Local author Lori Gold recently returned to GBH and Henry and the Hub. Gold is the author of ‘Kiss, Maryy, Kill’ (Harper/Park Row, April 2026) and the NPR Book of the Day and Zibby Media Summer Read pick ‘Romantic Friction’ (Harper/MIRA 2025). She is also the author of an adult historical book and four novels for young adults (all under the name, Lori Goldstein).
Maybe you’ve played the game before, but even if you have, you’ve never played it the way Lori Gold presents it. The interview below is slighted edited for clarity.
Henry Santoro: Lori, great to see you. Welcome back.
Lori Gold: It’s always a pleasure to be here.
Santoro: Last time we saw you was for your book, “Romantic Friction,” where you brought us behind the scenes of the publishing world. This time with “Kiss, Marry, Kill,” you bring us into the lives of three female friends, and as Sherlock Holmes would say, the game is afoot. Tell us where the idea for this book came from.
Gold: The idea of “Kiss, Marry, Kill,” it’s about three women who are best friends and co-founders of a health and wellness app, and they play this conversation game of Kiss, Marry, Kill at their summer outing. They each play the game differently, so they spin the rules.
So instead of the normal way we play it, they each have to make one choice. One woman must choose someone at their summer outing to kiss, one has to choose someone at their summer outing to marry, and one has chosen someone at their summer outing to kill. So, they make their choices and the twist is they wake up in an alternate universe where they’ve each made the choice and have to live out those consequences.
The inspiration came from a television show, a teen drama where the high schoolers were playing this game of Kiss, Marry, Kill. And that was just the first hook for me. I said, ‘That’s such a great idea for a novel. How has no one done this before?’
Santoro: When I started reading the book, I kept myself awake at night, playing the game in my head. I played it using family members, I played using colleagues, and of course, celebrities, which is how the thing began. It’s an addicting game.
Gold: It really is. And the trick of it is you’re supposed to make a choice that is a gut instinct. You’re not supposed to rationalize it. You’re not supposed to think too deeply. Just what does your gut say? And that’s where the fun comes.
Santoro: And when you play this in a group setting, it gets feisty.
Gold: And it gets a little dicey, especially in the book, because they’re playing with coworkers, which I don’t think is actually great for the kind of the rules of the workplace.
Santoro: The friends names are Aubrey, Elena, and Mallory — A-I-M. Was that a conscious effort?
Gold: Yes, so the company is called AIM, and it’s the first initial of each of the women. I spent a long time trying to figure out an acronym that would work with the initials of each the women, so I went through a lot of names.
Santoro: AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) fit perfectly with the idea of targeting your audience — it’s like aiming at your opponent in a game. It just it gelled so perfectly.
Gold: I love the idea that they’re founders of a health and wellness app. And the idea of the slogans you can produce for that app aim your life. I kept producing things that I thought would be great mottos for the company. And it really centered around that word. A couple of people, though, said, “Do you really want to keep an AIM because of the AOL Instant Messenger? And I said, do you know what? I think most of the readers are probably old enough or are going to be young enough that they won’t remember that.
Santoro: Did you keep your head straight, writing the storyline?
Gold: So somebody said, did you have one of those like murder boards with all of this plotted out? And I kind of did. And it’s on Instagram. You can see my poster board of it because we have three points of view. We have multiple timelines. We have the alternate universe. It was the most challenging book I have revised to really make it streamlined and make it work.
Santoro: Laurie Gold’s new book is Kiss, Marry, Kill. You will see it on a beach towel near you this summer. Laurie, great job and so great to see you again.
Lori (Gold) Goldstein lives outside of Boston, where she fosters a writing community through her creative writing classes, book coaching, and writing retreats. She can be found on Instagram (lorigoldsteinbooks) and at http://www.lorigoldsteinbooks.com
