Adriana Herrara, A Tropical Rebel Gets The Duke and a Negroni

I barely managed to stop this from turning into a fan girl moment for Elizabeth Lowell. It is so rare that I find someone who shares my outrageous fandom for that author - and here is Adriana ready to talk about her for days. 

BUT we had more important things to talk about - A Tropical Rebel Gets the Duke currently a USA Today Bestseller!  Adriana gets very real about ending a series and how writing this series in particular was both a labor of level and very hard.  And how those two things can be true at the same time. We talk about our fascination for historical medical research particularly when it comes to women's health - a really important aspect of her heroine Aurora.  

We also talked about how hard it is to start a novel with a sex scene - which Adriana does VERY well in this book. It's a hard needle to thread for a couple in a third book.  This is a fascinating Historical romance - highly recommend.

Paris, 1889

Physician Aurora Montalban Wright takes risks in her career, but never with her heart. Running an underground women’s clinic exposes her to certain dangers, but help arrives in the unexpected form of the infuriating Duke of Annan. Begrudgingly, Aurora accepts his protection, then promptly finds herself in his bed.   

New to his role as a duke, Apollo César Sinclair Robles struggles to embrace his position. With half of society waiting for him to misstep and the other half looking to discredit him, Apollo never imagined that his enthralling bedmate would become his most trusted adviser. Soon, he realizes the rebellious doctor could be the perfect duchess for him. But Aurora won’t give up her independence, and her secrets make her unsuitable for the aristocracy.

When dangerous figures from their pasts return to threaten them, Apollo whisks Aurora away to the French Riviera. Far from the reproachful eye of Parisian society, can Apollo convince Aurora that their bond is stronger than the forces keeping them apart?    

Find out more about Adriana and her books here. 

https://adrianaherreraromance.com/

https://www.instagram.com/ladriana_herrera/ 

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Transcript

Molly Fader (00:29):

Hello everybody. Welcome to Day Drinking with Authors, the podcast series where I pick a book, the author picks a drink, and we discuss both. Today, I am really excited to have Adriana Herrera in to talk about the third book in her Las Leona series called A Tropical Rebel Gets The Duke. I was thinking about the introduction and what I really love about Adriana's books in general, but this one in particular hit me where I'm living, which is in sort of a state of dread and fear and worry. So it provided the perfect sexy escape I needed. But it also kind of reminded me that we've been here before, women have been in this place where government and elected officials are trying to take away our rights, and we've fought back. We have done it before we've gotten out of this place and we can do it again. We just need to be really brave and have sex lessons with a Duke. Adriana Herrara (01:30):

Well, and if you can manage to find Apollo to help you out while you're, I mean, I'm like this is the best way to solve a revolutionist with a man that is willing to a kill for you. B, also super hot. Molly Fader (01:43):

Yeah, yeah. There are a lot of things. We'll get into all the things that I love about Apollo, but I want to read the back cover copy because my mom really likes that. And mom, you would like this series quite a bit because the historical research is my mom is a nurse. Not that I only do this podcast for my mom, but you know what? I love it. But the historical medical research, particularly in this book, and we will talk about it, is like my catnip and also my mother's catnip. Okay, here we go. Paris, 1889, physician Aurora Monteon Wright takes risks in her career, but never with her heart. Running an underground women's clinic exposes her to certain dangers, but help comes in unexpected form of the infuriating Duke of anon. Begrudgingly Aurora accepts his protection, then promptly finds herself in his bed. New to his role as a Duke Apollo, Cesar Sinclair Robles struggles to embrace his position with half of society waiting for him to misstep and the other half looking to discredit him. Apollo never imagined that his enthralling bedmate would become his most trusted advisor. Soon he realises the rebellious doctor could be the perfect duchess for him, but Aurora won't give up her independence and her secrets make her unsuitable for the aristocracy aristocracy. When you only read a book or you read a word and you never say it out loud, Adriana Herrara (03:04):

Yes, yes. That's one of those words Molly Fader (03:09):

That Is that in appetiser? No, no. Hors d'oeuvres hors. When I ran into hors d'oeuvres for the first time, I was like, I don't even know. Anyway, Adriana Herrara (03:17):

Poor dure Molly Fader (03:19):

