Q&A: Connie Kitson, Author of ‘The Love Code’

We chat with author Connie Kitson about The Love Code, which is a modern, secret enemies debut STEM romance set in the corporate tech world, think The Love Hypothesis meets You’ve Got Mail.

Hi, Connie! Can you tell our readers a bit about yourself?

Hi Nerd Daily and friends! I’m Connie, a London-based romance author, and my first STEM romance, The Love Code, is out next week! By day, I work in digital, having spent a large part of my career so far alongside app developers and UX designers as a channel manager, digital project manager, and also digital marketing manager. Part of my job was translating tech-speak into something that makes sense to stakeholders, whilst helping bring new digital products and improvements to life. So, writing a romance involving a very talented hacker felt (almost) like a natural progression.

When did you first discover your love for writing and stories?

I’ve been writing for as long as I can remember, although for much of my adult life that’s taken the form of blogs and feature writing rather than fiction. I used to write stories when I was very young, including a Famous Five-inspired radio play (which I forced my two brothers into recording with me).

When I was eighteen, I did a gap year in Paris working as an au pair to three pre-teen girls and one highly uncooperative Bichon Frisé, blogging about the whole experience with some very comedic entries. It was a pretty wild experience, and often incredibly stressful (picture me – an eighteen-year-old – driving around the Arc de Triomphe, trying to get three children to their tennis lessons somewhere in an unidentified location) but I’ve always been quite good at finding the funny side of even the most stressful situations as a way of coping.

Whilst working for a magazine as a publishing assistant (astonishingly, with no writing involved), I fell into digital, initially chasing the lure of getting to write social media posts and customer emails. It’s lovely to now be able to combine what I know with what I love.

Quick lightning round! Tell us:

• The first book you ever remember reading: All American Girl by Meg Cabot (but I also grew up on a lot of Enid Blyton, thanks to my mum seemingly owning every book!)
• The one that made you want to become an author: The Undomestic Goddess by Sophie Kinsella. It was probably the first book that made me really laugh, and I really fell in love with Kinsella’s style of writing.
• The one that you can’t stop thinking about: I think it has to beLove, Theoretically by Ali Hazelwood. There’s an early scene where Elsie has a hyperglycaemic episode and Jack (who she assumes hates her) steps in to look after her, and I just LOVE it. I have a weakness for fiercely independent women who insist they’re absolutely fine, while clearly not being fine at all, and the men who gently (but firmly) refuse to let them struggle alone. It’s my kryptonite. My all-time favourite micro-trope. I will never, ever get tired of it.

Your debut novel, The Love Code, is out November 17^th! If you could only describe it in five words, what would they be?

Hacking, yearning, secret identity, kissing.

Where did the inspiration for The Love Code come from?

I’d recently finished reading Check & Mate by Ali Hazelwood and loved the main character, Mallory Greenleaf, along with the idea of someone being immensely talented but reluctant to put it to good use. There’s this sense of wasted potential, of someone who has a skill that everybody underestimates, and I think that idea must have lodged itself somewhere in my subconscious.

Then, about a month later, I had a meeting at work with an email coder who was promising to build all sorts of bespoke features for some customer emails – and I remember thinking how incredible it is that you can create something entirely new from what is, essentially, nothing but lines of code. Well, not quite nothing, but nothing tangible, and it’s fascinating that so much of the world around us, from the apps on our phones to the websites we use every day, is built on something we can’t see or touch.

Having spent so much of my career working alongside app developers, I started thinking about how interesting it would be to write a character who had that sort of technical ability, wielding it for the purpose of revenge. I loved the idea of giving Jenna a skillset that was both incredibly powerful and completely underestimated by the people around her. But what really excited me was the romantic setup. I wanted to play with that You’ve Got Mail dynamic, where two people are unknowingly connected in one part of their lives, while developing feelings for each other in another. Except, in this case, one of them is secretly hacking into the other’s employer, and the other happens to be Head of Cybersecurity. I sat down and started writing that same evening, it was just something I had to get out of me.

The childhood friends/brother’s best friend element brings a whole other layer of history and romantic tension. They already know each other, there’s all that familiarity and suddenly they’re navigating these new feelings while Jenna is deliberately hiding something pretty significant. For me, that combination of secret identities, yearning, angst and the eventual emotional fallout when Kieran discovers who she’s really been all along was just too delicious not to write.

Were there any moments or characters you really enjoyed writing or exploring?

The moment that made me want to write this book in the first place is when Kieran realises Jenna is the hacker. It’s a fierce confrontation between them, and although they technically have two arguments about it, the second is where everything really clicks into place for him as to who Jenna really is. It’s the first scene I wrote, and the one I kept coming back to as I developed the rest of the story.

