The author’s latest, Confounding Oaths, comes complete with an evil fairy godmother, plus sweet new releases from Emma R. Alban and Katie Shepard in this month’s romance column.
The author’s latest, Confounding Oaths, comes complete with an evil fairy godmother, plus sweet new releases from Emma R. Alban and Katie Shepard in this month’s romance column.
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Author Uzma Jalaluddin returns with another classic love story retelling set in Toronto’s Muslim community. While her last romance took inspiration from ’90s rom-com classic You’ve Got Mail, Much Ado About Nada offers a contemporary twist on Jane Austen’s Persuasion.
Nada Syed feels blocked, both professionally and personally. She had high hopes for her app Ask Apa, which would have offered users culturally sensitive advice. But after being betrayed by a business partner, she finds herself working an engineering job that stifles her creativity and desire to do good. With her 30th birthday on the horizon, she’s questioning all the decisions that have led to her being single, living with her parents and failing to become the successful tech CEO she’s always dreamed of being.
Haleema, Nada’s best friend, thinks attending Deen&Dunya, a Muslim conference full of fandom and fun, will help Nada get out of her rut. Haleema’s fiancé, Zayn, and his brother, Baz, are joining them, but unbeknownst to Haleema, Nada and Baz have a long and tumultuous history. Despite being thrown together for the duration of the conference, both Nada and Baz want to keep their complicated feelings for each other a secret.
Jalaluddin has a real talent for crafting protagonists, and Nada is just as complex and enjoyable as the heroines of Ayesha at Last and Hana Khan Carries On. Nada faces all the unfair societal and familial pressures that can weigh on women as they enter their 30s, and her feeling of a giant clock ticking away her remaining time to accomplish goals will hit home for a lot of readers. Jalaluddin adds depth and specificity to this experience by showing how these pressures manifest in Nada’s Muslim community and family.
Nada and Baz’s cheeky romance is the perfect balance to Much Ado About Nada’s social commentary. Their interactions sizzle with sexual tension as they dance around each other, and their adorable mutual attraction is charmingly obvious to everyone but them. Baz and Nada’s eventual union is a sure thing from the moment they reunite, but it’s still a delight to see them get there in their own time.
One of the best things about Jalaluddin’s work is the sheer amount of joy she brings to her characters, her writing and her happily ever afters. She clearly delights in reinventing known classics, using beloved heroines as a foundation to create modern women who don’t want or need to sacrifice their ambitions for other parts of their lives. With Much Ado About Nada, Jalaluddin has written yet another winner—and this time it’s one with a particularly heartwarming, tender and feminist resolution.
Uzma Jalaluddin’s Much Ado About Nada is a heartwarming, tender and utterly winning adaptation of Jane Austen’s Persuasion.
Funny You Should Askauthor Elissa Sussman returns with another second-chance celebrity romance, Once More With Feeling. It’s an angsty enemies-to-lovers tale about former teen pop idols who blame each other for the implosion of their careers.
Told in dual timelines, just like Funny You Should Ask, the story rotates between the pop star heyday and later, more dignified Broadway periods of Kathleen Rosenberg and Cal Kirby. Cal was once a member of America’s hottest boy band, CrushZone, and Kathleen was Katee Rose, a dazzling pop superstar. They were glittery gods at the top of their field, until they had a one-night stand that changed the trajectory of their lives. More than a decade later, Kathleen has found comfort in the relative obscurity of New York City, but she can’t turn down the opportunity to star in a show directed by Cal, who traded stadium tours for a life backstage.
Most people face first loves, cheating and breakups at some point, but only a small cadre of people have to deal with them as publicly as Cal and Kathleen did, and Sussman cleverly shows how news cycles and the glare of the spotlight amplified their experiences. Kathleen wears her anger about her fall from grace like a shroud, and the story and romance resolve before she can really get out of her own way. Her willingness to mire in self-pity may test the patience of some readers. However, Kathleen and Cal’s evolution as a couple is refreshingly complex. The chemistry that has always bubbled under the surface during their interactions is more present than ever when they’re reunited, but they’re older and have even more at stake now. This is a story of reckoning, of revisiting the mistakes and knee-jerk reactions of youth and facing them with the help of time and maturity.
Elissa Sussman returns with another dual timeline celebrity romance that explores the pressure cooker of fame and the gift of growing older and wise.
Cat Sebastian’s We Could Be So Good is a sweet workplace romance that follows two men who work at a newspaper in late 1950s New York City. It reads like a love letter to the queer pulp novels of the era, but with an infusion of hope not often seen in literature about the time period.
