The Book Tour by Emily Ohanjanians

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

Despite her popular podcast and sold-out speaking events, Ana Movilian still feels like she has to prove herself. To her family, who can't believe she quit med school to build an influencer career, and to literary snobs, who decry her buzzy self-help book. Happily, her upcoming book tour is the perfect chance to show the world just how bright her star can shine.

That is, until her beloved publicist resigns the night before their plane is set to take off, announcing that her replacement is none other than Ryan bleeping Grant.

Ryan specializes in highbrow, "important" books, and his perma-scowl in every interaction with Ana makes one thing clear: he does not get her book. Or her. He’s the last person who should be promoting her work, the last person she should be stuck with for two weeks . . . and the last person who should look that damn good in business casual.

As they travel from city to city, however, Ana's assumptions about Ryan take new shape. A decidedly more appealing shape. Soon, their growing attraction starts to feel like a ticking time bomb. But crossing that line could derail each of their careers faster than you can say "conflict of interest," and they both have bigger dreams at stake than the bestseller list.

Editor Ohanjanians offers a glimpse into publishing industry in her stellar debut. 

Written from Ana's point of view, this novel checks all the boxes—grumpy/sunshine, forced proximity, forbidden romance, opposites attract, and a healthy dose of steam! (This is an open door romance.) Also refreshing is Ohanjanians' leading lady. Ana, a second-generation Armenian, is intelligent, self-sufficient, and feisty. She experiences tremendous personal growth while navigating grief and managing cultural/familiar expectations. Also refreshing, Ana and Maral's relationship is just as important as the romance.    

The Book Tour will have readers swooning with its sizzling chemistry, smart banter, and steamy scenes.

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EMILY OHANJANIANS lives with her family in Toronto, Canada, where she works as a professional book editor. After many years on the other side of the desk, she decided to parlay a lifelong love of joyous, escapist, romantic stories into her own writing. The Book Tour is her first novel. 

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Q & A with Emily Ohanjanians*

GWR: Are you a pantser/gardener or a plotter/architect?

EO: I’m about as plotter as it gets. I applaud anybody who can pants their way through a story, it feels like absolute witchcraft to me! My brain just doesn’t work that way—I need a map to follow.

GWR: As a publishing professional, what is your favourite part of the process? Was there anything you found surprising being on the author side? 

EO: My first love is editing. Working with an author to help their story reach its full potential is just so fulfilling. Now on the author side, I still find that editing is my favourite part! I wouldn’t say I was surprised at how challenging drafting is, but I definitely find that blank page intimidating. Revising and editing that draft afterwards is where I really come alive—and so does the story. I’m also lucky to be able to work with incredible editors whose insights help make my work so much better.

GWR: What advice would you give to Ana if you were her editor? 

EO: Chill. LOL. Maybe more like, harness the chaos. Ana is full of energy and ideas, and my job as her editor would be to help streamline her storytelling into a cohesive narrative. 

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

EO: A lively debut author is forced to go on a two-week national book tour with her grumpy publicist, aka the last person on earth she’d ever choose to promote her work—only for very inconvenient sparks to fly between them.  

GWR: Do you let your characters tell you who they are, or do you decide their attributes? 

EO: I decide who I want them to be upfront, but as the story develops they definitely evolve and I have to rethink some of those initial attributes! The core of who they are remains the same but details may shift and recalibrate as I draft and revise.

GWR: This novel is as much about a romantic relationship as it is about female connection. What were the most important characteristics and dynamics that you wanted Ana and Ryan’s relationship to have, as well as Ana’s with Maral?

EO: Story is about character evolution, and I knew that the dynamic between the characters would have to serve each of those characters’ specific transformations within the story. Maral and Ryan are both grounding forces for Ana, who operates at a very different energy level than them—they make her feel safe and accepted and allow her to see that she doesn’t have to perform a persona at all times. She can just be herself. In turn, Ana is the ultimate hype woman, and knowing her gives Maral and Ryan each the push they need to pursue life on their own terms.  

