Leonor Soliz on Cozy Billionaires & Healed Latine Heroes

Are you tired of these high stakes dramas and emotional angst in your books? I know I was! Today on We Read Smut, we're getting really cozy with author Leonor Soliz, who is going to be sharing all about her low-angst romances featuring healed heroes and rich found families. As a therapist by day, Leonor integrates well-developed characters into her stories, discussing why consent and setting boundaries is so important, and how creating these beautiful fantasies has made such an impact on her life and the lives of her readers.

Leonor's romance books are cozy and fun: low conflict, slow burn stories that will make you swoon… and will reward you with great spice. With a healthy dose of humor, these stories guarantee a happily ever after to her plus size and multicultural characters.

Leonor lives in Edmonton, Canada, where she works as a therapist during the day. Writing is her passion and self care, and she fits as much of it into her life as she can. She loves to illustrate too, making art for her characters and covers!

In this episode, we're discussing:

• The Power of Found Family: Leonor shares how her personal journey with loneliness and moving countries has influenced her writing of deep, supportive found family bonds in her series.
• Healed Heroes & Low Angst: Learn how Leonor uses her background as a therapist to write male main characters who have done the emotional work, creating a low-angst space for readers who are tired of unnecessary drama.
• Billionaires with a Conscience: Discover how Leonor writes "filthy billionaires" who are committed to distributing their wealth fairly, challenging the real-world notion of ethical billionaires.
• Fantasy & Consent: Leonor discusses the complex relationship between fantasy and consent in romance, emphasizing that books provide a safe space for readers to explore boundaries and power dynamics.

If you're looking for low-angst, spicy romances with heart and depth, Leonor Soliz is your new go-to author! Check out her Latina Billionaire series, which is a love letter to her Chilean culture. To get first access to all her spicy art, epilogues, and news, subscribe to her newsletter! You can also connect with her on Instagram.

CONNECT WITH LEONOR SOLIZ:

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Running list of books mentioned (Doc)

Transcript

Alesia Galati 0:00

Are you tired of these high-stakes dramas and emotional angst in your books? I know I was getting that way for sure. So today we are getting really cozy with author Leonor Solis, who is going to be sharing all about her romances, how she is a therapist by Jay, integrating those more healed characters into her books, why consent is so important, and how creating these fantasies and these found families has made such an impact on her life as well as the lives of her readers. Listener discretion is advised. This podcast contains mature content intended for adult audiences only. Hello, Leonor. I'm so excited to have you on the podcast.

SPEAKER_02 0:50

So excited to be here. I've been hoping that this moment would happen. And so I've been counting down the days.

Alesia Galati 0:58

Oh it's so sweet. Thank you. All right. So if you could start by telling everyone a bit about you and how you became an author.

SPEAKER_02 1:08

So the story started a long time ago. So I'm gonna try to make this story time short because I remember being about eight years old and writing my first story. It was a Meet Cute that it was about a teenage girl in the pool, and she comes out of the pool like Little Mermaid and locks eyes with a teenage boy, and then they meet and they fall in love. And that was the whole story, you know, 500 words. But to me, it was perfect and amazing. It came with a drawing that is up now in my website if anyone's curious. And I remember doing that in the joy of writing that. Next time I remember being really into writing I was a teenager, writing what I now know is self-insert fanfiction with a boy band for me and my classmates. And it was always romance. On and off, I've been writing all throughout my life. And my favorite thing in books was always the love story. My favorite types of movie were those with a happy liver after, you know? And I've been writing on and off, on and off my whole life. And then I had just written a long, long, long story, like 250,000 words, and I finished that and I was like, okay, I'm done. I think I'm done. I need something completely different. And I was watching a documentary on Netflix during at the start of the pandemic, I want to say. And there was this moment where it was what's his name? Down to Earth was the documentary, and Isaac Efron. And he makes this comment in passing about Hollywood being so toxic. And I went like there's a story there. And that eventually became my debut. Like in that moment, I was like, I don't know, so many things clicked at once. I've been writing my whole life. I now have read a few in the books. I know that they exist. I know that the romance gender exists, which I didn't know. Culturally, that's not uh something well accepted where I'm from. And I know I love how to write. Maybe I try it for myself. And so it was the how everything came together to be like, I have an idea, I can write, I know that I like to write, and I know I can publish. So why don't I try? And it was just this moment, and I threw myself into that, and I wrote the first book like just very spontaneously. I think I've learned a lot after writing that first series. But it felt so natural, it felt like this progression that just was like an alchemy moment where I said everything came together. I why have I never thought about actually publishing my books? And that's how it came to be. So my name is Leonor. Leonor Solisa, I am a Chilean author living in Canada. I'm a therapist by day, and I write every single minute that I can illustrate, then any other minute extra that I can find. There is this artistry to the whole process that makes me very happy and makes and like nourishes me. So it's it's how I find joy every day. And so I'm very passionate about it. And now I write all that coziness into my books, I write all the things that matter into my books, and I keep learning, I keep writing, I keep doing all of this artist stuff through my books. So that's how I ended up here.

