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Chapter 1: Who is Kristina Forest and what is her background?
What I love particularly about romance, you'll find a book that you really, really like. And you'll be like, this was amazing. And you'll look up the author and they've written like 50 other books. And you're like, perfect. I'm getting them all.
Hey readers, I'm Anne Bogle, and this is What Should I Read Next?
Chapter 2: What inspired Kristina to write contemporary romance?
Welcome to the show that's dedicated to answering the question that plagues every reader. What should I read next? We don't get bossy on the show. What we will do here is give you the information you need to choose your next read. Readers, life is busy, and whether I'm on the go around town or out on the road, I appreciate a morning makeup routine that takes just a few minutes.
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Chapter 3: How does Kristina define a beach read?
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Chapter 4: What is the plot of The Summer Girlfriend?
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I love how so many of their products do double duty, like the Minimalist, which replaces both foundation and concealer in your makeup bag. I like to use my Merit No. 1 brush to blend everything out, but it's just as easy to apply and touch up with your fingers for a quick, out-the-door routine. Merit's collection is especially great for travel, which I deeply appreciate this time of year.
And I'm not the only one. Our team member Holly swears by their carry-on friendly five-minute morning makeup capsule collection. And since all of Merit's products are clean, vegan, cruelty-free, and made with nourishing skincare ingredients, your skin will feel great long after you've taken your makeup off. Refresh your daily makeup routine this season with Merit Beauty.
Chapter 5: What are the themes of love and family in The Summer Girlfriend?
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Readers, today I'm excited to dive into the world of summer reading with Christina Forrest, contemporary romance writer and author of the 2026 MMD Summer Reading Guide title, The Summer Girlfriend, which appeared in our Seaside Stories category and is available on bookstore shelves now as it was just released on June 9th.
I described it in the guide as a sweet summer romance bursting with bookishness and baked goods. The plot hinges on a fake relationship that blossoms out of a bookstore meet-cute. The beach setting was inspired by a handful of real places, some of which surprised me, and Christina's deep and abiding love for the Jersey Shore.
The family's warm and inviting beach home is a character in its own right, and a Black-owned family business that makes delectable baked goods features prominently in the story. And of course, romance and chemistry feature prominently in these pages.
We are going to get into all of it today, along with some of Christina's very favorite titles for beach reading season, whether you need a paperback to toss in your beach bag, or you won't be going anywhere near the beach anytime soon and would welcome a Vag Curious vacation. I can't wait to share this conversation with you. Let's get to it. Christina, welcome to the show.
Hi, thank you so much for having me.
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Chapter 6: What are Kristina's favorite beach reads for summer?
Oh, the pleasure is mine. Congrats on your new release. Thank you so much. I'm really excited for it. Okay, we're talking before the day, but The Summer Girlfriend enters the world on June 9th, so it'll be ready and waiting whenever readers are listening.
Yes, just in time for summer.
Exactly. All right. Well, I'm so excited to talk today. I really enjoyed your book, but I've been reading you for years, and I know many of our listeners as well.
Chapter 7: How does Kristina incorporate her personal experiences into her writing?
And you're probably new to some of our listeners, so I hope you all enjoy listening in and meeting a new-to-you author. But Christina, could we start by just giving the readers a glimpse of who you are? Would you tell us a little bit about yourself?
Yes, sure. So I'm Christina Forrest. I am a romance novelist, contemporary romance particularly, but I started my career writing YA romance in 2019. I am a born and raised Jersey girl, and I'm very proud of that, even though I spent about a decade of my life living in New York City, which I also sort of feel like a New York City person still.
I worked in publishing, children's books publishing, for many years. I love reading romance novels, which is probably not a surprise to a lot of people.
Chapter 8: What advice does Kristina have for aspiring authors?
My favorite subgenre is historical romance. That is definitely my happy place of reading. A reading period is historical romance. But that's what got me into reading romance novels. I was reading Tessa Dare and Beverly Jenkins and Lisa Kleypas. And from there, I started reading contemporary. And it was really The Kiss Quotient by Helen Ho Wang that made me a bigger contemporary romance reader.
And I believe that novel published in 2018. I think it's when that came out. And from there I went to Jasmine Guillory and Nisha Sharma and Alicia Rye. I was discovering so many contemporary romance authors. But The Kiss Quotient was the book that I read and I thought, oh, maybe I could do this too. Because at the time I had been writing YA, but I wanted to try and write adult romance.
And so, yeah, it really, it's just romance stumbles is like what I live and breathe.
I am so curious about the leap from YA to adult. It never occurred to me that, I mean, what do I know, Christina? But it never occurred to me that reading one specific work would be the impetus. I'd love to hear more.
Yes, sure. So when, after I graduated from undergrad, I went to undergrad in New Jersey and I took several creative writing classes. And at the time, because I was younger, I was reading a lot of YA, particularly YA romance. I was a huge, and still am, but I was a huge fan of Sarah Dessen. When I was in high school, I took a creative writing class in high school.
And my teacher brought in her father, who was an author. His name is David Lubar. And he wrote middle grade in YA. And he gave a presentation on his books. And he essentially made a comment that was... He said something to the effect of, oh, my books helped put your teacher through college. And it just was like a light bulb in my head because I really loved to read, but it had never...
occurred to me that it was a career, if that makes any sense. You know, I was 17 at the time. I was like, I really like reading books, but I didn't think of it. I didn't think of the career of being an author the same way that I thought about being a teacher or being a lawyer or something like that.
I was like, wow, this is a career where he makes a livable wage to the extent that he can help put his daughter through college. And I thought again about Sarah Dessen. I was like obsessed with her books. And I was like, I really want to do that, but I want to write those kinds of stories featuring people who look like me with black characters.
And from there, there was literally that moment in my senior year of high school when I took that creative writing class. that I decided that I wanted to be a writing major in college. And thankfully my parents didn't ask a lot of questions. They did not ask me really, I don't think my dad said anything. He was like, okay. My mom was just like, okay, fine.
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