With dangerous figures from their past return to threaten them. Apollo Whisks Aurora, away to the French Riviera. Far from the reproachful eye of Parisian society. Can Apollo convince Aurora that their bond is stronger than the forces keeping them apart? Adriana, thank you so much for joining us today. What are we drinking? What's our drink of choice today? Adriana Herrara (03:40):

I would say a Negroni is my preferred drink anytime, but you know what? I can also really do a champagne. Since we are in Paris, I was thinking also like a French 75 would be nice, all of those Molly Fader (03:56):

Things. Adriana Herrara (03:59):

During the pandemic, my partner and I decided that we were going to basically buy a bottle of champagne of every region in France that wasn't champagne. Every sparkling that they had that wasn't specific to champagne, and we drank so many bottles of Mont during the pandemic, so Mont would be nice too. Molly Fader (04:23):

I had just learned that recently that champagne I knew was in a specific area in France, but there are sparkling wines from every region, which once you think about it, you're like, yeah, of course there's one called a shamble. Anyway, alright, well, I'm going to join you in all of that. I had thought jokingly, considering the medical nature of this book and the current life we're living, that I would have a little bit of lanu, Adriana Herrara (04:53):

Just a spoonful, just a spoonful, a thimble, like a thimble, A thimble of lanu Molly Fader (04:59):

Just so I could sleep through the night. So there is so much to talk about this book. The first thing I want to talk about is this is the last book in this series. Adriana Herrara (05:08):

Yes. Molly Fader (05:09):

How do you feel as an author saying goodbye to this world because it is a top-notch world. Adriana Herrara (05:16):

Thank you. I'm ready to leave it. I wish I could be the kind of author that can just, there's the kind of author, which I think is honestly the best kind of romance author to be is the kind of person that can be in a world for 10 books. I'm just not that kind of author. Usually by the time I'm in the third or fourth book, I'm ready to leave it. And I think it's because I'm so deeply in it. And specifically for this one, I really wanted to try to do because I knew that it was the first traditionally published romance series with Latina leads set in this period, which is crazy to say, but it is the truth. I wanted to, as much as I could really deeply research the history so that I could provide to those Latinas that were reading these historicals
(06:19)
For the first time. Touchstones of this is where we've been in history, and it was amazing. I love doing the research, but it's a lot of work. I took feel like at times I was like, I have bitten off more than I can chew with these books because of so much the job I've set for myself. But I am pretty proud of them as a series. I feel like I ended how I wanted to end it. I feel like every book is strong in its own way, and I'm glad that they exists even though they were pretty challenging at times to write, because I don't have any comps or anything to refer to that's specific to what I'm writing. Molly Fader (07:09):

I mean, it's interesting in publishing how much a cover tells a reader what the experience is going to be. And you've just recently had a cover change on the whole series and reading these books and the level of detail of research mean they could have been, you could have put a historical fiction cover on it, a woman in a ball down walking down a shadowy. You could have done that. And that's trying very hard to hit the beats of historical fiction and romance, which can be pretty hard. And particularly when you're writing a romance that's got one foot in fantasy and one foot in reality, those can be tricky. Adriana Herrara (07:59):

They can be very tricky. Yeah, it is a really, because again, end my introduction to romance like many peoples my age and perhaps a little older, I'm in my late forties, I'm 46 was historical. So for me it was the sub genre where I really learned the beats of a romance. I didn't really find contemporary to much later in, I mean I read some contemporary, but this was Elizabeth Phillips and the Jennifer Cruz's, all of that. I actually didn't get into my second, I left romance in my twenties when I was in college. I stopped reading romance and then came back to it in my thirties and then that second Molly Fader (08:51):

Wave Adriana Herrara (08:52):

Wave of romance is when I started reading contemporary. Molly Fader (08:56):

So who were you reading at the beginning? Adriana Herrara (08:59):

Huh? Molly Fader (08:59):

Who were you reading at the beginning? Adriana Herrara (09:01):

In the beginning? I mean, I don't know. Judith Ivory, Joanna Lindsay, Julie Garwood. Yeah. Just recently I've rediscovered La Spencer who I hadn't read. I had read some of the La Spencer's historicals from back in the day, and I have just recently been reading some of those and some of them are like wildly do not hold up, but some of them aren't incredibly holed up. Molly Fader (09:31):

