Lake of the Woods Love Stories

Playing Hurt originally released as a YA novel. Really, though, it’s kind of pushing the limit of YA, as the two main characters are eighteen and nineteen years old. Chelsea, at eighteen, has already graduated high school. Their brief romance plays out the summer before she goes to college.

I always knew I wanted to write a sequel, and when the rights reverted to me, I finally had the chance to take the story where I’d wanted: catching up with the two characters four years later.

Because Chelsea and Clint’s love story spans until they’re twenty-two and twenty-three years old, I’ve been placing the books in the adult category across retailers. Playing Hurt remains a solid YA read, but also does appeal to adult readers as a way to relive that first love.

I’m an absolute sucker for a second-chance romance. I loved being able to take Chelsea and Clint back to the site of their summer romance, and asking: Can the fires of first love be reignited? Or are they never fully extinguished?