I’m so pleased to let you know that Completely, the final book in the New York trilogy, is available today in ebook from Penguin Random House’s Loveswept imprint.
All three of the books in the New York trilogy are about characters who have connections to New York and Wisconsin in different ways. Each novel tells the story of a couple who falls in love over the course of a week. But, for a series, these are three very different novels.
Truly is a forced-proximity romance: a book about a woman who simply can’t leave New York thrown together with a stranger who can’t seem to get rid of her. In Madly, our impulsive heroine has a big secret and a ticking time bomb. Desperate, she hooks up with someone who can help her resolve the mystery. And Completely begins with a disaster trope — an avalanche on the slopes of Mount Everest that creates instant connection between two people who are floundering.
That is to say, while the books share the same cast of characters, each explores a different entry point into romance. As a proximity story, Truly fully explores the enclosed-world appeal of a classic contemporary romance about two characters who are spending all their time together, sharing ideal and charming experiences that encourage their personal growth.
In its very title, by contrast, Madly suggests the rapid banter style of rom-com, with nutty constraints like a list of naughty things we’ve always wanted to do. It gives us a world that pulls in a larger cast and a wilder plot to up the madcap romantic comedy stakes.
Completely, finally, employs a disaster trope to explore the world of women’s fiction with strong romantic elements — complete with psychological layers, characters with significant pasts, and consideration of how cultural differences deepen and also challenge a couple’s connection.
It’s my way of saying, I see you, people who love a cozy, trapped-circumstance proximity story with a grumpy hero and a heroine who’s like you.
I love those romances, too.
I see you, rom-com fans who binge-watch The Mindy Project, adore Bridget Jones, and just love to laugh and see what will happen next with zany tropes and a high stakes.
I love those romances, too.
And I see you, readers who want to fall into characters’ psychological layers, learn about things you didn’t know about, and watch a story play out in a deeper way with characters who have significant pasts and are more experienced and older.
I love those romances, too.
We read for so many different reasons, and what we look for in our books is as personal and variable as we are as humans. Reading is action — selecting books, engaging with them, reflecting on them — and it is identity formation and confirmation — finding the book that means something to us right now, fills a need, confirms or introduces a belief. Books are doors into different worlds, motivating change and altering our behavior. They are mirrors, too, reflecting us back to ourselves, making us think about who we are and who we want to be.
Tomorrow is my fortieth birthday. The New York trilogy represents changes I went through in my life, as well as books I was reading and loving an author approaching mid-career. This is a series that brings to bear the maturation of a writer who loves the romance genre and has big hopes for it: for a diversity of books, and for a diversity of voices and writers, including the powerful voices of romance authors of color, and incorporating the challenging conversations in romance that have been a long time coming. These voices and conversations reflect romance authors and readers and how much our world has changed, as well as how much we change in our lives — which is a good thing.
Finally, the New York trilogy is a series that connects back to one of my very first romance novels, About Last Night. I know a lot of you found me with that book. So many of you have written over the years, What about Winston? Would you ever write a sequel? Because I want to know what happened to Nev and Cath. I was interested, too. The New York trilogy is a love letter to About Last Night, where I began, and a love letter to you who supported me and loved that book so much.
For this reason, Completely has possibly the schmoopiest epilogue of all time, a giant gift of a dozen roses with a fuzzy teddy bear Valentine that brings together all of the characters from both series — May and Ben and Nev and Cath and Allie and Winston and Rosemary and Kal, and all of their people and friends — in a setting that’s celebrating love and babies and happy endings. Where else can that happen but in romance?
I hope you enjoy Completely, and I look forward to more adventures ahead.
Buy Completely
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