It's fun when you go back to your keeper shelf and they don't disappoint the ones that you're like, this is going to disappoint me. I don't read exactly. I thank it for its service and I let it go. Adriana Herrara (09:41):

Yes, yes. I'm looking back at my bookshelf. There's Jude Devereux, Julie Garwood, Laura Kinsale, who is, Molly Fader (09:54):

Yeah, those are all the same. I had the same experience. I started with, I mean, I actually started with contemporary Harlequins, but then really sank my teeth into the historicals. It was my identity in high school. Yes. Adriana Herrara (10:09):

I mean, Elizabeth Lowell, I just reread a bunch of Elizabeth Lowell. She has that mediaeval series. That's insane. She has this western series that's bananas. Molly Fader (10:19):

The Western series is one of my favourite. I mean, and it is bananas. It is bananas, but Adriana Herrara (10:28):

Yes, yes. Elizabeth Lowell was a watershed moment for me because I feel like, I don't think I found her early on, and I think the books were just so sexy to me. That mediaeval series, the tension, I mean, I was 13 and feeling, feeling. So to me, all I have to say is historical to me is very much imprinted and the DNA of how I feel romance at its best. And so I wanted to be able to hit those beats. I wanted to really go into those conventions of romance, like the carriages, the ballrooms, the dresses, the garden making out session, whatever, all those things that you expect to see in the historical, but at the same time kind of really trying to subvert it, really trying to have a conversation and regarding power and colonisation and wealth and class difference. That really was the reason why I ended up leaving romance in my twenties when I was starting to really read a lot more works and things like that. I couldn't reconcile all of that with this value system that I was developing as a feminist. But then I came back to it and the early two thousands, and by then Molly Fader (12:13):

Contemporaries did feel like they were starting to catch up with that Adriana Herrara (12:18):

And then Molly Fader (12:19):

Power dynamic conversation. Adriana Herrara (12:21):

Correct. I mean, not long after Sarah McLean came into the scene and Sherry Thomas, Mary Durran, Molly Fader (12:30):

Courtney Milan, yeah, Adriana Herrara (12:31):

Courtney Milan, who were really doing that work, really trying to reframe kj Charles started 10 years ago, who's amazing. So I think for me, I've had a journey with historical, but I also feel that historical is such an ideal place, especially now when our world feels so fraught to have really headed conversations about women's rights, about society in general, about where we've been before, Molly Fader (13:08):

And not just heady, but pointed. You can have a pointed conversation about women's rights and autonomy in a novel set, in a place, in a time where they don't have autonomy. I feel like I was talking to some writer friends and that sort of advice about how when the world feels secure, women, dark Romance has a spike because it's safe to explore that kind of fantasy internally. And when the world is scary, romcoms explode because we need that kind of escape. And I feel like, I was like, well, I'm wondering which way it's going to go. And then I was reading this book and I was like, oh, I know where I'm going. I, I'm going, going to dive into whatever historical comes my way, particularly as a huge hats off to you that address these things. One of the things, before we get too far off topic, I do want to ask you a few more strictly, not off topic, but to the greater political conversation, but I wanted to ask you some very specific romance things. And it's funny that you bring up Elizabeth Lowell, who is my writing hero. I feel like Adriana Herrara (14:31):

I love her. We could just do one show about Elizabeth Lowell, because I talk about Elizabeth Lowell constantly and people I feel like a lot of people don't realise because her background isn't huge, huge Baby, baby. That Western series to me is honestly a masterpiece. And that last one is probably my teak, but they are so good. Okay. Molly Fader (14:55):

Yeah. I think one of the things that she made so believable, I am thinking about that. I mean the heroine who has a nightmare in the thunderstorms, and suddenly the big revelation happens because she got so scared and he saw her in a new way and was kind to her for the first time. All those things were know. I know those hero, hero are. Yeah, it's hedy stuff. But one of the things that you've done in this series, the vein of Elizabeth Lowell, is that you teased this couple so dramatically and so hard. Readers were just like, we can't get enough of this. So do you feel like when you started to sit down to write their story, which you started with a sex scene, which Bravo, that's the way to start a book that readers are clamouring for is just like, here you go guys. So did you feel like at any point during this process you were like, ah, shit, why did I do that? Had you painted yourself into some corners because it's hard to do. Adriana Herrara (16:08):

