I’m thrilled to share my latest Jen’s Jewels column featuring LIME JUICE MONEY by Jo Morey—a suspenseful novel set deep in a lush jungle that hooked me from the very first page. With vivid details, complex characters, and emotional depth that lingered long after I finished, this story truly stayed with me. I had a wonderful time chatting with Jo about the inspiration behind the book and how she brought such a captivating world to life. Curious to learn more? Keep reading for the full interview!
Jen: The setting in LIME JUICE MONEY is lush, dangerous, and deeply atmospheric. What inspired you to place this story in the Belizean jungle, and how did you research the environment so vividly?
Jo: The novel actually started as a vision I had of a woman – lonely but not alone, and she was stuck in a jungle somewhere but initially, I didn’t know where. I was captivated by Belize when I visited for the first time over fifteen years ago. I realized it would make a fantastic setting for this story. It’s a small country but so rich with culture, incredibly friendly people, and dangerous animals. It seemed like the perfect cocktail for a literary suspense where things take unexpected turns and danger is always lurking in the shadows. I travelled back to Belize again to chat to Mayan healers, medicine men, and orchid experts. I spent time in the jungle and fell in love with the country all over again. I also read lots of Belizean fiction and non-fiction about the environment, the flora and fauna and lots of academic papers about orchids.
Jen: Laelia is such a unique and complex protagonist, especially with her hearing impairment and fractured memories. What drew you to tell her story, and what challenges did you face in capturing her perspective?
Jo: I loved writing from Laelia’s point of view, trying to understand her vulnerabilities and her frailties. I wanted to explore how someone like her could make such false moves and bad decisions, how love could unravel so dramatically and with such consequences, and how that could compel someone to stay in such a volatile situation. Laelia is (arguably, like all protagonists) an unreliable narrator. Exploring her fractured memories, particularly where they differ from her sister Chloe’s was really interesting. I have worn hearing aids and had tinnitus since I was thirty and I wanted Laelia to have a similar feeling of isolation and disconnection in this shaken paradise.
Jen: The novel has been compared to The White Lotus and The Mosquito Coast—both full of beauty, danger, and emotional volatility. Did those comparisons influence your storytelling, or did you have other narrative touchstones in mind while writing?
Jo: I definitely thought about The Mosquito Coast while I was writing the novel. Alex Garland’s The Beach was also a great influence as I set out to write a similarly propulsive but dark literary suspense. In fact, both those books feature in LIME JUICE MONEY and I play with their appearances in the different timelines. I love books set in new places like these, where potential danger and volatility is drenched in beauty. As Chloe says in the novel, “It might look like paradise, but you’ve still got to keep your wits about you” and not let the rum daiquiris go to your head.
Jen: The relationships in the novel—especially between Laelia, Aidrian, and her father—are layered with tension and unspoken truths. How did you approach writing those dynamics, particularly the emotional push-pull between love, loyalty, and fear?
Jo: I think this was my favorite part of the writing, exploring that interplay and those dynamics especially between the two timelines. It’s like a stone in water, the ripples on a pond. What happens in one place changes so much about the character arcs and emotional connections elsewhere in time and space. I don’t plot really so it was all about finding those moments on the page and being driven by each of the character’s responses to events and each other.
Jen: What does the title LIME JUICE MONEY mean to you, and how does it reflect the deeper themes running through the novel?
Jo: The title comes from a little-known phrase in the novel, “Champagne dreams wid lime juice money.” I knew as soon as I found that sentence it would be a perfect title as it encapsulates so much – the Central American/Caribbean setting along with the desire for more. It really reflects the pursuit of riches that several characters find themselves entangled in.
Jen: The jungle almost feels like its own character in the story. Did you always plan for it to be such a central force, or did it evolve during the writing process?
Jo: It was such a gift to write about such a lush and evocative setting. I just ran with it. Because of Laelia’s hearing loss I knew I wanted to really ramp up the way she experiences the environment through all her senses so the sights and sounds and colors of the jungle were so important. She’s also a chef so taste and a heightened awareness of how she looks at and feels the world made sense to explore in depth. I had so much fun writing about setting.
Jen: Your book pulses with emotional heat and psychological suspense. What’s your writing process like—are you a meticulous outliner, or do you discover the twists as you go?
