Romance author Sophie Cousens is known for incorporating magical realism into her novels. Her unique blend of magic and heart results in enchanting love stories that challenge their characters to navigate fantastical situations in order to find a deeper understanding of their own lives. In her latest, And Then There Was You, Cousens questions what makes the perfect partner as her heroine Chloe searches for a plus-one to take to her 10-year college reunion—at a time when AI, algorithms, and technology have impacted all aspects of dating and relationships. Read on to learn how Cousens sets out to prove that falling in love with AI is no longer science fiction.
Margaret Hargrove: Your romances are known for their magical realism, and in And Then There Was You there’s also a futuristic twist. Why do you love writing romances with a magical spin?
Sophie Cousens: Adding a touch of magic or a speculative twist is usually an answer to some form of wish fulfillment. We’ve all wished we could wave a magic wand and time travel, create the perfect date, or explore an alternate timeline, and what I love about magical realism is that it lets the reader imagine what that might be like—and hopefully conclude such sorcery would be a bad idea! Also, I think that by putting characters into extreme situations, it allows me to explore themes in a more dramatic way. For example, in my novel The Good Part, I could have just written a character who’s feeling dissatisfied with her life and wishes she could fast-forward to the good part, but by magically transporting her 16 years into the future, I was able to stress test her desire for change in a much more intense way. Magical realism is also a great tool for writing comedy, as characters usually find themselves a fish out of water, which is a rich source of humor.
And Then There Was You tackles AI, dating apps, and our relationship with technology. What was your approach to exploring these very current dating issues?
AI is already playing a role in our romantic lives, whether it’s the algorithm that chooses your matches on Tinder or a boyfriend app you can download. These apps will engage with you, compliment you, provide a sympathetic ear, and there have already been stories of people leaving their spouses because they’ve fallen in love with their AI "partner." I’m interested in where this inevitably leads. Are we going to create a generation of people who fulfill their romantic needs with technology? Will we all have "partners" who say what you want to hear just to keep you engaged?
"I wanted to explore the quieter, less obvious sort of love that creeps up on you unexpectedly, and perhaps wasn’t what you thought you wanted, but might be what you needed."
While this topic has been explored a great deal in dystopian science fiction, it’s not really been written about in romantic comedies. It’s a difficult topic to approach! I think rom-com readers want escapist, feel-good fiction, and something about AI scares people—so I was keen to try and write about it in a light, fun way, asking these big questions without being too doom and gloom. Someone described this book as "Bridget Jones meets Black Mirror," and I love that comparison.
While this book is, on the surface, about technology, it’s also about humanity, love, and relationships. If you could create the "perfect" man, would you? Do you trust yourself to know what your ideal partner would be like? Popular culture sets the bar so high when it comes to love and romance—it’s all grand gestures, insta-love, and dashes through the airport. Here, I wanted to explore the quieter, less obvious sort of love that creeps up on you unexpectedly, and perhaps wasn’t what you thought you wanted, but might be what you needed.
You’ve worked with several great narrators, and Kerry Gilbert returns to narrate And Then There Was You. What do you love about her performance of your work?
I am an avid audiobook listener and often listen to a book a week this way. As such, I’ll always check out the audio sample first, because the narrator can make or break a book for me. I have loved all the narrators for my audiobooks and feel lucky to have had such a talented selection of artists read my work. When I first heard Kerry’s sample for The Good Part, it was love at first listen. She has very clear diction, a great variety of voices, and excellent comic timing. She did such a great job, I pleaded to have her back for Is She Really Going Out With Him? and And Then There Was You. There’s such a skill to narrating comedy, especially when it’s character driven or situational comedy. Some performers' instinct is to go too big, to overegg the pudding, while I think Kerry has a more understated, naturalistic approach. I want the listener to feel the protagonist’s embarrassment, their horror, their joy, and this is what Kerry does so well, she really takes you into the character's world and makes these crazy situations feel believable.
Your approach to the love triangle trope feels fresh and interesting. What did you enjoy most about writing this romantic setup?
One thing I struggle with as a romance reader is knowing too quickly how it’s all going to end. In several of my books, I’ve set myself the challenge of not letting the reader know, until a little later in the book, who the hero is, and to hold back what a "happy ending" might look like. In And Then There Was You, I wanted all the men you meet to be viable prospects, so as a reader you are really on a journey with Chloe as she weighs up her options and grapples with her feelings. Most romance fans are familiar with all the tropes—people love them for a reason—but if I’m going to put them in my books, I like to bring something fresh to the table. Crafting the dialogue is often my favorite part of the writing process. I love the flirtatious back and forth between a couple who don’t yet know where they stand. It’s the most delicious part of any rom-com.
Your main character, Chloe, is feeling like a failure at 31 and dreading her college reunion. What drew you to write about someone at this stage of life, and what advice would you give someone approaching their own school reunion?
Reunions can prompt us to take stock of where we are and what we have achieved in our lives. For me, there’s something so delightfully optimistic about being 21 and having your whole life ahead of you—all those ambitions, hopes, and dreams. But 31 can be a tricky age. It might be the point where you realize you might never have the career you imagined for yourself. You might start to realize that you won’t meet "the one" in the time frame you’d hoped for. You could be seeing your friends succeed in ways you haven’t. My heroine, Chloe, was voted Most Likely to Succeed at university, but now she’s single, living at home, with a job she doesn’t like—while all her old college mates seem to be flourishing. I think this brand of anxiety and self-doubt is something we can all relate to, and that’s why I wanted to explore it in this book. My advice for approaching your own reunion would be to watch Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion before you go. It’s guaranteed to make you walk in there with a spring in your step!
