What is the title of your latest release?
HOW TO GRIEVE LIKE A VICTORIAN
What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book?
After losing her husband, bestselling author and British Literature professor, Dr. Lizzie Wells, turns into a hot mess as she copes by mourning Victorian-style—widow weeds, black jet jewelry. Confused after almost-kissing her late husband’s best friend, Lizzie hares off to London. What follows is a fun, romantic escape where Lizzie learns that there’s hope, happiness, and second chances after hitting rock bottom.
How did you decide where your book was going to take place?
Answer: Because she’s a British Literature professor, her grief journey will take her to England where she can immerse herself in the world she’s studied for years. Also, Queen Victoria pretty much set the rules for how widows were to grieve, so that that also made sense. As the book progresses, her journey takes her onward to Bronte territory. The moors are such a beautiful and haunting landscape and the place where the Bronte sisters wrote their novels about loss, love, and heartbreak. I couldn’t imagine Lizzie’s journey ending up anywhere but there.
Would you hang out with your heroine in real life?
Absolutely! All my good friends have Lizzie’s snark.
What are three words that describe your hero?
Compassionate, witty, and creative.
What’s something you learned while writing this book?
I learned how much joy Lizzie can experience even amid her grief. I think that largely mirrored my own widow-journey whereas time passed, I learned how I could feel joy even amid ongoing grief. I infused more humor and joy and scenes of Lizzie taking risks into the second novel draft.
Do you edit as you draft or wait until you are totally done?
I usually get one completed draft done and then go back for rewrites. I feel like after that first draft I know my characters better and where I’m going.
What’s your favorite foodie indulgence?
Definitely homemade chocolate chip cookies. I like to eat them when they’re still warm and just out of the oven. They go really well with a good Colin Firth movie.
Describe your writing space/office!
To be honest, the brainstorming of writing has me moving around a lot. I have a desk where I sit for hours. But often as I’m thinking through a scene or working out a problem, I wander. I’ll go get another cup of coffee and sit at my kitchen island, jotting notes down. Or if I’m really stuck, I’ll run a couple of miles on my treadmill and then go back to my desk. Running usually helps to break up writer’s block.
Who is an author you admire?
Dodie Smith! Her book, I CAPTURE THE CASTLE, has always been one of my favorites. It’s my go-to, warm-blanket-book. She has this remarkable way of creating memorable, quirky characters and a plot infused with charm and hilarity as well as bittersweet and wise moments.
Is there a book that changed your life?
PRIDE AND PREJUDICE—Lizzy Bennett is a character like no other. She is strong, determined, and likeable. I’ve re-read the book many times over the years.
Tell us about when you got “the call.” (when you found out your book was going to be published). Or, for indie authors, when you decided to self-publish.
For my adult debut, I was finishing packing to catch a flight to Brooklyn for a family wedding. My now-husband was coming up the stairs just as my agent called. I was so excited I dropped the phone as I ran out to the landing to announce the news. It was a wonderful moment.
What’s your favorite genre to read?
I love a good dimensional romance when the characters are likeable but a little messy or neurotic.
What’s your favorite movie?
Love Actually. I rewatch it every year at Christmas.
What is your favorite season?
I’m a warm weather person, so I love summer. Also, summers are that time of year when there’s a break from school for my kids, and we can travel. Everything is a little slower – there’s no homework or lunch packing, and we can be outside.
How do you like to celebrate your birthday?
My birthday is at a wonderful time – May. I’m not into crowds or big parties. I love to just spend a long afternoon with my sister in her backyard eating pistachio cake with pale green frosting and watching our kids play together.
What’s a recent tv show/movie/book/podcast you highly recommend?
My husband (I recently married again) and I enjoyed the Netflix crime series, Untamed. Although a mystery, it was very character-driven, and the Yosemite park setting is gorgeous.
What’s your favorite type of cuisine?
I spent almost twenty years in South Carolina, and while there I really came to appreciate seafood. I love a good simple meal of grilled fish with a glass of wine.
What do you do when you have free time?
I hike, and Indiana has such beautiful state parks. On warm weather weekends, it’s one of my favorite things to do. I also love to read or play board games with my youngest child. Lately, he’s been into CLUE.
What can readers expect from you next?
My next book is called, THE BEST REVENGE. My main character is a librarian who teams up with some other women to get revenge on her boyfriend when he steals her book idea and becomes wildly famous. It’s a romantic comedy—a little BRIDGET JONES’S DIARY, infused with a lot of getting even.
HOW TO GRIEVE LIKE A VICTORIAN by Amy Carol Reeves
It’s fine. She’s fine. Really.
When life’s turned you into a big hot mess, there’s still love, laughs, and snark to be had…
Dr. Lizzie Wells, professor of British literature and bestselling author, is not okay. She wasn’t consulted when her beloved husband died unexpectedly, so she’s going to grieve however she damned well chooses. Keeping a lock of his hair in a choker around her neck and donning widow’s weeds. You bet. Notifying colleagues and students that she will only accept paper letters instead of email. Why not? Very nearly kissing her late husband’s best friend, Henry. Unfortunately, er…yes.
So when she’s offered a trip to London, Lizzie grabs it. What better place to escape, heal, and be reborn than in the same city where Queen Victoria famously mourned her beloved Prince Albert? Encouraged by new friends to be bold, have champagne and oysters before noon, and celebrate the beauty and the messiness of life, Lizzie begins to embrace it all.
Still, there’s that almost kiss with Henry she just can’t forget. Their cross-Atlantic ‘check-ins’ turn into FaceTime hangouts and their friendship evolves into something more. When Henry shows up in London, Lizzie fears she’s falling in love with him… Will she bravely embrace this second chance, too?
Women’s Fiction Contemporary [ Canary Street Press, On Sale: December 9, 2025, Trade Paperback / e-Book / audiobook, ISBN: 9781335014061 / eISBN: 9780369760647 ]
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About Amy Carol Reeves
AMY CAROL REEVES has a PhD in nineteenth-century British literature and finds joy in teaching classes and writing. She’s published several academic articles as well as a young adult book trilogy about the Jack the Ripper murders in Victorian London. She lives in a quirky old house in Indianapolis with her three children.
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