conceiving of stories I want to shop to publishers, I try to come up with higher-concept premises featuring more inherent drama or conflict, or ones where the stakes are higher. Otherwise, I have a tendency to tell quieter stories, and those are the ones I usually self-publish. I think readers appreciate both types of books, and they both have a place in our genre, but publishers tend to acquire one and not the other.

Weatherspoon: [It comes down to] bills mostly, they need to be paid and on time. The story depends on the publisher I’m trying to work with. Working independently gives me certain kinds of freedoms, like setting my own release dates, but you take on more pressure because everything is on you, from hiring an editor to scheduling all promo.

Dade: Traditional publishing offers me resources and reach I simply don’t have on my own. Optimally, I’d love to keep publishing both ways, at least for now.

Rebekah, cowboys are a staple of romance, but that niche has been a bit more segregated than some others. What kind of reception have you had for the Cowboys of California series?

Weatherspoon: I am definitely not an author you should be reading if the idea of Black cowboys bothers you, so I haven’t bothered myself with the segregated portions of publishing. I’ve seen a lot of new readers who enjoy cowboy romances pick up A Cowboy to Remember and that’s wonderful.

ALSO IN BOOKPAGE: Read our starred review of If the Boot Fits.

Olivia, you’re juggling multiple types of storytelling and also managing dark and light elements with April and Marcus’ relationship and their pasts in Spoiler Alert. What process did you use to work them out and were there any big changes along the way?

Dade: The interstitials between chapters—where I introduced elements like fan fiction snippets, script excerpts, fandom direct messages, etc., and accordingly varied my writing style, verb tense and so on, depending on the ostensible “author”—were mostly written after the main story was drafted, which I think helped me keep my voice consistent within the actual chapters. I had a blast writing those interstitials, because I got to play the authorial version of dress-up.

Making certain the book remained light enough to be honestly called a rom-com took a little thought. I tried to counterbalance the more serious elements of the story through those interstitials, which provide some straightforward comedy, and also through the secondary characters in the story. Alex (Marcus’s BFF) and the cast chats especially helped in that regard. 

Rebekah, you did quite a bit of research about Black Hollywood for If the Boot Fits. How did that come to play in the story?

Weatherspoon: I worked in film and television production for 10 years, so most of my additional research informed how I crafted the Pleasants’ matriarch, Leona Lovell, who has been in the industry for decades.

Sam and Amanda in If the Boot Fits are coming from pretty different places in their careers. She’s a struggling writer/assistant; he’s a star. She’s middle class, and he’s Hollywood royalty. What makes them work so well?

Weatherspoon: They are both kind, caring people with a similar sense of humor. They like to make each other laugh and they both bloom when they are honest with each other in tough conversations.

A lot of romances focus on found family, but in If the Boot Fits, Sam’s tight-knit biological family plays a central role. Why was that particularly important here? Is there any chance we’ll get to see his grandparents’ love story?

Weatherspoon: When I sold the trilogy, the plan was to write three brothers and not just three friends or co-workers, so the family aspect was built in and I filled out the supporting characters from there. I have no plans to write Miss Leona and Gerald Sr.’s story. If the series continues, Lilah Pleasant would be the next main character.

Olivia, you've made presentations for chapters of RWA and YouTube videos on the subject of fat representation in romance. What are some of your chief concerns?

Dade: My primary concern, always, is that vulnerable readers—who may be struggling with disordered eating or body-image issues—not be hurt. Like it or not, our words have power, and they can both harm and hearten people. Depictions of fatness that equate it with ugliness, greed, laziness or evil cause harm, and so does dehumanizing language (“blubber,” “elephantine,” etc.) used to describe that fatness. An endless parade of self-loathing fat characters, or fat characters determined to lose weight, drives home the same message: If you’re fat, you should feel shame about it. There is something wrong with you, and you should try to fix it. Which isn’t to say that there aren’t evil or self-loathing fat people, or that fat people on diets don’t exist or shouldn’t be in books, but they also shouldn’t be almost the only fat people we see on the page.

Spoiler Alert is more explicit in dealing with the issue of fat shaming in our culture than your previous books. Why was that important to tackle that in this book?

Dade: I chose to make fatness a more critical element in Spoiler Alert, as you say. I did so because, first, fat people have a wide range of experiences. For some, their body size really is a minor part of their lives. For others, though, fatness will inform their experiences in the world in major, unavoidable ways. I wanted at least one of my books to acknowledge the latter group, but in a way that still didn’t harm readers. Hopefully I succeeded. Second, I’ve read too many books where characters were fat-shamed by family members and loved ones, and no pushback against that ever occurred in the story. To me, the implicit message seemed to be: If you want a family and loved ones, you just have to accept that this sort of behavior will happen, however painful it may be. I don’t think that’s necessarily true. In fact, I think that’s a harmful message when repeated often enough.

So one of my goals in Spoiler Alert was to show April setting boundaries on page with a loved one in response to fat-shaming. She doesn’t have to learn to love herself as she is. She already does. What she does need to do is find the courage to say, in service to her own mental health and well-being: “You’re hurting me, and it’s harming our relationship. If you don’t stop, that relationship may not survive.”

