At long last, Get What You Need is out in the world. GWYN, as I affectionately call it, has been lingering on the back burner of my mind through my haphazard publishing career. If you’ve followed me for any length of time, you know I haven’t been a very “consistent” writer. Or at least, writer and releaser of books. I started out strong with the backing of the largest publishing house in the world and somewhere along the way, lost my steam. My mojo. But never my voice. My writing voice is the most confident person in the room, and she talks a blue-streak. Often, it’s all in my head. To the point where I swear I must’ve written an entire book, given the thought I’ve put into it. But no…it’s all just sitting in my brain. Waiting patiently.
If Louder Than Love was the book of my heart, then Get What You Need may just be the book of my head. In fact, when I was looking back through my rough notes on this story that explores the characters from my debut ten years into the future, I realized I had started jotting them down before Berkley had even picked up and published Louder Than Love. So, obviously I had wanted to stay with these folks in their world for a little bit longer. And I hope you will too!
A big thank you to Amanda Usen for making my day with this graphic!
Many readers tell me they do a re-read of Louder Than Love every year, or whenever they feel the need. Fair warning, diving into GWYN right after may be a shock to the system. After all, the adorable five-year-old Abbey is now fifteen and some of her thoughts, words and actions aren’t so cute anymore. I now see there may be a little of me in her teenage rebellion.
At fifteen, my family picked up and moved to a new city, and I had had to leave all my friends behind. Kids who had known me forever, that I had never had to prove myself to. And I had never really had to keep myself company before…being “the new kid” really forces some introspection on you. My upheaval was before the days of the internet, texting and social media. It was in the days of ink-stained fingers from letter-writing, and racking up long distance phone bills. At least my young character finds ways to try and keep herself looped into her old world, even though the concequences aren’t exactly what she wants.
While Abbey was the catalyst for this story (at one point I was calling this book “Abbey’s Road” in my head) and Louder Than Love’s beloved couple Adrian and Kat are a constant, to me the real star is Natalie. We never meet her on the page in Louder Than Love, but she’s Adrian’s estranged daughter and she had certainly shaped him – Natalie appears in his stories to Kat, his triumphs and his regrets, in his views of fatherhood and trying to be a better man the second time around.
I was so happy to bring Nat across the pond and give her a bit of the old “Love, Loss & Rock and Roll” treatment that this brand of books has become known for.
I may be too close to this story at this juncture. Could it be read as a standalone? Maybe. It is, at its heart, a tale of sisterhood. Of small town solace, where the grounding presence of the lake and its community welcome you. Of fresh starts and re-invention. Of getting what you need…when sometimes getting what you want is the easy part.
I’d love to hear your thoughts, whether you’ve followed the entire journey through the Love & Steel novels and have reached this point. Or whether you are about to reach for your first Jessica Topper novel to see what’s been going on in her head, and her heart.
Paperback releases Tuesday, January 14, 2025
E-book ON SALE NOW through:
Amazon |BN.com | Kobo | Apple Books | Google Play | Other e-book platforms worldwide