Nick Russo is a gruff, working-class journalist from Brooklyn who has worked his way up the ladder to become a lead journalist for The Chronicle. Charmingly naive Andy Fleming is the begrudging heir to his family media empire and Nick’s future boss. Nick is prepared to hate Andy, who he sees as a pretty boy who has had everything handed to him, but that’s easier said than done. During their first encounter, Nick finds Andy literally stuck—his tie jammed in a filing cabinet. Andy’s lovable mess charms the grumpy journalist, and soon Nick is helping Andy with small, everyday tasks like keeping track of keys as well as bigger issues like navigating the politics of the paper. Nick, who has long known he is gay, is content to merely pine for his hapless friend. But then Andy begins to question his own feelings for Nick and whether they could be more than platonic.
We Could Be So Good takes place in the oft-romanticized late 1950s, which are a particularly fascinating and high-stakes backdrop for a queer historical romance. It would be easy to fill both men with shame and self-loathing, given the threats to their safety. And yet this book is filled with so much hope. The queer scene was beginning to blossom in this era, with pulp novels acting like a road map for the LGBTQ+ community. Nick and Andy read these books, and Sebastian incorporates plot devices and tropes from them into her work. However, instead of the shame and violence that often accompanied contemporary 1950s narratives, Sebastian gives Nick and Andy a safe space to explore their sexuality. They even experience some (albeit minor) degree of acceptance from their families. These refreshing choices prevent the story from being bogged down by the toxicity of the time period, allowing the reader to experience queer optimism if not outright joy.
With We Could Be So Good, Sebastian adds a tender, heartening stunner of a love story to her already-impressive body of work.
Cat Sebastian’s midcentury romance is a tender, heartening stunner of a love story.
Romance blooms on reality TV in Christina Lauren’s The True Love Experiment. Celebrated romance author Felicity “Fizzy” Chen is struggling with writer’s block, worrying about whether she’ll ever find love and going through a sexual drought. When she receives an offer to star on the titular dating show, she agrees, hoping to use the program as a way to present her work in a positive light. Producer Connor Prince usually makes short nature docuseries but bows to pressure from his boss to make something more profitable. Cue Fizzy and Connor trying to ignore their immediate attraction; he’s cast eight other guys for her to date, after all. Fizzy is funny, fast-talking and brash, while Connor is a half-Brit single dad whose staid side is overcome by Fizzy’s insistence that they prioritize joy. A delicious, drawn-out happy ending caps this delightful, heartwarming and sex-positive story.
The Duchess Takes a Husband
A bargain for bedsport lessons takes center stage in Harper St. George’s The Duchess Takes a Husband, in which a Gilded Age widow seizes control of her life. Camille, an American heiress who married into the British aristocracy, suffered during her marriage to her abusive husband and was never fully accepted in London society. But now that her husband has died, she’s free to pursue her attraction to Jacob Thorne, co-owner of the infamous Montague Club. He needs a fake fiancée for business reasons, and Camille will play the part if he helps her figure out whether she can enjoy sex. Soon, Jacob discovers he wants to please Camille in all things, encouraging her to assert herself in the bedroom and to explore her burgeoning interest in the women’s suffrage movement. This swoonworthy romance is filled with yearning, tender sensuality and heated love scenes that set fire to the page. The glimpses of the suffrage movement are fascinating, and Camille’s growth is especially gratifying.
The Viscount Who Vexed Me
Julia London tugs at the heart with her new Victorian romance, The Viscount Who Vexed Me. Harriet “Hattie” Woodchurch may have friends among the ton, but she doesn’t have a fortune of her own. She takes a position as secretary to the new Viscount Abbott, Mateo Vincente, who is also the duke of the fictional country of Santiava. Hattie knows he’s above her, but she can’t stifle her attraction to the reserved, quiet gentleman. For his part, Mateo finds himself most comfortable with his down-to-earth scribe, even as pressure grows for him to choose an aristocratic wife. Hattie’s resolve to earn her independence and Mateo’s unconventional interests (he bakes!) make the pair easy to root for as their mutual longing grows. A colorful cast of characters, including frenemies, wicked little brothers and a determined matchmaker, adds to the pleasures of this entertaining tale.
Christina Lauren returns! Plus, catch two heartwarming historical romances that will utterly charm you in this month’s romance column.
Our top picks for June include the latest from S.A. Cosby, Dominic Smith and Uzma Jalaluddin, plus the first major biography of Martin Luther King Jr. in decades.
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Geena Rocero was a trans pageant queen in the Philippines who became a successful model in the United States. As you’d expect, her life story is a completely engrossing whirlwind.
Humorist Harrison Scott Key’s memoir of the fallout following his wife’s affair offers plentiful food for thought about faith, humor, courage and love.
Lisa See’s spellbinding historical novel, inspired by the true story of a female physician, vividly depicts 15th-century China with artfully woven details, rich characters and descriptive language.
With Return to Valetto, Dominic Smith doesn’t reinvent the wheel, but he doesn’t need to: He is a master of his trade who has executed a flawless novel that satisfies on all counts.