Jo: I’ve come to terms with the fact I am just not a plotter even though sometimes I’d like to be! I find it too constraining and prefer to explore events and emotional responses through the characters on the page. It feels more real to me that way. I seeded lots of ideas into the first half of LIME JUICE MONEY and then had to rework the shape of things to make it all work. I had to lean in and trust the process, but it certainly didn’t feel smooth or organized! In the end, I think my passion for the story and the characters (and a few cocktails while drafting) saw me through.
Jen: What’s currently sitting on your TBR stack, and are there any recent reads that inspired or influenced your writing style or themes?
Jo: I have a huge TBR pile. Near the top is Charlotte Runcie’s Bring the House Down. I also want to re-read John Fowles’s The Collector which I first discovered as a teenager. I’ve just read Abigail Dean’s The Death of Us which is staggeringly good. I also recently loved Liz Moore’s The God of the Woods and fellow debut author Kate Kemp’s The Grapevine.
Jen: Can you give us a sneak peek into what you’re working on next? Is it in the same vein as LIME JUICE MONEY, or are you exploring new territory?
Jo: It’s a literary suspense set on the North Island of New Zealand. It’s about a missing woman with postnatal depression and her estranged, wayward sister who flies out from London to try to find her. It’s about grief and motherhood, and grief in motherhood. The tone and themes are quite different from Lime Juice Money but I’m loving exploring these very different voices, and again the wildness of nature features quite strongly throughout.
Jen: Any fun summer plans—book-related or otherwise—that you’re especially looking forward to? And how can readers best connect with you online?
Jo: Every summer we go to Cornwall in southwest England with the same friends and stay in the same house. It’s absolutely beautiful and we can walk to four different beaches from our spot on the headland. I’m looking forward to totally disconnecting there. I never switch off really from thinking about characters and plot ideas, and often some of the most fully formed come to me while I’m relaxing, so I’m hoping for that! Readers can connect with me through my website. There is a Book Club area with Belizean cocktail and food recipes, Q&As etc. I’m also on Instagram.
LIME JUICE MONEY by Jo Morey
With the sultry atmosphere and ratcheting tension of The White Lotus, The Mosquito Coast, and Nine Perfect Strangers, Lime Juice Money is an intoxicating, sensuous debut that follows a woman trapped in an increasingly volatile relationship 5,000 miles from home in a Central American jungle.
A woman losing herself. A brutal relationship. And a jungle full of secrets.
When disaster strikes, hearing-impaired Laelia Wylde leaves London with her new partner, Aidrian, and her young children, hoping for a fresh start in the verdant jungle of Belize. There, she can be closer to her botanist father, get away from her sister, and maybe find a way to open the restaurant she’s always dreamed of.
While the jungle is mesmerizingly beautiful, it is also unforgiving and brutally hot, filled with deadly creatures and sinister magic. Laelia’s fragmented recollections of the past are increasingly bewildering, the gunshots she hears at night through her worsening tinnitus seem to be getting closer, and she still doesn’t understand why her father tried to turn her against Aid when they first met—though maybe she just misheard.
Uncovering long-buried secrets that threaten to derail everything, Laelia must somehow find the courage and resilience she needs to survive. Or is she destined to disappear into the shadows, like the orchid her father named her after?
Lime Juice Money is a twisty, searing journey of raw love, betrayal, corruption, and greed in a shaken paradise, pulsating with danger both inside and outside the door.
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About Jo Morey
Jo Morey has a BA in English Literature and French. She has lived and worked in Paris and New Zealand, and now lives at the foot of the South Downs in the UK. Like her protagonist, Jo also suffers from a hearing impairment and constant tinnitus. Lime Juice Money is her first novel.
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About Jennifer Vido
Jennifer Vido writes sweet romances set in the Lowcountry, earning acclaim as the award-winning author of the Gull Island series. Her debut novel, “Serendipity by the Sea,” secured the prestigious Best First Book award from the New Jersey Romance Writers Golden Leaf Contest. In 2024, Vido’s talent garnered further accolades, with Baltimore Magazine readers naming her Best Local Author in their annual Best of Baltimore poll, while the Baltimore Sun acknowledged her with an Honorable Mention in their Best of 2024 Author category. When not writing fiction, she interviews authors for her weekly Jen’s Jewels column, leads water exercise classes, and directs a legal nonprofit. Currently residing in Maryland, she and her husband are proud parents to two grown sons and a rescue dog named Fripp.
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