Every Time We Say Goodby by Natalie Jenner

A special thank you to the author, Natalie Jenner, for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

In 1955, Vivien Lowry is facing the greatest challenge of her life. Her latest play, the only female-authored play on the London stage that season, has opened in the West End to rapturous applause from the audience. 

The reviewers, however, are not as impressed as the playgoers and their savage notices not only shut down the play but ruin Lowry's last chance for a dramatic career. With her future in London not looking bright, at the suggestion of her friend, Peggy Guggenheim, Vivien takes a job in as a script doctor on a major film shooting in Rome’s Cinecitta Studios. 

There she finds a vibrant movie making scene filled with rising stars, acclaimed directors, and famous actors in a country that is torn between its past and its potentially bright future, between the liberation of the post-war cinema and the restrictions of the Catholic Church that permeates the very soul of Italy.

As Vivien tries to forge a new future for herself, she also must face the long-buried truth of the recent World War and the mystery of what really happened to her deceased fiancé. Every Time We Say Goodbye is a brilliant exploration of trauma and tragedy, hope and renewal, filled with dazzling characters both real and imaginary. (From HarperCollins.)

Jenner's latest once again brings a vibrant cast of characters to life—including cameos from her previous two novels (The Jane Austen Society and Bloomsbury Girls) and by classical Hollywood cinema's leading ladies. 

The story takes place in post-war Italy where a group of American and British expatriates become entangled in controversy while making a movie about a female Italian resistance fighter during the occupation called "La Scolaretta," the Schoolgirl assassin. Her story makes up the dual narrative. 

Meticulously researched, this novel demonstrates how impactful art is not only to preserve our history, but as a medium to communicate to the masses as well as entertain. 

Every Time We Say Goodbye is a cinematic novel of love, art, grief, and of confronting the past to face the future.

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NATALIE JENNER is the author of the instant international bestseller The Jane Austen Society and Bloomsbury Girls. A Goodreads Choice Award runner-up for historical fiction and finalist for best debut novel, The Jane Austen Society was a USA Today and #1 national bestseller, and has been sold for translation in twenty countries. 

Born in England and raised in Canada, Jenner has been a corporate lawyer, career coach and, most recently, an independent bookstore owner in Oakville, Ontario, where she lives with her family and two rescue dogs.

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Q & A with Natalie Jenner*

GWR: How long did it take you to write Every Time We Say Goodbye, and how many drafts were there before publication?

NJ: I tend to have a “four seasons” energy when it comes to writing: I start with the hopefulness of spring, finish with the sharpened-pencil mood of fall, buckle down in our Canadian winter to edit, and deliver the final MS at its end. With Every Time We Say Goodbye, it was the same: roughly a year, May to April, and about three substantive drafts in total—but months of line editing in between! 

GWR: What was the genesis of the novel?

NJ: In the spring of 2021, I was rewatching Day For Night, an old Francois Truffaut film about film, and ended up falling down a Wikipedia rabbit hole when I learned that Rome’s famous Cinecittà studios had been used as refugee camps during and after WWII, and that some refugees might even have been extras during filming there of the Hollywood epic Quo Vadis. This lit a creative spark in me, and I decided (helped by lack of travel in 2021 due to the pandemic!) to set my next book in Rome, my favourite city.

GWR: What do you have more fun with, character development or plot? 

NJ: I write line by line, without outlining or knowing what is going to happen, so everything—plot and characters—is fun for me. This also means that the characters drive the plot: I feel like I am a tin can tied to their collective bumper, being pulled along in their wake, and only discovering their secrets along the way. The absolute most fun for me is when I finally realize what those secrets are.

GWR: Your books are always meticulously researched and detailed—can you tell us about the process?

NJ: My process is very haphazard, in part because the subject matter of each book drives the research. But basically, I research just enough before I start writing to ensure a sense of time and place, then as I write I research whatever pops up in the plot. I can say that the research for Every Time We Say Goodbye was the most intense, intensive, and harrowing that I have ever done. From war orphans, partisan resisters, religion and censorship, to Italian laws, culture, cinema, and politics: much of this was brand new to me, and I felt a real imperative to get it as right as possible, out of respect for that amazing country and its equally amazing people.

GWR: What made you decide to write a dual timeline? Was it easier or more challenging?

NJ: I never had any intention of writing a dual timeline. In fact, I was halfway through the book, when one morning (and I will never forget this moment) I sat down at my laptop and suddenly the words “The handbag is almost empty inside” just popped onto the page. Right way, I realized I was inside the head of la scolaretta, the fictional “schoolgirl assassin” that many of my 1950s characters had been referencing in the plot. In a way, she made me write her, probably to get her right—or at least better than I had been doing! So again, the story sowed the seeds for that decision. It wasn’t necessarily easier, but I did love finding ways structurally to connect the two timelines, and create echoes between the respective plots, themes, characters, and settings.

GWR: Setting always plays such an important part in your novels. Although this book is largely set in Rome, it begins and ends in England—do you have ties to either country? 

NJ: My love for Italy, and Rome in particular, started in adolescence: I happen to be one of the last high-school Latin graduates in the province of Ontario! For six years I daily parsed the writings of Virgil, Ovid, and Catullus, and saw the intricate connection between that dead language and our own—in fact, it’s one of the few subjects I studied that impacts me still to this day and in a very fun, writerly way. I have since visited Italy several times, and Rome remains my favourite city in the world. 

I only recently realized that all of my books end in England, which makes me appreciate what some call ancestral memory—all I know, is that I have always felt an incredibly strong attachment and affinity to all things British. My father, brother, and I were born in England, and I grew up in a very British-Canadian household: kippers for Christmas morning breakfast, Some Mothers Do ’Ave ’Em on the tv. I continue to visit my paternal family and friends there every chance I get.

GWR: Was it hard to say goodbye to the characters in these books?  

NJ: No, but probably only because I always try to leave my characters in the best place in life that I can, ready to face whatever life throws at them next. I think I purposefully do that in order to feel closure—yet I keep finding ways to revisit many of my characters in subsequent books, so I think perhaps I am just really bad at goodbyes!

GWR: If your book was a beverage, what would it be?

NJ: An Aperol Spritz: summery and long-lasting, with a refreshing bite. 

GWR: What are you working on now?

NJ: I am putting the finishing touches on Austen at Sea, which is the tale of two daughters of a Massachusetts supreme court justice who start a correspondence with Jane Austen's last surviving sibling, a ninety-one-year-old retired admiral, and travel by mail packet steamship to meet him in the summer of 1865 just as the civil war has ended. In their absence, their widowed father's colleagues on the bench start a judicial reading circle dedicated to Austen as a means of distracting him. Louisa May Alcott also makes an appearance in the plot, leading the other women on board ship in a charity performance of vignettes from A Tale of Two Cities. A literary treasure hunt soon ensues, culminating in climactic court cases on both sides of the Atlantic involving a piece of Austen history and a multitude of characters including theatre impresarios, street waifs, newspapermen, suffragists, gypsy fortune tellers, and many more (my quasi-tribute to Dickens). These is also a very loose connection to my first novel, The Jane Austen Society, which has made the entire writing experience especially gratifying and “full circle” for me as a writer—see my failure at closure, above!

*A version of this post was published on STYLE Canada. 

A Great Country by Shilpi Somaya Gowda

Pacific Hills, California: Gated communities, ocean views, well-tended lawns, serene pools, and now the new home of the Shah family. For the Shah parents, who came to America twenty years earlier with little more than an education and their new marriage, this move represents the culmination of years of hard work and dreaming. For their children, born and raised in America, success is not so simple.

For the most part, these differences among the five members of the Shah family are minor irritants, arguments between parents and children, older and younger siblings. But one Saturday night, the twelve-year-old son is arrested. The fallout from that event will shake each family member's perception of themselves as individuals, as community members, as Americans, and will lead each to consider: how do we define success? At what cost comes ambition? And what is our role and responsibility in the cultural mosaic of modern America?

