Brina Starler writes and reads romance novels and romantic fiction—really, anything with kissing will do. She loves to bake, garden, and tweet for posterity about the bizarre things her kids say, and she is working her way through a truly frightening backlog of fan fiction. Brina lives in North Carolina with her husband, two boys, and a pup who bears a strong resemblance to Falkor the Luck Dragon. She has finally resigned herself to a future of asking tall people to get stuff off the top shelf.
What to keep up to date with all things Brina, you can follower her on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, or check out her website.
What’s the strangest thing you searched for on the internet for your novel?
Weird banana facts! Anne and Gil’s first time getting together after he moves back east is going out for a quick coffee after class, and as per usual, they fall into a challenge of who can remember the most facts from the Quiz Bowl team they competed on in high school. I’d read about how the banana we eat today has only been popular since the 1950s, when the banana most people had been eating was virtually wiped out by disease. I don’t know why I find that fascinating, but I do! The history of various foods is always interesting to me.
What book (or author) made you fall in love with the romance genre?
It’s a toss-up between Nora Roberts and Sarah Maclean, if we’re talking true romance novels. But I realized, when I became an avid romance reader, that nearly all the science fiction and fantasy books I’d been addicted to in my teens and early twenties had romance as a major plot point. Anne McCaffrey and Mercedes Lackey were favorites, as were David and Leigh Eddings.
What is your favourite trope? Why?
My favorite trope is a really popular one: enemies to lovers. There’s something about the intensity that forms when two people think they can’t stand each other, then realize that what they’ve been feeling is actually powerful lust, and sometimes even love. If one of them is fully aware that they’re hopelessly in love with the other all along, even as they continue to fight all the time, is a major plus for me. Angry, helpless yearning always makes me laugh, honestly.
It’s the morning after, and a lover is making your main character the perfect breakfast in bed. What is it?
Fresh croissants or pastries and strong coffee just the way their partner likes it from the bakery down the street that they snuck out to buy while the other person was still sleeping.
What book are you reading currently?
I’m reading several books at the moment. Any Way the Wind Blows by Rainbow Rowell and Juliet Takes a Breath by Gabby Rivera, and I’m listening to The Last Tang Standing by Lauren Ho on Audible. Wild Women and the Blues by Denny S. Bryce is up next.
The rapid-fire question – distracting dimple smiles or broad shoulders in a tight t-shirt?
One hundred percent dimples. There’s just something both boyish and wicked about a man with dimples. It makes you want to cuddle him and climb him like a tree at the same time, haha!
Check out our review of Brina’s debut novel Anne of Manhattan here.
