{"id":47526,"date":"2025-08-06T09:50:16","date_gmt":"2025-08-06T09:50:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/47526\/"},"modified":"2025-08-06T09:50:16","modified_gmt":"2025-08-06T09:50:16","slug":"jasmine-guillory-on-the-rise-of-booktok-romance-and-telling-this-drunk-on-love-characters-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/47526\/","title":{"rendered":"Jasmine Guillory On The Rise Of #BookTok, Romance And Telling This ‘Drunk On Love’ Character’s Story"},"content":{"rendered":"

Romance readers<\/a> know Jasmine Guillory for her bestselling novels<\/a>, but this summer, fans got something extra special: an exclusive look into her newest work, a relaxed conversation on representation and writing, and a behind-the-scenes peek at her latest brand collab.<\/p>\n

The event took place in Montauk, New York, as part of Liquid I.V.\u2019s Club Quench \u2014 a beach book club created to launch the brand\u2019s newest flavor, Orange Vanilla Dream. The day featured tastings, book-themed mocktails and an exclusive reading from Guillory\u2019s never-before-published dream sequence, inspired by the new flavor.<\/p>\n

Blavity caught up with Guillory at Club Quench to talk about how the reading world has evolved, what\u2019s changed for Black authors in publishing and what she\u2019s working on next.<\/p>\n

The rise of book culture\u2014and Black voices\u2014post-pandemic<\/p>\n

\u201cIt makes me so happy,\u201d Guillory told Blavity. \u201cI still feel brand new in this industry, but my first book came out seven years ago, so it\u2019s been a little while. And I feel like, when I was first starting to write, which was 10, 15 years ago, I didn\u2019t see that many other Black authors out there. They were there, but you go into a bookstore and you don\u2019t see them, right? You go to libraries, libraries didn\u2019t carry them.\u201d<\/p>\n

She continued, \u201cNow, there\u2019s just so much more diversity, even in what bookstores and libraries carry, even in what publishers are publishing. And there\u2019s so many great self-published authors that it\u2019s just so inspiring to see all the different kinds of books people are writing and the ways that people have had ideas and pushed themselves to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt also makes me feel ancient,\u201d she added, laughing. \u201cBecause I\u2019ve had younger writers tell me, \u2018I started reading your books in high school.\u2019 And I was like, \u2018How is that possible?\u2019 But I was so inspired by people who came before me, and it\u2019s so wonderful and mind-blowing that other people could be inspired by my work.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"JasminePhoto: Kadeem Olijah<\/p>\n

TikTok and finding book communities online<\/p>\n

Guillory has always loved discovering new ways to connect over books, and she\u2019s here for how BookTok and influencer book clubs are changing the game.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just love seeing\u2026 because I\u2019ve been a lover of books for a long time, and I feel like every five or 10 years there are more interesting ways to read books and to access books and to talk about them,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd I feel like there\u2019s always a conversation about like, \u2018Publishing is dying, books are dying.\u2019 No, they\u2019re not. People are always finding new ways to talk about books.\u201d<\/p>\n

She added, \u201cYes, everyone is on their phones, but they\u2019re on their phones talking about books. That\u2019s great. And so, I\u2019m always excited by any new ways that people are accessing books, talking about them, finding community in books and the literary world. I think that\u2019s just so fun for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I think every generation does it a little differently, and I love that,\u201d she said. \u201cI think there\u2019s always a conversation about like, \u2018What counts as reading? Do audiobooks count?\u2019 Who cares? We\u2019re all enjoying books and getting to talk about them. And that\u2019s the joyful thing for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"JasminePhoto: Kadeem Olijah<\/p>\n

On identity, representation and industry progress<\/p>\n

When asked about the sacrifices some Black authors have had to make in publishing\u2014like Robinne Lee reportedly having to write white characters in The Idea of You\u2014Guillory said she\u2019s seen the landscape shift.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like the landscape, if she had written it five years later, she may have done something different because the landscape has changed a lot, and publishers were not as willing to tell those stories then as they are now.\u201d<\/p>\n

She recalled a panel with To All the Boys I\u2019ve Loved Before author Jenny Han: \u201cShe said that she\u2019d had a number of conversations with people from Hollywood, and their first question was always, \u2018We want to make this about a white girl.\u2019 And she was like, \u2018No.\u2019 And now, years later, finally someone wanted to make it about an Asian girl, and they got it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Guillory emphasized, \u201cI think maybe 10 years ago that story wouldn\u2019t have been told. It wouldn\u2019t have happened. And I think things are\u2026 Look, there\u2019s still a lot of bad going on in this world, but things have been getting better about that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are people in publishing, in Hollywood, in all of the media who recognize there is an audience for those stories,\u201d she added. \u201cAnd our stories are universal. And so, it has been wonderful to see that.\u201d<\/p>\n

What she\u2019s excited to write next<\/p>\n

Guillory recently signed a new book deal and is already dreaming up the stories to come. One thing she knows for sure? She\u2019s not done with the world she built in Drunk on Love.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know really what one is going to be about. If Drunk on Love is about a brother-sister pair who own a winery together, and that it is about the sister\u2019s love story, then I know I want to tell his love story \u2014 the brother\u2019s love story,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat will be a fun one because the brother, Elliot, is kind of a silent, grumpy type. And I think it\u2019ll be fun to be able to tell the story of a silent guy with a heart of gold who is obsessed with his job. And so, I\u2019m excited about that one.\u201d<\/p>\n

She added, \u201cI have a few ideas for the others, but I haven\u2019t quite figured them out. And I feel like I always have to live with an idea for a little while before I can really commit to it. I just start thinking about it and thinking about, \u2018What else will happen and what else is in their world?’\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSome of them might be about people that we\u2019ve met before in the universe, and maybe not. And maybe I\u2019ll start a whole new series. We\u2019ll see.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her Club Quench collab was all about joy<\/p>\n

Partnering with Liquid I.V. wasn\u2019t just a cool opportunity \u2014 it was something Guillory genuinely enjoyed.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was really fun. I love Liquid I.V. I got the email about this when I was in the car with my sister and I told her about it and she was like, \u2018Oh, my God, I love Liquid I.V.,’\u201d Guillory said. \u201cAnd I was like, \u2018Are we being filmed right now?\u2019 [laughs]\u201d<\/p>\n

But what stood out most was the way the brand embraced books and romance.<\/p>\n

\u201cI also feel like it\u2019s so exciting to have big brands want to do things about books,\u201d she said. \u201cI think that shows again the power of romance and how much more mainstream romance has become.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI love that the whole idea is to quench our thirst while we\u2019re reading.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Romance readers know Jasmine Guillory for her bestselling novels, but this summer, fans got something extra special: an…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":47527,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[64,63,457,134],"class_list":{"0":"post-47526","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-books","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-books","11":"tag-entertainment"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47526","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47526"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47526\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47527"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47526"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47526"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47526"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}