Gowda's scorching new novel follows an Indian-American family struggling to climb the social ladder and how an incident with the police highlights the systems of prejudice that are still at work. The Shahs are victims of the systemic racism that they thought the gates of their community protected them from. Their differing views further illustrate the generational and cultural divide. 

Told through multiple perspectives, this timely novel represents the separation that immigrant families feel from their adolescent children who were raised in a country different from their own. Gowda wades into the divided climate we live in, deftly handling polarizing views while still leaving much to be discussed—this book would make an excellent book club choice.

A Great Country explores themes of immigration, generational conflict, social class and privilege, the myth of the model minority and the price of the American dream.

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SHILPI SOMAYA GOWDA is the New York Times bestselling, award-winning author of four novels: The Golden Son (a Target Book Club Pick, a Costco Buyer’s Pick, and was awarded the French literary prize, Prix des Lyceens Folio), The Shape of Family (an international and American bestseller), A Great Country and Secret Daughter (an IndieNext Great Read, a Target Book Club Pick, a ChaptersIndigo Heather’s Pick, an Amnesty International Book Club Pick, and a finalist for the South African Boeke Literary Prize and the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award). 

Shilpi was born and raised in Toronto, Canada, and now lives in California. 

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Q & A with Shilpi Somaya Gowda*

GWR: How did you start writing/become a writer?    

SSG: I began writing in 2006, during a transitional period in my business career. I took some university night classes in creative writing after moving to a new city, and slowly began learning how to structure and write a novel. It provided a great framework for someone like me, with little creative writing experience. In that program, I wrote the first draft of my first novel, Secret Daughter. I spent the next two years revising the manuscript, finding a literary agent, and selling it to a publisher. It’s a great lesson that unexpected life changes can lead to exciting new things.

GWR: Are you a pantser/gardener or a plotter/architect? What does your writing process look like and does it differ from book-to-book? 

SSG: My process is a combination of planning and organic exploration. I start with a central character and story premise, and try to roughly outline the plot, but there are invariably large gaps. I often have a sense of the climax or central conflict, but almost never know the ending. I start by writing the pieces I know, which means I don’t write chronologically. As I develop the characters along the way, I find more details, including the secondary characters and sub-plots. The process does vary a bit with each book, since each story presents a new challenge. It seems like it should get easier over time, but not yet!

GWR: What was the genesis of A Great Country?

SSG: I began writing this novel in 2021, to try to make sense of the world around me. It was one year into the worldwide pandemic, in the wake of the George Floyd video, and amidst a rise in violence against Asian-Americans. The discussions I witnessed were fraught and often extreme, and there was a distressing decline in civil discourse. A new conversation was starting to emerge. The minority group often deemed to be “model” in the U.S. was being forced to reconsider its role and comfort level in this country. Should we be seeking common cause with other communities of color? Or protecting ourselves in dangerous times? What did it mean to be American, hyphenated or otherwise? These were the ideas—the social, cultural, political forces in America today—I wanted to explore in A Great Country. 

GWR: What character did you sympathize with the most and did that change while writing the book?

SSG: One of the keys of writing for me is to find a way to empathize with each of the characters. If I can’t put myself in their shoes, I can’t write them with any conviction. I can always find a connection with mothers, because of the universality of that experience. I also find myself rooting for those characters that have a hard time expressing themselves, like Ajay, and I end up working harder to show their perspective. 

GWR: Did any minor characters become major characters over the course of the novel?

SSG: I always knew the main character (Priya) would have a good friend throughout the story, but Archana (Archie) grew to have a significant role in the novel. She’s there to provide support, but also to remind Priya who she is/was, to show a contrast with how other friends and acquaintances react, and to offer to her professional guidance as a psychologist. Readers often tell me Archie is their favorite character, and don’t we all deserve a friend like her in our lives? I’m fortunate to have several of them.

GWR: What was the hardest scene to write?

SSG: The hardest scenes for me to write are always the ones where the characters go through a gruelling emotional experience. I have to feel what they’re feeling in order to write it. There were several of those scenes in this novel, but one of the toughest was an argument between Ashok and his eldest daughter, Deepa. There is a wide gulf between their views. They both have legitimate perspectives and are desperate to have the other understand; in that process, they say hurtful things to each other and are each left terribly, perhaps irrevocably, wounded.

GWR: You have many points of view that illustrate the cultural and generational differences—why did you choose to write the novel this way?

SSG: I conceived of this novel as a community story. While it’s centered on the Shah family, it also zooms out to a wider perspective to include four other families, each with a differing background, race, class, immigration status. I thought it was important to show where some of our political differences come from, how each family’s life experience drives how they see the American dream a bit differently. Within each family, generational conflicts arise between parents and children, and these further complicate the community dynamic.

GWR: What do you hope readers will take away from A Great Country?

SSG: I’ve learned that many people long for more civil dialogue as a way to face our society’s problems. It can be hard to approach these hot-button topics, but fiction can offer us a way to step into another person’s shoes. I hope that readers come away with a willingness to spark reflection and to perhaps understand a different perspective. Even better, they could use that as a basis to open respectful dialogue with their book club, neighbour or colleague. 

GWR: If your book was a beverage, what would it be? 

SSG: Masala chai, of course!

GWR: What are you working on now?


SSG: I have a couple of ideas I’ve been simmering on, but haven’t started writing. I’ve been reading, researching and jotting down notes. When an idea really begins to gather steam in my mind, that’s when I know it’s time to start writing.

A Man Downstairs by Nicole Lundrigan

A special thank you to Viking for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

What if the childhood you remember isn’t really what happened at all?

Molly Wynters has moved back to her small hometown to care for her father, recently felled by a stroke and no longer able to communicate. She is ready to make a fresh start with her son after her divorce, but is haunted by both old events and new realities in her childhood home.

What Molly recalls of her young life with her father is full of love and care, even though a violent trauma defined her when she was a young girl, she witnessed her mother’s murder, and her testimony—“There was a man downstairs”—sent a teenager to prison. This tragic episode is still very much alive in the culture of the town, and the more Molly remembers, the more she fears that what she said on the stand all those years ago might not have been the whole truth.

After Molly, a trained therapist, volunteers for a local helpline, the threats begin. At first they seem random, but soon Molly realizes that she is a target, and even those closest to her seem suspicious, especially as unsuspected links between them emerge. More than one life was destroyed on that horrific long-ago day, and now someone intends to hold Molly accountable.

Lundigran's latest is a psychological thriller about a woman who is tormented by her memories. The thread that has kept Molly sewn together begins to unravel when she returns home to the small town that is both the keeper of secrets and the scene of her mother's murder.

On the simplest level, this is a page-turner. With short, punchy chapters, Lundrigan deftly shifts between a dual timeline and multiple points of view—Molly's, Gil's, and "His." The beautiful writing is juxtaposed with the grittiness of the novel. It is sublimely atmospheric and wickedly suspenseful.

A Man Downstairs is a compelling examination into the human psyche and the unreliability of memory.

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NICOLE LUNDRIGAN is the author of several critically acclaimed novels, including Hideaway, which was shortlisted for the Arthur Ellis Award for Best Crime Novel, The Substitute, Glass Boys, and An Unthinkable Thing. Her work has appeared on “best of” selections from The Globe and Mail, Amazon.ca, Chatelaine, Now magazine, and others. 

Lundrigan grew up in Newfoundland, and now lives in Toronto.

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Q & A with Nicole Lundrigan*

GWR: How did you start writing/become a writer?    

NL: When I was young, I never considered becoming a fiction writer. I had my daughter shortly after finishing an MSc, and while I was home with her, I wrote various articles. At some point I opted to continue down that creative path and attempted a book. And then a second book…

GWR: This is your ninth novel—do you approach each the same way? Can you share a little about your writing process?

NL: With my first novel, I had no idea what I was doing. At one point I remember googling ‘rules of writing fiction,’ and quickly closed my laptop. In hindsight, I believe being completely naïve gave me the confidence to try. I have learned a great deal by going through the process, but with each new project there is fresh insecurity. Part of my approach is not focusing on writing a book, but instead a little cluster of words each day. 

GWR: What is your favourite part of the publishing process?  

