I was speaking to a bookstagrammer friend a few months ago about how to describe the kind of books I write. It’s a balance, reassuring readers that my books are love stories promising an HEA (happily-ever-after) and all the fun tropes we love, but also trying to hint at why they should pick up mine rather than the many other WONDERFUL books out there.
An Italian Island Love Story is out today and it has one element I enjoy returning to: a single mum main character with a complicated past and family dynamics. I wouldn’t want to write all my books with these themes, but they are some of my favourites to work with, probably because I am a mother myself. One of my favourite scenes in this book is where Gabri, the love interest, meets Toni’s son Cillian for the first time. It was a pivotal moment I plotted the whole book around.
But I do enjoy exploring all different kinds of characters and settings, different dynamics between the characters, so I wouldn’t want to make something like ‘single mum romance’ my main niche. I have the travel element, which features in all of my books, my spicy sports romances, my spicy romcoms written as Lilo Moore and my destination romances, of which An Italian Island Love Story is one.
Apart from taking my readers to see a different place, what I most want to do with my writing, though, is touch readers emotionally, to bring them the complexity of human experience in a way that’s deep and maybe even transforms their perspective a little. That’s how I would describe what I strive for: psychological depth and complexity exploring the transformative nature of romantic love (within the framework of romance, with guaranteed HEA).
This is why I’m so thrilled with this review, the first from the Instagram book tour for An Italian Island Love Story:
It was…a deep-sea dive into emotions and self-image, how we see ourselves and our families before love, and how we have to relearn how to see ourselves in our new relationships. Wow, what an emotional journey.
pattierwr on Instagram
From my heart to yours, I hope you enjoy An Italian Island Love Story.
Leonie xx
PS If you’re interested in writing content, I post that on my website. I don’t post regularly, but that’s where you’ll find my musings on the genre, the industry and writing craft which I don’t bore you all with in my newsletter!
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