I swore I’d never write a pure romance.

But after ten books under Brey Willows, I decided to give it a try. My wife, Robyn Nyx, was writing romance under Helena Harte and doing really well. Given that we’re self employed and writing is a chunk of our income, I figured I’d give it a try.

It was like pulling teeth with a Q-tip. Long, arduous, messy, and not exactly clean.

But I did it. Where the Heart Leads came out in early 2023 and the reviews were really good. Great, even. It hit #2 on the Amazon charts, the highest any of my books have ever been. It was pretty exhilarating, to be honest. Not only could I do it, but people liked what I did. Who knew?

I mean, my wife knew, which was why she stayed on me to do it. But no need to tell her she was right, again…

And so, romance. I’ll never write fully fluffy romance, as that isn’t what interests me. I’ll write romance where the characters are flawed, where there’s personal work to be done, where life isn’t always a bed of roses and coffee. Where the Heart Leads deals with family issues. The family we need to leave behind in order to keep our sanity, and the family we develop when we let people in. There’s a single mom, a writer with a secret, and a pre-teen I wish I knew in real life.

Where does the heart lead? Why don’t you find out?