 NL: I find writing the first draft to be daunting, but once I have something down, the process becomes more enjoyable. When I receive feedback (sometimes in the form of really good questions), and the direction is suddenly illuminated, that’s an amazing feeling.

GWR: Character development or plot—what do you have more fun with?

NL: Definitely character. While I’ve gotten better at developing plotlines, exploring the psychology of the characters is what draws me in. When I’m thinking about writing a book, it usually starts with an emotion.

GWR: What’s the one element of a thriller that is a must?

NL: Sense of tension. That something *might* happen, even if the character is just walking to the fridge to get milk for coffee.

GWR: What was the genesis of A Man Downstairs?

NL: I happened upon a news article about a three-year-old boy testifying in court against his mother’s boyfriend. At the end the judge gave him a bag of chips. That was the spark, and various threads rolled out from there.

GWR: Tell me about the research you did for the novel?

NL: I tend to research in dribs and drabs, usually when I have a question during writing. Occasionally I get lost for a few hours, slipping down various rabbit holes. It’s neat when certain tidbits of information seem to find me, instead of the other way around.

GWR: Did the story end the way you’d initially thought?

NL: With this book, I had a clear(ish) sense of what would happen from the start but didn’t quite know why. During the writing process, I discovered a great deal about my character’s experiences and intentions and by the end, I understood their behaviour much better.

GWR: If your book was a beverage, what would it be? 

NL: Tricky question! Ideally a drink that is intense, involves a combination of distinct flavours, was popular in the seventies, and has come around again. Let’s go with a Sloe Gin Fizz.

GWR: Can you share what you are working on now and if you have any events/appearances coming up?

NL: I’ve been working on my tenth novel, which is currently unnamed. This will be the first time writing an entire book about women who are around my age. Though I’m not sure why, I’ve always resisted that. We will see what happens.

For events, I’m really looking forward to attending Montreal Mystère in May, which is downtown Montreal’s inaugural mystery book festival. I think it’s going to be a fantastic time.

*A version of this post was published on STYLE Canada. 

A Friend in the Dark by Samantha M. Bailey

A special thank you to the author, Samantha M. Bailey, for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Eden Miller’s world is crumbling. Her husband blindsided her with divorce, and her daughter barely speaks to her. In an impulsive decision to escape her present and revisit the past, she sends a friend request to her college crush, Justin Ward. 

One night twenty-three years ago changed the course of her life. It closed the door on Justin and opened the door to her husband, Dave. But what if Eden could have a do-over? 

Eden begins an online relationship with Justin that awakens her in ways she never thought possible, and his voice and words make her take bold risks. But something’s off. He knows too much about her and her family…he’s been following her. 

Eden is forced to awaken from her fantasy and look for answers—who really is the man on the other line? The truth about Justin—and about what happened that fateful night two decades ago—puts her and her family in a fight for their lives. 

Told from first-person Eden and third-person Olivia, this dark, domestic thriller examines the perils of social media. With her well-developed characters, Bailey masterfully manipulates her reader. Eden and Olivia are as compelling as they are complex. 

With its short punchy chapters and jaw-dropping ending, A Friend in the Dark is expertly plotted and perfectly paced. It is sexy, smart, and slick. Congratulations, Sam!

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SAMANTHA M. BAILEY is the USA TODAY and #1 nationally bestselling author of Woman on the Edge and the instant #1 national bestseller, Watch Out for Her, one of the top ten bestselling Canadian Fiction books of 2022 and one of the Globe & Mail's top 100 books of 2022. Her novels have sold in eleven countries to date. 

Bailey lives in Toronto with her family.

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Q & A with Samantha M. Bailey*

GWR: Congratulations on publishing your third book! We’ve previously discussed your writing process, but how did you start writing/become a writer?    

SMB: Thank you! I grew up surrounded by books and read all the time. Even when I was walking down the street, my head would be in a book, and I’d bang into poles. Writers were and are my rock stars. I wrote my first story when I was ten, and it was my first rejection from a publisher. But it wasn’t until I was twenty-nine that I wrote a full-length novel. And I wasn’t published until I was forty-five. But the moment I sat down to write that first book, an indescribable joy came over me and a compulsion to type any time I could. That was when I knew I was a writer to the depths of my soul.

GWR: How long did it take you to write A Friend in the Dark, and how many drafts were there before publication? Do you have a favourite part of the publishing process? 

SMB: An author’s debut is usually the longest process, because it’s before contracts and deadlines, so there’s time to draft and rewrite over and over. With my third book, I wrote the first draft in four months, then my extraordinary editors and I did three big rounds and a few smaller ones, for copy edits and proofreads. All told, it was about nine months from start to finish. 

I love being edited and revising. For me, that first draft is to create the groundwork, a skeleton. The most intoxicating and exciting part is when I get to tear that skeleton limb from limb, rebuild it, and transform it from bones to a fully fleshed out world.

GWR: What was the genesis of the novel?

SMB: I think the pandemic sparked a lot of artistic inspiration and many deep online bonds that formed quickly because we were all so desperate for connection. That was the initial kernel of an idea for me. I message with a lot of author friends, and we develop very close relationships very rapidly because we understand each other. But often, we haven’t even met in person or seen each other face to face. That was the first lightbulb moment. From that idea, Eden came to me, a woman who’s done everything right only for it all to go so horribly wrong. Everything is out of her control. She loses her husband and daughter in the same day, and as someone who’s lived her life by the rules, the supposed tos, she’s lost, hurt, lonely, and yearning for someone to want her. She reaches out to the one person who made her want to be reckless, lose her inhibition, feel everything, do everything she’s scared of. That risk and fear is exhilarating and addictive. It’s that exhilaration, when you follow your desire instead of instinct, do whatever you want regardless of the consequences, was also something I wanted to explore. And how middle age is such a turning point for women. All the physical and emotional changes, our needs and wants, and how we can finally focus on ourselves after decades of taking care of everyone else.

GWR: Give us your best Hollywood pitch.

SMB: What happens when a good girl decides to be bad? 

GWR: Did any minor characters become major characters over the course of the novel?

SMB: This is such a good question! No, the major players are who they were when I initially started planning the novel. All the minor characters have a purpose, which is to drive the main characters’ motivations and actions.

GWR: I love the exploration of the pitfalls of social media—why was this topic compelling enough for you to write about?

SMB: For so many reasons. As an author, I’m on social media all the time. I’m careful what I post and share publicly, because I’m very protective of my private life. Information is so accessible, and sometimes to the wrong people. And because it feels like an insular world, where we connect with like-minded people who have the same interests, dreams, and goals, we often miss how much we’re putting out there about ourselves. I have two teenagers. When I was a teen in the 80s and 90s, I didn’t worry about strangers seeing photos, reading my innermost thoughts, having access to my personal life. Now everything is out there in posts, videos, reels, stories. As much as it connects us, provides comfort and communication, it’s also very frightening. We have to be so cognizant of who we trust and who we truly don’t know much about at all, but it’s also so easy to lose ourselves in that heady feeling of connection.

GWR: What’s the one element of a thriller that is a must?

SMB: Genre is tricky because it places a work of art in a box. And that box doesn’t always fit. I describe my books as domestic thrillers and domestic suspense because they’re about relationships as much as they’re about murder and mayhem. When I read thrillers, I want an escape, to feel frightened, surprised, yet also emotionally invested. I don’t have to like the characters or want to be like them. I actually prefer complicated, flawed characters who possess and portray all the different sides of humanity. I aim to do this when I write, as well. But I do think an element of danger is a must.

GWR: Did the story end the way you’d initially thought?

SMB: In some ways, yes. In other ways, no. I make very detailed outlines before I write so I know the lay of the land. But I definitely veer from that map, organically following my characters, who they are and what they want, even when they make terrible mistakes. 

GWR: If your book was a beverage, what would it be?

SMB: I’m going to go with a Canadian favourite, which I didn’t realize was Canadian until I tried to order it at a bar in New York City. A Bloody Caesar, which is celery salt to rim the glass, vodka, Clamato juice, Worcestershire sauce, Tabasco sauce, and garnished with a celery stalk. It’s bold, savory, spicy, and smooth. At first, it tastes comforting then hits you with a kick.