Alesia Galati 4:46

So I'm curious what comes first for you in like your process? Is it the illustration of the characters? Is it the character write-up, or is it like a few chapters, or like what does that look like?

SPEAKER_02 4:59

You know what? It's the scenes, it's random scenes. When I get like this flavor, like the flavor for the couple. So in my very first book in the debut Seeking Stars, the very first scene that I had was, and spoilers, no, this is one of my most popular books, so I don't know if anyone's read it, but they're in the pool, and he tries to kiss her, and she says no. And I had that moment, and I was like, What happened? Why? And I start building around it. So for every book, I have certain scenes that start giving me a taste for the characters, for the story, and I build around it the tropes that I think would make this tastier, other scenes that give us a flavor for the characters and the tension. I love the tension of why they're not together and why they are resisting. So that's kind of where I start imagining books.

Alesia Galati 5:58

Ah, that is so cool. Yeah. Just like building it almost from the idea and then out rather than like outlining it, which I feel like everyone has their own process, right? So there's no one right way to write a book.

SPEAKER_02 6:16

No, there's not for you. If you can write a book, then it works.

Alesia Galati 6:20

Right, exactly. So which book would you say is your most popular? And like from just from the stats, and then what was that scene for that book?

SPEAKER_02 6:29

Uh, okay. So my most popular would be my last book, which I have here, the game, is when I went into sports romance. I love the found family feeling of a sports romance. So the scene that I had, there is a scene where like I knew that she was gonna be PR for him, and he's working out and she's filming him. And I'm like, but why? And then there is this moment where like there is a lot of tension, and he calls her out on something, and she kind of goes, and I was like, Yes, that. So why? And I feel like I Frankenstein my books, like I Frankenstein my characters, they're a mix of pieces of me, pieces of who they need to be for the story to make sense. But then the story is also Frankenstein's from the tension between these characters, the trope that I'm exploring, tropes end up being very important to me as a way to guide certain journeys or give me like a framework in which I'm playing. And so in this one, I knew they were gonna be Grumpy Sunshine, that he's gonna be like full disclosure. This was also a big inspiration for this book. There is this football player, he's not in like a proper team, he's in like a second team in football. I've learned now that I'm writing this, and I saw a video of him on TikTok, some something. He's a football player, and I saw a video of him on TikTok frowning and staring intensely to something in the distance, and I was like, that's him, that's local. Okay, noted, and then I bring that energy into these moments of inspiration, moments that I want to see, the framework that I'm trying to put into the story, all of that I start taking pieces and I put maybe like a puzzle, you know. I start putting it together to create this storyline, and I do do an outline, like it's a very skeleton outline, just the tent poles that I call that I want to see, and then I just start writing and then editing 10 times. That's how the book comes to be.

Alesia Galati 8:36

Wow. Okay, so you mentioned found family, and I personally read your uh Cozy Latine Billionaire series, which I love and we're gonna talk about today. And you have found family in that one as well, this group of guy friends who were pretty much adopted by the male main character in book one's parents, who are just the most incredible parents in the world, and just yeah, I love them. So, why is found family? You mentioned it for the other book as well. Why was that a an important part of your story? And I'm also curious from the therapist's lens, how that kind of lends to the character bill.

SPEAKER_02 9:22

Yeah. So I think that in found family in particular is so important to me because belonging is important to me. I think a lot of my journey as a person has been around finding the people I belong with or I can feel close to. I have interesting relationships with my family, but also I've moved countries from one end of the continent to the other. I've had to really sit with loneliness often in my life. And so the idea of a found family has been very much a repairing experience for me. And part of part of how I use my books has to do with what are these things that I long for, what are the fantasies that I want to play in, and for me, and how my life has uh shaped up. This true feeling of like this is my family has been part of the thing that I'm looking for, the part the thing that I'm seeking. And so now I write it everywhere, everywhere. I like friendships are so important, and it is the friendship that exists in this group, right? In my cousin Latina Billionaire series, they are family, even if they've chosen each other, right? And then they are taken by these parents that are so amazing, and they have this siblinghood among the group and then their partners. That's part of what I long for, so I write it. And I think it's also why sports romance attracted me, because it is kind of built in through the team, and I can't avoid thinking. I can't avoid thinking that about why this plays out the way it does, but also how it contrasts to reality, like the fact that I wrote about billionaires when I hate billionaires. Or the fact that I find that so often in sports culture there is this toxic masculinity that I really bristle with. But at least the way we I write them, or at least the way that other people can write them as well. There is this assumption that no, this is like in a team, they're best friends. I doubt that athletes in real life are actually best friends who would never want to be traded. But that's what I'm writing right now. Like it's the nightmare of my hero of the book that is coming out now in a little bit. When this episode comes out, it's probably just released. That's one of his nightmares to be traded. It's missing, you know, losing his friends, losing his people, losing his home. Because there is this idea or this assumption that when you have these people that are close together, they can become your family, and it's built in wanting to stay close, wanting to be there for each other, wanting to have these relationships. So, yeah, I think I'm going kind of on the branches now, but it is very much part of those fantasies, and it's be my fantasy, so it's what I write.

