Romance author Alexandria Bellefleur joins Em and E.J. in this episode to share about her latest novel, wax nostalgic about her favorite 90s rom com moments, and--of course--talk tropes.
Show Notes
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Today we are chatting with contemporary romance author Alexandria Bellefleur.
- Alexandria Bellefleur is a bestselling and award-winning author of swoony contemporary romance often featuring loveable grumps and the sunshine characters who bring them to their knees. Her debut novel, WRITTEN IN THE STARS, was a 2021 Lambda Literary Award winner and a 2020 winner of The Ripped Bodice Awards for Excellence in Romantic Fiction.
- Em asks Alexandria what she is reading and loving right now.
- Alexandria is on deadline at the moment and her TBR list is growing, but in her free time she is reading MISTAKES WERE MADE by Meryl Wilsner, THE EX TALK by Rachel Lynn Solomon, and LOVE AT FIRST SPITE by Anna E. Collins.
- EJ asks Alexandria how she comes across the books that she chooses to read—especially advanced copies.
- Alexandria says that she gets a lot of arcs from her agent and editor. Many times, to blurb. She feels very fortunate.
- Em asks if there is a trope that is an instant request for Alexandria Bellefleur.
- Alexandria laughs and says that she is a bit of a trope slut. She hasn’t met a trope that she won’t read—at least in the hands of a good author. However, she really loves forced proximity.
- EJ asks if Alexandria reads many books at once or a book at a time.
- Alexandria admits she reads a book at a time—but she is a fast reader and is fully immersed in the story as she is reading.
- When Alexandria is not on deadline—she can read a book a day. This is amazing to Em and EJ—they fangirl over this fact for a moment.
- EJ says that she believes that the romance reading community reads a lot and fast. Unlike any other genre she’s seen.
- Alexandria says that romance readers are prolific readers and writers are prolific writers.
- Em says that she thinks it is because romance is so readable because of the emotional arcs of the character. Sure, external plot is important—but that emotional arc is everything.
- Em gives the quick and dirty premise of Alexandria’s book, HANG THE MOON. She asks Alexandria if she has a favorite movie moment that makes her melt?
- Alexandria has a few. One of her favorites is the bleacher serenade in 10 THINGS I HATE ABOUT YOU. She thinks for a moment like this to be swoony and work—it has to be tailored to the characters. It cannot be a cardboard cut-out version of a romantic moment.
- She also likes the painting gift in NOTTING HILL.
- Alexandria tells the hosts about the current book she is working on—she reached the midpoint! The WIP is called THE FIANCE FARCE. The book is a sapphic marriage of convenience between a shy bookstore owner and a newspaper heiress who is moonlighting as a romance novel cover artist. The heiress must get married by a certain time in order to inherit the majority shares in her family’s business. It is best described as a mash-up between A SCOT TIES THE KNOT by Tessa Dare and the 90s rom-com movie, THE BACHELOR.
- Em says she reads across all genres (currently reading SMALL FAVORS by Erin A. Craig, A COSMOLOGY OF MONSTERS by Shaun Hamill, and Alexandria’s HANG THE MOON). And that she has noticed that one thing that Alexandria does amazingly well is characters. Her characters draw you in from their first appearance on the page.
- Is there a trope outside of romance (in any form of story—movies, television, theatre, books, etc.) that Alexandria’s readers would be surprised to find she loves?
- Alexandria says that she loves paranormal. BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER is her go-to comfort show. She especially loves the found-family trope and that paranormal does the trope really well. She also loves the fated mates trope—which is pretty exclusive to paranormal.
- Alexandria defines the difference between found family in contemporary vs paranormal. She points out that she writes queer rom-coms, and it is a common part of the genre for the characters to find/create a community outside of their family and for those friendships to transcend the bonds of friendship into real family. In paranormal you get a lot of “brotherhoods” like a brotherhood of vampires. Or warriors. There is a lot of sworn allegiance.
- Em says it is big in werewolf books. She is a huge Patricia Briggs fan. Em thinks that a lot of things that would toe-the-line with cheesy in contemporary, just works with paranormal.
- EJ gets salty about the hate that TWILIGHT still gets—she loved the TWILIGHT series. Alexandria is a former Twi-Hard.
- Em says she never read Twilight (a fact she isn’t bragging about—it just never happened). She thinks it is because she saw the movies before reading the book and didn’t care for the movies.
- Alexandria suggests turning the movies into a drinking game. It’s really fun.
- Em asks Alexandria to tell their listeners a little bit about her books.
- Alexandria’s books are a series of interconnected stand-alones. They can be read in any order.
- Written in the stars is a sapphic, opposites-attract, fake-dating, rom-cm between and uptight actuary and a social media astrologer.
- HANG THE MOON follows a dating app creator who is a total romantic and has been in love with his sister’s bestie (who is a little jaded about love) for his entire life. When she comes to town, he decides he will prove to her that romance is real by recreating iconic movie moments from his favorite rom-coms. Everything backfires.
- COUNT YOUR LUCKY STARS is a sapphic second chance, friends-to-roommates-to-lovers romance featuring a grump who has sworn off love and a wedding planner.
- Em completely steals Alexandria’s term and admits she is a slut for a particular trope. Then apparently completely forgot that she got the term from Alexandria, lol. (Also—Em does the show notes :P )
- Alexandria Bellefleur plays Troped Out!
- Love Triangle or Reverse Harem?
- EJ asks how many people have to be involved for it to be a harem. Alexandria says she thinks maybe five or six. Em says that’s a lot of sex for 80k words! (lol)
- Secret Billionaire or Secret Baby.
- AI Uprising or Clones?
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All of our guests’ books are available on our TROPED OUT Bookshop.org page. We’d appreciate it if you gave it a look. You might stumble across our future favorite author!
What is Troped Out?
An exploration of genre storytelling in all its forms