Writing Romance vs. Writing Thrillers: What Surprised Me

If you’ve been following me for a while, you know I started as a romance author. The Made Series. A Sunday Affair. Stories about love, desire, friendship and the messy, beautiful space in between. That’s my home. That’s where I found my voice.

But recently, I did something I never expected. I wrote a psychological thriller.

People have asked me what it was like switching genres. Was it hard? Was it scary? Did it feel completely different? And the honest answer surprised even me.

Both Genres Came to Me Naturally

I thought writing a thriller would feel like learning a new language. I thought I’d struggle with the structure, the pacing, the darkness. But it didn’t happen that way. The story came to me the same way my romances always have: the characters showed up first, they told me who they were and I followed where they led. The process didn’t change. The destination did.

Looking back, I think that’s because at the core, I’ve always been writing about the same thing: people carrying secrets, making choices under pressure and navigating situations where the truth is the most dangerous thing in the room. In romance, that plays out through love. In a thriller, it plays out through survival. But the engine is the same.

The Feeling Is Different

Here’s where the two genres part ways and this is the thing that surprised me most.

Writing romance feels like love. There’s warmth in it, even when the characters are fighting, even when the drama is high, even when things fall apart. You know, as the writer, that you’re building toward something hopeful. The tension exists, but underneath it there’s a promise. These two people are going to find their way to each other. That warmth carries you through the hard scenes. It’s like a candle in the room while you write.

Writing a thriller? There is no candle. You’re in the dark and so are your characters. You don’t know who to trust. You’re not sure what’s coming next. The lies stack on top of each other, the deception goes deeper than you planned and the characters don’t get the safety net of a love story to catch them. They’re on their own. And as the writer, so are you.

That feeling was addictive.

The Thrill of the Drama Never Left

As you can tell, I love writing drama. It’s my favorite part of the process regardless of genre. But with romance, the drama has a rhythm. It builds, it peaks, it resolves. Characters fight, they make up, they grow. There’s a release.

With the thriller, the drama never let go of me. Every chapter I wrote raised the stakes. Every secret I uncovered led to another one. Every time I thought I’d given a character a moment to breathe, something darker pulled them back under. The tension didn’t build and release. It built and built and built. I was right there with the characters, heart racing, wondering how it was all going to end.

I’ve never experienced anything like that as a writer. With romance, I close my laptop feeling full. Satisfied. With the thriller, I closed my laptop feeling wired. Like I’d just watched something happen that I couldn’t take back. And I couldn’t wait to open it again the next day.

What Both Genres Have in Common

The thing that connects my romance work and my thriller work is the same thing that connects every story I’ll ever write: real people dealing with real issues. My characters across both genres carry guilt, secrets, fear and desire. They make mistakes. They lie to the people they love. They wear masks. Whether they’re falling in love or fighting for their lives, they’re doing it imperfectly, messily and honestly.

I didn’t have to become a different writer to write a thriller. I just had to follow the characters into a darker room. The voice is the same. The heart is the same. The commitment to telling stories that make people feel something? That will never change.

What This Means for You

If you fell in love with my writing through The Made Series or A Sunday Affair, I want you to know: the thriller is still me. It’s a different genre, a different setting, a different kind of story. But it’s the same writer who pours everything she has into every character, every scene and every page. You’ll recognize my voice. You’ll feel the same intensity. And I think you might just discover a side of my storytelling that surprises you the way it surprised me.

Tangled Roots is available now. If you haven’t grabbed your copy yet, what are you waiting for?

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Until next time,

Love, lies, and everything in between

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