Author Diary Entries

197: About "Love By Design" (forced proximity small town why choose romance)

• Sagan Morrow • Episode 198

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Do you enjoy why choose romance novels with the forced proximity trope, a small town setting, and romantic comedy vibes? You’re in luck! “Love By Design” is the next romance novel you need to read. It’s a cute and flirty contemporary romance that will make you kick your feet giggling… Tune in to the episode to learn more about the book, hear the back-of-book blurb, and get 3 teasers about the book from your romance author Sagan Morrow. 

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You’re listening to the Author Diary Entries podcast. I’m your host, Sagan Morrow, and this is episode #197. Access the show notes and transcript of this episode at SaganMorrow.com/podcast. 

I am currently putting the finishing touches on my next novella, which will be published later this summer, so I am taking you behind the scenes of it over the course of our next few episodes! We’re doing a multi-part series where I’ll share with you what the novella is actually ABOUT, how I went about planning this book, the experience of writing and editing it, and so on. (In case you missed it, in our previous episode of this Author Diary Entries podcast — episode 196 — I shared with you the breakdown of how I used a Tarot spread to plan the chapter outline)

In this episode, I’m going to share about the plot of the story itself! BUT FIRST: I am looking for readers to join my ARC team! I am giving away free copies of the book — Advance Review Copies, or ARCs — in exchange for reviews of this book. It’s easy to sign up! Just visit SaganMorrow.com/arc (link is in the show notes), and fill out a brief form with your basic contact info, and we’ll be all set. I’m really looking forward to collaborating with you on this and sending you the book to read!

Now, let’s get into the book itself.

It’s one that I knew I was going to be writing several years back. It is titled “Love By Design,” and it is the sequel to “Small Town Stilettos: a modern marriage of convenience,” which I published back in summer 2023. 

(Fun fact: Even though this is a duology, and even though Small Town Stilettos comes first in terms of chronological order of events, you can actually read them in either order! I think it would be really interesting to do a book club where half the people read Small Town Stilettos first, and the other half read Love By Design first. The main character in Love By Design has very little knowledge of the events of Small Town Stilettos, so you can get more of HER experience by also going into this book without knowledge of the previous book in the duology. Fun, right?)

One of the big things I knew, when I came up with the concept for Love By Design, was that I wanted it to mirror Small Town Stilettos. The opening scene is almost the exact same as Small Town Stilettos, but through a vastly different perspective: in Small Town Stilettos, the main character Margaret has just arrived in the fictional town of Fort Edwin and she’s on the phone with her best friend, talking about how much she HATES the town.

In contrast, Love By Design opens with the main character Ripley ALSO being on the phone, but in this case it’s with her new boss — who happens to be Margaret — and she’s telling Margaret how much she LOVES the town. 

If Margaret is the quintessential city girl suffocating in a small town, Ripley is the person who finds FREEDOM and joy in escaping city life and relocating to a smaller community. Love By Design is, in some ways, a love letter to small towns. 

Here’s the back of book blurb: 

Dream home: Check. Dream job: Check. Dream man: My boss’s husband. Uh oh…


The tiny town of Fort Edwin just became my new home for the next year. Due to an unfortunate mixup, the only vacancy is my boss’s house—with her ruggedly handsome husband, Logan, who somehow checks off every single box on the list of qualities for my ideal man.Since my boss spends most of her time in a different city, it’s just the two of us. 

Living alone. 

Together. 

All the time.   

But that’s fine, right? I’m sure it won’t become a problem, right? This crush will eventually fizzle out… Right? 

Along with that back-of-book blurb, here’s some more info about the story that I’ll be including on bookstore webpages: 

When Ripley Sutton moved to Fort Edwin for her new job in fashion, she hoped to find love—but she never expected to fall in love with her boss’s husband. To make matters more complicated, her boss seems to be encouraging them to spend time together. 

As the undeniable attraction draws Ripley toward Logan like a magnet, she doesn’t know how much longer she can keep her feelings under wraps… 

Love By Design is a cute, flirty romcom (with one chapter of dual POV) that will make you kick your feet giggling!

This “why choose” forced proximity small town romance is the second book in the Small Town Stilettos duology, but it can be enjoyed as a stand-alone.

***

There you go! If that story sounds fun and intriguing to you, then I strongly encourage you to join my book review team by visiting SaganMorrow.com/arc (link is in the show notes) so you can sign up and get a free copy of the novella. 

A few more little teasers about this book: 

FIRST: The Small Town Stilettos and Love By Design duology is a “spinoff” from my main series, Polyamorous Passions. They completely stand alone, BUT there are some fun cameo crossovers that take place! 

For instance, readers “met” Ripley at the very end of Book 8 in the Polyamorous Passions series. She’s the little sister of Zach, the owner of the Dusky Panther burlesque club. 

SECOND: In between each chapter, we get to see text messages between various characters. Sometimes those text messages are between Ripley and Zach, sometimes they’re between Ripley and Margaret, sometimes they’re between Ripley and her love interest, and so on. These are SO ADORABLE and — while I have many favourite parts of this book — the text messages are definitely among the favourites! 

THIRD: I think this is the best book I’ve written so far. And I will say, I do not think that about every book that I write! I love all of my books, and I also do think that some of them are better written or have better storytelling etc than others — but I think THIS one is the best writing, and the best storytelling, to date. Which is pretty cool!

I’ve had such a blast writing this book. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I’ve enjoyed writing it! Be sure to sign up to get your free copy in exchange for a sincere book review at SaganMorrow.com/arc — link is in the show notes. Happy reading!

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Sagan Morrow

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