Emery Finch is a scientist whose top-secret research work pushes her marriage to the sidelines. But when she’s suddenly widowed, she uses the technology at the heart of her work to bring her husband Luca back to life. The only catch? He doesn’t remember her, and Emery needs to make the man she loves fall back in love with her all over again.
That’s the plot of the newest novel from beach-read superstars Christina Hobbs and Lauren Billings — known by the joint pen name Christina Lauren — whose patented brand of escapist romance takes an undead turn in “The Romance Revival.” And while early readers have pointed to this sci-fi bend as a major shift in the Christina Lauren formula, the duo happily disagreed — pointing to previous novels like “Something Wilder,” which includes an adventurous treasure hunt, “The Soulmate Equation,” which features DNA-based matchmaking.
“Romance can be anything,” Hobbs said. “The rule is just that there needs to be a happily ever after at the end. And so we really love books that have this big world and take a big swing.”
Hobbs and Billings first envisioned the novel’s plot while sitting at a bar in Australia, and spent the next two hours “throwing ideas back and forth” about how resurrection technology would change the world. For Billings, who holds a PhD in neuroscience and married a biochemist, “The Romance Revival” not only represents a return to her previous field but a chance to scrutinize the real-world impact of scientific breakthroughs, especially in the wake of major research funding cuts.
“I do believe that science needs to be funded, it needs to be supported, it needs to be encouraged — especially women in STEM,” Billings said. “[We] have a lot of really great minds out there that we need to support, and I do worry about the direction that’s going. So as much as we can put in curious, good, rigorous science into our books and still keep it romance, we will do that.”
But Billings described her writing partner Hobbs, a former junior high school guidance counselor, as the main driver of “The Romance Revival.” Hobbs says she drew on her previous career to ground Emery and Luca’s imperfect romance, and described all successful relationships as “how you talk to people, how you listen to people.”
“Emery is not the best wife — and she realizes that and has to figure out why, and how she can sort of find redemption in that,” Hobbs said. “And then Luca, who maybe saw himself as the victim [before he died] has to see that he was using his own coping mechanisms and he was conflict avoidant. ... Nobody can fix a problem that you don’t acknowledge and bring up.”
Still, Hobbs and Billings say they haven’t forgotten the core of the novel: the romance between their main characters, including the spicier moments of the relationship. Hobbs and Billings, who connected and first broke through as fanfiction authors, made sure that even the novel’s steamy scenes pushed the story forward, displaying the connection between Luca and Emery and always feeling “earned.”
“There’s a scene where [Emery and Luca] go to a bar, and they’re playing pool,” Billings said. “And they’re attracted to each other, and they’re flirting, and he sort of comes back to himself, even if his memory hasn’t yet. I love that scene. I love their flirtation. I love their banter.”
And, uultimately, the duo is committed to telling a unique love story that will satisfy romance lovers.
“We’re going to take you on a journey and maybe talk about some hard things,” Hobbs said. “But know that at the end, it’s a safe landing — and you’re going to get a happily ever after.”
Guests:
- Christina Hobbs and Lauren Billings, known together under the pen name Christina Lauren, best-selling authors of “The Romance Revival”