Whether you need a gift for an old friend, or a bedtime story for a little one who loves to watch the night sky, Comet & Star is the perfect choice. Just like Halley’s Comet, books with this unique magic don’t stop by every day.
Our top picks for June include the latest from S.A. Cosby, Dominic Smith and Uzma Jalaluddin, plus the first major biography of Martin Luther King Jr. in decades.
A Love Catastrophe is a delightfully heartfelt rom-com with much ado about cats (and some ado about dogs).
Newly hired NHL data analyst Miles Thorn has his hands full. His mother is in the hospital, and her cat, Prince Francis, is acting up. Enter the indomitable Kitty Hart, aka the Kitty Whisperer, the optimistic owner of a cat care and training service with a robust social media following. Although Kitty is irked by dog lover Miles’ scornful attitude toward cats, she still finds him quite fetching. And although Miles is a bit bewildered by Kitty’s boundless devotion to and adoration of the felines she works with, he still wishes he hadn’t been so rude when he first met her. As Miles and Kitty attempt to overcome a bad first impression and curb Prince Francis’ destructive behavior, will Kitty’s charms work on Miles as well as the cat?
Author Helena Hunting amusingly sets up the initial division between the sunny Kitty and the overwhelmed and grumpy Miles. He’s not quite in the territory of misanthropes like Fredrik Backman’s Ove; rather, Miles is understandably (and often charmingly) cranky due to his circumstances. Kitty’s sunny and loving disposition, even when she is strict with naughty cats, makes her immediately likable, while Miles’ attempts to be less aggravated by his mother and Prince Francis are endearing.
While there are plentiful cute moments between Miles and Kitty, especially in their disagreements about their preferred species, both are also working through complex family relationships and painful past experiences. Hunting perfectly balances levity and heartwarming sincerity to create a purr-fectly sweet, uplifting and playful romance.
A Love Catastrophe is a purr-fectly sweet romance between a sunny catsitter and a grumpy data analyst.
Author Uzma Jalaluddin returns with another classic love story retelling set in Toronto’s Muslim community. While her last romance took inspiration from ’90s rom-com classic You’ve Got Mail, Much Ado About Nada offers a contemporary twist on Jane Austen’s Persuasion.
Nada Syed feels blocked, both professionally and personally. She had high hopes for her app Ask Apa, which would have offered users culturally sensitive advice. But after being betrayed by a business partner, she finds herself working an engineering job that stifles her creativity and desire to do good. With her 30th birthday on the horizon, she’s questioning all the decisions that have led to her being single, living with her parents and failing to become the successful tech CEO she’s always dreamed of being.
Haleema, Nada’s best friend, thinks attending Deen&Dunya, a Muslim conference full of fandom and fun, will help Nada get out of her rut. Haleema’s fiancé, Zayn, and his brother, Baz, are joining them, but unbeknownst to Haleema, Nada and Baz have a long and tumultuous history. Despite being thrown together for the duration of the conference, both Nada and Baz want to keep their complicated feelings for each other a secret.
Jalaluddin has a real talent for crafting protagonists, and Nada is just as complex and enjoyable as the heroines of Ayesha at Last and Hana Khan Carries On. Nada faces all the unfair societal and familial pressures that can weigh on women as they enter their 30s, and her feeling of a giant clock ticking away her remaining time to accomplish goals will hit home for a lot of readers. Jalaluddin adds depth and specificity to this experience by showing how these pressures manifest in Nada’s Muslim community and family.
Nada and Baz’s cheeky romance is the perfect balance to Much Ado About Nada’s social commentary. Their interactions sizzle with sexual tension as they dance around each other, and their adorable mutual attraction is charmingly obvious to everyone but them. Baz and Nada’s eventual union is a sure thing from the moment they reunite, but it’s still a delight to see them get there in their own time.
One of the best things about Jalaluddin’s work is the sheer amount of joy she brings to her characters, her writing and her happily ever afters. She clearly delights in reinventing known classics, using beloved heroines as a foundation to create modern women who don’t want or need to sacrifice their ambitions for other parts of their lives. With Much Ado About Nada, Jalaluddin has written yet another winner—and this time it’s one with a particularly heartwarming, tender and feminist resolution.
Uzma Jalaluddin’s Much Ado About Nada is a heartwarming, tender and utterly winning adaptation of Jane Austen’s Persuasion.
Aisha Harris, co-host of NPR’s “Pop Culture Happy Hour” and a writer for Slate and The New York Times, is the pop culture maven millennials have been waiting for. That’s why her debut book, Wannabe: Reckonings With the Pop Culture That Shapes Me, will be flying off the shelves faster than Taylor Swift presale tickets. Part pop culture analysis, part social commentary, and completely and intrinsically personal, Wannabe tackles topics both internal and external. At the forefront are societal issues such as positive representation versus harmful stereotypes in media. Harris’ identity as a Black woman also shapes the narrative as she deftly explores the intersection of pop culture and politics, noting how our political climate changes the way we tell stories.