Alesia Galati 12:20

Yeah, and I think that it is important. And I mean, I don't watch sports because I do not care at all about sports. And usually I just sit next to my husband while he's watching sports, and I will, you know, play Sudoku while listening to an audiobook, or I will just be reading something. But I have noticed parts where they talk about, hey, so-and-so used to play with so-and-so, and here's them seeing each other again, right? And there's that like kind of romance that happens where they're just like, oh buddy, I have to also have to beat you in this game, and I might just you know, kind of rib you a little bit about it. But like there's that camaraderie that happens before or after the game. That I think is really sweet that they showcase that sometimes. But I think that it would. I mean, I think about even when I worked in a corporate job, just how close we were. I mean, every Friday night we were going to the bar for drinks or going to the strip club. I worked with a lot of dudes, so we'd go to the strip club, right? Like just the things that we would do together and hang out together, and like the team buildings we would go on, right? Like all of that stuff did create that deeper level of friendship because you do spend so much time with these people.

SPEAKER_02 13:44

This is the therapist talking a little bit more, but there are some different ideas as to why friendship is so important to people, you know, and being this network and these this ability to rely on others, if we're social creatures, what happens to that all, right? It isn't only about you're gonna have a partner or a number of partners where you're co-parenting to procreate and create society. It's not only that, it is much more than that. Is it can I rely on society and people at large to establish communities, right? And that's where friendships come in, because friendships are part of like, okay, of course these partners can't offer everything, right? Even though that's the story that has been told to us through the past few decades, really. Not it's not that old even, it's just the past few decades. That if they can't give me everything, does that mean that our my other needs are not met? No, it doesn't mean that. Whether you are in a polyamorous or consensual non-monogamy structure, or whether you're finding that with friends or other platonic relationships, at the end of the day, there is not one person that can meet all your needs. Right. And friends come as part of that, right? And family can do that too, depending on the relationships you have with your family. But at the end of the day, is what are you finding, these connections, and friends are so important. But in adulthood, it's so difficult to make friends, at least the way our culture has been structured. One thing that I read about it at some point was that it is really about the amount of time you spend with them, you know. That's why in a school you feel like it's easier to make friends because you're trapped in a building with the same 500 people, right? And so you're going to find hopefully one or two people in that building that you actually click with. And you're still trapped in that building for that amount of hours, right? But it's the same reason why, for so many of us, the people we work with end up being the places where we find friendship, because we're again trapped in these relationships, or we're put into these relationships. So you're gonna spend enough time with them to find the right people for you and actually create those fonts that lead to friendship.

Alesia Galati 15:55

And I think that you pointed out something that's really important, especially for those of us with partners, is that we cannot find everything that we need to fulfill us in one person, which I think that a lot of romances do tend to perpetuate is you know, that one friend that you maybe see often, or maybe that really like one or two friends that you have, and then your partner is everything else that you could possibly ever need. And they're this well-rounded individual perfect for you, and has the same sense of humor and like knows exactly what to cultivated.

SPEAKER_02 16:31

They can read you so well and they know exactly what to say all the time. But again, that that comes back to me to the idea of the fantasy that you're looking at, right? Like books are a product, a creation that allows you to explore certain fantasies that you're interested in. And so for some of us, that is, you know, uh mafia, the world of murders and all of that. For some of us, that's gonna be can I go into the darkest parts of people's souls through a dark romance and truly and explore myself there with the power to just shut down the book and I don't have to be in any of these worlds, right? Or is it more like I just want a man that can read my every thought just by looking at me and that knows how to ask for consent in a very sexy manner that does not kill the mood. And, you know, that is their whole goal in life is to make our lives better. But we all are looking for something like that, especially in the world we live in where we all still have so much misogyny and patriarchy and the impacts of colonialism and capitalism and all of these structural things putting pressure on us. Sometimes it is a place where you can go get a hug. You know, books can be a place where you can go get a hug, but sometimes it's a place where you can go like, I'm gonna experiment things that I would never want in my life. I have too much of that, I'll just experiment here. And it's really about what we're looking to get, right? The parts of us that we're trying to explore or touch that I think books are so good for.