ALSO IN BOOKPAGE: Read our starred review of Spoiler Alert.

What’s next for Marcus’ “Gods of the Gates” crew, and for Olivia Dade beyond that?

Dade: My next book for Avon, Slow Burn, features Alex, Marcus’s reckless, loyal, chatty, charming and highly annoying co-star and best friend. In short, he’s a delightful asshole. Because of his perceived misbehavior, the “Gods of the Gates” showrunners have assigned him a minder to keep him out of trouble: Lauren Clegg, who’s serious, steady, working on her BHE (Big Hag Energy) and—according to Alex—“improbably short.” Even apart from her fatness, she’s considered unattractive by conventional beauty standards. And that was important to me—April is fat and gorgeous; Lauren is fat and not-so-gorgeous; both women can and will be loved.

Slow Burn has some of the best dialogue I’ve ever written, and I think—I hope—readers will fall in love with both Lauren and Alex. I certainly did.

Rebekah, what fairy tale are you taking on for Sam’s brother Jesse’s story? And can you talk a little about his love interest?

Weatherspoon: Jesse’s story will be a "Beauty and the Beast" retelling. His love interest is Lily-Grace, a former classmate he hasn’t seen since the eighth grade. She gives him a run for his money.

Talia Hibbert has a finely tuned sense of how to balance social observation and swoon. With Act Your Age, Eve Brown, she outdoes herself with a hilarious slow-burn romance between Eve, a chaotic ray of sunshine, and orderly grump Jacob, both of whom are on the autism spectrum.

The Brown sisters come from a close-knit family and have a lot in common: All three are attractive, witty and smart. What distinguishes Eve from her sisters? What was different about writing from her perspective?
Chloe and Dani Brown are successful, professional women. Their insecurities are mainly social—can they have richer lives, can they deal with romance? They never doubt their ability to take the world by storm in other ways.

Eve, unlike her sisters, did poorly at school, and it’s always made her feel like a failure. Her talents don’t lie in traditionally respected areas, so she feels silly and useless. She questions her worth in every way possible. Of course, she’d never admit that, not even to herself. Her sisters are grumpy and cynical, but Eve keeps things light—because she’s the baby of the family, and because she doesn’t see herself as a “proper adult.” I had to balance her determinedly upbeat attitude with her inner monsters, and that’s a very vulnerable thing to write. 

"He’s the kind of man who will judge you for your choice in curtains but not for your mental health. . ."

Can you tell us a bit about Eve's love interest, Jacob? What draws Eve to him, and why will readers love him?
Jacob is used to being rejected for his differences. He knows people will read him as cold or alien no matter what he does or how he feels, so he’s learned to reject them first. And possibly my favorite thing about him: He refuses to soften. He’s proud. That’s an important shield for someone moving through a world that devalues them—but it bites him in the butt when he meets someone who’s willing to see him as he really is.

He’s also very bitchy and sarcastic as hell, so his perspective was hilarious to write. He’s the kind of man who will judge you for your choice in curtains but not for your mental health, and I think readers will enjoy that. For her part, Eve reluctantly appreciates his humor. Even when they clash, she likes his rigidity because it’s true to who he is. So she kind of admires him against her will.

ALSO IN BOOKPAGE: Read our starred review of Act Your Age, Eve Brown.

If you think about it, Eve and Jacob are the embodiment of chaos and order. What brings Eve and Jacob together, and what makes them work?
Jacob is uncompromising because he’s very high-strung. His thoughts won’t slow down. He notices everything. He physically cannot stop caring. Eve, on the other hand, knows how to be flexible, how to relax, how to forgive. That makes her someone Jacob can learn from, and at the same time, she learns how to stand up for herself by watching him refuse to bend. 

But beneath those differences, they’re actually quite similar. They’re both respectful and sensitive where it matters; they’ll piss each other off, but they won’t cross certain lines. They both try really hard at everything they do. They both know the value of a home and a family, even if they learned those values in very different ways. 

Most of all, they fascinate each other. Eve could never be as subtly cutting as Jacob. Jacob doesn’t know how Eve can bear to be so bold. Neither of them can look away.

There’s an interesting duality between Eve’s confidence and her awareness that the world doesn’t value her as she does herself. As a fat, dark-skinned Black woman, Eve doesn’t fit society’s preconceptions about beauty and was pigeonholed in villainous or comedic side-character roles when she attended a performing arts school. Why did you choose to confront these issues more directly than you have in other books?
The Brown sisters have a really loving, supportive family, so they’ve been raised in this microenvironment of absolute acceptance. (Also, they have a lot of money, which helps.) But obviously, they also live in the real world, so they’re very aware of all the ways they’re marginalized. Chloe and Dani find it relatively easy to ignore because, whenever they’re hurting, they can remember that loving world they have back home. It’s like a thin layer of insulation that makes all the difference. But Eve doesn’t have the same experience of home that they do. She knows her family loves her, but she also knows that she confuses and exasperates and sometimes disappoints them. Her insulation has holes. 