This book will appeal to readers wishing to go beyond the consumption of media for entertainment’s sake by helping them engage in a socially conscious dialogue. But despite its intellectual value, Wannabe isn’t written for academics. Harris’ audience is anyone who wishes to broaden their understanding of pop culture’s significance to society, and the accessibility of her writing helps to achieve that goal. The humor incorporated throughout the book is truly a delight, and each chapter is chock full of so many witty asides that Harris, were she a television writer, could be the new Amy Sherman-Palladino.
But the book truly shines when it offers us a peek inside Harris’ psyche, providing examples of specific artists, actors and authors who have impacted her life. From unlikely childhood heroines such as tomboy Kristy from The Baby-Sitters Club and loyal punk Ashley Spinelli from the cartoon “Recess,” to the incredible impact of the MTV and VH1 R&B era (looking at you, Toni Braxton), Harris explores how her younger self gravitated toward subversive female icons who redefined the meanings of femininity and strength. As the years passed, other content challenged Harris’ views of womanhood and sexuality, from the sensual Nola Darling in She’s Gotta Have It to the four iconic women who defined a sex-positive generation in “Sex and the City.” Harris also analyzes present-day pop culture, from flawed female leads in TV shows like “Fleabag,” “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend” and “Insecure” to pop stars like Rihanna and Megan Thee Stallion who are unapologetically sensual, commanding and fun. When Harris applies her refined, journalistic scrutiny to subjective nostalgia, the behind-the-scenes magic of Wannabe becomes truly clear.
So in conclusion—taps mic—Imma let y’all finish, but this book is the best pop culture guide of all time!
When Aisha Harris applies her journalistic scrutiny to the subversive pop culture icons who shaped her millennial upbringing and worldview, the magic of Wannabe comes alive.
Over the course of his career, Dominic Smith has demonstrated that his favorite playground as a writer is the past. With his sixth novel, Return to Valetto, Smith doesn’t break from his successful formula but instead perfects what he did so well with his award-winning 2016 book, The Last Painting of Sara de Vos, delivering a charming and captivating multigenerational family drama that beautifully blends the past with the present.
Smith whisks readers away to Valetto, Italy: a fictional, crumbling town that floats like an island in the clouds among the rolling hills of the Umbrian countryside. Although the setting sounds like something out of a fairy tale, Valetto has been in steady decline, with earthquakes and other natural disasters having driven away most of its inhabitants.
Hugh Fisher spent most of his childhood summers in Valetto, but when he returns decades later (now a historian and a grieving widower) to visit his aunts and celebrate his grandmother’s 100th birthday, the town has but 10 permanent residents—plus one unexpected new addition. The stone cottage that Hugh’s late mother bequeathed him has been claimed by an inscrutable woman named Elisa Tomassi, who insists that Hugh’s grandfather promised her family the cottage as a show of gratitude for sheltering him while he fought in World War II. As Hugh attempts to validate Elisa’s claims, his forays into the past uncover a terrible secret involving both his and Elisa’s mothers. It’s a bombshell that, once detonated, reverberates across generations and will have consequences that are felt far beyond the walls of Valetto.
With Return to Valetto, Smith doesn’t reinvent the wheel, but he doesn’t need to: He is a master of his trade who has executed a flawless novel that satisfies on all counts. The writing is both accessible and evocative, the pace leisurely yet suspenseful, the characters and plot are intriguing, and the themes of grief, generational trauma and resilience are well considered. Smith has the authorial confidence to resist the urge to overcomplicate his novel, delivering a straightforward narrative with a nostalgic tone and classic style that cleverly match the subject material and setting. The result is a richly rewarding book that is imbued with a sense of timelessness. It’s an outright pleasure to read, an excellent choice for both armchair travelers looking to vicariously experience Italy’s dolce vita, and for lovers of impeccably crafted literary fiction.
With Return to Valetto, Dominic Smith doesn’t reinvent the wheel, but he doesn’t need to: He is a master of his trade who has executed a flawless novel that satisfies on all counts.
Starting with its title, My Murder, Katie Williams sets up her second novel after Tell the Machine Goodnight with a handful of classic crime fiction questions: Whose murder? And who knows what? But readers will discover a subversive twist within.
Lou, the young mother and wife who narrates the novel, is back from the dead. As part of a government project, she and other victims of a serial killer have been resurrected with cloning technology and placed back into their homes, marriages and jobs. Yet things don’t quite fit for Lou: She can’t remember the days surrounding her murder, can’t connect with her child in the same way and feels distant from her husband. Lou’s confusion and curiosity guide the reader’s experience; she’s figuring things out just as we are, and the revelations of certain details, intentionally paced by Williams, are fresh and surprising. As Lou investigates unexplained moments from her previous life, it’s apparent that she won’t find peace until she makes some sense of them.