So many times I was in that place of what the hell did I do to myself with these two? Well, I mean, the book that you got was probably like, I fully rewrote that book twice normally in revisions. I do very, very, very heavy edits. And these books specifically, I've had to do a lot of rewriting because they really take a long time to come together, which is why I will be ending the series at book three and will not probably try to do this again. But this one, the prologue was probably in the second, third, maybe the second developmental path, is when I finally was like, how do I do this? How do I introduce this to, because I had ended up writing a bunch of chapters of giving context to those moments where they had been together in other books, just because I feel like the reader's going to expect to know what happened.
(17:18)
And I had to kind of take a step back and be like, wait a minute. I have to just forget what happened in the other two books and really figure out what makes sense for these two and what's driving the story. And what was driving the story in this book was RA's work and her dedication to her work and all the secrets that she's keeping from pretty much everyone. And so I had to go back. So that prologue didn't exist probably until the third edit of this book. And what was actually the prologue for those who haven't read it, I don't think it's too much of a spoiler, but there's a scene well past the middle of the book where he's helping her put on a charity event. He's essentially hosting a charity event at his home in Paris to raise funds for her clinic. And she sees him talking to someone and kind of goes outside and gets into a fight with these two guys that she calls the Hyman brothers who are her nemesis. And he finds her in the middle of an argument with these two guys. And that was actually the prologue. That's Molly Fader (18:32):

More than halfway through the book. Adriana Herrara (18:34):

It's more than halfway through the book. I really love that scene, and I think it really spoke to both of, to the relationship. He's just fascinated by her temper by her mouth. She's mouthy and can be very disrespectful to the men that she encounters, and he just fucking loves it. He loves all of it. So I felt like a scene that really represented well, how he sees her, the way he sees her. And so I wanted to use it, but I was like, I don't know where I'm going to put it. So in the end, it ended up fitting really nicely there. But yeah, I had chapters of Manuela's wedding and all this stuff that I was like, I have to take all of that out. So I ended up really restructuring the original book, started them leaving Edinburgh pretty much after book one. They leave Edinburgh after the big blow up with his dad. And that's where I had started book one, the first manuscript, the first version of the book and ended up with this. So all of that to say Molly Fader (19:56):

All that to say is the winning decision is almost always head to the chase and get them in bed. Adriana Herrara (20:03):

Correct. I kind of really worked myself into a lot of corners because A, there's so much of them, I didn't realise how much of them there was in each book. And then two, how do I make it work? Because I know what the expectation of the reader is going to be in terms of them two, but how do I make it work with the story that I want to actually tell, which is women's health in the late 19th century? You're like, Molly Fader (20:40):

Meanwhile, in Adriana Herrara (20:41):

A very different era, basically it worked out. But this the book by far, that's taken me the longest to edit ever Molly Fader (20:52):

As a reader. I love the couple that's been teased. I love it so much. It's probably my favourite thing as a writer. I'm like, you idiot, what have you done from now on? But it is part of that world. It's part of that world that readers really love. Had you written yourself into any corners research wise? Because each of these books is, the first ones sort of about some bootlegging around. Yeah. Adriana Herrara (21:30):

Yeah. It's rom commerce trade, and then the second one's arts. I think for me mostly, well, yes, in a certain way, yes, because initially my thought was that she was a doctor that had been practising medicine in Mexico. So a lot of the research that I did was reproductive health in Mexico, which was useful in terms of understanding just how developed medicine was in Latin America, but also it wasn't that actually that useful to me in terms of what I could use. And I ended up actually using a lot more then I was like, well, what's relevant to an American reader's going to want to know a little bit more about the us? And so I made it, maybe she did her residency in Philadelphia, which was one of the places where black women could Molly Fader (22:39):

Graduate med school. Adriana Herrara (22:41):

There were hospitals that were specifically for black people where black women were practising . So yeah, I mean think it's initially with research, you just do a lot of research and then you end up using maybe 10% of what you research if that, Molly Fader (23:03):

