We chat with debut author Jessica Joyce about You, With A View, which follows two high school enemies must reunite for a road trip inspired by their grandparents’ broken engagement.
Hi, Jessica! Can you tell our readers a bit about yourself?
The pressure to remember anything about myself! Most obviously, I write adult contemporary romance novels and my debut, You, with a View just released into the world! When I’m not writing, I love to read, and when I’m not reading, you can find me roaming the Bay Area with my husband and son, listening to my favorite Spotify playlists, and/or thinking about my next meal. My other career is in beauty (yes, you should be wearing SPF all the time, even indoors) and the aisles of Sephora soothe me. Also, iced coffee > hot coffee.
When did you first discover your love for writing and stories?
I honestly can’t remember when it started; I’ve just always loved storytelling in all its forms and knew I had my own stories to tell. I wrote a book called The Horse when I was 8—I still have it!—and never stopped!
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!
First book I ever remember reading: Wacky Wednesday by Dr. Seuss. I had 30-40 Dr. Seuss books when I was little and my dad kept them long enough that I was able to pass them onto my son!
One that made me want to become an author: this is tough! I’m going to say Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants by Ann Brashares. I always considered myself a writer, but reading this series during such a formative period of my life and being transported by the themes of friendship and love woven so beautifully into the series made me wish that someday people would be transported by something I wrote.
One that I can’t stop thinking about: You, Again by Kate Goldbeck. It’s so fresh and modern and Kate’s voice is razor sharp. It’s out in September!
Your debut novel, You, with a View, is out now! If you could only describe it in five words, what would they be?
I hope you know how impossible this question is for me, an egregious overwriter. I’ll say: healing, affirming, sexy, banter-filled, thighs (it’ll make sense when you read it).
What can readers expect?
You, with a View is about Noelle Shepard, a woman who’s struggling with the loss of her beloved grandmother and living with her parents after being laid off. She ends up finding a stack of very lovey dovey pictures of her gram from long ago with a mystery man, along with a letter from him that mentions a broken engagement. She wants to know the story, so she takes to TikTok in an attempt to find him—only, when the video goes viral, she finds his grandson as part of the deal, and he just happens to be her old high school nemesis, Theo Spencer. Readers can expect a fun, emotional road trip romance with lots of forced proximity, crackling tension, and sweeping descriptions of their road trip stops across the southwestern United States.
At its core, You, with a View is really a love letter to love in all its forms: romantic, familial, long gone, fated, even self. It deals with grief themes, but the heavy moments are balanced with moments of levity thanks to Noelle’s dry sense of humor. And she and Theo are so gone for each other, even when she doesn’t want to admit to it, so there’s still plenty of heat and tons of foreplay disguised as bickering and banter!
Where did the inspiration for You, with a View come from?
I love this question! It came from two places that got smashed together like a PB&J. The first is that in 2016 I, much like Noelle in the book, found a stack of pictures of my gram and an extremely handsome man from way back in the day. The chemistry in the photos was off the charts, so I asked about them and learned that she and this (again, extremely handsome) man, Nick, had liked each other, but that my great-grandmother didn’t approve so they never ended up together. I filed it away as a seedling of an idea. I loved the thought of weaving a little piece of my grandma into a future story.
Then, in 2020 when the pandemic started, I decided to download TikTok and instantly became obsessed. As I was scrolling day after day, I started noticing TikToks about people who’d lost touch with old loves or friends or even family members. Some of them were just recounting the story, but some actually were hoping to find these people. That old seedling came roaring back and I thought, okay, what if someone found pictures like I did, but they didn’t have anyone to ask? What if they went to TikTok looking for this mystery man and found him? And what if, just to make it spicy, the mystery man’s grandson was an old high school adversary of the protagonist? And thus the plot was born!
Were there any favourite moments or characters you really enjoyed writing or exploring?
I really loved writing Paul, Theo’s granddad. He serves as such a pillar of support for both Theo and Noelle throughout the book, and doles out so much wisdom about life and love and success and failure. In hindsight, some of the things Paul says to Theo and Noelle are things that I needed to hear myself, and he’s been such a resonant character for early readers! There’s one particular part where he says to Theo and Noelle (who are both going Through It), “take heart, you two. Nothing lasts forever.” And when Noelle asks if that’s a good or bad thing, he says, “both.” I think about that moment a lot and apply it to my own life—it’s a reminder to revel in the good moments and to find relief amidst the bad moments, because both will pass you by.
Can you tell us a bit about your journey of getting You, with a View published?
It all happened very quickly, which was a complete 180 from the first manuscript I tried to get published (it’s probably still languishing in some agents’ inboxes, honestly). I drafted it over the summer of 2021 and just had a feeling about it, that gut thing that I think a lot of authors will nod their heads at if they’re reading this. When it was polished to within an inch of its life in September, I started querying it. Almost immediately I got an offer, and ended up signing with my agent in mid-October 2021. We took it out on submission (aka, shopping to editors at publishing houses) at the end of October and right before Thanksgiving, I’d accepted an offer from Berkley, which was my dream publisher. My deal was announced in December 2021, and I’ve been waiting for publication day ever since! It’s felt like the longest 18-ish months of my life, and the blink of an eye.
What do you love about the romance genre?
I love so much about it, but my favorite thing is the inherent comfort people find in the genre. Every book is different, but you know the foundation is that people are going to fall in love, and you can let down your guard because the end result—the HEA—is guaranteed. And it’s not just that they’re going to fall in love, it’s that they’re going to be seen for exactly who they are, accepted for that, loved for it. There’s something so absolutely and radically beautiful about that, especially in a world that feels more and more intolerant and dystopian by the day.
What’s next for you?
I’m working on edits for my second contracted book, which I’m hoping I can talk about in detail soon! For now, I can say that it’s a second chance romance, that it’s sexy and tender and CHOCK FULL of pining, and that I absolutely love it.
Lastly, do you have any book recommendations for our readers?
Oh, do I!
With Love, From Cold World by Alicia Thompson is a delicious opposites attract romance about a winter-themed park in Florida called Cold World that’s dealing with dire financial struggles. Lauren and Asa, the main characters, are tasked to come up with competing ideas to reinvigorate Cold World, and in the process end up sparking lots of heat together. Alicia writes with so much tenderness and empathy, and watching Lauren and Asa heal themselves and each other while being extremely sexy is just a peak romance book experience. It’s out August 1!
The Art of Scandal by Regina Black is Scandal meets The Good Wife with even hotter people. It follows Rachel, whose cheating politician husband is paying her to continue acting as his loving wife during a re-election campaign, and Nate, an artist. When their paths collide, wow oh wow does it get hot. But it’s not just a steamy read—Regina’s prose is magical. I mean it when I say my chest literally ached reading this book. It’s a truly awe-inspiring debut. Also out August 1!
Diamond Ring by KD Casey is the third baseball romance in her stunning series. I quite literally can’t get over how beautifully KD writes, and this book, which follows teammates Jake and Alex, who are chasing after their second chance at winning the Fall Classic they lost ten years prior, and a second chance with each other. KD’s talent is so immense that it’s almost unfathomable. The way she fits words together, the emotion she evokes, the tenderness with which the main characters circle each other and then give in is just so perfectly done. A must-read.