Alesia Galati 18:10

Yeah, it's just a matter of don't take it too far.

SPEAKER_02 18:13

I mean, yes.

Alesia Galati 18:14

Where your therapy comes in.

SPEAKER_02 18:16

Yes. And to be honest, as a therapist, I've struggled with that. I've had I've had a journey around understanding what that means a long time ago. Like I've been a therapist now for oh my gosh, what year is it? Let's say 15 years or something like that. When I was still in university, back home in Tile, I remember thinking, like, oh no, people who read there are stories that push the limit. No. What are these people putting into their heads? You know, and I used to think like that. And then the more I've been in these spaces and the more I've learned and grown as a person and as a professional, I realize that it's not about that. It is about, I think, fantasy and consent and the ability to say yes in this very structured way, when you can say no at any time, right? The moment you don't like a book, you close it. And you know, I've worked a lot with survivors of sexualized violence, I'm a survivor myself. And so I look at these things always through the lens of power and permission. Books are an access to that, and I've come to this place where I can see that if someone comes into a book understanding that it is that fantasy and that it is contained to this product or this place for exploration, then please do it. This is one of the safest places where you can explore these things about yourself and about humanity, right? The problem is that in our culture, no one really teaches us about boundaries and about consent and about asking each other for permission. That the moment you have someone who has not done that inner work, the someone who maybe doesn't have all the brain parts because they're not mature enough, they haven't fully developed as a person, teenagers, you know, a 15-year-old reading a dark romance, it's completely different than a 45-year-old reading a dark romance, right? I'm talking about that developmental, you know, process, but I'm also talking about just living in a culture that is steeped in problematic things. We are steeped in these problematic things, right? Rap culture is everywhere, and misogyny is everywhere, racism is everywhere, even in the most subtle things. And so if you don't know yourself enough as a person and have not unpacked these things enough as a person, that's when this is gonna start blending and losing the boundaries, and that's when it becomes a problem, but it's not a problem of the books, right? That's a problem of the person reading the book, and of course, sometimes the person writing the book, if they cannot write the book in a way that is actually coherent within that storyline or that premise, in a way that is explicitly talking about, hey, this is a fantasy. Right. Of course, the author can make the mistake or the reader can make the mistake, but it's still the problem, not only the product, it's also who comes to the product to participate in that story. If you don't know how to make that separation, that's when things get complicated.

Alesia Galati 21:13

Yeah, it definitely makes sense. I mean, I've seen books where the author's note at the beginning, oh, like, because I do read some dark romance where the author's note is like, if anybody did this in real life, I would dropkick them and I would tell them what they can do with themselves, and I would tell this female main character to go to the cops right away because this is not okay in real life.

unknown 21:33

Right?

Alesia Galati 21:33

Like, I love those ones where they're tongue-in-cheek about it, but also like, hello, this is not okay in real life ever. This is a book. This is a work of fiction. And then you have other ones where I mean, we're not going to mention names because this person does not need more notoriety for their terribleness. But the one who had a kind of motorcycle club romance where one was a KKK member and then the other character was. Mexican, and it's like, no, like the these are things that maybe we don't need to write at all or perpetuate.

SPEAKER_02 22:08

Yeah, and I can't say that I'm an expert on those lines because I'm not a reader or a writer of dark romance. I don't spend as much time in there, right? I'm talking as a as an author and a person and a therapist looking from outside in. So I hope I'm not crossing any lines or miss or misspeaking here. But I do believe that as authors we end up putting ourselves in our pages, right? And we need to have done that work of deconstructing and of finding those lines to know how to navigate them in the books, because if we haven't, then we're just gonna perpetuate the same stuff. And if I hadn't spent so much time talking about consent, could I put consent the way that I do in my books? I need to have done that work. If I hadn't experienced a million microaggressions, could I notice when I'm perpetuating microaggressions in a book? I need to have done the work to be able to walk that line in a book. You know, just like a reader needs to do that work to be able to walk those lines. It's inevitable. We need to come in as a full person to the stories, or we're gonna get in trouble.