On top of that, her life goals were, at one point, built around an industry that’s very image-conscious. When I was a kid, I was involved in performing arts, and they will tell you to your face, “You’re too fat for this, you’re too ugly for that.” So Eve’s hyperaware of how she’s perceived in a way her sisters aren’t. It makes sense that she’d think and talk about those issues more directly.

You’ve been open about the fact that, like Eve and Jacob, you are on the autism spectrum, but you’re representing different variations and aspects of autism with these two characters. Did you prepare in any special way to write this book?
Alongside my own experience of ASD, most of my friends are autistic or they have ADHD. (I personally believe there’s a lot of overlap.) And then there’s the fact that my mother is a teacher who specializes in behavioral needs. So when I was preparing to write this book and I was mentally building these characters, I sat down and wrote everything I already knew about being autistic and about the ways autistic people are treated. Then I tried to ask myself questions that kind of . . . exposed the things I didn’t know, the things I’d never had to think about.

After that, I spoke with my friends about the characters. It was great getting insight from other people, because I knew I wanted my main characters to be different from each other—or rather, to experience autism differently. And once the book was done, I worked with a sensitivity reader, too. Because like I said, autism is different for everyone, and I’d written characters who weren’t necessarily like me, so I wanted to make sure I wasn’t being a dick about it.

"The characters don’t instantly understand each other just because they’re both autistic. They do have similarities, but they have to discover those similarities the same way they’d discover anything else about each other."

More broadly, are there any particular considerations—good, bad or neutral—that are unique to telling a romance between two characters on the spectrum?
I think my autism informs everything I write. It takes genuine effort to write characters who don’t come off as autistic. My first explicitly autistic character was Ruth in A Girl Like Her, but actually, Ruth’s entire family has ASD—she’s just the only one who’s diagnosed. The characters don’t know that; I know that. (Then I got comments from autistic readers asking if that was the case, which made me very happy.) It’s kind of the same thing with the Brown Sisters series.

This book is the first time I’ve written both leads as autistic, and it was very satisfying because it’s a pairing that makes sense to me. It also reflects the relationship I’m in personally. However, I don’t think it was necessarily a unique romance writing experience. The characters don’t instantly understand each other just because they’re both autistic. They do have similarities, but they have to discover those similarities the same way they’d discover anything else about each other.

The one thing I’d say was unique was writing their similar experience of the world. They’re not treated the same: Jacob is a white man with a diagnosis, while Eve is a Black woman, and that’s a large part of why she isn’t diagnosed. That’s also why Eve has been forced to mask more and is better at socially masking than Jacob. 

But they both have this feeling of being out of step, of being purposefully misunderstood (it does feel purposeful, even if it’s not!) and of consistently misunderstanding. That experience has shaped them in different ways, and it was fun to show those different ways while acknowledging they shared a root.

How do the books you want to read differ from the books you want to write? Or is there no difference for you?
It’s 50-50. I do try to write the kinds of books I love to read. Warm and funny and hot, that’s my goal, so I feel inspired when I read authors like Danielle Allen or Mia Sosa. But I also enjoy super complicated stories with very high stakes. I love mysteries like the ones K.J. Charles weaves into her books, or adventures like the ones in a lot of Beverly Jenkins’ novels. 

With “Virgin River” and “Bridgerton” on Netflix, there’s been a lot of buzz about taking romance from the page to the screen. Is there a novel or series of yours that you’d most like to see adapted?
I think the Brown Sisters series would work very well on screen because they’re so . . .  rom-com-y, for want of a better word. The Princess Trap would probably make a good adaptation, too. There’s a fake engagement and an evil royal family and so on. Very soapy. (I love soapy.) 

ALSO IN BOOKPAGE: Act Your Age, Eve Brown is great on audiobook! Narrator Ione Butler goes straight for the heart but never loses the humor.

Did the COVID-19 pandemic change your reading habits? What were some of the books that helped get you through this incredibly challenging year?
Before the pandemic, I would read whenever I had free time and a good book. These days, I read in gluts of please-help-me-escape desperation, interspersed with lengthy periods of listless, bookless apathy. I’m also much slower now, and I struggle to remember what I’ve read. But I definitely remember Courtney Milan’s The Duke Who Didn’t, which came out last year. It was a cozy historical rom-com delight, and I felt like it woke me up. 

Get a Life, Chloe Brown was many readers’ first introduction to your writing, but you have a whole body of work you self-published. How does this work compare to the Brown Sisters trilogy, and where do you recommend readers start who want to dive into your backlist?
The Brown Sisters series was the first time I consciously set out to write a rom-com, so I suppose the main difference is that my other books aren’t as hooky or light. There’s still a ton of banter and sarcasm, but the stories don’t have those classic rom-com tropes. They do, however, have tons of classic romance tropes, like friends-to-lovers or only-one-bed. They also have a lot of mental health representation, a lot of family dynamics and a lot of sex. For readers who like more domestic, cozy stories, I would recommend starting with the Ravenswood series. For readers who like a bit more angst, try Work for It. 

Author photo by Ed Chappell UK.