Exclusive interview with author Rhonda Ortiz - grappling with love - encountering God - listen now!

When I first started reading it and recommending it to people, I was telling people, I'm like, it feels like very Jane Austen.

Like it feels like in this era and it's romantic elements and the kind of prim and proper of like society and what's expected in society and what's expected of you and the pressures on a woman navigating.

and now that i've finished all the books i'm like i'm not gonna call it jane austen anymore on the one hand no okay so so not to scare anybody away but like ronda is first of all she's so catholic in where she lands jane austen she leaves you with happy peaceful i can go to bed and all this right and the happily ever after endings like is what jane austen gives you now rhonda gives you a happily ever after ending but it might not be the ending that you're looking for you you embrace life from this from from the crux of the cross, right.

And, and, and embrace love from the, from the cross.

And, and it's honestly, like, I felt like by the end of it, I felt like it was more like in line with Flannery O'Connor.

I mean, and I'm not giving anything away here to say that, like at the beginning, she she's wrestling with mental illness.

Can I say yes.

Oh, absolutely.

Absolutely.

Father who, who had committed suicide.

And that's, that's stark, you know, that those are some like real life hard things that I don't think any of Austin's characters had to deal with, you know, and, and to be able to like battle that.

And at the same time have this romantic element and, and, and all the things like wrapped and it's just, it's, it, it gets you in this like edgy place, which is why I feel like it was like more like, Kind of, I mean, not totally like Flannery O'Connor because she's like totally macabre, right? I can't even stomach some of her writing.

Me neither.

But it does, but...

But it makes you grapple.

And it makes you grapple with your own version of romanticism and our own version of happily ever after and what that could look like and what it does look like in real life and what we're aiming for.

And I know that you said there's been mixed response, and I think probably because of that.

But on the other hand, I have to say, like, If you have strong opinions, even if they're negative, it's because your writing is so good that you're like...

We follow them up with these characters.