I love romantic subplots in my thrillers! Anyone else?
Here are some of my favourites! I’ve arranged them roughly in order of MOST romance to LEAST.
Nora Roberts’ THE OBSESSION just blew me away the first time I read it. That opening! So terrifying and so tense.
I’ve read Sandra Brown’s MEAN STREAK several times. The pace and the cliff-hangers are amazing, and the can-we-trust-him male love interest is just 🔥
Australian author Sarah Barrie’s BLOOD TREE RIVER is set on a remote cattle station in Tasmania, with a male lead who has a deep empathy for horses but maybe not so much for humans. Another Aussie author, Bronwyn Parry’s debut AS DARKNESS FALLS is a romantic thriller set in outback Australia that won the prestigious Romance Writers of America Golden Heart Award.
Andrea Bartz’s WE WERE NEVER HERE is set between Chile and America and is soon to be a movie. Many of YA author Natasha Preston’s thrillers have romantic subplots and there’s HUGE chemistry between the leads in THE CABIN.
Amy Lloyd’s female main character in THE INNOCENT WIFE becomes obsessed with a man on Death Row in the USA for a murder. Clare Douglas’s THE SISTERS is a creepy, gripping story of a UK woman whose twin sister died in a tragic accident.
Loreth Ann White’s IN THE DARK has major ‘And Then There Were None’ vibes and a Canadian wilderness setting. May Cobb’s THE HUNTING WIVES is a sexy twisty tale with a cast of Texan women.
Jo Spain’s THE LAST TO DISAPPEAR is set in icy Lapland. Clare Mackintosh’s smash hit debut I LET YOU GO has a subtle romance subplot and some huge twists.
Anyone read any of these?
My novels ALWAYS seem to have romance subplots! But I haven’t found that many other thrillers that do, especially amongst UK authors and I’d love to find more.
Can anyone recommend any thrillers with romance subplots?
I was chatting with thriller author J A Andrews on Twitter about how our book titles have changed. All four of his novels changed titles. And both of mine! Titles are so important, yet so tricky to get right. The title is the first thing potential readers see of our books, so ideally we need something catchy, memorable and unique which hints at the story and what genre it is. When I pitched my new thriller THE BAY to my agent and publishers, I called it: THE TRIBE or SURF TRIBE. They didn’t like it. They thought ‘The Tribe’ sounded like a science fiction book and ‘Surf Tribe’ was too niche – it would only appeal to surfers. I brainstormed alternative titles with my agent and publishers. Ideas included ON THE BEACH, THE SHORE, UNDERCURRENT, THE RIP and DARE. In the end, my UK team went for THE BAY. But my American publishers felt it wouldn’t suit their market. Books sometimes do have different titles in different countries, as obviously each country has a slightly different market and publishers want to pick the best possible title for their market. In the US, surfing is seen as glamorous and sexy, my publisher explained, so they wanted to highlight that aspect. They came up with THE SWELL, which I love.
My debut novel changed title too! It was called THE ICEBREAKER when I submitted it, after the warm-up game the characters play at the reunion. My agent, Kate Burke at Blake Friedmann, felt it wasn’t strong enough. Plus ‘icebreaker’ is a type of ship that sails in icy waters! Kate came up with SHIVER at 4am one morning and I will always be grateful to her for that! There are already several other novels with the title ‘Shiver’ but there’s no copyright on book titles so it didn’t matter.
As SHIVER gets translated into different languages, I’m always fascinated to see what title they give it. Sometimes its a direct translation of ‘Shiver’ such as ‘Tremblor’ for my Spanish edition. Sometimes it’s totally different. In Germany, the title is FROST GRAB which means ‘icy tomb.’ The Czech edition is ‘Mraz Pod Cuzi’ which means ‘frost under the skin.’
If, like me, you struggle with titles, my advice would be: don’t fret! You just need a good-enough working title for now. Down the line, your agent and/or publisher might well change it.
Setting is so important to me in fiction. I love books that take me to a fascinating new world and wrote an article about it for Women Writers, Women’s Books. Read it here.
Here are some of my favourite books on writing. I’ve arranged the shelf above in order of how much I like them (L-R), though some of the ones I talk about below are missing because one of my best writer friends has borrowed them. (Yes, that’s you, JODIE!!)
Story by Robert McKee is a must-read for every story writer. It’s full of inspirational and thought-provoking quotes about story, and I love how it dissects classic movies to explain how and why they work their magic. QUOTE: “We go to the moviestoentera new, fascinating world, to inhabit vicariously another human being who at first seems so unlike us and yet at heart is like us, to live in a fictional reality that illuminates our daily reality.”
I’m a massive fan of John Truby. He’s a story genius! I found his book Anatomy of Story SO helpful even though it’s heavy reading. He places a strong focus on the main character having a moral weakness which drives the plot. I’d heard about this from other writing books, but hadn’t implemented it much in my own writing until I read his book. Milla Anderson, the protagonist in my thriller Shiver, is hypercompetitive. In the ’10 years ago’ timeline, she’s a professional snowboarder competing at halfpipe. Her desire to defeat her rivals drives the story. Her competitive behaviour causes the predicament she finds herself in, in the present day. Deciding Milla’s weakness from the start had a magical effect: my story almost seemed to write itself. I particularly love listening to Truby talk about story. He has some brilliant videos available to watch free on YouTube. Here’s the video where he talks about his book Anatomy of Story.
Scene and Structure by Jack Bickham was eye-opening for me because it taught me, amongst other things, to think in scenes, not chapters, and to start scenes late and end them early, ideally on cliffhangers, for maximum narrative drive.
Into The Woods by John Yorke is a fascinating explanation of how stories work, as well as a critique on many other books on story.
I’m also a massive fan of US literary agent Donald Maass. His book The Emotional Craft of Fiction blew my mind when I read it a few years ago. I’ve reread it a few times since and still only feel I can apply a fraction of his advice. The book focuses on the psychology of the reader and what they experience, and details what writers can do to give their work more emotional impact. QUOTE: “Readers fundamentally want to feel something, not about your story but about themselves… They want to anticipate, guess, think, and judge… They want to feel like they’ve been through something. They want to connect with your characters and live their fictional experience.“ I love the idea that what matters most of all to a reader is how the words make them feel. His book on Writing the Breakout Novel is great when starting off a new project, for evaluating your premise.
Save the Cat by Blake Snyder is a short, accessible and entertaining read with some nuggets of gold. It’s written for screenwriters but the principles apply just as much novelists. Many writers swear by Blake Snyder’s ‘Beat Sheet’ for plotting a story.
These are my favourite books for the editing stage. The First Five Pages by Noah Lukeman is full of straight-talking advice. Read it and forever after you’ll hear in your head his no-nonsense advice about what to cut and what isn’t good enough.
Self-editing for Fiction Writers by Renni Browne and Dave King, is written by a pair of highly experienced fiction editors. It’s particularly good for pointers on how to tighten your writing. The first time I read it, I immediately slashed twenty percent off the manuscript I was working on.
Thanks, But This Isn’t For Us by Jessica Page Morrell looks at common pitfalls of querying writers and it’s another extremely helpful read. I plan to reread these three books after finishing each new project, to keep the advice fresh in my mind.
Allie Reynolds 