My Murder engages with a violent subject without gore, and probes how technology infuses our days and engages our attention, often without our awareness. The plot is certainly rich and appealing, but Williams’ layered considerations are even more compelling and yet never heavy-handed. What happened to Lou? Is she who she was? What makes humans who they are, and how does technology impact these definitions? With a singular voice and a winning narrative that will stay with you for days, My Murder speaks to the construction of the self and the filters we apply. It’s about what it means to survive, to be reborn and, ultimately, to live.
With a singular voice and a winning narrative that will stay with you for days, My Murder speaks to the construction of the self.
Ice might not be the first thing that comes to mind when you think of coveted “luxury” goods. In fact, many Americans take ice for granted as a now-ubiquitous product that is dispensed out of their refrigerators and can be purchased in bags from nearly every grocery store, convenience store and gas station.
But as Amy Brady (co-editor of The World as We Knew It) explains in her new book, Ice: From Mixed Drinks to Skating Rinks—a Cool History of a Hot Commodity, ice has indeed been a very “hot commodity” throughout history. Flash forward to today on our rapidly warming planet, and ice is in even higher demand. This paradox was not lost on Brady. As she writes, “The irony lay in the fact that I was driven to seek out and consume ice because of a phenomenon that’s eliminating ice on the planet.”
Brady found ice to be an untapped subject and did enormous amounts of research to fill in the gaps in its history. Divided into four parts that each focuses on an aspect of ice—obsession, food and drink, ice sports, and the future—Ice outlines how frozen water “profoundly has shaped the nation’s history and culture.” Commentary from food writers, scientists, physicians and historians are interspersed with historic resources such as newspaper articles, diaries and journals, creating unique connections between the past and present.
Historical facts and statistics help contextualize the important role ice has played in events like Prohibition, when breweries pivoted to other business ventures that would make use of their existing ice cellars. (Yuengling opened a dairy, Anheuser-Busch made infant formula and Pabst sold cheese.) Another especially interesting chapter covers ice’s use as a medical treatment for injuries, chronic ailments and even cancer. Throughout the book, Brady uses timelines to help illustrate the trajectory of ice’s journey from an amenity to an everyday item, emphasizing how quickly it became mainstream. Taken all together, Ice makes an important case for securing the future of those freezing cold cubes in a warming world.
Amy Brady uses commentary from food writers, scientists and physicians to illuminate how something as commonplace as ice came to shape America’s history and culture.
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Historical romances ventured to new and exciting locales, rom-coms came ever so slightly down to earth and Emily Henry still reigns supreme. These are the best love stories of the year so far.
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Historical romances ventured to new and exciting locales, rom-coms came ever so slightly down to earth and Emily Henry still reigns supreme. These are the best love stories of the year so far.
Former Army brat Morgan Albright has finally planted roots in a friendly neighborhood near Baltimore. Her friend and roommate Nina helps her make the mortgage payments, as does Morgan’s job as a bartender. But after she and Nina host their first dinner party—attended by Luke, the flirtatious IT guy who’d been chatting her up at the bar—her carefully built world is shattered. The back door glass is broken, cash and jewelry are missing, her car is gone, and Nina lies dead on the floor.
Soon, a horrific truth emerges: It was Morgan who let the monster in. “Luke” is actually a cold-hearted con artist named Gavin who targets a particular type of woman, steals her assets and identity, and then commits his ultimate goal: murder.
What the FBI tells Morgan is beyond chilling. Nina wasn’t his type. Morgan is. Nina was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. And Morgan’s nightmare is just beginning. Soon she has no choice but to flee to her mother’s home in Vermont. While she struggles to build something new, she meets another man, Miles Jameson. He isn’t flashy or flirtatious, and his family business has deep roots in town. But Gavin is still out there hunting new victims, and he hasn’t forgotten the one who got away.
The #1 bestselling author's terrifying new thriller about one man's ice-cold malice, and one woman's fight to reclaim her life.
When ghostwriter Chandler Cohen has a wildly disappointing one-night stand with actor Finn Walsh, she chalks it up to the perils of casual sex and moves on. But then she finds out that Finn is her new client—and he’d really appreciate it if, when they’re not working on his book, she taught him how to satisfy a woman properly.
Sex in romance novels is often idealized and aspirational, but you absolutely turn that on its head in this book! What made you want to create a handsome, charming, appealing hero who’s genuinely awful at sex? I love subverting tropes whenever I can, and while I adore romance novels, the sex can sometimes feel a bit airbrushed. Don’t get me wrong, sometimes that’s exactly what I want to read. Other times, though, I’m eager to see more varied, more realistic sexual experiences on the page—and those can absolutely still be hot. I would argue that sometimes they’re even hotter.