Alesia Galati 23:18

Yeah, it's like uh somebody said a character flaw is not putting the seat, the toilet seat down, not racism. Like, yeah, like come on, those are character flaws that we could like overlook or maybe work on. Racism is not one of those that needs to go in a book. Okay, thanks. Bye. Yeah, yeah. But yeah, I think your point is really important that authors and readers, both of us, we have to do the work to go into these stories. And you know, some people might say, Oh, well, it's just for funsies. It's like that is a privilege to be able to say that it's just for funsies, and it really does reflect what kinds of books are you really reading? Are you reading ones that only reflect your culture or your background or the color of your skin, right? Like you have to be reading outside of that to be able to understand the differences, which is what I loved about your books, because I even though I've read a lot of books with Hispanic and Latin characters and by authors who are from Latine countries or Hispanic countries, I don't think I had ever read ones that were Chilean before. And like I loved, especially in the second book of the Cozy Billionaires one, how you had that, I think it was Ocho uh 188. And I was like, I've never heard like Puerto Rican, like I've never heard of this ever before. Like, what is it? And then it made me also like the food sounded fantastic. I mean it is biased, but it is like now I want the food, first of all. Now I need some Chilean friends or need to find a Chilean restaurant near me because now I want to try it, and also like what a cool celebration and party that these people are having. Yes, and like I also like that the like one character was like, Oh, well, like yes, I have family that's Hispanic and I grew up Hispanic, but like my parents didn't accept the culture, and like to be able to then go into another family and see it celebrated in such like an authentic and fun, enjoyable way was beautiful too. I just yes, it's so good.

SPEAKER_02 25:35

Oh, I'm glad to hear that. You know, I feel like in so many ways that series is a love letter to different parts of me. Every book has something like that, and I think that Max, that's book two, the one you're talking about, DC8, he carries a lot of me in that because he's an immigrant that came into North America later. You know, he was a teenager when he came in, so he had an accent, and I have an accent. He had to coach it out, which is a different part of his line, right? But he misses DC 8 the way that I do. Like it's middle of August, and I'm already thinking, oh my gosh, I'm gonna miss another DC8, and like Instagram knows this, and it's showing me all this Chilean content and people preparing for a month in advance. We're already talking about what is gonna happen. It's a week-long at least celebration. I would say that is the biggest celebration we have. It's the return of it's the springtime, the weather is perfect, and it's warming up after the winter, and we all come together with these traditions, it's just so lovely. And so I put all of these pieces there: the food, the story. Like I feel like all of these books, that series in particular, has so many more pieces of me than usual that is especially sweet for me when someone can see that, you know. Like I've been thinking about this recently, like the spaces that I've I'm in are predominantly either Mexican or Caribbean, right? Like I see a lot of Puerto Ricans, Dominicans, and Mexican presses as they now experience their lives in the US predominantly. That's predominant, it's not the totality, but it's predominant. I have uh come across maybe one Argentinian person. I think there is a Colombian author, Liz Montoya. I know Mel from Stimulet is from Peru. But that the Southern Cone, the uh South America itself, is not as visible or not as present in these spaces. And so it is very special to get to be someone who is showing that. Like I tend to focus on the countries that I know best. I've spent a lot of time in Mexico, and so I do have Mexican characters. I'm not Mexican, but I'm more familiar with that. The way that I'm more familiar with Colombia and Argentina and Uruguay as well, a little bit less, but I would put more Brazil because there is a strong relationship between Chile and Brazil, but I don't feel that I can represent that as well, especially since I don't speak Portuguese. But it's like it's really special to know that I am sharing another way to be Latina. I never saw myself as Latina until I came to North America and I was told I was Latina, and I was like, oh, okay, this is another journey. And so to find my space within these labels, this ethnicity, this collection of cultures and experiences, it's been a path, it's been another journey. And so to be able to represent these ones that are more familiar to me and that I'm more comfortable within, yeah, the it's through these books, it's through conversations like this, it is through the specific choices that I make about culture in my books, and I love it. I love it when people can say, What is this, Yoche? I've never heard about this. Okay, well, let me tell you.

Alesia Galati 29:02

Yes. And honestly, I think that was just the beautiful part of it was to be able to experience another culture that I had not considered, which is a privilege, right? That I had not considered when thinking about Latina romance. Like it just did not cross my mind. And to be able to see it reflected in such a beautiful and wholesome, just the big guy friend group coming together, and like everybody's there. And I'm pretty sure Jake was there, who's the redhead. Like, and granted, I have redheaded Puerto Rican cousins, so like we look very diverse. There's a lot of us, but just having like just all of them come together for this celebration that was so important to all of them, and is like away from everything, and just being with family and eating six hours straight, like they're important.

unknown 29:59

I love it.

