Henry says she has friends who were childhood best friends and are now married, others who 'really did not like each other' and are now together, plus ones who have broken up and gotten back together for a second chance at love. She sees traces of tropes in her own friends' love stories. Henry's first romance novel 'Beach Read' was published in May 2020, with its bright yellow cover arriving in the hands of readers at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. 'I tripped sideways into romance as both a writer and a reader, and I was just delighted to find out that I really love it as both a writer and a reader,' Henry says. Henry sent a draft of 'Beach Read' to that new agent, who Henry says sent her suggestions to strengthen the book, along with editors who she thought would be excited about it.

When Henry's agent retired from publishing to work on her own writing, she connected Henry with an agent who works in the romance space. You'll just never run out of fantastic romance novels.' 'I remember the joy of becoming a romance reader and the discovery of how many amazing books there are, and the pace at which your favorite romance authors tend to work and put out books,' she says. In the process, she fell in love (with the genre). Henry had one choice: Become a romance reader herself. 'I just wanted to be working on that kind of story.' There was no intention to try and publish it,' she says. 'I started writing 'Beach Read' really, entirely for fun. She says she was between projects and wanted to work on something 'summery and nice and fun.' She ended up with a draft of what would become her first romance novel, 'Beach Read.' “I think that everything about me bleeds into my books a little bit,” Henry, 32, says. Henry wrote three young adult novels before stumbling into romance.

'My friends came to just expect that from me,' she says with a laugh. before starting her job, plus Saturdays and Sundays. She says she would write in all of her time off, waking up at 5 a.m. Rattling off a list that includes dog walking, babysitting, and working at Taco Bell, the YMCA, her college's tutoring center and a carwash, Henry eventually settled into a technical writing job after she graduated from Hope College. Henry had her fair share of jobs before becoming a novelist, she tells. And my views on love and family and life and career, all of that is coming from real life observations.' How Henry 'tripped sideways' into romance 'But I think everything is coming from somewhere. 'It’s not my life, it’s not me, the characters aren’t the people I know,” she says.

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