How does the release of this book feel compared to your previous projects?
It’s been wonderful. I released some books pre-pandemic and a number of books during the pandemic, and it’s been so nice to be able to get back out on the road and have actual conversations with people about it, because I missed that so much. It’s exciting and refreshing every time, and maybe it sort of always will be. Writing can be a very solitary profession, and I love the act of writing, but I also really like getting to talk to other people about books—whether it’s books that we both read and love or my books. I love bookstore events in general: I think romance events at bookstores are so great because 95% of the people there are women, and we’re all just so excited and happy. It’s such a joyful experience.
What’s the most exciting romance plot you’ve stumbled across recently, whether in a book, on TV, in a film, or somewhere else?
I have a few that I return to all the time. I think some of them are ones that I read as a kid, like in Anne of Green Gables. I love that romance, but I actually love the friendships in Anne of Green Gables even more than the romance. Those are kind of stories that I think about all the time, and actually, now that I think about it, another book I come back to is the Betsy-Tacy and Tib books. I love the romance in those books, but their origins were about friendship.
Fashion-wise, I need to know where you think Taylor would get her heartbreak-inducing outfits.
I feel like the brands that Taylor’s wearing are whatever she picks up randomly and whatever shows off her biceps [laughs], but of course, Avery is wearing mid-scale mall brands; a lot of Banana Republic, I would say. I do think Avery’s wardrobe gets more interesting throughout the book, which was fun for me to write.
Is there anything you wish we saw more of within the romance-novel world?
I mean, over the past five to 10 years, there’s definitely been a lot more of this, but I want to see more stories about women of color, stories about Black women in particular, stories about fat people. All of those people and all of those stories have always been out there, but publishers haven’t given them a push or haven’t really wanted to publish them. I’ve seen a lot more of them over the past few years, which has been really wonderful, and I just want even more.