GWR: The Book Tour features some of the best romance tropes—grumpy/sunshine, forced proximity, forbidden romance—what is your favourite trope to write and what is your favourite to read?

EO: I love tension and chemistry, so forced proximity offers a lot of opportunity to explore those elements in a really fun way. I’m always drawn to fake-relationship stories, though I haven’t written one myself yet. My ultimate favourite to read and write may be he falls first—I’m just a sucker for it, and will likely find some way to work that into any book I write!

GWR: You used depth through the inclusion of grief, as well as Ana navigating cultural expectations, as a counterbalance to the romance—why was it important to include these elements in the story?

EO: I wanted Ana’s internal conflict to be at once personally and universally relatable. Whether people grow up in an immigrant household or not, everyone has experienced some level of expectation that puts pressure on their choices. We all play different roles in different spheres of our lives, so I thought that “foot in two worlds” experience may resonate broadly with readers. Ana’s grief is an unresolved trauma that continues to colour her perception of love. If the people who claim to love you don’t “allow” your big emotions, then you can’t bring your whole self into that relationship. One of Ana’s big lessons in the story is that someone who loves you the way you deserve to be loved will accept all of you.

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

EO: Dark roast coffee, of course. IYKYK.

GWR: What are you working on now?

EO: My second novel is a sports romance set in the professional tennis world, about two pro tennis players who have to pair up to play mixed doubles at Wimbledon. It’s swoony and romantic and has a lot of delicious forced-proximity tension!

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

Out of the Woods by Hannah Bonam-Young

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

High school sweethearts Sarah and Caleb Linwood have always been a sure thing. For the past seventeen years, they have had each other’s backs through all of life’s ups and downs, achievements, losses, stages, and phases.

But Sarah has begun to wonder... Who is she without her other half?

When she decides to take on a project of her own, a fundraising gala in memoriam of her late mother, Sarah wants nothing more than to prove to herself—and to everyone else—that she doesn’t need Caleb’s help to succeed. She’s still her mother’s daughter, after all. Independent and capable.

That is until the event fails and Caleb uninvitedly steps in to save the day.

The rift that follows unearths a decade of grievances between them and doubts begin to grow. Are they truly the same people they were when they got married at nineteen? Are they supposed to be?

In a desperate attempt to fix what they fear is near breaking, Sarah and Caleb make the spontaneous decision to join a gruelling hiking trip intended to guide couples through rough patches.

What follows is a life-affirming comedy of errors as two nature-averse people fight their way out of the woods in order to find their way back to their roots.

Bonam-Young's companion novel to Out on a Limb features a marriage in trouble trope that's skewered with young love. Told in a dual timeline, it is an exploration of Sarah and Caleb's relationship as well as grief—how paralyzing loss can be. 

Out of the Woods tackles some weightier topics that Bonam-Young balances with witty banter and her exceptional supporting cast. Centred around loss, it is a novel that has incredible depth with a side of spice.

Readers will love the cameos from some beloved characters—Win, Bo, and Gus—and will be rooting for Sarah and Caleb.

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HANNAH BONAM-YOUNG is the author of Next of Kin, Next to You, Out on a Limb, and Out of the Woods. Hannah writes romances featuring a cast of diverse, disabled, marginalized, and LGBTQIA+ folks wherein swoon-worthy storylines blend with the beautiful, messy, and challenging realities of life. When not reading or writing romance you can find her having living room dance parties with her kids or planning any occasion that warrants a cheese board. 

Bonam-Young lives with her childhood friend turned husband, Ben, two kids, and bulldog near Niagara Falls on the traditional territory of the Haudenosaunee and Anishinaabe peoples.

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Q & A with Hannah Bonam-Young-Young*

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

HBY: It sounds so cliche but I've been writing as long as I can remember! I was the kid with her nose stuck in a book or a journal and often found my imagination a nicer place to exist than in the real world. It wasn't until the pandemic that I started writing again in a more serious, structured sense. I had two toddlers at home with me, while trying to work part-time from home as well, and I needed something in my day that was just for me. After a year or so, I wrote a book called Next of Kin that I felt pretty proud of. I sent it off to some family and friends and they all supported me in the decision to do something with it! Eventually that became self-publishing! After self-publishing my first three books (and a novella) I made the transition over to traditional publishing when I signed a book deal with Penguin Random House. Now, I get the pleasure of writing and releasing books with them!