There’s a reason I only ever write beta heroes: I love the awkwardness and fumbling and blushing. It’s far sexier to me to read (and write) a spicy scene between two people working together to learn what each other likes, especially because this lends itself to significant character and relationship growth. Communication is crucial in these scenes, and when the sex is bad, there needs to be a lot of communication to make it better. That journey makes the end result all the more satisfying.
With Finn, I wanted to challenge myself: Could I redeem a hero who’s bad in bed? Would readers still root for that character? (I hope so! He’s quite sincere about wanting to improve, and he is a very good listener.) That’s also why I made his most famous role a nerdy scientist type who wasn’t the main character of his show: I didn’t want him to be typical leading man material.
“There’s a reason I only ever write beta heroes: I love the awkwardness and fumbling and blushing.”
I was intrigued by the comparison Finn made between ghostwriting and acting—how both are a chance to escape from your own story for a little while and live in someone else’s. Is that something you enjoy as an author? It’s truly my favorite thing, and it’s why I studied journalism. I am so curious about people, and journalism gave me a noncreepy way to ask them questions about themselves. In all seriousness, though, it’s such a privilege to get to learn about what someone loves and then to try and bring that passion to the page.
As you note in Business or Pleasure, there are countless different ways to approach writing a memoir. Did you read a lot of them for research? Do you have any particular favorites? I’ve read plenty of celebrity memoirs over the years, so in a way, I was researching before I started writing! I also spoke to a few ghostwriters about their experiences, which helped me add more depth as I was drafting. I will admit that the first memoir I read post-Business or Pleasure happened to be Prince Harry’s Spare. I found myself trying to determine which turns of phrase might have been massaged by the ghostwriter and which ones might have been exactly as the subject had spoken them. That was the first book where I felt I could really see the ghostwriter.
As for favorites, Mara Wilson’s Where Am I Now? really struck a chord with me. I also loved both of Mindy Kaling’s books and Judy Greer’s I Don’t Know What You Know Me From.
Outlines and planning of all sorts are very important to Chandler. Is that a trait you share? What did that add to her character for you? Perhaps to my own detriment at times, but yes! My process usually begins with some character work, learning their backstories and what brought them to the places they’re at when the book opens. Then I outline. I recently started using Gwen Hayes’ Romancing the Beat and can’t believe it took me this long to pick it up. Total game changer.
The outlines Chandler uses were my editor’s idea. In my first draft, Chandler’s sex-ed instruction was interwoven with the “practical” portion of her lessons, and it messed with the flow of the intimate scenes—they’d be getting into it, and she’d pause to give him a lecture on anatomy. The outline suggestion was great because it speaks to how Chandler is a planner who’s spent years chaining herself to a career that isn’t giving her what she needs. She takes the job with Finn in hopes of getting out of a professional rut, and it wrecks her plans in the best possible way.
“My characters don’t love each other in spite of whatever else they happen to be dealing with. They simply love each other, full stop.”
In Chandler’s lessons with Finn, she talks about how movies and TV tend to focus on the male gaze. It could be said that heterosexual romance tends to focus on the female gaze. Do you agree? I agree to an extent, yes. But I think this can get tricky because the male gaze so often sexualizes women, and just as I’m not interested in media featuring women as sex objects, I never want to write men as sex objects either. That’s not progress. While my books center women’s desires because I’m mainly writing from a single point of view, my heroes’ desires are still present, and my hope is that these relationships feel healthy and balanced.
The Lord of the Rings books were deeply formative for Finn. Was there a series like that for you? One you connected with as a child or a teen that still holds a lot of resonance? Yes, absolutely! The Princess Diaries books were my comfort reads, and they always feel like slipping back into conversation with an old friend. I have distinct memories of sitting in an aisle of Borders (RIP) with the latest volume, trying not to read the whole thing before I could bring it home but unable to stop myself from turning the pages.
You render the world of fan conventions so vividly! Do you have much experience with them? Thank you! I’ve been to Emerald City Comic Con a few times, and I’ve always loved the energy there and how cons are a place where people can be unashamedly passionate about what they love. One of my early ideas for Business or Pleasure actually sparked at a con many years ago at a panel with a few “Buffy” actors. I found it fascinating that their careers mainly centered on the con circuit and wondered what that might be like—to be most well known for something you did two decades ago.
I’m this weird combination in that I studied journalism, which revolves around interviewing strangers, but I also have moments of intense shyness. Most of my con experiences were with my now-husband, and he’d always have a joke or anecdote ready for a celebrity, while I’d give an awkward smile and struggle to make eye contact. Essentially, I’d be terrible at Chandler’s job!
I loved the specificity of your portrayal of the Jewish experience, from looking for matzo ball soup when you’re sick, to seeking out menorahs in holiday movies, to going to services and realizing you still remember all the words. Why was it important that Chandler and Finn shared a Jewish background? While all my protagonists are Jewish, I tend to go back and forth with my heroes. For Business or Pleasure, I wanted another point of connection between Chandler and Finn. They’re coming from two different worlds, but they have more in common than they initially realized, from a shared feeling of imposter syndrome to mental health to religion.
