Mixed Messages follows Lana Miller and Liam Livingston as one combustible night grows into a cross-city romance shaped by desire, fear, family loyalty, and the courage it takes to stop mistranslating love. Which came first for you as a writer: the spark between them or the emotional wounds they needed to confront?

The spark came first. Both Liam and Lana are in my two previous books, but not completely fleshed out. I knew from Cutting Losses (book 2) that Liam, who is the cousin to Josh, the MMC of that book, is outrageous and flamboyant, with an active dating/sex life. In Cutting Losses, he first sees Lana at the bar, and I thought they would be an interesting pairing because she is very career-focused and not interested in dating at all. The chapter I wrote for them in that book was so hot that I knew they needed their own book. It was when I started developing Mixed Messages that I began to wonder why Lana was straitlaced and why Liam was the opposite. The question for me with my characters is always “WHY?” Why are they making their decisions? Why are they acting a certain way, etc.

The chapter-opening texts give the novel a modern, fizzy rhythm. What inspired you to use messages as part of the story’s structure?​

Since Lana and Liam live in separate areas of the country, they needed a way to communicate, and I know from experience how easy it is to miscommunicate when texting. People read a text from their point of view, not the POV of the sender, so I liked the idea of that natural chaos being involved in their romance. Plus, texting makes it modern, yet writing is also a very romantic form of courtship, no matter the form.

Lana is intelligent, ambitious, guarded, and deeply shaped by insecurity and betrayal. What was the most challenging part of writing her emotional journey?​

Acknowledging Lana’s pain but also not letting her be bogged down by it. I didn’t want her to be jaded; I wanted her to be still somewhat naive and vulnerable, and that’s what Liam sees in her and takes care not to hurt. Having her private life be almost non-existent while her professional life is booming was tricky also because I didn’t want her to be boring.

Liam has a charming exterior but carries real hurt around being underestimated. How did you balance his warmth and humor with that more wounded side?​

It’s easy being the class clown when everyone needs a laugh, but it’s difficult having people take you seriously, then. I wanted to show that on the outside, Liam may seem like nothing bothers him, but I made sure to make him deeper than most people suspect. Writing for him was so impactful because he hides his pain so well until he doesn’t, and it was this sensitivity that made it easy to imagine that once he invests himself in someone, he is completely devoted.

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