GWR: Being a seasoned author, what is your favourite part of the publishing process? Is there anything that surprised you? 

HBY: I don't know if I would call myself a seasoned author just yet but thank you for the compliment, ha! My favourite part of the publishing process is definitely seeing the fully finished cover for the first time. It always feels like a puzzle piece clicking into place. 

I think what surprised me the most was that in traditional publishing there are so many folks working to make the book a reality! I was a one-woman team for the most part before, so it's very cool to have a team of people working towards a common goal of making each book the very best it can be.

GWR: What comes first for you—the overall idea or the characters? 

HBY: Usually the idea is very vague, but necessary for me to start daydreaming, and then the characters are what sell me on whether I think the book is worth writing or not. If they are interesting to me or easy to reach, I'll always want to write their story! Often the idea becomes totally different too, once I get to know whose story it is.

GWR: Did you always want to tell Sarah and Caleb’s story? (Sarah and Caleb are introduced in Out on a Limb—this is a companion novel, but it is not necessary to read Out on a Limb first.) 

HBY: I did! I didn't necessarily think I would, because I wasn't convinced that Out on a Limb would do "well" enough to keep readers interested enough for a follow-up novel, but I did hope for the chance to write their story.

GWR: Out of the Woods features young love and marriage in crisis tropes—what is your favourite trope to write and what is your favourite trope to read?

HBY: My favourite trope to write, that I've written so far, is friends-to-lovers. I love reading it too! I think it's just so wholesome and messy and FUN.

GWR: What were the most important characteristics and dynamic that you wanted Sarah and Caleb’s relationship to have? I love that you also celebrate female friendship, so I’ll ask the same question about Sarah and Win’s relationship.

HBY: What was most important to me about Sarah and Caleb's dynamic was that they remained in love for the duration of the book. There's not a moment in Out of the Woods, or at least I hope there isn't, that the reader will doubt these two are very much in love and wanting to work on things. They have a really deep, layered, fundamental bond that isn't easily broken and while they have a lot of progress to make, they do love each other throughout it all. 

For Sarah and Win, their relationship is so pivotal to each of their individual character arcs. I love to say this but I found a lot of comfort in the fact that Win would have been totally fine in Out on a Limb if Bo had never met her for coffee—because she had Sarah! And if Sarah had needed to leave her marriage, Win would have helped her through it. They will always be there for each other.

GWR: How do you balance complex subject matter—loss, grief, toxic parental relationships, mental health—with the lighter elements of a romance novel? 

HBY: I think it's just about keeping things grounded in reality. Humans experience all of these heavier, "negative" emotions day after day—but we still feel joy amongst it! Having characters processing all of these very difficult things while simultaneously feeling hope is so necessary to me—because that's life. And hope can come through in many different forms... Sometimes it's silly, goofy banter. Sometimes it's sex. Sometimes it's light-hearted conversations to remind them that there's still more happiness to come. Without that balance, the story wouldn't feel worthwhile to me. Or, I'd get too sad writing it to keep going.

GWR: Which subjects do you wish more authors would write about?

HBY: I honestly don't know! I would love to see more limb difference representation, obviously. But every author has to figure out what story they want to tell, and we're being fed a lot of incredible books these days so I don't feel like I'm missing out! 

GWR: What do you hope readers will take away from Out of the Woods?  

HBY: That you can reinvent yourself at any stage of life. That it's never too late to figure out who you are and what you want! And, if you do have a partner, they should go on that discovery journey alongside you and support you through it.

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

HBY: If Out of the Woods was a beverage it would be black coffee from a thermos. Bitter, but comforting!

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

HBY: I'm finishing up copy edits on my upcoming September release, People Watching, while also writing my sixth book, People Pleasing. I cannot wait to share more about them! 

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