EW can exclusively reveal the cover forA Thorn in the Saddle,out Oct. 26, below.
Read more after the cover.
Did that add pressure or complicate the writing process?
Dafina Books
This is the third book I had to write during the pandemic.
It’s just been increasingly more and more difficult.
And I haven’t seen other people.
So that was really hard because I was like, “What are people like?”
I haven’t been around that many people in two years.
And you’re going to end up having to write a book about them.
Luckily, we sold the trilogy to Kensington knowing that I was going to write a book about Jesse.
I was like, “This is the man he needs to be.”
The story is loosely based on Beauty and the Beast.
I went back and read all of the original versions of the fairy tale.
And then, of course, watched the Disney version and all that stuff over again.
Cinderella and Beauty and the Beast were the two easiest ones.
I had to tool with it, and I did the amnesia plot.
With Beauty and the Beast, it was pretty easy to translate that into a romance in this way.
I weaved in some of the Disney-specific tropes because the Gaston character’s not really in the original.
I did a little combining of original fairy tale and the Disney movie.
just tell me we get a riff on the Beast’s library.
I’m not gonna spoil anything.
She could have whatever she wanted.
There’s a couple of things from the movie that are big moments that I tweaked a little.
And then I worked in some stuff onThe Bachelor.
[Laughs] Because Jesse is a big fan ofThe BachelorandBachelorette.
So, I worked that in there.
The book dips into the world of politics and running for office, which can be fraught.
What made you want to set a book in that world?
The story is not politics-heavy.
It’s more horse-heavy.
But there’s a thread that runs through it that is about a career in politics.
That’s more about where Jesse is in his life.
I don’t like go into rehashing the last five years or anything like that.
It’s more on like the state level too.
What was the thought process there?
To be completely honest, I didn’t get a lot of say in the cover.
But I did tell them Jesse has a black cowboy hat and the most important thing is the dog.
He has a black lab named Clementine, and that’s his baby.
I was just really happy that we were able to get a black lab on the cover.
The barn is also important to the story.
And the dog is very important, so I was very happy with the way that all turned out.
How doesA Thorn in the Saddlefit in withthe newly announced option dealfor the series?
It’s for all three books.
The show would be all three books, but we’ll see.
It’s definitely going to be inclusive of all three books.
You knew going in Jesse was the Beast.
How did you figure out who would make his perfect “Beauty?”
I would love to.
Right now, I have like eight other things in the pipeline.
But Lila is their cousin; we’ll see if something can be done with her.
And maybe one day, I might write a couple of stories for Lila’s brothers.
Can you tease the book in three words?
If I can do four words, I would say Jesse gets his girl.
