If you love Jill Shalvis, Lori Wilde, and Susan Mallery, then you won’t want to miss New York Times bestselling author Jennifer Ryan’s riveting new novel about family, secrets, and a woman ready to embrace who she really is by facing down her past.
We chat with author Jennifer Ryan about her latest release, Lost and Found Family, along with writing, book recommendations, and more!
Hi, Jennifer! Can you tell our readers a bit about yourself?
I live in the Bay Area with my husband, three kids, my grandson, two dogs, and a cranky cat. I’ve been publishing suspenseful contemporary western romance and women’s fiction for the past eight years and writing for fifteen years. If I’m not writing, I’m probably reading, playing in the garden or with my grandson, out hiking, watching TV, and most likely daydreaming about a story I want to write while doing all those things.
Quick lightning round! Tell us the first book you ever remember reading, the one that made you want to become an author, and one that you can’t stop thinking about!
Judy Bloom’s Superfudge in grade school, Nora Roberts Chesapeake Bay Saga started my love of romance, and the one I can’t stop thinking about is usually the last book I read, LOVE FOR BEGINNERS by Jill Shalvis. I fell so hard for Simon!
When did you first discover your love for writing?
I used to love to write poetry when I was a teen. But I didn’t start writing novels until I was 32, home with two young boys, pregnant with my little girl, and devouring romance novels, always finishing them in my head when I had to put them down before I finished reading. One day, I had my own story in my head. My husband was traveling overseas, gone for weeks, and I couldn’t stop thinking about the story, so I started writing it at night while my boys slept.
Eight years later, SAVED BY THE RANCHER was the first book I sold and my first book to hit the New York Times bestseller list. It was an amazing debut. Since then, I’ve published nearly 30 books.
Your latest novel, Lost and Found Family, is out now! If you could only describe it in five words, what would they be?
Sara finds family, love, acceptance.
What can readers expect?
Lies, secrets, romance, and a lot of family drama as Sara takes her sons to visit their paternal grandmother for the first time after her husband’s death. Sara has tried to shield her sons and her dead husband’s family from who he turned out to be. They blame her for his death, stealing his company, and keeping the boys from them. But they’re about to discover the man they remember is not the man Sara married. He promised to love her, but she was just a means to an end.
Now she has a chance to give her sons the family they deserve and have the kind of forever love she’s always wanted with a man she never expected to fall for.
Where did the inspiration for Lost and Found Family come from?
I live just outside of Silicon Valley. There’s always a lot of talk about women in tech and having it all. Sara is genius programmer and CEO of a successful company raising two kids. Her life seems fabulous from the outside, but she’s made a lot of personal sacrifices for her career and family. I loved the idea of showing a smart, strong, independent woman doing her best but not always getting it right, and that success isn’t easy. Life, love, family, a career, it all takes work, and often times it’s messy, but hopefully it’s all worth it in the end.
Can you tell us about any challenges you faced while writing and how you were able to overcome them?
I wrote the original story years ago as a romance between Sara and Luke. When I decided to expand the story and make it also about Sara not just finding love again but reconciling with her dead husband’s family, I needed to rework the whole book and add additional family members. I also added their point of view to the book, so the reader could see things from their perspectives, not just Sara’s.
Adding characters, point’s of view, new scenes, and reworking existing scenes meant making sure the flow of the story and the heart of it still felt right to the reader. It took several edits to make sure everything worked, but in the end I had a story that felt deeper.
Were there any favourite moments or characters you really enjoyed writing or exploring?
I loved writing the scenes between Sara and Luke and watching them go from being suspicious of each other’s motives to falling in love.
My favorite scene to write was at the end of the book when Sara has everyone she considers family at her home and they are sitting around the dining table and she realizes that family isn’t always blood but the people who love and support you.
What’s the best and the worst writing advice you have received?
Worst advice – Write what you know. It’s great to use your knowledge and experience, but that will only take you so far. And if you’re a prolific writer like me, that might mean all your characters start to sound and act like all the others. I think it’s good to stretch and write characters who do and say and act wildly different from who I am and the people I know.
Best advice – Make writing a routine. Writing never gets easier. It’s always hard at some point in the story. It is a tedious process to get the story told. But it will never get done if you don’t sit down and do it.
What’s next for you?
I have a brand new western romance out 8/24/21 – TRUE LOVE COWBOY – When someone from Jon’s past comes back with a vengeance, Trinity and Jon will have to do everything they can to save themselves and their new love…
I am also writing my 2022 women’s fiction novel – THE ONE YOU WANT – One week, two friends, secrets revealed, and a wedding gone wrong.
Lastly, do you have any book recommendations for our readers?
- Romance – LOVE FOR BEGINNERS by Jill Shalvis
- Suspense – PRETTY LITTLE WIFE by Darby Kane
- Western Romance – JACKSON by LaQuette
- Historical Romance – WICKED AND THE WALLFLOWER by Sarah MacLean
You can find Jennifer on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, BookBub, and Goodreads.