GWR: Can you share what you are working on now? 

SMB: I’d love to! My fourth domestic suspense will be published by Thomas & Mercer in March 2025. For my entire life, I’ve wanted to write a story about Hollywood and celebrity. Finally, I’ve gotten that chance, and it’s so exciting for me. I even recently spent five days in LA for research, which was a dream. I’m drafting the book now, so I can’t share too much, but the working title is Hello, Juliet, and it’s up on Goodreads if you’d like to add it to your TBR!

*A version of this post was published on STYLE Canada. 

Canadian Boyfriend by Jenny Holiday

A special thank you to the author, Jenny Holiday, for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Once upon a time, teenage Aurora Evans met a hockey player at the Mall of America. He was from Canada. And soon, he was the perfect fake boyfriend, a get-out-of-jail-free card for all kinds of sticky situations. I can't go to prom. I'm going to be visiting my boyfriend in Canada. He was just what she needed to cover her social awkwardness. He never had to know. It wasn't like she was ever going to see him again…

Years later, Aurora is teaching kids’ dance classes and battling panic and eating disorders—souvenirs from her failed ballet career—when pro hockey player Mike Martin walks in with his daughter. Mike’s honesty about his struggles with widowhood helps Aurora confront some of her own demons, and the two forge an unlikely friendship. There’s just one problem: Mike is the boy she spent years pretending was her “Canadian boyfriend.”

The longer she keeps her secret, the more she knows it will shatter the trust between them. But to have the life she wants, she needs to tackle the most important thing of all—believing in herself. 

Told in alternating perspectives with some epistolary elements, this is a novel about taking risks, finding joy, and second chances. Canadian Boyfriend is also a fresh take on the fake dating trope—Mike Martin doesn't know that he's Rory's fake boyfriend. 

Holiday doesn't shy away from sensitive topics—eating disorders, mental health, death of a parent—and writes them with care, compassion, and purpose. The narrative is lightened with Canadiana and humour. 

Rory and Mike are working through their own issues, yet are still present in communicating with one another and are committed to being friends first. Holiday has an impeccable ear for dialogue made apparent by both the witty banter and the touching conversations. 

Canadian Boyfriend is heartwarming, emotional, and therapeutic.  

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JENNY HOLIDAY is a USA Today-bestselling author whose books have been featured in The New York Times, Entertainment Weekly, and The Washington Post. She grew up in Minnesota and started writing when her fourth-grade teacher gave her a notebook to fill with stories. When she’s not working on her next book, she likes to hike, throw theme parties, and watch other people sing karaoke. 

Holiday lives in London, Ontario, Canada.

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Q & A with Jenny Holiday*

GWR: How did you start writing/become a writer? 

 

JH: I guess it depends how you define writing. I have been writing stories since elementary school (oddly, those were usually horror stories!). And I had a whole professional career as a writer and editor in the non-profit sector, which I did for many years before writing books and then in parallel with writing books until I was able to ditch the day job. So I some ways I think I’ve been a writer my whole life. I feel like I’ve been writing as long as I’ve been thinking. 

 

But if you’re asking about book writing specifically: I was a late-comer to the romance genre as a reader, but when I discovered it, I went all in. Eventually, I started thinking, “I wonder if I could write a book? How hard can it be?” (The joke was on me because it was in fact very hard!) 

 

GWR: Are you a pantser/gardner or a plotter/architect? What does your process look like? 

 

JH: I think I probably fall somewhere in the middle. I don’t outline my books, but I usually have a pretty good idea about the emotional core of the story and how it’s going to get resolved. I definitely don’t plot in terms of what is going to happen in a literal sense, but I like to know who my characters are and what they need to learn or how they need to grow by the end of the book.  

 

I usually write pretty linearly, but I get snippets and flashes of stuff I think will go later in the book, and I quick write those at the end of my document. So the closer I get to the end, the more I have fragments already there that I can weave in (or trash!).

GWR: Give us your best Hollywood pitch for Canadian Boyfriend. And who would you cast? 

 

JH: The pitch: an teenage American ballerina having a tough time socially has a passing encounter with a hockey play at the Mall of America and goes on to pretend that he’s her long-distance boyfriend. Years later, she meets him again, and in a more lasting way, and has to grapple with the ways in which he is and isn’t like her imaginary “Canadian Boyfriend.” 

 

Casting: I usually have trouble answering this question, because I am not a visual thinker. I typically don’t even have that great an image of what my fictional people look like, much less who in Hollywood might play them. But this book is an exception, at least when it comes to Mike. For him, I would cast Joshua Jackson, one of the quintessential literal Canadian boyfriends (even though he is technically a tad too old…aren’t we all?!). For Rory, I didn’t have an immediate actress in mind, but sitting here thinking about it, I would cast Jenna Dewan—because she’s a dancer, obviously, but also because I think she has a certain vulnerability mixed with strength that would suit the character.

GWR: Did any minor characters become major characters over the course of writing the novel? 

JH: Not really, but I did enjoy the character of Sansa’s mom. Super minor, but I love a dance mom. They loom large regardless of the actual size or scope of their intended role. 

 

GWR: What were the most important characteristics and dynamic that you wanted Rory and Mike Martin's relationship to have? What about Mike and Olivia's? 

 

JH: I wanted Mike and Rory to be true friends who grow to trust each other and who then feel like their romantic feelings sort of sneak up on them. Their initial connection is born from them helping each other, striking a mutually-supportive arrangement. I wanted that sense of them having each other’s backs to extend throughout the book, even as their relationship changes. 

 

I wanted Mike and Olivia’s relationship to be uncomplicated. I don’t meant that literally, I suppose. Their relationship is complicated by the fact that Olivia’s mom died and Mike is “only” her stepdad. But I wanted him to be unwavering in his love for her and his determination to support her, even when she is being a typically pissy tween. Mike might make mistakes, but he doesn’t make them with Olivia.

GWR: This book takes a deep dive into other issues—death/grief, eating disorders, mental health—why was it important to include these elements specifically? 

 

JH: I didn’t set out to include them. They emerged from the story rather than vice-versa.

GWR: What made you decide to write the book from a dual point of view? Was it easier or more challenging to explore the parallel storyline? 

JH: This is how all my books are. It’s the default for me, so in that sense this was my comfort zone. I love dual point of view for many reasons, but a big one is the delicious dissonance between what one character thinks is happening with the other and what is actually happening. When done well, it can feel like that we as readers are in on a kind of secret, and part of the joy of those books is (im)patiently waiting for the character(s) to catch up with reality. 

 

GWR: The Canadian representation was so refreshing and well done! Not having grown up here, what is the most surprising thing you have learned about Canada/Canadians? And what are some of your favourite Canadian things? 

 

JH: I feel like I’m pretty Canadianized, but the fact that I didn’t grow up here comes up—mostly when people get nostalgic about their childhoods. I have never seen Mr. Dressup, for example! 

 

In a superficial sense, my favourite Canadian things include the fact that vinegar on fries is normal and widely available at restaurants, Blue Rodeo, and our vibrant, safe, diverse cities. 

 

In a deeper sense, and at the risk of sounding schmoopy, I deeply love Canada and I think my most favorite thing about it is what I would call our national personality: a kind of self-deprecating humour mixed with quiet progressivism.  

GWR: If your book was a beverage, what would it be? 

JH: Maybe a crisp, dry champagne, like Rory and Mike drink with their McDonalds on Christmas Eve. Fizzy and refreshing but with a hidden depth. 

 

GWR: What are you working on now? 

 

JH: I have a book coming out in April called Earls Trip. It’s the start of a Regency rom-com series inspired by Ted Lasso. A group of earlfriends takes an annual trip and shenanigans ensue. At the moment I’m working on the second book in that series. It’s called Manic Pixie Dream Earl, and it comes out spring 2025. 

An Unexpected Path by Megan McSpadden

A special thank you to the author, Megan McSpadden, for a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

Sometimes unexpected paths lead to the best destinations.