You don’t shy away from serious topics in Business or Pleasure, including mental health and abortion. What made you decide to include those subjects? What story possibilities did they open up for you? I never want my writing to feel didactic, but mental health tends to play a key role in my books because it’s often at the forefront of my own mind, and it’s been a long journey for me to feel comfortable and safe in my own brain.
I want to test the limits of what we can call a romantic comedy, because I still consider my books rom-coms even when they deal with depression or grief or any number of “heavier” topics. And I put that in quotes because while those things might seem heavy for a rom-com, they’re so much a part of our regular, nonfictional lives, and humans still manage to fall in love all the time. My characters don’t love each other in spite of whatever else they happen to be dealing with. They simply love each other, full stop.
A young widow gets a second chance at happiness in A Lady’s Guide to Scandal by Sophie Irwin. After a miserable 10-year marriage, Eliza, Lady Somerset, is finally free—and rich, if she can keep the Somerset name scandal-free. That seems easy enough for the timid and soft-spoken Eliza, but when latent desires arise, she travels to Bath to take up a paintbrush and take in some of what society has to offer . . . including the attentions of the wicked Lord Melville. The plot thickens with the return of Eliza’s first love, who has never forgotten her. With two such attractive yet different men vying for her heart, can Eliza break old habits, be her own person and reach for what she truly wants? This kisses-only tale is a delight, and readers will be guessing just who Eliza finds her happy ever after with until the very end.
A Rulebook for Restless Rogues
Two old friends become more in Jess Everlee’s Victorian romance A Rulebook for Restless Rogues. David Forester and Noah Clarke have been friends ever since David appointed himself Noah’s protector in boarding school. David now runs The Curious Fox, a queer club in London, and he still looks after Noah, a talented tailor who spends some nights as his alter ego, Miss Penelope Primrose. David cares for all the patrons of his club and tries to keep them safe in a time when they could be jailed or worse. When The Curious Fox’s owner threatens to shut it down, David’s life is thrown off balance just as he realizes his feelings for Noah might go beyond friendship. Readers will sympathize with the difficulties David and Noah face dealing with the law, their families and the risk of changing their long-standing relationship in this sweet and satisfying romance.
Play to Win
Play to Win by Jodie Slaughter offers up a delicious premise: Stuck-in-a-rut nail tech Miriam Butler wins millions in the lottery—but for legal reasons, she has to alert her estranged husband, construction worker Leo Vaughn. Miriam offers Leo a generous lump sum to sign divorce papers. But this new opportunity gives Leo a chance to rethink his life, and he realizes his love for Miriam never died. Can they make a second chance work? Of course it’s delightful to imagine an end to financial problems, but Slaughter shows that Miriam and Leo still have to overcome the identity issues and expectations that once broke them apart. Told in their no-holds-barred voices, this romance is sexually frank, starkly intimate and often sizzling.
Sophie Irwin’s Regency-set novel boasts an impressively unpredictable love triangle, plus standouts from Jess Everlee and Jodie Slaughter in this month’s romance column.
Our top 10 books for July 2023 include Ruth Ware’s engrossing technothriller, the latest from rising rom-com star Rachel Lynn Solomon and an ode to owls.
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Contemporary Romance
Sophie Irwin’s Regency-set novel boasts an impressively unpredictable love triangle, plus standouts from Jess Everlee and Jodie Slaughter in this month’s romance column.
Lorissa Rinehart’s authoritative biography makes it clear why Dickey Chapelle, a courageous photojournalist and the first female war correspondent to be killed in combat, deserves wider recognition.
Writing in a fast-paced and precise style, Barbara Butcher shares a treasure trove of stories from her 22 years as a death investigator in New York City.
Oh No, the Aunts Are Here is a spirited gem of a book that courses with energy and enthusiasm as it explores what it’s like to have a quiet life temporarily transformed into a very different sort of existence.
Bestselling author and passionate bird advocate Jennifer Ackerman goes around the world to find out why owls so intrigue humans in her wide-ranging and wonderful new book.
Throughout her slim fourth novel, Louisa Hall continually returns to the conversation between art and science, and to the enduring truth that no action or reaction exists in a vacuum.
Gillian Anderson asked women to send her their sexual fantasies. The result is a provocative, original volume that will help women and genderqueer people feel more empowered and less ashamed.
Emily Witt’s sharp, deeply personal memoir, Health and Safety, invites us to relive a tumultuous era in American history through the eyes of a keen observer.
In the vibrantly illustrated Djinnology, a fictional scientist travels the world to learn about sometimes malevolent, sometimes benevolent spirits of Muslim folklore.