Alesia Galati 30:00

And so when I'm really happy that I started with that series, so if I would recommend personally, if anyone is interested in your series, to start with those because the culture is just so rich and so beautifully portrayed, and it's not, of course, watered down. Like I can feel like a lot of characters can be when it's the more like whether it's like an American who is also Latina and then has like is building these characters. I feel like the way that you just presented it was just a really just rich culture kind of way. So, yes, I highly recommend that series. But when thinking about billionaires, and you kind of mentioned this a little bit before about how billionaires suck, right? Like we can all agree on that. And are there any ethical billionaires? Probably not. But I love the way that you brought that in to these stories. So in book I read book one and book two, in book one, having it be where they're starting at a banquet that is a like donations are being made, and the female main character kind of pokes fun at the male main character, like, are you just giving away your dad's money today, or what's going on here? And he's a lot richer than she is. And he's like, Well, if you must know, I'm giving away my own money as well, right? Which is like I love that. And then kind of this this match in book one specifically, there's a scene where he's like, Do you want to stay over? And she's like, Well, I don't have any clothes. And he says, Well, here, grab, take my phone, order whatever you want or whatever you need, and we'll get it delivered right away. And I'm like, Man, rich people problems, right? And then you could tell she was thinking very similarly. Like, dude, you are too rich. Because like, like, nobody just does this. And then he explained that people who are in like lower income situations actually do the shopping, will go get the things, they get a base salary from these deliveries, and then he put on like a $500 tip on top of it. Right. And so, like, just showing that, like, okay, yes, I know I have privilege, and like, yes, I could fly you anywhere if I really wanted to, but it's probably the best idea, and you're perfectly happy with these other things that we're doing, and it's not about being like a showman about like his wealth, it's about yes, enjoying the things that he has and living his life to the fullest and working really freaking hard for what he has while also always being aware of his money going toward people who need it because he understands that there are people who need it. And I think that for him specifically, seeing his parents struggle for what they have now and the business that they have now and the money he has, right, kind of inherited at this point. Yes, he worked hard as well, but seeing his parents struggle for what they have and love each other through it, I think really shaped him into the person he is. And then seeing the opposite in Max, not that he's a jerk about his money, not where I'm going with this, but seeing Max where his dad is a billionaire who really like undercut people to get to where he is and is no problem getting rid of people who he deems, you know, like, no, you're stopping me from getting my goals, all of that. And then him showing a different side of like, no, I want to take over my dad's company because I want it to be better. I want us to do better, I want it to be able to give better things to the communities that we're influencing with the things that we're creating. And then him also being like, no, I'm going to put money into the town. And yes, we need a bigger house because I have too many suits, but also, and yes, I might buy my wife a boat, and I know that it's a money suck, but who cares? I want to have a picnic with her, right? Like different things, right? Like just kind of this juxtaposition of being very sweet, very healed billionaires, while also being super conscious of like, yeah, we're billionaires. I get it.

SPEAKER_02 34:19

Yes, yes, and I made a point of that in different ways throughout the books. Like that's again my fantasy. What if every billionaire were like this, right? There wouldn't be billionaires. I really love how Max goes and says something like, I am a filthy billionaire. I my money comes from bad places. So I'm trying to fix that. That's the point, right? And all of them have inherited it. None of them were the ones undercutting, paying low wages, you know, caring only about the shareholders. All of them are making choices about how are they gonna use their money to live their best lives and also just give it away because no one needs that kind of money, right? The only place where I didn't use a lot of that was in my third book because the heroine was the billionaire, and so I wanted her to think about it more in terms of power and the power dynamic with the hero. But my fourth book is my most political book ever. So political because the heroine is calling out what is charity is just maintaining the problem, and what you know, all of the billionaires are terrible, and like and she's telling that to the hero who's a billionaire, but also he has such clarity around this and the power that comes with money that he doesn't work, all he does is spend his money to try and get rid of the money.

SPEAKER_00 35:43

That's all he wants to do, you know.

SPEAKER_02 35:47

Because I wish that were the case, right? Like in the world we actually live in, the only way to become a billionaire is to not distribute money fairly, it's to profit from people's labor without compensating properly. There is no reason for anyone to be a billionaire. What are you gonna do? Come back from the grave to finish it up? Like I it that it doesn't make sense to me. Where we could do something that is so far more fair to everyone involved. So, what do I do? I write it in my books. That's what I do.

Alesia Galati 36:25

Oh, I love it. So, yeah, I'm excited to continue that series. The audiobooks are fantastic. And if anybody is interested, highly recommend them. I listened to 2x speed. We were talking about that before we hit record. I need the quick speed for that. And I actually played the first page for my kids because I was like, this is what I listened to my audiobooks at. They were just like, my 11-year-old's like, I can't even like what are these? What are the words that they're saying? I can't comprehend them. And I'm like, it's obvious, dude.

unknown 37:00

Right.