Highly sought after conflict photographer, relationship-averse Marley Cunningham thrives on adrenaline and the chaos of her nomadic life. But when the passion for her career starts to wane, she decides a hike far from the noise of life is the best way to shake the doubts from her mind and focus on what she wants. Spraining her ankle and being rescued by a handsome stranger and his pack of dogs is not part of the plan. 

Big-hearted, reclusive Bennett Morgan has spent his life with two main goals: play professional football for a few years and then pursue medicine. Shortly after his football career begins, a catastrophic diagnosis shatters both goals in one fell swoop. Feeling lost for the first time, he packs up his life and two dogs and returns to the home he couldn’t wait to leave. It’s in the shadow of his past that he finds joy in starting a dog sanctuary. 

After a rainstorm washes away the road to Bennett’s home, he is shocked to find Marley injured and alone on the secluded trail where he walks the dogs. From the moment she is hoisted onto his back, Marley is drawn in by Bennett’s kindness, strength, and calm nature. Bennett quickly realizes that a bit more human connection in his life might not be such a bad thing, especially when that human is beautiful, courageous, complicated Marley. 

Through the patience and care of Bennett, Marley begins to explore her feelings for not just her career but to her shock, the man who rescued her. Bennett, on the other hand, must decide if embracing the present with Marley is worth it, even if the future is uncertain.

Told in alternating perspectives, this is a novel about embracing the unexpected, learning to love, and finding your own path. 

Marley and Bennett are well-developed characters with incredible depth; Marley is complicated, fiercely independent, and deflects with sarcasm and humour while Bennett is kind, compassionate, and humble. Their chemistry is instant and undeniable. Equally satisfying—and hilarious—are the supporting characters. And be warned, there is a scene-stealing dog...

The novel takes a more serious turn when Marley goes back to her everyday life—her career as a conflict photographer is fascinating and harrowing. This is some of McSpadden's best and beautiful work. 

An Unexpected Path is filled with witty banter, dogs, and all the feels.  

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MEGAN MCSPADDEN enjoys writing romance that will make you laugh one minute only to cry the next. When not writing she can usually be found photographing families, yelling at her beloved Toronto Maple Leafs, dreaming of travelling somewhere else, or cooking something her husband will ask her to make again but knows she won’t because Megan doesn’t do recipes.

McSpadden lives in Hamilton, Ontario with her husband, two dogs, two cats and unruly garden.

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Q & A with Megan McSpadden*

GWR: What was the inspiration for An Unexpected Path?

MM: I’ve always wanted to write a book featuring a photographer. But Bennett’s world came to me first after seeing a story on The Dodo’s YouTube channel about a guy who runs a dog sanctuary in the U.S., I thought hmmm that would be a good starting point! This giant guy alone on this big property with all these dogs. Things sort of flowed from there.

GWR: What came to you first—the overall idea or the characters?  

MM: I went in with a basic idea of what I wanted and then I just started to write. I typed Marley and Bennett as I went and that was that. I wish I could say I had things all planned out but I literally had no plan from one page to the next. It just happened.

GWR: Do you have more fun with, character development or plot?

MM: Characters for sure. The first draft was decent but as I reworked things the characters were my favourite part to build up more. Developing their back stories and reasons for the way they are both apart and together. The secondary characters in particular were a blast to write which surprised me. Plot is stressful.

GWR: You and Marley are both photographers although Marley’s profession differs from yours. Can you explain what a conflict photographer is/does?

MM: Conflict photography or war photography is a field of photojournalism that takes place in areas of unrest and upheaval. So warzones, riots, places where violence is likely. They often put their lives and sanity at risk to capture important world events. It’s not a career for the faint of heart. At one point it was a career path I thought I wanted—I studied international relations in university so between my interest in the world and my love of photography it made sense. But I’ve come to realize that I likely would not have lasted long. I have spent years reading articles and books about conflict photographers as well as watching documentaries. It’s the only field of photography I find myself endlessly intrigued by. I just hope I did it justice through Marley.

GWR: Do you have a favourite character, and why is it Yogurt?

MM: Yogurt is certainly a favourite but for me it’s Marley. She’s basically my alter ego and I loved exploring a different path from my own through her.We share a sense of humour, PTSD, a chemical burn scar, and inner monologue style, although not family life, thankfully. While chatting with my editor I actually realized I wrote Bennett with a lot of the same characteristics as my husband, so she’s probably more me than I realized.

GWR: What made you decide to write the book from a dual point of view? Was it easier or more challenging to explore the parallel storyline?

MM: Marley’s voice was incredibly easy, as I mentioned, she’s very me. Bennett was more challenging but I wanted to balance Marley’s arc with a character that was a bit more settled. Bennett’s path had been altered before the book began while Marley’s started to change just before she met Bennett and then took a hard right the minute she looked up and saw him. The most challenging part was giving the reader enough Bennett even when his voice wasn’t as loud in my head, which sounds a bit odd perhaps. But just as he is in the book he seemed fine with me taking things at my own pace. Marley, on the other hand, wouldn't shut up!

GWR: What were the most important characteristics and dynamic that you wanted Bennett and Marley’s relationship to have?

MM: It was important to me that both characters saw the other perhaps better than they saw themselves. Even knowing one another for such a short time they really see each other. They are each so supportive of the other and I think when you have two people who are constantly caring about others, it’s important for them each to have that person that cares for them with the same intensity. There is very much a sense of “If you love something let it go” in the book.

GWR: What do you hope readers will take away from An Unexpected Path?

MM: That not all photographers want to take pictures at every social function they are a guest at. I’m kidding, sort of. I’d love for readers to finish with a sense of hope and the realization that not every path we plan to travel down ends up where we expect it to, and that’s not always a bad thing.

GWR: If your book was a beverage, what would it be?

MM: Something warm and spiced like a hot apple cider.

GWR: What are you working on now?

MM: Books 2 & 3! Nellie and Teddy’s story and Sophie and Foster. I’ve introduced everyone except Foster so far, but he may be my favourite.

*A version of this post was published on STYLE Canada. 

It Happened One Christmas by Chantel Guertin

A special thank you to the author, Chantel Guertin, for a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

Will her Christmas wish come true?

Zoey Andrews lives and breathes Christmas. She loves everything about the season, and after years of directing countless holiday movies, she certainly knows her way around a festive tale. So, when she finally gets the chance to bring her own script to life, she isn't about to let anything, or anyone, stand in her way—not even the stupidly sexy, utterly frustrating plaid-clad tree farmer Benoît Deschamps. Moonlighting as mayor of Chelsea—the cozy Quebec hamlet at the centre of Zoey's screenplay—Ben maddeningly refuses to grant her a film permit in his enchanting town.

With just four days left before Christmas, Zoey must change Ben's mind, but not before an unscripted ice storm leaves them stranded in the middle of nowhere, with nothing except . . . each other.

Will Ben's chilly resolve shatter Zoey's Christmas movie wish? Or will Zoey be able to melt his stubbornness and maybe even his heart?

Not having much luck in her romantic life, Zoe writes her own holiday movie with a HEA. Her love for Christmas is only rivalled by her tenacity to get her film made.   

The grumpy/sunshine and forced proximity tropes work incredibly well. Geurtin has an impeccable ear for dialogue which is made apparent by both the cheeky banter and touching conversations. Zoe and Ben have interesting backstories that provide depth and insight into their characters and account for some of the more heartwarming scenes of the story. 

Much like Zoey, readers will feel an instant connection to Chelsea, Quebec. With its cozy shops, Christmas tree farm, and ties to Zoey's childhood, the setting becomes as much of a character as those that live there. It is also the perfect vehicle for Chantel to share her French-Canadian Christmas traditions with her readers.

With all of the charm and sparkle of a Christmas movie, It Happened One Christmas is the quintessential holiday rom-com.

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CHANTEL GUERTIN is the bestselling author of nine novels—five for adults and four for teens. 

Guertin lives in Toronto with her family.

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Q & A with Chantel Guertin*

GWR: This is your first holiday romcom, did you approach writing this book the same as your other novels? 