I love writing arguments. There’s so much tension and fire in them, and they usually play out like a film in my head. They’re the scenes that flow most naturally when I’m writing. But for me, this particular moment is also incredibly sexy – it’s Kieran finally realising just how intelligent and capable Jenna is, and the understanding dawning on him that she’s been several steps ahead of him all this time.

In terms of characters, Jenna’s best friend, Misha, is the most chaotic character in the book, and the one I felt I could have the most fun with. She can come across as a little shallow at first, but underneath, she’s a Canadian woman in her late twenties feeling the pressure of turning thirty, trying to squeeze as much out of life as possible and rotating different hobbies (and dates) every other week. She’s bisexual, wildly enthusiastic, unapologetically herself – an unstoppable bulldozer who steamrolls past “no,” and jumps into whatever catches her interest at full speed before deciding she’s over it three days later. They’re definitely opposites when it comes to their friendship, but I love that about them, and I’d say that’s pretty important in all relationships.

Did you face any challenges whilst writing? How did you overcome them?

I was hugely inspired by the way Ali Hazelwood weaves scientific concepts into her romances, making them feel like a natural part of the story rather than a science lesson squeezed between the kissing. I wanted to do something similar with technology and cybersecurity. The biggest challenge was learning enough about programming and hacking to write about it convincingly, without either resorting to a simplistic description of ‘lines of multi-coloured code on a screen’ or making readers feel as though they needed a computer science degree to follow along. I spent a lot of time researching, asking questions and getting my head around the terminology, then working out how to translate all of that into something accessible and entertaining.

The other challenge was balancing the hacking and revenge storyline with the romance. I wanted the hacking to feel integral to the plot, but ultimately, this is a love story and I wanted plenty of yearning, chemistry and swoon.

This is your debut novel! What was the road to becoming a published author like for you?

Like most things in publishing, it was a case of being fast, then very slow, then suddenly fast again. I was incredibly chuffed to sign with my agent at Watson, Little relatively early in my querying process and was very new to it, tracking my emails and reponses in my own spreadsheet, trying to work out the lingo as I went. The submission process took a little longer than we’d hoped, and then signing the actual contracts took around three months. There’s usually a lot of back and forth between agent and editor, which tends to take the excitement out of the ‘I’ve got a book deal!’ as you can’t really talk about it for ages.

Once everything was signed, however, things moved at break-neck speed. The edits, from structural changes through to proofreading, were all completed within four months, immediately followed by edits for my second book. It was a real whirlwind, and not a turnaround time I’d necessarily recommend if you enjoy sleeping.

It’s been a slightly surreal experience going from writing a book at home to seeing it become an actual published novel. I’m not sure that part will ever stop feeling exciting.

What’s next for you?

Next year is a big one for me. I have my second tech romance coming out, Love In Development, which I’m particularly excited for, and I always tell people it’s the book I always wanted to write as it draws much more closely on my own experiences working in app development. It also features a proper enemies-to-lovers setup within a tech start-up, complete with plenty of spiky banter. (“Don’t hold your breath. Or do. Blue looks good on you.”) Basically, all of my favourite things.

I also worked on a project with a new editor last year, which sees me venturing into the paranormal world of vampires. That’s due for release in September 2027, although the details are still under wraps for now.

I have a few other ideas and half-finished drafts up my sleeve – all contemporary romance stories, with and without the STEM angle.

Lastly, what books are you looking forward to picking up soon? Any you’ve got your eye on that are releasing in 2027?

My physical TBR has got way out of hand, largely thanks to my inability to visit a bookshop without coming home with something (and with an upcoming book launch, having visited a lot of bookshops in the last few months). No regrets, but I am running out of shelf space.

I’m looking forward to get stuck into Chase Me If You Can by Heather Frances, Thunderstruck by Lissa Layland, and Better Than Revenge by E.J. Blaise. Then, looking ahead to 2027, I’m not-so-patiently awaiting the arrival of B.K. Borison’s Longtime Listener and Ali Hazelwood’s Bad In Bed (the latter which comes out in paperback in June – I tend to zone out when listening to audiobooks).

Georgia Stone writes such beautiful, incredibly swoony contemporary romances, so I’m also really looking forward to her third book, which is due out in May 2027. A few more I’d encourage everyone to have on their radar are Truthteller by Mariana V. Coelho, and The Girlfriend Exxxperience by Alys Murray. My TBR is clearly not getting any shorter!

Will you be picking up The Love Code? Tell us in the comments below!