Julie Heffernan’s first graphic novel, Babe in the Woods, is a mesmeric work of autofiction loosely retelling how she became an artist while following a hike in the Appalachian Mountains with her infant child.
Anyone suspicious of the luster of capitalism and its promises will find much to mull over in Entitlement, Rumaan Alam’s slyly provocative fourth novel.
In The Wildes, novelist Louis Bayard shows us Oscar Wilde through the eyes of his wife and sons—presenting a portrait of the poet and playwright as engaged father, loving but distant husband, self-absorbed keeper of secrets and a terrified man unable to love openly.
Our top 10 books for July 2023 include Ruth Ware’s engrossing technothriller, the latest from rising rom-com star Rachel Lynn Solomon and an ode to owls.
In A Rogue at Stonecliffe,Candace Camp takes readers on a wild adventure full of romance and suspense in Regency England.
More than a decade ago, the love of Annabeth Winfield’s life left without a word. Forced to wonder if she made it all up in her head, Annabeth begrudgingly attempted to get on with her life. She clearly didn’t mean as much to Sloane Rutherford as he meant to her. With time, Annabeth finds herself engaged to the perfectly fine, albeit a little boring, Nathan. So naturally, that’s when Sloane returns, warning Annabeth that she is in trouble.
Sloane has actually spent the last decade as a spy and is attempting to leave that life behind him when a ruthless, anonymous blackmailer threatens Annabeth. He is desperate to keep her safe, but the plucky Annabeth is not about to let Sloane lock her in a parlor. As the stakes increase and the two find themselves constantly together while trying to stop the blackmailer, old feelings rise to the surface and they wonder if there isn’t a bit of unfinished business between them.
A cornerstone of the historical romance subgenre with a mile-long backlist, Camp knows a thing or two about creating compelling characters. While the blackmailing plotline is often confusing, the love story is on point. The chemistry between Sloane and Annabeth absolutely crackles, and it’s perfectly believable that, despite being separated for a decade, these two would still be head over heels for each other. Folks who love a Regency romance rife with palpable sexual tension and intrigue will have a wonderful time reading A Rogue at Stonecliffe.
Those in search of a Regency romance rife with palpable sexual tension and intrigue will have a wonderful time reading A Rogue at Stonecliffe.
Chandler Cohen has reached rock bottom. Her dreams of being an author have deflated into a career as a ghostwriter. Her dreams of a relationship with her longtime crush died with a whimper when he gave her the “It’s not you (except it’s totally you)” talk after they finally hooked up. And the cute, fun guy with whom she had a spontaneous romp turned out to be the worst lay she’d ever had. The cherry on top? An interview for a new ghostwriting gig—the memoir of a former second fiddle on a hit supernatural show from 10 years back—reunites Chandler with her horizontal tango partner from her one-night snafu. He’s her new client.
Finn Walsh, better known as Oliver Huxley from “The Nocturnals,” has been working steadily since he was a nerdy Lord of the Rings-obsessed kid, desperate to lose himself in make-believe to distract him from his emotionally abusive father and his severe obsessive-compulsive disorder. “The Nocturnals” was the highest his star ever rose, and he’s now settled into made-for-TV movies and paid appearances at fan conventions. Lots of fan conventions. After Chandler agrees to write Finn’s memoir, she crisscrosses the country by his side, helping him figure out how to tell his story, figuring out what she wants her own story to be—and teaching him better bedroom technique.
Rachel Lynn Solomon has a lot to say in Business or Pleasure, analyzing the hierarchy of celebrity culture; the way even liberal, urban, educated adults find it hard to talk about sex, especially bad sex; and the mysterious allure of monthly subscription boxes. Fortunately, she says it all very, very well. Her voice is sharp, funny and penetrating, describing her characters with warmth and affection without letting them off the hook.
Finn is an appealing and charming hero who is open to improving himself, especially when it comes to his performance in bed. His experience with OCD isn’t a gimmick but an important aspect of his life that Solomon explores through thoughtful details such as Finn’s day-to-day fixations on cleanliness in restaurants and living quarters, and the microaggressions he hears from the more toxic people in his life.
Chandler, meanwhile, is also supremely relatable: a former “gifted kid” who was constantly told she’d be a big success. Over the years, she whittled her dreams down to size, but it’s still uncomfortable for her to realize this is where she’s landed. She may be the leader when it comes to Finn’s sexual education, but she’s still the follower in other situations, as Solomon avoids making her either a waif needing to be saved or an angel come down from heaven. She’s real and flawed and likable and fun.
Solomon dives wholeheartedly into the messiness of life and emerges with a beautiful, moving, truly romantic story about characters readers will appreciate and understand on a deep level.
Rachel Lynn Solomon’s sharp, funny and penetrating Business or Pleasure dives into the messiness of life and emerges with a truly romantic love story.
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Three heroines weather tremendously difficult circumstances, uncovering and navigating unsettling details about their families’ histories with admirable grace.