CG: This book had a super-tight deadline so that it could come out this Christmas. I had 2 months to write the book! So the outline was really important to make sure I knew the plot inside and out and didn’t stray off course. I always spend time in the setting of the book, but in this case, I used the trip to Chelsea, Quebec (where the book is set) as the kickoff session to write the book—and wrote the first half in a weekend. From there, I wrote at least 1,000 words a day to complete the first draft on time. I enjoyed this process because I proved to myself that I could do it, and meet my deadline. And the deadline made sure I didn’t indulge insecurities that I think most writers get, like “Is this terrible?” I had to believe that, given this is my 9th book, I know what I’m doing, and I could write the kind of book you can imagine being a holiday movie. And I think that I succeeded.

GWR: What was the inspiration for It Happened One Christmas?

CG: I wanted to set the book in Canada, since so many holiday romances are set in the US. My background is French-Canadian, and I’ve never read a English holiday romance set in Quebec, so I wanted to be able to add in all those delicious elements like la tire (maple syrup on snow), tourtière (meat pie), and Revéillon (the Christmas Eve celebrations). And aside from The Ice Storm (that 90s movie with Christina Ricci), I hadn’t experienced a movie or book set during an ice storm, which many Canadians have experienced. And that’s how the idea was born.

GWR: Give us your best Hollywood pitch for the book and who would you cast?

CG: An LA film director must convince the sexy—yet grumpy—mayor of a small town to give her the permit to shoot her Christmas move in his idyllic hometown. Starring Ana de Armas and Chris Evans.

GWR: What were the most important characteristics and dynamic that you wanted Zoey and Ben’s relationship to have? 

CG: I wanted Zoey and Ben to be complex characters who are both driven individuals, fighting for what’s important to them, and thinking about their futures, while holding on to their pasts. This struggle influences their every action and interaction. This is more than a holiday romance, it’s a story about how to move forward and carve out your future without letting go of who you are and where you came from.  

GWR: Do you have a favourite romance trope?

CG: Enemies to lovers. There’s so much space for witty banter!

GWR: What are some of your holiday traditions and did you incorporate any of them in the story?

CG: My father is French-Canadian, so growing up, we would always have a big celebration on Christmas Eve. My dad always made my grandmother’s tourtiere recipe from scratch, and we would open one gift before bed (pajamas). We’ve continued this tradition, so now my husband and children and I spend Christmas eve with my side of the family, and then back at home before bed, we all open our pajamas. It’s such a fun tradition, and everyone loves it.

GWR: If your book was a beverage, what would it be?

CG: Hot chocolate with marshmallows. And maybe a splash of Bailey’s, because, why not?

GWR: Can you tell us what you are working on?

CG: After two books out in one year, I’m taking my time with the next idea, but I’m excited about it!

*A version of this post was published on STYLE Canada. 

Three Holidays and a Wedding by Uzma Jalaluddin and Marissa Stapley

A special thank you to the author team and Viking Canada for an ARC, and Libro.fm for an ALC, in exchange for an honest review.

Three times the holiday magic. Three times the chaos. 

As strangers and seatmates Maryam Aziz and Anna Gibson fly to Toronto over the holidays—Maryam to her sister’s impromptu wedding, and Anna to meet her boyfriend’s wealthy family for the first time—neither expect that severe turbulence will scare them into confessing their deepest hopes and fears to one another. At least they’ll never see each other again. And the love of Maryam’s life, Saif, wasn’t sitting two rows behind them hearing it all. Oops. 

An emergency landing finds Anna, Saif, Maryam, and her sister’s entire bridal party snowbound at the quirky Snow Falls Inn in a picture-perfect town, where fate has Anna’s actor-crush filming a holiday romance. As Maryam finds the courage to open her heart to Saif, and Anna feels the magic of being snowbound with an unexpected new love—both women soon realize there’s no place they’d rather be for the holidays.

Told from alternating viewpoints, Three Holidays and a Wedding is a charming, feel-good holiday rom-com that opens with an epic friend meet-cute. 

The premise is delightful, as are the diverse cast of characters. Maryam and Anna are complex, yet are relatable. Readers will resonate with the challenges and expectations that are placed upon them whether they are cultural, societal, or familial. Both arcs are equally compelling and their personal growth become the focus of the story—Anna's self-worth and Maryam's second chance at love. Also a bit of departure for a romance novel is that Maryam and Anna's friendship is just as important as their romantic relationships.  

Filled with festive cheer, tropes, and family drama, Three Holidays and a Wedding is Christmas, Hanukkah, and Ramadan all wrapped up into a sparking and festive package!

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UZMA JALALUDDIN is a teacher and also writes a funny parenting column named 'Samosas and Maple Syrup' for the Toronto Star, Canada's largest daily newspaper.

She resides in Toronto with her husband and children.

MARISSA STAPLEY is a journalist and the bestselling author of Mating for Life, Things to Do When It's Raining, The Last Resort, and Lucky which has been optioned for television. 

Stapley lives in Toronto with her family.

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Q & A with Uzma Jalaluddin and Marissa Stapley*

GWR: How did the partnership come about?

Marissa: A few years ago, we were chatting and commiserating about some of the film/tv options for our various books, and how we’d love to someday write our own screenplay. Uzma mentioned an idea she’d had about the confluence of Christmas, Hanukkah, and Ramadan, something that happens every thirty years—and happened most recently in 2000. As she talked about how the stores were full of shoppers, the markets were empty of baking ingredients, and the airports were jammed, an idea began to take shape. It percolated for a long while before we reconnected on it and decided we’d like to write a novel that could be easily adapated into a classic multi-holiday film! 

Uzma: When Marissa first broached the idea of turning my idea of a multifaith holiday romcom movie into a novel, I was intrigued but also surprised. I had never thought about it, though in hindsight I should have, as it was a great idea! I was in the middle of finishing edits on my last novel, Much Ado About Nada while also teaching high school, so I asked her for some time to think about it—two weeks, I think. When I had a minute to consider, I realized it would be a lot of fun, with real potential to do something different in the genre. Marissa had written holiday romcoms before, so I knew we would be in good hands. 



GWR: Were you inspired by any holiday movies or other holiday rom-coms?

Marissa: I think we first imagined it as a sort of multifaith Love, Actually or Let it Snow! I think all the holiday (and Bollywood!) films we’ve ever seen inspired our sweet, inclusive, very fun story. We knew we wanted to have fun, and we knew we wanted to make people from many cultures and faiths feel seen. Personally, I was also inspired to write a book like this because I was raised in multifaith homes, with a Jewish stepmother, two Jewish half-brothers, and a Christian minister stepfather. We always celebrated both Christmas and Hannukah, and this has always added such a richness to the fabric of my life, and an understanding that there can be more to the holiday season than Christmas celebrations.

Uzma: I love holiday movies, but they always came from a very specific, very Christmas focused perspective. I’ve learned so much about Christmas from watching holiday movies, and I thought—why not make them more inclusive by adding other holidays that are important to other faiths? Growing up in a Muslim household, the month of Ramadan, and the celebration of Eid that follows, is an incredibly special time of year. There’s so much food, sharing, acts of charity, and joy at this time of year, with the same quintessential quirks that are part of any holiday tradition. I would have loved to read a book, or watch a movie, that included some of those special traditions that made the holidays I celebrate unique. 

GWR: Tell us about the writing process—with two main characters, did you each tackle one? 

Marissa: Yes, I wrote the Anna character, who, like me, celebrated Christmas and Hannukah growing up. It was a lovely experience to write this character alongside Uzma’s Maryam, and learn so much about the Muslim faith and the meaningful celebrations of Ramadan. I even fasted for a day—and Uzma patiently fielded my many hungry texts, while also guiding me toward an understanding of the reason behind the fasting, what it’s like not to have sustenance, and the acts of charity this can promote. I was also moved by the idea of community so prevalent in the Muslim faith, which made me reflect on my own customs, beliefs and background. What I noted in the end was the throughline: as our epigraph in the novel says, it’s all “just one light.” No matter your faith or background, coming together is possible if you’re willing to listen, learn and accept both differences and similarities. 