And then you're always really thrilled when that little bit, I had to do a deep dive. I'd written a book that had a thematically about women's reproductive history in the 1960s, 1950s, and I went down this rabbit hole of the first something we take for granted is a pregnancy test, how women didn't know that they were pregnant until they were really pregnant anyway. And so you go down this rabbit hole and then you're like, ah, I don't need it. And then you're like, yes, I do. You get it in there. I can put it in here. I felt that way about when she's first going to see her first patient and she's got that anaesthesia, Adriana Herrara (23:49):

The canister. Yes, I know. I was like, wait to get it in there, Adrian. I was like, I need to get this in here for so many reasons, because it was debuted at the fair, and I was like, I feel like I don't have a tonne of stuff. Both the first book and the second book were really, really, really had a lot of stuff about the exposition, which is where the whole kind of series is based around this world's fair happening. And so I'm like, I have to sort in some stuff that's just related to the fair. So the canister was one of those things where I was like, I know that the first one was sold and exhibited at this fair, so I have to get it in somehow. And I managed thankfully to get it in there for that procedure. But yeah. Yeah, I mean, even the clinic itself, the inspiration for the clinic was the clinic that was in the sixties in Chicago, because I read the story of Jane. I was just so fascinated, and I imagine how angry these women are right now. I wish they did a documentary a few years ago, and I wish they would just, they're probably so pissed of all the work that they did for, anyway. Molly Fader (25:12):

Yeah, I read that book as well from in research, and it is that question that we're all asking ourselves in this new insane political climate that we're in. It's like, what would you do if it's Nazi Germany in 1930s? What would you do? And I read that book and I was like, would what I teach myself how to do this procedure? Would I be the fucking balls on these women? It was just Adriana Herrara (25:46):

Astounding, bravery. Astounding, astounding bravery. I consider myself a pretty bold person. And the level of, it's almost, I mean, I think it's like what happens when you are in an environment where you literally have no choice?
(26:02)
And so I think URA is also that kind of character where it's not, she's not scared. I think that part of where I feel like Apollo as the hero really kind of felt helpless with her was because it's not that she didn't know what she was doing. It's not like she was frolicking out there like, blah, la, la, la, la. Nothing's going to happen to me. She knew how risky all of this was and how badly it could go for her if she was found out when she was out in the street at two in the morning trying to find a client. But it's like somebody has to do it. Molly Fader (26:51):

And I thought that the scene that you had when her brothers first arrive, where Apollo comes in halfway and flexes, but she had already fought the fought the fight, and she was like, you have no say. You are irrelevant. You didn't stand up for me when I needed you. You didn't help me financially. In fact, you took my finances away. You get no say in what I'm doing and I'm doing this thing. And that He came in and perhaps didn't hear the whole story and was like, yeah, Adriana Herrara (27:30):

Exactly. He comes this his little man thing. And he just, again, part of what I wanted with them is there are moments in time that it just takes more than being a man. He was like, well, feeling like he had done this. He stood up to her brothers and she was just like, I'm just tired of men coming in and doing that thing of threatening each other or being violent with each other. And meanwhile, women are dying. Women are bad. Things happen to us all the time. And here you guys are just Molly Fader (28:17):

Measuring your dicks. Adriana Herrara (28:18):

Yeah, exactly. And pissing competitions. And so I think part of when I was writing that book, there was a strong sense of wariness that I was dealing with. I was very wary of men and the world, and I didn't realise I would get even tired or tighter than I was writing it. Molly Fader (28:40):

There's a new bottom every Adriana Herrara (28:41):

Day, even more exhausted. But I think it is that piece of none of these things that women do, they do because they're particularly the bravest people on earth. It's just like, if we don't do it, who's going to do it? Molly Fader (29:04):

Right. And I do love that conversation you had with her and her mentor, who is a real person. One of the sort of historical subplots in this is the medical, I'm blanking on the word, but the medical machine practically kind of came in and Adriana Herrara (29:27):

Wiped out Oh, yes. The question, yes, Molly Fader (29:28):

Midwifery and all of those things. And so she has this mentor who's a little bit, you have to protect you, so go and find yourself something that brings her joy. He's like, yeah, I'm going to go use that Apollo guy for some. Adriana Herrara (29:45):