Alesia Galati 37:01

But anytime we're like listening to books as a family, it's always at like one, and then I'm like trying for 1.25. I'm like, please, guys, I need it faster. My brain is like, this is too slow. Yes, love listening to them, they're so good. And those stories are fantastic. Everybody go and read them, but you also integrated that when we talked a little bit about this before we hit record in book two, and I mentioned healed heroes, especially Latinos. I think that is such a one, they exist. Number one, that machismo is not just across the board, that there are very healed Latinos and going to therapy and doing the work. And I feel very similarly when I see books with black men, with incredible black men, right? Where they are just gone for their women and they are all of the things that society is like, no, that does not depict the picture of a black man. It's like, no, they exist. Good black men exist, good Latinos exist, that it's not these stereotypes that society tends to put on them. Yeah, and so I love that you have that where you know Max talks very casually about, yep, when I was in therapy working on this thing, because obviously I have a lot of feelings about my father and how much of a terrible person he is, that it's not unhealed and it is not a I need to get back at him because he did these things to me when I was a teenager, right? It's a he did these terrible things and he's a terrible human being, and how can I use that to make a difference in the world? And how can I use his money to make a difference in the world while also enjoying my life, right? And so I just I think that's it's a beautiful juxtaposition of the two, like a Latino man having that. So why I mean, as a therapist, I'm sure that was important, but why is having these healed characters add so much value to making the your books, especially in the cozy billionaire series, a lot more low angst.

SPEAKER_02 39:18

So I can't help bad food therapy stuff in my books, right? Is how I see the world. And maybe this is where my cynicism escapes a little. But I tend to think that therapy can be a shortcut to doing things that could take you a whole life to unpack. And so when I think about these big things that these characters need to process, like mm my daddy's horrible, but they have to have it mostly resolved by like 30. How does that happen? My cynicism is like either you went on a cathartic trip somewhere and you leave left left your way through, you know, your therapeutic process, or you paid someone to help you, right? Like I maybe that's my cynicism talking in terms of I don't trust or I don't believe that most people could be these grounded or these deconstructed without a lot of work. And I happen to believe that therapy can be part of that work. I'm trying not to make it sound like I think it's the only way, because I don't think it's the only way, but it is a way that would be accessible to someone with that kind of money and with the kind of freedom to say, and I'll just go for once a week for five years, that's gonna help. To me, I think it's part of how I make it believable to myself that I could have an immigrant son of a pretty bad person having lost his mom, knowing his story of how he came to be and how his birth happened and all of that, and then saying, like, and I want to have a good life. How did I make that happen? I make it believable to myself by putting them in therapy, you know?

Alesia Galati 41:09

Yeah, and I think that makes sense. I mean, for me, I have never been in therapy. There are things that I should then go to therapy for. A lot of my work though, like work on myself and my childhood and how I grew up. And I've mentioned this on the podcast before, but I grew up in a cult. My mom was an addict for the majority of my life, and then I think becoming a mom really was that kind of doing work on myself, like started that journey for me. But I don't think that if I had kids, I would have worked on myself in any way, and I think a lot of it was just I want to be and do better for them, and what does that look like? And exploring that when they're little rather than as teenagers and trying to be like, okay, need to figure myself out at this point. No, I wanted to do it a lot sooner, and so a lot of that work happened, especially after having my first one and going through postpartum depression and being like, okay, I've I want to be the best mom possible and I don't want to be my mom. How do I do this? The best way. So yeah, I and I do believe that therapy could have been a very good shortcut for that. And it didn't help that therapy was seen, especially in how I grew up, as hoaxy and which now we know that's not true, right? Come on. But like it was very like, trust God, He knows everything, and God is the way, and push past and put your pride aside, and all of these things that if there'd been a therapist there, they probably would have been like, this is not safe at all, guys. Everybody needs to go home and not be in this cult. Yeah, a bit of that, but yeah, becoming a parent really, I think, fast-tracked that work for me personally. But yeah, I think that there are points, like you said, where therapy can help to move that story forward, especially for people who aren't parents, maybe, and are at that 30-year mark, and especially for men, right? Like we all know women develop a lot faster than men do, and the sense of responsibility that can happen for women can be different too. So yeah, I love that you have that in there. So if you aren't sold on the billionaire's age yet, I mean, I don't what have we done here? Come on, go check it out.

SPEAKER_02 43:46

And I mean, you know, the way that the people who are socialized as men are brought up is typically around you're not allowed emotions, you know, Latino or not. Like, you know, that's across the world. You can laugh. You can make jokes and you can get angry. But it won't be anger, it will you just being logical, right? Like it is a very narrow world that they can use emotionally. And so when these people grow up, how do they learn? Unfortunately, in our society, I think it ends up being their partners that end up doing a lot of that labor. And then that challenges them. And then they have a choice. Will they change or not? And a lot of the times they don't. Sometimes they do. And children have a way to show us our rules, right? Children is like a mirror showing us, oh, this is what's this is what's unresolved inside of you. What are you gonna do about it? Right. And and and we do, I think, as a generation, the newer generations, we have had the privilege of getting to a point in history where those of us who are femme women or have been socialized as women have a better understanding about emotions and attachment and bonds and wanting and that sense of responsibility that previous generations didn't have. But we have enough privilege to say, hmm, maybe I will stop that too. You know, maybe I will change this too. But we still don't have enough access to do this work easily, which is very unfortunate, right? So we find the ways to do it, hopefully, if we make the choice, right? But when I'm writing my books, I'm writing heroes who already know they want to be good partners and who already know that if they're gonna have kids, they're gonna be the best parents, and they already have, you know, because that's what I wish for. That's what I would want to see.

