Jasmine Guillory is back with a new novel. Her latest romance, “Flirting Lessons,” unfolds in the vineyards of the Napa Valley, like its predecessor “Drunk on Love.”
The book follows two women whose friendship turns into something more.
Avery Jenson is a 30-year-old high achiever without much dating experience. Taylor Cameron has lots of dating experience, and offers to teach Avery what she knows. Taylor’s trying to not jump into the next relationship, but their attraction is impossible to ignore.
Speaking to TODAY.com, Guillory says she thinks the book is “about becoming a grown up in your own mind.”
“We all have these ideas of what it means to be a real grown up and start a real life, and to recognize that you can make that what you want it to be, and with whoever you want it to be. I think both Avery and Taylor are figuring that out throughout the course of the book with each other,” she says.
Guillory says she wanted the cover to capture the feeling of falling in love that the two friends experience.
“I wanted it to feel like it had some of that discovery and falling in love in motion. I really love how the cover designer got that motion into the cover,” she said.
After writing multiple romances, Guillory says the thrill never goes away.
“It feels unreal and so exciting every time, especially since every book just starts out with a few little words on page,” she says.
The cover is a particularly important moment of the process. “The picture of the cover is really the first thing that says, ‘This is going to be a real book.’ And it just blows my mind every single time,” she says. “Thinking, ‘Something that started in my mind is going to be a real book,’ is just amazing.”
“Flirting Lessons” is out in April 2025.