Exactly. I've got this six foot tall annoying guy who's obsessed Molly Fader (29:51):

With Adriana Herrara (29:52):

Me. Exactly. Who's obsessed with him. Maybe I'll use him as my entertainment. Molly Fader (29:57):

That is one of my favourite dynamics and romance that I feel like in going back to the Elizabeth Lowell thing is an absolutely flipped of the thing that we grew up reading, which is the guy from the get-go is like, man, girl, you are nuts and you're going to get yourself killed. And I don't understand you one bit, but I am obsessed. Yes. Adriana Herrara (30:25):

And I think it might've been, Sarah McLean's always says the books that set your buttons, that set your codes. And I do believe Elizabeth Lowell is absolutely one of the authors that really implanted my codes as a reader. And so I was thinking about, I think it's the first book and that series where she's completely wild and he comes, they know each other from childhood, and he's just like, you annoy me, but I can't not be obsessed with you, and everything you do is equally annoying and also enthralling at the same time. And so I did want to kind of give him that he's beside himself a lot of the time with her because he can't control her. He doesn't want to, and he respects what she's doing, but at the same time, it's just terrified for her all the time, which is, I mean, again, you have to find conflict. I think to me, it's like the conflict is her job is the most important thing for her in the world, and it's not like she's making stockings. You know what I mean? Molly Fader (31:49):

Lives are on the line for sure. And she's the only one doing these surgeries. Adriana Herrara (31:54):

Yeah. And so Virginia was, again, she's one of those people that I found her in research and I was like, I really want to include her. How do I put her in this book? And I was like, she's running the clinic. There was this pretty intense anarchist movement in Argentina at the turn of the century. Molly Fader (32:18):

Anarchist nuns. Adriana Herrara (32:19):

Yeah, there were anarchist nuns or anarchist women who were also in the free love movement, which basically at that time was more like, we don't want to get married. We don't want a husband. Their kind of mantra was like, no husband, no boss, Molly Fader (32:37):

No God, Adriana Herrara (32:38):

No God. So it was literally like they were atheists, they were unionists. They were also rejecting marriage. They would have a partner, but they wouldn't do a marriage contract because they lost all their rights Molly Fader (32:59):

Then that was your dog. Adriana Herrara (33:02):

No, no, no. I was just, I'm going to actually, lemme kick her out for a second and we'll continue. Molly Fader (33:11):

We were having a conversation about how much dogs or how much noise our dogs make at the woman they see every day. The mailman that they see every day Adriana Herrara (33:23):

Is, they've been calm all day, but the moment I'm in the middle of something, they decide that their entire lives sober. Molly Fader (33:34):

So another part of the historical research is the immigrant story, the fact that these three heroines meet at a boarding school in Switzerland and they all come from extremely varied backgrounds, have tremendous wealth behind them, but are coming to white Europe. The research behind that, removing the medical part of it, the research behind that had to be, have you been doing that your whole life? Have you been always sort of plugged into these stories? Are there stories that you've known and you've learned before? Because I have to say shamefully as an American elementary school kid, high school, I don't know. These stories are not told to me. Adriana Herrara (34:27):

Yes, yes. No, I mean, I think part of the reason why to me, I mean, short answer, yes, I had a sense of it because I grew up in the Dominican Republic, so I didn't grow up in the us. I grew up in the Dominican Republic until the age of 23. I went to college there. I came to the US for grad school. So I was in my early twenties when I moved to the States. So because I grew up in Santo Domingo, that's where I was born, and the capital of the Dominican Republic, which was the first city in America, we had the first university was established there in the 15 hundreds. And I knew that there were many Dominicans when we were learning Dominican history, that our founding fathers came to study law in studied law in Paris in the 18 hundreds and the early 18 hundreds. So I had a very strong sense of a, there's a lot of movement just geographically where the Caribbean is. We were literally the gateway to north and southern America. The first slave ship came to San Domingo a hundred years before they came to the us. I think the first slave ship arrived in the DR in 1522.
(35:55)
And so because 1492, the first city in the Americas was San Domingo. So I had a very strong sense that there was a lot of mobility between the Caribbean and Europe all throughout the 1,516 hundreds, 17 hundreds, 18 hundreds, just because we were a major trading route. So I did have a sense Molly Fader (36:26):

