Jaimie is a 36-year-old English-sounding Welsh girl with an awkward-to-spell name. She lives in South Wales and enjoys writing, gardening, watching horror movies, and drinking tea, although she’s seriously considering marrying her coffee machine. She loves autumn and winter, and singing songs from musicals despite the fact she’s got the voice of a dying hyena. She hates spiders, hot weather, and cheese & onion crisps. She spends far too much time on Twitter and owns too many pairs of boots. She will never have time to read all the books she wants to read.
She is the author of several romantic comedies for HarperCollins – Finding Love at the Magical Curiosity Shop, The Chateau of Happily Ever Afters, The Little Wedding Island, It’s a Wonderful Night, The Little Vintage Carousel by the Sea, Snowflakes at the Little Christmas Tree Farm, The Little Bookshop of Love Stories, The Wishing Tree Beside the Shore, The Little Christmas Shop on Nutcracker Lane, and The Post Box at the North Pole.
Want to keep up on all things Jaimie? Check out her website, or follow her on Twitter or Instagram.
What’s the strangest thing you searched for on the internet for your novel?
Oh, every book comes with some weird internet searches! I wrote one book (unpublished!) that involved a bomb, and I had to google some ins-and-outs of bomb-making – I expected a knock on the door from the police after that one! I’d hate anyone to see my search history – they’d be seriously worried about me! Every author must say the same thing too! There are so many little intricate details that you look up, even when you know you’re unlikely to use them! I do love a good research project though – where you’re writing a book about something you know nothing about and you have to learn enough to be able to pull it off. That’s really fun for me!
What book (or author) made you fall in love with the romance genre?
Sophie Kinsella and Melissa Senate! Sophie Kinsella made me love romance, and Melissa Senate made me want to write it!
I’d always been a fan of horror stories and thrillers until then, and I think the year was 2001 or 2002, and someone I worked with gave me a copy of The Secret Dreamworld of a Shopaholic because she thought I’d like it, and I absolutely loved it! It was so relatable! It was full of the exact sort of situations that I could imagine myself or my friends getting into, and that started my love of reading romance! And then, a couple of years later, I read a book called See Jane Date by Melissa Senate, and again, it was so relatable. Jane wasn’t just a character, she was me. It was the first time I’d really seen myself in a book and felt like it had been written just for me, about a woman like me, who did things I would do, and at the end of the book was an advert from the publisher that read, “Do you think you can write a book like this?” and something clicked into place for me. I instantly knew that I would LOVE to write a book like that, and that’s how my romance writing journey began!
What is your favourite trope? Why?
I love fake-dating and I’ll always have a soft spot for enemies-to-lovers too! With enemies-to-lovers, it’s so satisfying to see the way two opposing characters gradually open up to each other and see different sides of each other and start putting their differences aside! I’m all about the slow-burn and the pay-off in the end! And fake-dating is just so much fun! I love starting to see real feelings come through the fake performances!
It’s the morning after, and a lover is making your main character the perfect breakfast in bed. What is it?
A hot frothy latte, a flaky, buttery croissant, and some chocolate – because it’s never too early for chocolate! Maybe a jar of Nutella and a spoon. Any main character would fall in love with a guy who watched her eat Nutella straight out of the jar with no judgement!
What book are you reading currently?
I’ve got two on the go at the moment. My current read is Extant by Jack Croxall, which is a different genre than my usual reading but he’s been one of my favourite writers for years, and because I’ve always got to have a romance at the ready as well, I’m just about to start Summer at the Sunflower Cottage by Jodie Homer, who always writes lovely and quirky books and I’m sure this one will be exactly that too!
