When debut author Heather Frances told me she was a real-life storm chaser, I immediately asked if she loved Twister. She does. She’s also one of those people who got a scientific field guide to clouds as a seven-year-old gift and genuinely enjoyed it, which tells you everything you need to know about her and probably explains why her debut romance is set in Tornado Alley.
I had such a good time talking to Heather — and her book recs alone are worth the listen. But before we get to those, let me tell you about the book.
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Two rival storm-chasing photographers. A prestigious nature magazine cover contest. And then Wes’s car breaks down.
Sloane doesn’t want to win on a technicality, so against her better judgment she says: my car, my rules, let’s go. What follows is exactly the kind of forced proximity that makes romance readers lose their minds — two people stuck together in a car, in the middle of nowhere, with nowhere to hide from the feelings that have apparently been building for a while. (For the record: Wes already knows. Sloane is the last to figure it out. Everyone else can see it. It’s perfect.)
The black cat/golden retriever dynamic is very much alive here. Sloane is eldest-daughter coded — responsible, wrapped up in her own stuff, trying to hold it all together — and Wes just... falls first, and falls hard, and we get to watch it happen in single POV, which means we know everything Sloane doesn’t. It’s delicious.
Heather mentioned that the book started from a very practical creative question: what do I know that most people don’t, and how do I make that interesting? Storm chasing gave her the setting, the forced proximity logic (you are literally in a car with this person for hours, far from any town, completely dependent on each other), and a built-in metaphor for two people circling something dangerous and beautiful at the same time. She pulled it off.
If you watched Twisters and were personally offended that there wasn’t even a kiss at the end, this book is your consolation prize.
📚 Chase Me If You Can is available in paperback, ebook, and audio. Buy it here
One of my favorite things about author interviews is that the book recs reveal as much about the author as the interview itself. Heather’s picks were a really fun mix — dark romance with a sense of humor, a chef romance with ADHD rep that actually lands, a Scotland romcom with family baggage, and a messy FMC contemporary that made me feel genuinely seen. Here’s the rundown:
Heather called this “cozy dark romance,” which is a genre descriptor I am now adopting permanently. It’s darker, so check the content warnings first — but if it’s for you, she says it’s worth every page. You’ve got a black cat FMC and a sunshine MMC (Caine is, in her words, “SO down bad for Margot”), kink exploration that’s grounded in genuine emotional character work, and humor woven all the way through. Heather also mentioned it includes the most creative version of an MMC getting the FMC flowers she’s ever read, and now I need to know what that means.
📚 Prey for Me by Allie Oleander — Buy here
A grumpy tattooed chef. A sunshine FMC influencer who is smarter and more capable than anyone gives her credit for. And ADHD rep woven through both main characters — showing up differently for each of them, subtly and authentically, the way it actually does in real life rather than as a plot device.
Heather has ADHD herself, and she said Grace Reilly did something she found genuinely rare: she let the rep be present without making it the whole point. It just... pervades the characters the way it does in real life. That, plus the fact that the FMC is an influencer whose depth everyone underestimates, made this one land hard for her.
I also love that Heather admitted she’s a sucker for restaurant settings — she worked in restaurants through high school and college — which honestly tracks for someone whose comfort zone is niche worlds she knows deeply.
📚 Yes, Chef by Grace Reilly — Buy here
Heather visited the Scottish Highlands in September on a photography trip with her brother, and when she picked up this book she said Naina Kumar “absolutely nailed” the feeling of being there — the old-ness of the land, the grand landscapes, the particular spirit of Scotland that’s hard to describe if you haven’t experienced it.
The book follows two characters forced together through a series of escalating travel disasters, making their way through the Highlands up to Skye. But underneath the romcom setup is something Heather loves deeply: complicated family dynamics, an estranged father who was objectively not there, and a heroine who has to figure out as an adult what to do with all of that.
I’ll be honest — when Heather started talking about the FMC’s estranged father and what it means to face that as a grown woman, I felt it. She mentioned she doesn’t speak to her own father. I told her same. There’s a kind of conversation that opens up in those moments that I don’t think either of us planned for, and I think it’s part of why this episode felt like more than just a book chat.
If you love dysfunctional family dynamics in your romance — the kind where someone had to grow up too fast and is still quietly paying for it — this one is for you.
📚 Highland Fling by Naina Kumar — Buy here
I will always, always show up for a messy FMC. Not just “she’s a little quirky” messy — genuinely screwing things up, making bad choices, creating problems for herself, earning the reader’s frustration and love in equal measure. Heather is firmly in this camp, and Rachel Pologe delivers.
The heroine, Nora, is shaped by grief in ways she doesn’t fully see until she’s already made a mess of things with Henry. What Heather loved — and what I find genuinely refreshing in romance — is that when Nora does screw up, she doesn’t get immediately forgiven. She has to work for it. The book holds both things at once: you’re allowed to be messy, and you have to own your mistakes. That balance is hard to pull off, and apparently Rachel (who comes from a TV comedy writing background) does it while also delivering laugh-out-loud one-liners.
I want more of this in romance. Messy FMCs who are hard to be around sometimes, who are working through something real, who still deserve and eventually get their HEA. We contain multitudes. So should our heroines.
📚 Now That We Don’t Talk by Rachel Pologe — Buy here
All four of Heather’s recs were upcoming releases at the time we recorded, so if you’re reading this close to the episode drop, some of these may be pre-orders. Pre-orders genuinely matter for authors — especially debut and early-career authors — so if something catches your eye, that’s the nudge.
You can find Heather at heatherfrances.com and on Instagram and Threads. ⚠️ [insert confirmed handle before publishing]
And if you want to listen to the full conversation — the storm chasing origin story, the cloud field guide she got at age seven, and the moment we both admitted we don’t speak to our fathers — the episode is up now wherever you listen to podcasts.
🎧 Listen here | 📺 Watch on YouTube
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