Of there was huge wealth and wealth. Adriana Herrara (36:32):

There was a lot of business, a lot of merchants in southern America too. I think for the second book, I have one of the heroines, Cora, and I actually have that guy in this book too, Simone Patino is his name. He was called the Rockefeller of Bolivia because he owned all these tin mines and he was the richest man in the world for a while. And he married all his daughters to aristocrats. He was obsessed with marrying. He was part indigenous. I think in the second book, Cora's mother was half, she was indigenous, she was ira. And so you had a man who's half indigenous, but he's obsessed with aspiring to be a wealthy, powerful person. And to be that you had to have that proximity to whiteness. So he married all his daughters to Molly Fader (37:44):

White girls, Adriana Herrara (37:45):

White aristocrats, and one of them ended up becoming a nun later in life and famously had Coco Chanel design her habit for when she took the habit. So there's all these connections between Southern America and the Caribbean and Europe that I just had a sense for just because I was learning a different kind of history than you're learning here. So I did have a, but once I started doing a little more research, I talk about it always in my acknowledgements. There's a Dominican Studies Institute here in New York City at the city college in New York, and it's basically an archive of Dominican history, and they've been super helpful to me throughout the whole series. And they have just a tonne of information of just all these different Dominican people that were just in the world, artists and musicians. So I kind of had a sense of it, but once I started writing and doing the research, then I was able to kind of place them in these different areas.
(38:58)
For Lewis's book, I had just all this rum business stuff that was happening in the Caribbean. Rum was a huge part of the Caribbean's economy still is. So there was just a tonne of business being done between Europe and the US and the Caribbean because of Rome. And then in the arts, we had a lot of artists that were coming to, there was a big overlap and art, but also lesbians. There was a huge overlap in Paris, especially of expats like women that were coming from the US from Americas and coming to Paris and then Molly Fader (39:44):

Living their best life. And so Adriana Herrara (39:47):

That was one thing. And then with this, I knew there were women who were Latin American that were studying medicine in Paris late 18 hundreds just because of the research I was doing. Because in a lot of places, they couldn't go to school, but they could go to school in Germany, they could go to school in Austria, they could go to school in Paris. So yeah, Molly Fader (40:17):

That's an incredible, I mean, I think part of the reflection of my first question, which is how hard is it to end a series? It's because you do have this wealth of knowledge. And as a reader of the series, I'm like, well, I could have five more books. Well, thank you. We need a botanist, we need an arm, maybe a gunman. We need women in all of these. But I can appreciate the mental load of this series. Can I ask what's next? Can I ask if you've got some ideas? I know this book is out at the beginning of February, Adriana Herrara (40:57):

The Molly Fader (40:57):

End of the series. Are you thinking ahead or are you still Adriana Herrara (41:01):

Gathering? I have many ideas. My problem is never ideas my focus. Now, I do have one project that I've been researching and thinking about for years now, like two or three years, and I have a lot of research on it. I have read a lot of books, so I feel like I should write something on it, but it would be mid-century, more like early 1950s, early 1960s, late 1950s. And I have two book ideas that are kind of loosely connected. One is set in the Dominican Republic in New York, and one would be mostly in New York, but it would be more like 1959 to 1965. Molly Fader (41:52):

That's sexy. That's a sexy time period right now. Adriana Herrara (41:55):

I feel there was wild stuff happening in the world at that time. The spies, the red scare, there was so much wild stuff happening in this country, but in the world in general. So my revolutions were Molly Fader (42:15):

Brewing, Adriana Herrara (42:18):

Dictators were falling, Molly Fader (42:22):

Well, you've sold me. I'm ready. Let's Adriana Herrara (42:26):

Go. I just have to write it. That's what I'm working on now, trying to build the scaffolding for this book. Sierra Simone, who's a friend, always says, I feel like I always know where I'm going with the story, but I always have to build the boat first. I wish I could just use the same boat that I had from last time, but no, Molly Fader (42:51):

