Amy Lea on the balance of writing unlikely pairings in her latest East Coast rom-com
CBC Radio | Posted: May 3, 2024 8:12 PM | Last Updated: May 3
The Ontario writer spoke of The Catch, the final book in her bestselling novel trilogy
When Amy Lea set out to write a trilogy of rom-coms about social media influencers, it was partly in homage to the online bookish communities that first made her a romance reader as an adult. In the third novel, The Catch, a distinctly Nova Scotian town makes the setting of a swoon-worthy story to escape in.
Influencer Melanie Karlsen finds herself in a rural fishing village on Canada's east coast when she's taken aback by the burly and grumpy bed-and-breakfast owner Evan Whaler. Weren't Canadians supposed to be nice? After a boating accident sends Evan to the hospital, his family mistakes Melanie for his fiancée.
The two strike up a deal: she'll fake their engagement for one week if Evan helps her create some social media content.
Lea is an Ottawa-based contemporary romance writer and Canadian bureaucrat. Her previous novels include Woke Up Like This, which was on the Canada Reads 2024 longlist, Exes and O's and Set on You.
Lea joined The Next Chapter's Ali Hassan to talk about being a rom-com writer over the past few years.
In this book, Evan is the lobster fisherman from Nova Scotia, the grump. When he first meets Mel, the influencer, she comes across as a fashionable city girl who might be a bit high maintenance. Then he begins to realize that there's more to Mel than meets the eye. What does he and we as the reader learn about her?
So Mel, in the beginning of the book, is very glamorous. She comes across as very perfect and unfiltered on social media and as you continue to read her character, you come to realize that she comes from a very humble background, her parents were not well off and she has really worked hard to be able to portray this kind of lifestyle. It really comes from a lot of insecurity and the thing that I wanted to really portray with her is that yes, she loves to embrace fashion, she loves makeup and all of those types of things and that's okay.
I wanted to really portray with her is that yes, she loves to embrace fashion, she loves makeup and all of those types of things and that's okay. - Amy Lea
I think beauty is very difficult in society for women to navigate because for a woman either you don't meet the mold and you're considered undateable or you do but it's too much and it's too overt. People sometimes view those who have, for example, work done as being automatically fake and shallow.
I think that I wanted Evan to realize that there is a lot more to her and this front that she puts on is not as it seems.
[Mel] could not be further from who we see Evan as, salt of the sea type of person here. How tough is that?... Do you already know how those boundaries or barriers are going to come down when you start writing or is that sometimes a challenge for you too to see how these two are going to finally connect?
I am a huge fan of opposites attract when it comes to the dynamic. I think my goal when I set out to write a book is I always start with the heroine and I figure out who she is as a person, what drives her, what their goals are and their personality. I figure out what they are missing in their life and I always try to give them a person who is going to perfectly complement that and give them someone that they really need.
For Mel, not only does Evan come with the family that she so longs for, but also is somebody who is going to accept her exactly as she is. He really enjoys her appearance, her extra-ness, embraces it and doesn't ask her to change.
Why did you decide to bring this story to Cora's Cove, Nova Scotia, a village with exactly one bar?
I think there's a couple of reasons. When I first started writing, I actually didn't realize that we could set books in Canada just because I was going with an American publisher, most books are published in the United States, so I kind of assumed that people wouldn't want to read about Canadian settings and so that's why I put my setting in Boston. But then as romance had this resurgence, I did see some romances that were set in Canada.
I just thought I have to do the East Coast in Canada because I personally love the East Coast. I've been there when I was younger and just fell in love with it.
I always enjoy when the setting of a book kind of becomes a character in and of itself. - Amy Lea
I love all things nautical and in particular when it comes to Cora's Cove I always enjoy when the setting of a book kind of becomes a character in and of itself because of the quarks and very specific things that happen in small towns. I'm also from a small town as well in Northern Ontario and so I think there's just something really cozy about it and having people in your business. I think it changes the trajectory and just the overall vibe of the book.
I found it very interesting that you used social influencers to centre your three novels around, because at first it doesn't seem like fodder for romance. I wanted to ask you about your own relationship with social media and how that's developed during the time that you've been writing all three of these books.
Actually, I [came] back into loving romance because of social media. As a reader, before I started writing again, I found what they call Bookstagram, which is Instagram but basically everybody is there to talk about books.
That was something that was really exciting to me because I had found romance books again, but I didn't have a lot of people in my real life who also read those same books and when you really love a book, you want to talk about it.
So I found this whole community online and that was something that I really enjoyed doing, I always posted about these books. As an author, my relationship with Instagram has had to change because I don't necessarily think that it's appropriate to be reviewing peers and I see other authors as peers. I kind of had to switch my strategy a little bit and really just use social media now to promote my books — and to hype up other authors' books that I really like.
This is the final novel in the trilogy. How does it feel to say goodbye to the three women that you've been writing about for the last few years?
It's very bittersweet. I think I really set out to write these three friends who you know go through ups and downs and find love in the end and battle with social media and I think that I really fell in love with them and their journeys. But I am excited to start something new because when you write a series you're kind of constrained by the world that is set out in book one.
So I'm excited to close the chapter, also sad, but excited to start fresh and write without any sort of previously laid out characters and setting in situations.
This interview has been edited for clarity and length.