Category: Author’s Alley
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The Ordinary Evening
Nothing happened. That was the whole point. She got home from work at half six and he was already there, which was unusual. He’d had an early finish, he said. She changed out of her work clothes — the daily shedding she’d come to love — and came back to find him making pasta with…
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How Do You Know When It’s Time to DNF a Book?
Let’s talk about the guilt. You know the one. You’ve read 18%. Maybe 27%. You’ve picked the book up four separate times, and every single time you somehow end up checking the weather, reorganising your bookshelf, or wondering whether now might be the perfect moment to clean the kitchen. The book isn’t terrible. It just…
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Thursday Mornings
He brought her the crossword. Every Thursday — she didn’t know if he sought it out or if it was just the paper, but somehow there was always a printed crossword on the kitchen table on Thursday mornings, and they did it together over breakfast, badly. They were both poor at crosswords. This was irrelevant.…
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The Five Stages of Starting a New Romance Novel (We’ve All Been There)
There are two types of people in this world. People who say, “I’ll just read one chapter before bed.” And romance readers. Because we all know “one chapter” is less of a plan and more of a beautiful little lie we tell ourselves. It usually starts innocently enough. You’ve finished dinner, the dishes are done…
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Forgiving Tuesday
They’d had the argument on a Tuesday, which is why Tuesdays had been vaguely bad for three weeks. It hadn’t been a large argument. No raised voices, no ultimatums, no dramatic exits. Just a conversation that went wrong somewhere in the middle and left both of them feeling subtracted from. She’d apologized. He’d apologized. They’d…
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Why We Keep Falling in Love With Fictional People (And Honestly, I’m Not Worried About It)
Let’s get something out of the way first. If you’ve ever closed a book, stared dramatically out of the window, sighed for absolutely no reason, and thought, “Well… now no real man will ever compare.” Welcome. Your membership card is in the post. Romance readers have been “falling in love” with fictional characters for generations.…
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The Fitting Room
He waited outside the fitting room without complaint. This was, in Ingrid’s experience, rarer than it should have been. Previous partners had lasted approximately twelve minutes before starting to check their phones with increasing visibility, before making comments about time, before suggesting she just get the first thing. As if the exercise were a chore…
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What He Remembers
He remembered things she’d forgotten she’d told him. This had startled her several times over the years. She’d make an offhand reference to something — a teacher she’d had, a neighbourhood she’d lived in as a child, a fear she’d mentioned once in passing — and he’d respond with specific, accurate detail, which meant he’d…
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What Your Favorite Romance Trope Says About You (According to Someone Who Has Definitely Overthought This)
Romance readers are fascinating people. Give ten of us the exact same book recommendation, and we’ll all ask completely different questions. “Is it enemies to lovers?” “Is there only one bed?” “How slow is the slow burn?” “Does he fall first?” “Please tell me nobody dies.” We’re all looking for different things, and I don’t…
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The Storm
She was afraid of storms. Not thunderstorms — those were fine. Metaphorical ones, too, she could handle. She was afraid of literal storms, the kind with serious winds, the kind that made the windows shudder and the lights flicker. It was leftover from childhood, specific and irrational, and she’d carried it for thirty-five years. Tobias…
Sonia M. Rompoti, MSc, Bsc 