June 2025: Sophie Cousens’ Is She Really Going Out With Him?

Description:

As a former TV producer turned novelist, Sophie Cousens’ books have been published in over 20 languages. Her previous novels—including This Time Next Year and Before I Do—have delighted readers around the world with their warmth, humor, and honest portrayal of love in all its messy, beautiful forms.

Today, we sit down with Sophie to discuss her decade of experience producing some of our favorite TV shows like The Graham Norton Show and Big Brother and how that valuable experience behind the scenes in television shaped the way she now tells stories as a novelist, allowing her to thread the needle between heartfelt and funny, heartwarming and satirical. We talk about her approach to writing—does she prefer to start with a character or a plot?--as well as how she brilliantly employs a variety of familiar rom-com setups (friends-to-lovers, missed connections, etc.) yet, they never feel overt or cliché.

If you’ve ever tried to date post-divorce, juggled motherhood with figuring out who the heck you even are anymore, or questioned whether love in your 40s is even worth it—you’re going to enjoy today’s conversation about our June JHBC selection, Is She Really Going Out With Him? With nods to fairy tales, dating apps, and the iconic Joe Jackson song that inspired the title, the book asks: how do you start over when you’re not 22 anymore—and how do you know when it’s real?

Thought-provoking Quotes:

• “I’ve been a producer on shows that were much more produced—you've got a script, you've got a plan, you know exactly what you're getting; whereas with [Big Brother] we were just dealing with real people and real people's emotions and the experience of being in this slight madhouse.” – Sophie Cousens

• “Tropes are enduring because they are beloved. Sometimes, that word has a negative connotation but, in this case, it’s not true. These are story tropes that readers love. I love how you talk about them and go, no, I’m not going to steer away from them or try to reinvent them or try to avoid them. I’m going to go full-in.” – Jen Hatmaker

• “I absolutely love films of that 90s and 2000s era. That’s very much the tone in which I write. I think there’s something pure and simple about that era of films, which is why so many of them are enduring.” – Sophie Cousens

Resources Mentioned in This Episode:

• Russel Howard’s Good News - https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00phwkz

• The Graham Norton Show - https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006xnzc

• Big Brother - https://www.cbs.com/shows/big_brother/

• Notting Hill (1999) - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0125439/

• Bridget Jones’s Diary by Helen Fielding - https://amzn.to/4dJsJ6y

• Just Haven’t Met You Yet by Sophie Cousens - https://amzn.to/45IC4tt

• And Then There Was You by Sophie Cousens COMING NOVEMBER 2025 - https://amzn.to/3Fq5SR4

• Romy and Michelle’s High School Reunion (1997) - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120032/

• Claudia Jessie (Eloise Bridgerton) - https://www.instagram.com/claudiajessies/?hl=en

• Atmosphere: A Love Story by ...