Uzma: This novel was my first foray into a writing partnership, and I learned a lot! It was fun to have the immediate feedback from a fellow seasoned writer. We made ourselves laugh so often, and the entire process was truly joyful. I also realized that both Christmas and South Asian culture shares a colour scheme of red and green. Writing can be a lonely profession, so for the time we worked on this novel together, it felt like I had a partner in the trenches. We both were the experts, and respected each other’s approach while providing feedback. It was intense and whirlwind—just like the holidays! 

GWR: Give us your best Hollywood/Bollywood pitch for the book.

UJ & MS: A multi-faith holiday rom-com about the delightful havoc that occurs when Christmas, Ramadan, and Hanukkah all fall at the same time, and two strangers-turned-friends are snowbound in the small, charming town of Snow Falls along with the cast and crew of a holiday romance movie, nosy family members, and their lifelong crushes.

Also, we’ve done some dream-casting! 

Maryam: Mehwish Hayat

Saif: Fawad Khan

Anna: Lily Collins

Josh/Chase: Justin Baldoni



GWR: What are some of the most important characteristics and dynamics that you wanted the relationships (romantic/friend/familial) in the story to have? 

Marissa: I love including friendships in the rom-coms I write, and I loved the way the friendship between Anna and Maryam, which seemed unlikely at first since they had such different personalities and backgrounds, blossomed and grew throughout the story. To me, their relationship was just as important as the romantic ones! I also love family dynamics, and we made plenty of space for that here. Although Anna’s family was not as present in the story as Maryam’s, they still cast a long shadow and affected her deeply—which I think is so true to life; our backgrounds and roots are always so important to who we become. 

Uzma: I can’t seem to stop myself from including lots of family dynamics in all the stories I write. This is likely a result of growing up in a large South Asian family scattered all over the world. I wanted to include the joys and havoc of family in our book, and make sure to include multi-generational storylines. I have a feeling readers will fall in love with Dadu, Maryam’s grandfather, a retired Bollywood film director and a total romantic! I also wanted to explore the sense of responsibility and loyalty that eldest daughters of immigrants carry in their families (speaking from personal experience!) which are a result of a deep sense of love and loyalty. The friendship that organically grows between Maryam and Anna is also very special, as is the sisterly bond between Maryam and Saima. 



GWR: Can you speak to what holiday traditions mean to you and if you incorporated them into the story?

Marissa: I really enjoyed incorporating some of the holiday foods I enjoyed as a child and teen—such as rugelach, brisket, and especially potato latkes—plus Christmas cookies and other holiday baking.  And then, everything I love most about Christmas was included, too: most especially, candlelight Christmas eve services, which have long been an important family tradition and are all the more special because they take place at my stepdad’s church; Christmas pageants; and the general, joyful spirit of love and giving that is the spirit of the season. These traditions are mine and my family’s north stars in so many ways, and repeating them every year is such a comfort. 

Uzma: Special foods are integral to every holiday, and Ramadan is no different. Since this is a month of fasting, families typically eat together early in the morning, before the sun rises, and then break fast together at sunset. I enjoyed including descriptions of chai, samosas, and special desserts that a typical Hyderabadi Indian family would make for this time of year. In addition, Maryam’s family finds a tiny mosque in the small town, where they attend evening prayers that are important to them. And since her grandfather is a retired Bollywood director, they also watch movies together!

GWR: What do you hope readers will take away from Three Holidays and a Wedding?

Marissa: I return to the epigraph of the novel, the idea that although the world is full of many cultures, traditions, faiths and backgrounds that make us different, we are all human and – if we’re doing it right – we are all committed to peace, love, and inclusiveness. Especially in the age we’re living in, where world events have caused such divisiveness and there is much darkness and pain around the world, some of the concepts this book puts forth might seem idealistic, but I want to believe a world like Snow Falls can be possible, one where many faiths and cultures co-exist, make space for each other, are not threatened by each other, and seek to listen and learn from each other. I also hope the takeaway is, quite simply, joy! This book was a true pleasure to write, and a collaboration I won’t soon forget. In fact, I hope as a writer I get to return to Snow Falls one day! It’s a book that’s meant to make people feel happy. I think we’ve definitely accomplished that with this charming tale. 

Uzma: Representation of different people and experiences is always important to me. I hope through this story, my readers will feel the comfort of recognizing their own authentic experiences on the page, or perhaps learn something new. We are all different, even when we belong to the same culture or ethnicity, and yet one thing we share is the need to be loved and accepted. I hope readers who pick up our special book will enjoy watching such disparate people find joy in each other’s company, despite their differences – or maybe because of them!



GWR: If you book was a beverage, what would it be?

Marissa: A chai-spiced hot chocolate with extra whip?

Uzma: Nothing beats a cup of chai, leave out the hot chocolate for me!

GWR: 

What’s next for you both?

Marissa: My next solo novel, The Lightning Bottles (Simon & Schuster, October 2024), takes place in the 90s and is about an alternative music megastar (think Kurt Cobain) who goes missing at the height of his fame. The story follows his wife (who is also his bandmate) as she embarks on a life-changing European road trip to find out if he’s still alive—and if they can reconcile after all they’ve been through.  But I’ve also got more holiday rom coms coming, under the new pen name Julia McKay. Next fall, I’ll be releasing The Holiday Honeymoon Switch (Putnam/Penguin Canada) for fans of The Holiday Swap and The Unhoneymooners, about best friends who trade one’s cabin Christmas vacation for the other’s Hawaiian honeymoon after she’s left at the altar—and both find love they weren’t expecting. 

Uzma: My next solo project is a bit of a departure for me, but something I’ve been wanting to write for years—a mystery! I’m a big fan of the genre, ever since I picked up my first Agatha Christie novel as a teenager, and I’ve been wanting to try writing my own ever since. Right now, I’m in the early stages of drafting. My first adult mystery features an older woman, a South Asian detective who solves crimes in her Toronto community. A sort of desi Miss Marple, except I plan to tackle a lot of social issues including organized crime, family dynamics, grief, gentrification, identity and immigration, alongside the mystery-solving. But at its heart, the novels will be about the many ways ambition is limited by personal circumstance, and the fun of following along as an older woman who thought life had passed her by, figures out her next act! 

*A version of this post was published on STYLE Canada. 

Jean Kwok in Conversation

Photo credit: Girl Well Read. Do not use without permission.

Jean Kwok visited the North York Central Library in Toronto to talk about her new book, The Leftover Woman. 

A young Chinese woman gives birth to a baby girl and is told shortly after delivery that the baby has died. Jasmine grieves deeply for her daughter. A few years later she learns that her husband put their baby up for adoption—another casualty of China’s One Child Policy. Jasmine flees from her controlling husband to track down her daughter in New York City. The parallel narrative also involves the adoptive mother, Rebecca. She is a wealthy white woman who has a doting husband, high-profile career, and beautiful home. 

Publishing plays a paramount role in the story. Rebecca is an editor-in-chief at a legacy publisher who is dealing with an imminent scandal in order to save her career. Kwok gives her readers a glimpse of the world of publishing and uses it as one of the bridges to the theme of the patriarchy which Jasmine also faces in both China and the west.  

Jean explained that the title of the book is a play on the term “leftover woman” which refers to the women in China who are in their late twenties and are unmarried. It carries a negative connotation as it implies that they are somehow “leftover,” or undesirable. Jasmine: “In China, I'd seen posters warning girls of the danger of becoming leftover women, women that no one wanted. Leftover like scraps on a table, uneaten food, both a sacrilege and wasteful, something that should have nourished our country squandered and turned into rubbish: unwarned, purposeless, of no use to anyone. I was a leftover woman, I realized. After everyone else had carved away what they wanted to see in me and taken what they desired, I was all that was left." 

Kwok's writing is often praised for its authentic portrayal of the immigrant experience and the complexities of navigating different cultures. She often brings her own experiences into her books having come from a very traditional Chinese family where she is the youngest of seven. In terms of gender and age, she is at the bottom of her family hierarchy much like Jasmine. Jean also said that there is a lot of her in Rebecca as well—a modern woman trying to do it all. 

