Farrah Rochon is a self-confessed trope-aholic.
“But that’s not how it happens in this.
It’s a little different.
Credit: Tamara Roybiskie
It’s all because of Taylor with her big mouth.
Her personality gets her in trouble.”
But he has one caveat: No one can know she’s training him.
Forever / Elizabeth Turner Stoke
Will the lie prove to be her downfall, or lead her to the love of her life?
The Dating Playbookis the second installment in Rochon’s new series, following 2020’sThe Boyfriend Project.
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: This is the second in this series featuring this group of friends.
FARRAH ROCHON:It happens organically for me, especially with this series.
Because the girls' personalities are so different.
It’s the ones whose personality came forward first.
Samiah [ofThe Boyfriend Project] I just knew would be first.
Taylor fell in the middle because the other two had such strong personalities.
But that’s how she started.
She actually surprised me while I wrote her book; she has a lot of oomph to her.
That was a really great thing as an author to find.
Taylor is a personal trainer with a lot of know-how about the fitness community on Instagram.
How did you choose that profession, and what bang out of research did you have to do there?
It went with her bubbly personality punch in.
I did have to do a bit of research.
I now follow a bunch of fitnessgram people, one of those subcultures on Instagram.
Some of them have just, like, huge followings.
But Taylor just wants to take the whole fitness world by storm.
They thought it was just Taylor being her overtly bubbly self.
It really does play a part in who she is as a person.
Jamar wants to return to the NFL.
I’m always into football and sports.
I’m a big sports fan, but football does come most naturally to me.
I come from a football family.
I don’t want anyone to know that I’m training."
Plus it’s set in Austin, a huge football town.
This cover is so delectable.
Did you have a lot of input or specific asks?
I had two people that embody the two characters.
It wasn’t a lot of back-and-forth with this one, because the artists got it right almost immediately.
They sent me the initial sketch, and I just thought, “Holy crap!
She has braids in her hair; I’m in.
That is exactly what I want.”
Did you have to have a lot of conversations about that?
It was one of those things where I wanted it.
Because you don’t see it.
She goes from braids to not braids to braids again.
I sent pictures with the [style I wanted], and I just love it.
I love the representation that people will see on this cover.
You mentioned you had specific people you envisioned.
Can you share who they are?
The hero isTrevante Rhodes, fromMoonlight.
you might see the goatee, and he’s gorgeous.
For Taylor, the girl is a model.
And I think she’s acted a bit.
Her name isEbonee Davis.
She may have been on one of theTop Modelshows or something.
[Davis was on season 18.]
I ran across her picture, and it was actually a picture where she has on braids.
She has on a workout outfit, the crop-top sports-bra-pop in thing and the running pants.
She’s even dressed like her."
So that’s Taylor and Jamar.
You’ve written category romance and many different types of romance stories.
What has it been like writing in this rom-com renaissance we’re in the midst of?
With this series in particular, it was one of those things that came about at the right time.
I call it pixie dust.
How do you calibrate that?
I am a huge plotter, like ridiculously obsessive plotter.
The hero in the romance really complements it, but it’s about the women and their journeys.
Those girlfriends are just such a huge part of that journey.
I consider my plotting to be my first draft.
That’s how much of the book I put together in that stage.
I venture to see how it would flow naturally as I’m plotting it out.
I’ve had to go back and think, “Oh, the girls haven’t really been together.
I need to put one of those scenes in.”
But it also helps that they have this Friday night thing.
It’s like, “Hey it’s a Friday night.
What about the girls?”
If they can’t get together, maybe just a FaceTime or something like that.
Can you tease the third and final book in the series?
This one is more of an enemies-to-lovers, which is probably my favorite trope.
She hated him, of course, but they hook up at the high school reunion.