Alesia Galati 45:49

So I put them all in therapy, you know, and the books are spicy too. You have some dirty talking heroes as well that just make it so delicious, too.

SPEAKER_02 46:05

I love a good surprise, cinnamon vol. Like you say, oh so sweet oh what?

Alesia Galati 46:12

Sir, excuse me.

SPEAKER_02 46:15

Yes, yes, yeah.

Alesia Galati 46:19

I have to say that was like one of my favorite surprises in the book. But just how like, and I told you this before we hit record, like what I loved most about the series of the two books that I read was that it was just so low angst that it you delivered on the cozy, and especially having read so many books that are like very high angst between the main characters. I mean, I'm literally reading one where this woman gets kidnapped, this black woman gets kidnapped, she wakes up on an alien planet, and she is gifted to the best gladiator alien of the group, who then like ends up like his weird, whatever happens with his alien genes, he becomes male because she triggered his him to turn male. It was and like it's like 800 pages, and I'm just like, there is so much angst, there's miscommunication left and right because they speak different languages, and then now there's another one in there who's a faded mate, and now she turned him male too. And I'm like, what is how we're only 40% in? Like, there were space pirates at one point, like there's just so much angst, and I'm like, like between the characters, outside of the characters, everybody's running for their lives, so much stress, and so reading yours alongside it was probably different, yes, wonderful. It was so cozy and so warm, no third act breakup, none of that. It was them building their relationship together, and all of the tropes that we know and love kind of baked in there to make it extra gooey and delicious, and the spice was spicing, so it was just everything I needed and wanted, and yes, excellent.

SPEAKER_02 48:12

That was my pride and joy to make it sweet and spicy like that. Yes, I love the coziness, but I also love the shock because you know what? I think it is because I write a slow burn, right? I was surprised when people told me that was a slow burn, to be honest. It's just the way that I see relationships, I guess. I need to believe that they've building that connection for me to see the tension and believe that they're falling in love, and I need to believe it to write the things that I want to write, which is my personal take on it. And so I write them falling in love, but then I also know that there's a tension, right? I'm saying, like, not yet, not yet, not yet, no, not yet. And so I feel like I need that spice as a payoff to be like you waited long enough, now you have this cake. Please enjoy it.

Alesia Galati 49:07

Yes, it's so good. Oh, so good. So, Leonor, thank you so much for being on. This has been a blast. If people are like, Yes, please, I want all of it. You write your books, obviously, you illustrate them, you illustrate all your characters, you have some spicy artwork on your website as well. So, where can we find you? Get all of that fun stuff, buy your books, etc.

SPEAKER_02 49:35

Okay. So the best place is my newsletter that's where my subscribers get all of the goodies, like all of them. They get first access to everything that I have, all of the news first. They can access everything that I've ever created. It's in my newsletter, including my secret menu, which is access to Hassel Protected Places on my website, including art and epilogues and little short stories, but also the spicy art. Look, the Max and Eva one from the book two in the is one of my proudest pieces. Okay, and so that would be the best place. Otherwise, I'm very active on Instagram. I would say that's kind of the social media that I'm most active on. So if something happens there, I'll probably see it. Otherwise, you can still find me on threads, on TikTok, Facebook, but in in less like less frequency. But yeah, and then you will know everything. Now on September 16, the second book is coming out on this series, and it's a double Latina lead. The hero is Gael Santiago, he is papy, he is has an earring and a chain, and he dresses so nice, and he is down bad. Down bad for Ames or Amelia, who is a Latina private chef. Coming out of a breakup. So that's book two coming out now September 16th. So probably it's already out. Go check it out. And if you want to start with this book as well, you'll get the whole story, but you don't need to read them both to know what's going on. That's where you can find me.

Alesia Galati 51:16

Yes, awesome. And for anyone who was listening and didn't see the book that you held up, it was the game in, and that's the book one of the book two that's coming out. And we'll make sure we have links for all of that in the show notes for anyone who's doing other things or whatever they're doing. We got you. Links will be in the show notes as well as the YouTube description. And again, thank you so much for being on. This was a blast.

SPEAKER_02 51:42

It was a blast. I feel like we could have kept going for five hours, but then we might lose a little bit the listeners. So it was so good. I knew it was gonna be super fun and really easy to talk to, so I appreciate that.