The Leftover Woman is about two mothers, two worlds, and one impossible choice.

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JEAN KWOK is the author of the bestselling Girl in Translation, Mambo in Chinatown, and Searching for Sylvie Lee, which was chosen as The Today Show Read with Jenna Book Club Pick. Jean received her bachelor’s degree from Harvard and completed an MFA in fiction at Columbia. She worked as an English teacher and Dutch-English translator at Leiden University in the Netherlands, and now writes full-time.

Kwok was born in Hong Kong and immigrated to Brooklyn as a young girl. 

The Christmas Wager by Holly Cassidy

A special thank you to the publisher, Viking, for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

One rivalry. Eight days until Christmas. Let the holiday games begin.

When LA-based real estate developer Bella Ross arrives in the sleepy, mountain town of Maple Falls, she has one mission: to acquire the local failing Christmas shop, Always Noelle, securing the promotion of her dreams. Nothing can get in her way. Except the shop owner's stubborn grandson, Jesse Harrison.

Both refuse to budge, until an unlikely wager is struck: Bella and Jesse will compete in the Maple Falls Holiday Games, an annual tradition of eccentric feats of strength and skills. Winner decides the selling price. They'll give each other a run for their money, but as the competition heats up, Bella and Jesse's icy feelings toward each other begin to thaw. It'll take a Christmas miracle for them to admit there's a spark, but what if it's just another game?

The Christmas Wager is not your typical rom-com, it's a rom-competition. 

Told from alternating perspectives, the story is perfectly-paced by the holiday games. In this enemies-to-lovers tale, Bella and Jesse have incredible chemistry—readers won't know who to root for. Cassidy strikes the perfect balance between wit and romance.

Maple Falls is just as charming as the supporting cast. The secondary characters are not only endearing, but they really bolster the themes of community and family. 

This sparkling Christmas romance has it all—charm, banter, clever games, and all the small-town feels. The Christmas Wager is the perfect holiday read! 

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HOLLY CASSIDY/HANNAH MARY MCKINNON was born in the UK, grew up in Switzerland, and moved to Canada in 2010. After a successful career in recruitment, she quit the corporate world in favour of writing.

She now lives in Oakville, Ontario, with her husband and three sons.

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Q & A with Holly Cassidy*

GWR: As an author of both rom-com’s and thrillers, does your writing process differ, or do you approach each the same way?

HC: In thrillers, the pressure of coming up with a twist at the end that nobody will see coming is immense. That pressure fell away, which felt great…until I realized while the expectation would be for my characters to end up together, I had to find unique obstacles (literally in this case) to pepper their journey with. Writing romance isn’t easy, either!

Other than that, I approached this book the same way I did my others—with a detailed outline, character interviews, and an approximate sketch of Maple Falls. I can’t write until I know (or think I know) the major plot points and the ending. Without those I meander around like a person in the forest with no map, wondering where I’m headed.

GWR: What was the inspiration for The Christmas Wager? 

HC: In short: the year 2020. My mum passed away a couple of months after the pandemic hit and I couldn’t get to Switzerland to say goodbye. It was one of the most gut-wrenching, guilt-inducing experiences of my life. During that time, I worked on my sixth book, the thriller Never Coming Home under my real name, Hannah Mary McKinnon. Although it’s crime fiction, it turned out to be funny (dark and twisted humour, but humour nonetheless) and that happened because I needed to escape someplace where I could laugh when everything else felt so desperate.

I enjoyed writing the humor so much, it got me thinking—could I go back to my romantic-comedy roots (my first book, Time After Time, was a rom-com). If so, how, and when would I do that? I didn’t want to stop writing thrillers but do both if possible, so I played around with a few ideas. To be honest, I didn’t do much with them until my agent asked if I’d thought about writing a romantic-comedy. Now that’s what I call serendipitous! I had so much fun working on The Christmas Wager and bringing Bella and Jesse together. It was truly a delight to explore the lighter side of life before going back to my fictional murderous ways. Writing crime and romantic-comedies has turned out to be a great balance for me.

GWR: Maple Falls sounds like the perfect place to spend the holidays—was this inspired by somewhere you have lived and/or visited?

HC: Gosh, I wish it were real because I’d visit all the time…or I’d live there. I grew up in Interlaken, Switzerland, and drew on my thirty-five-plus years of experience skiing in the Swiss Alps. Maple Falls is an amalgamation of the towns and villages I’ve visited there: Grindelwald, Saas-Fee, Verbier, Wengen, and Zermatt, to name only a few. There’s also a lesser-known place called Schwarzsee, which is at the end of a valley and has a lake, exactly like Maple Falls. It’s so beautiful, and I can’t wait to return to the mountains.

GWR: Do you have a favourite character in the book?

HC: Other than Bella, Jesse, and Pops, Gladys from the Merryatrics made me laugh so much. I want to be like her when I grow up. Full of mischief and mayhem! Ooh, and Buddy the Belgian shepherd was a firm favorite. I based him on my childhood pet.

GWR: Can we just take a moment to appreciate the Holiday Games… How did you come up with these? Have you played any of them before?

HC: Back in Switzerland, when I worked for an IT recruitment company, we held annual Christmas parties. One year we decided “just” having dinner wasn’t enough fun, so we added team games. When we played the Human Singing Christmas Tree, everyone had such a great time and it turned out to be our best party in a decade. Thankfully, I didn’t have to sing because I’d have been worse than Bella, but that game was definitely my favourite to write.

As for choosing the games, I love to bake so Munchable Movie Magic was a quick decision. I imagined other outdoor events because Maple Falls is so pretty, and because I’ve participated in a winter obstacle course called Polar Rush a couple of times. It was hilarious…and freezing. The one game I’d like to try is Dead Dead Snowman as it would satisfy the crime writer in me, ha ha.

GWR: Christmas is a holiday that is steeped in tradition—what are some of your favourites and did you incorporate any of them into the book? 

HC: When our sons were younger, we’d leave cookies and milk for Santa, and carrots for Rudolph, of course. Seeing the excitement in their eyes was magical and we tried to keep them believing for as long as possible. I adore Christmas Eve and it’s my favourite holiday. Unfortunately, we don’t have any family close by, so typically the five of us (we have three sons) eat dinner, play card games, and watch a movie before opening one gift each. On Christmas Day we forgo the turkey and have raclette, a Swiss meal of melted cheese, potatoes, pickles, and salads. Yum! These traditions have been passed down from our families. My husband, Rob, opened a gift on Christmas Eve with his, and I played card games and ate raclette on Christmas Day with mine. I hope our sons will continue them, as traditions also help us remember those we’ve lost, and who hold a special place in our hearts.

The one family tradition I included in the book is a home-made Advent calendar, which also happened to be the inspiration for the next Holly Cassidy book!

GWR: Is there significance to your pen name? And can you tell us about the next Holly Cassidy book?

HC: That’s an easy one. Holly for the holidays. Cassidy because it means “curly-haired” (if you look at my author photo, you’ll see why we chose it) and HC stands for Happy Christmas. Yes! I’m excited to share that there’s another Holly Cassidy book in the works for 2024. I can’t wait to share more details about my new couple, Callie and Marco—and the very special cat Dazey Rocket.

GWR: If your book was a beverage, what would it be?

HC: It’s got to be a hot chocolate with marshmallows and whipped cream! Sweet, fun, and indulgent.

GWR: Can you share what you are working on now?

HC: My ninth book (as yet untitled) is another Hannah Mary McKinnon thriller about the rise and violent demise of the all-female pop-rock band called The Bittersweet, and is set to publish in July 2024. It’s written from the drummer, Vienna’s point of view and it’s a dark and twisted tale. I’d say it’s my most ambitious suspense novel yet, not only because it features two distinct parts, blog posts, radio interview transcripts, and newspaper articles, but because it’s about the music industry, which was a world I didn’t know well at all. It was such fun to research and write, and I can’t wait for the release.

*A version of this post was published on STYLE Canada.