Welcome back, book bees! We’ve got a stacked month this May with all new incredible book releases. Today, we’re reviewing Romantic Friction by Lori Gold.
Romantic Friction follows a bestselling fantasy romance author named Sofie Wilde. Her book event gets hijacked by Hartley West, AKA “the next Sofie Wilde.” To make matters worse? Hartley West admits to using AI in her latest novel.
A timely read about the publishing industry and AI, we learned a lot from Romantic Friction. Here are three things we love about Lori Gold’s new contemporary novel!
Book Overview: Romantic Friction
Content warnings: kidnapping and forced captivity
Summary: Sofie Wilde’s bestselling fantasy romance series has been breaking bestseller records and readers’ hearts for years. She’s primed to become a worldwide phenomenon as the tenth and final book is set to debut after the annual romance readers convention takes place in Chicago next week. As buzz continues to build toward the book’s release, Sofie is asked to headline the event for the first time, a career milestone. One she won’t let anyone take from her, especially “the next Sofie Wilde.”
That’s what they’re calling her—Hartley West, the self-published debut author who writes in the style of Sofie Wilde. Except she doesn’t actually “write” anything. After Hartley admits to using AI to create her novel, Sofie’s ready to watch Hartley be skewered on social media. Except in this unpredictable world, Hartley is instead lauded for being innovative, for being such a skilled editor to take what the AI churned out and massage it into a story that’s just as compelling as Sofie’s—maybe even more so.
After her unhinged rant unintentionally goes viral, Sofie loses her keynote, and she’s starting to lose all her support. That loss is Hartley’s gain—as her book sales start soaring, she’s given the headliner spot. Sofie is livid. And she’s not the only one. As the convention begins, Sofie is surrounded by fellow authors who also fear for their futures, their livelihoods, their art being stripped away, one AI prompt at a time. Something must be done. This has to be stopped. Now. With the clock ticking down to the keynote, Sofie enlists her fellow authors in a plan to stop Hartley, vowing, “‘The next Sofie Wilde’—over my dead body. Or hers.”
A Look At The Publishing Industry
With the explosive popularity of BookTok, Bookstagram, and everything in between, the book publishing industry has thrived over the past few years. Romantic Friction gives us some insight into just how many people are involved in publishing a book. Authors, of course, are the key player. But their agents, publicists, editors, cover designers, and so many others also deserve credit. Sofie and her team experiences a PR nightmare with a viral video turned meme, and they need all hands on deck to resolve it.
The Rise Of AI
Another thing we love about Romantic Friction is its response to the use of AI in writing a book. While Hartley admits to using AI to imitate Sofie’s writing style, she defends herself by saying she thoroughly edited the AI-generated text. She insists that AI would somehow cut out the middlemen and create books in a fraction of the time. The other characters offer thoughtful arguments against allowing a computer to write a story. It doesn’t carry the same emotional impact as those written by human authors. Although technology is ever evolving, we can adapt along with it without relying on it to create art for us.
One of the overarching themes of Romantic Friction is the importance of community. We love Sofie’s character development from a self-centered, lone-wolf persona to someone more considerate toward others. Sofie never got along with other authors because of how competitive publishing can be. It seems that everyone is pitted against each other for the title of bestselling author. But after the schemes and shenanigans, Sofie ultimately learns to play on a team. Her world and social skills are better for it.
A timely and entertaining read, Romantic Friction by Lori Gold gives a thoughtful look into the publishing industry and the rise of AI among writers.
Romantic Friction by Lori Gold comes out May 6th, and you can preorder a copy of it here!
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