It's true. It's true. One of the things that I meant to ask this earlier, but one of the things that you had mentioned in your author note was that you had lost your editor before this book, and you had also said that this book had quite went through quite a few revisions. Are you taking on revisions yourself? Do you have some people who read the book before you send it to the editor? Does your agent give you, how does your process work editing wise? Adriana Herrara (43:22):

So that's interesting. You Molly Fader (43:24):

Build a boat then. Adriana Herrara (43:26):

I know the boat, the boat, she needs to be built every time, which is the brown. But so no, because I have my editor, my trad stuff, I do also indie stuff where I have editors that I work with, but for my traditional stuff and specifically for the Leona, my editor who bought my debut for Harlequin, Carrie Buckley is her name. She was with Karina. She was with Harper for a long time. She bought my debut and we worked together for 12 bucks. She was with me. We moved, I did some categories for Harlo when I did a couple of desires, and she was my editor for that. And then when I moved to trade for this historical, she was with me for that. And we just had this very intimate, very collaborative, very, it was a great working relationship. She just got what I was trying to say and just fully understood my vision for a story, and it was hard to lose her. I Molly Fader (44:38):

Cannot, it's like having a coach, a coach that gets you and believes in the project and just is able to get the best out of you. And it's devastating every time that relationship ends for whatever reason. Adriana Herrara (44:53):

It was truly devastating, and I mean part of it, because I knew this was going to be the hardest one to take on. There were so many sensitive topics that I was trying to take on. I mean, there's abortion care on the page. There's just a lot of stuff that I knew she would be able to reel me in when she needed to and be like, this is not a big deal. Everything's feels like a big deal when you're writing these books. So yeah, it was tough. It was tough because I am not the kind of person who writes my first draught is like, this is the book and I just have to clean it up. That's not me. My first draught is a suggestion of what the book is going to be, and then I rewrite it two more times and then the book is ready. I'm definitely not the kind of person who, the first thing that comes out is what it is. And so I do need really intense editing, and that was not easy. I had an editor who was fine, but was not my ride or die Molly Fader (46:01):

Person. Yeah, Adriana Herrara (46:03):

Yeah. So yeah, I am definitely not a light edit person. I wish I was, gosh, that would be so great if I Molly Fader (46:13):

Was, I feel like it's often book by book. Some books, they just come out more fully formed than others, and some books come out and they're the wrong shape for so long. They just need so much work. Adriana Herrara (46:28):

Yes. I mean, I feel like I've learned more and more that I am much more panther than a plotter. I need to have a sense of where I'm going, but I can't constrain myself too much by planning ahead. And so when I try to do that, usually the process becomes that much more difficult than it edits. So Molly Fader (46:54):

It's a tricky business. Adriana Herrara (46:55):

Tricky business. It's very hard. I wish people, it's like, I think I'm going to write a romances novel and don't do it because it's very hard and you think it's easy if you write a romance novel, it's like, this was super easy. I'm like, I'm sorry. That book is no good. We have to suffer Molly Fader (47:14):

The number of conversations having been in this business so long from people who do think it's easy, think they could do it. Think I did it so that I could make a bunch of money writing books that people can't put down or writing books that the pages turn fast is the hardest thing. It's so hard. The easy reading books are hard to write Adriana Herrara (47:39):

So hard, and I make people, and I'm like, listen, this book that everybody's reading that's lightening in a bottle that happens every 1 million Molly Fader (47:47):

Books. Yep, it's true. It's true. Well, Adriana, I'm very grateful that you wrote this beautiful series, and I particularly loved this last book. A Tropical Rebel Gets the Duke. Everybody go out there. So if you haven't read the whole series, you can pick this one up. It makes you want to go back and read the happily Ever afters of these other obsessed, particularly the hero from the first book is very obsessed with heroin. Adriana Herrara (48:14):

It's just obsessed. If they're not obsessed and their entire life falls apart the moment they meet them, then it's not my boat. The point snatch my body. Molly Fader (48:22):

Yeah, what's the point? Everybody out there, please go pick up this book. Adriana, thank you so much for taking the time to chat with me today. Adriana Herrara (48:28):

Absolutely. Next time we'll just talk about Elizabeth Lowell. Molly Fader (48:32): 

That's right. Negronis and Elizabeth Lowell. I can't wait. Just a deep dive. Thank you. Thanks for coming by everybody. Have a good day.