Author Chat With Kaitlyn Hill (WILD ABOUT YOU), Plus Giveaway! ~US/CAN Only

Today we are very excited to share an interview with Author Kaitlyn Hill (Wild About You)!

Read on to learn more about the author, the book, and a giveaway!

Meet the Author: Kaitlyn Hill

Kaitlyn Hill is a writer who lives to tell love stories and make people laugh. While books make up most of her personality, Kaitlyn also enjoys messy reality TV, has never met a tea she didn’t like, and thrives on overly ambitious home improvement projects. She resides in Kentucky with her real life romance hero. Kaitlyn is the author of Love from Scratch, Not Here to Stay Friends, and Wild About You.

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About the Book: Wild About You

Two total opposites. One race through the Great Outdoors. In this grumpy-sunshine teen romance from the author of Love from Scratch and Not Here to Stay Friends, the trail to true love doesn’t always come with a map.

Natalie Hart has always been loud, unfiltered, and unapologetically herself. But then comes her freshman year of college, when she loses her merit scholarship and gains one pesky little anxiety diagnosis.

Hesitant to take out more student loans, Natalie decides to shoot her shot and applies to Wild Adventures, a popular outdoorsy reality show. Sure, Natalie prefers her twelve-step skincare routine to roughing it on the Appalachian Trail while competing in challenges against other college kids, but that scholarship prize money is calling her name. High risk, high reward, right?

Enter Finn Markum, her randomly assigned, capital-O Outdoorsy teammate whose growl could rival a black bear. These partners have more friction than a pair of new hiking boots. Or is it flirtation? Turns out falling in love might be the wildest adventure of all…

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~Author Chat~

YABC:  What gave you the inspiration to write this book?

The main character of Wild About You, Natalie, was a side character in my first novel, Love from Scratch. I hadn’t planned on expanding her story back when I wrote LFS, but I love romance series in which each book follows a side character from a previous story, so I started thinking about that possibility for my third book. As I mulled over the supporting casts from my first two, I kept coming back to Natalie—she was somewhat of a one-dimensional “sassy best friend” in LFS, but what if she was more than that? Things spun out from there. I wanted to write one final reality show premise to make my reality showmance standalone duo into a trio, and as I developed Natalie more into this girly theatre girl who loves makeup and looking good, plopping her into a rugged, wilderness environment seemed like it could be a lot of fun. It was also around this time that I was going through an Amazing Race phase, and watched one season on which half of the teams were couples and half were total strangers paired up by the show in a (less than successful) matchmaking scheme. The romance novel premise was staring me in the face, and so was Natalie’s partner and love interest, Finn.

YABC: Who is your favorite character in the book?

I love all my books’ heroines, but Natalie definitely has a special place in my heart. I was a little daunted by writing her at first because I thought she’d be the most different from me—outspoken, brash, and on the surface, the “coolest” girl I’ve written. But there’s a lot more going on beneath the pretty exterior, and I loved exploring all of that. It was also fun to write all her funny one liners and inner monologues.

YABC: What research did you do to write this book?

A lot of my research was about the Appalachian Trail, particularly the section in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, where the book takes place. I wanted to use some real, recognizable points of interest, plants and animals Natalie and Finn would actually see, and give them the semi-authentic experience of backpacking on the AT that they’d have while filming a reality TV show. I enjoyed making up challenges for the fictional show, Wild Adventures, using random fun facts about the trail and the park. Whenever the characters learn a piece of AT or Smoky Mountains trivia, it’s definitely something I picked up while researching for the book and thought was worth including!

YABC:   How do you keep your ‘voice’ true to the age category you are writing within?

This is something I think about often—writing characters who feel authentic even though I’m not “one of them.” I try not to use much slang that seems specific to a moment, in part because as young as I feel, my uncool millennial self doesn’t always know current Gen Z slang and I dread becoming that “how do you do, fellow kids?” meme. But I also don’t want the book I’m drafting in 2024 to read as dated by the time it comes out in 2025 or 2026. Instead, I try to focus on the common experiences and feelings that young adults across generations share, because there are plenty, and on getting those across in a down-to-earth way that I hope is timeless. On the flip side, I find so much joy in writing for teens! I have a lot of respect for this generation of them, how much more they seem to know about the world than I did at their age, how much information and media they’re constantly inundated with. They can see through a lot of adults’ nonsense and will pull no punches, which can be intimidating, but also makes me feel even more honored when a teen reader loves my books.

YABC: What type of scene do you love to write the most?

I love writing flirty banter! The words flow the easiest when I’m writing a bunch of dialogue, especially of the romantic variety. My favorite is the kind of flirting that’s not overt—an enemies-to-lovers, snarky, witty back-and-forth that the characters would tell you is absolutely not flirtatious, but the reader knows better.

YABC:  What word do you have trouble overusing?

It’s not a single word so much as a description of an action, but my characters always have the most overactive eyebrows. They’re constantly raising one brow or their brows are furrowing, because I guess that’s my favorite way to express a lot of different emotions. I usually have to take out a fair number of brow movements during revisions.

YABC:   What is your favorite writing space?

I’m so lucky to have the coziest home office! It has pink walls filled with artwork and other things that make me happy, and some very full bookshelves. I have a super comfy lounge chair for lazy writing sessions, and a walking pad + standing desk combo when I feel like getting my feet moving. I’ve loved making the space my own!

YABC: How do you plan to celebrate the launch of your book?

I’m super excited to be going on tour for Wild About You! I’ll start with a signing in my hometown, Lexington, Kentucky, then moving on to Knoxville, St. Louis, and Chicago. All the details are on my website—thekaitlynhill.com/events.

Title: WILD ABOUT YOU

Author: Kaitlyn Hill

Release Date: 5/21/24

Publisher: Delacorte Romance

ISBN-10: 0593650956

ISBN-13: 9780593650950

Genre: YA Romance

Age Range: 12 and up

*Giveaway Details*

Three (3) winners will receive a copy of Wild About You (Kaitlyn Hill) ~US/CAN Only

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