Dream Girl DramaAuthor Tessa Bailey Reveals the Secret to a Spicy Romance Audiobook (Exclusive)

Mar. 15, 2025

Tessa Bailey and the cover of ‘Dream Girl Drama’.Photo:Nisha Ver Halen; Avon

Nisha Ver Halen; Avon

Tessa Bailey’sDream Girl Drama, the latest addition to the romance author’sBig Shotsseries, arrived on Feb. 4 to a dedicated readership who already can’t get enough. According to the bestselling writer, however, the novel originally wasn’t supposed to exist at all.“I was going to end theBig Shotsseries after the second book,” Bailey tells PEOPLE during an interview in collaboration with Spotify Audiobooks. “Then, these two characters that were supposed to be just side characters to facilitate the plot a little bit ended up having crazy chemistry on the page.“That came as a surprise to the author — especially because they’re future step-siblings.

“I immediately called my publisher, and I said, ‘I think something’s happening here,” she said. “Do I have your permission to explore it?’”Dream Girl Dramafollows Chloe Clifford, a “manic pixie dream girl” who falls for professional hockey player Sig Gauthier after meeting him when his car breaks down. As their relationship develops, Sig takes things to the next level when he invites Chloe to dinner with his father — only for Chloe to realize that Sig’s dad is engaged to her mom.

HarperAudio

“In self-publishing, you get step-siblings every third book, but in traditional publishing, it’s not very mainstream,” Bailey says. “So we found a way to make it palatable for everybody.”

Bailey, the author of over 60 books, includingIt Happened One SummerandHook, Line and Sinker, is beloved for her plots, as well as the notable spice in her novels.

And for those who prefer to listen to their TBR, those books are also available to stream in Spotify’s newSpicy Audiobooks hub, which features audiobooks available in all of the romance subgenres — from romantasy to cowboy-centered stories — as well as author and BookToker recommendations.

“These narrators are actors, and the emotion that they pack into these lines, it’s how you imagined it when you were reading,” Bailey says. “It’s not robotic anymore. It feels like they’re telling you a story, and it feels very personal.”

When asked what makes a good spicy audiobook narration, the author also has a few suggestions herself.

“I think a narrator who has perfected a growl: a growl that’s not a growl, that [is] enough to make your ear buzz a little bit,” she says.

Bailey, who began her career 13 years ago, knows a thing or two about satisfying an audience too. Despite that, she says she didn’t originally set out to become an author.“I did not think I was smart enough to write a book,” Bailey says. “It was something that I always had a desire to try in the back of my head, but I never had any aspirations to come this far.” It wasn’t until she became a mother herself that she began to look at writing differently.

“When my daughter was born, I thought to myself, ‘I need to figure out what I’m good at. I need to make her proud of me in some way,’” the author notes. “That’s kind of what my impetus was to actually sit down and try writing a book. It felt like it just was pouring out.”

Avon(2)

The same went for Bailey’s sports-centric Big Shots series, which includes the novelsFangirl DownandThe Au Pair Affair, with the next addition in the series,The Perfect Pitcher, set to publish in 2026.

“I feel like this series continues to surprise me over and over again, because characters who I didn’t expect to be interesting or meaty enough to demand their own book actually are insistent upon getting a story,” she says. “This series that was only supposed to be two books, now I’m thinking of stretching it to seven.”

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“The world [of these books] feels so good, and romance is about going and slipping into these worlds where we feel comfortable, and we can expect happy endings and soft landings,” Bailey adds. “I’m like, ‘Who am I to stop writing this world that I feel like people are getting more and more comfortable living in?’ I just want to keep providing that, so I’m just not going to run away from it.”Despite being one of the most popular genres today, Bailey is all too aware of the stigma that follows romance, particularly because its widespread audience is largely composed of female-identifying readers. But she doesn’t necessarily see that stigma as a bad thing.

Tessa Bailey.Nisha Ver Halen

Nisha Ver Halen

“That’s been really refreshing, to see this new generation come up in the publishing world and be so unapologetic about what they love, whether it be about sexuality or fantasy worlds you just could never have expected to become so popular,” the author says. It’s also a refreshing time for the genre, in print and beyond, as Bailey notes a resurgence of beloved book tropes, like paranormal romance, are now finding a new audience.

“That makes me excited because that was one of my first introductions into romance: the hint of the ghost, or the hint of the relative from the great beyond, sort of maneuvering the romance from behind the scenes,” Bailey says. “Fantasy romance taking off is only going to bring more and more readers into the genre, and they’re going to eventually discover contemporary … It’s a gateway, so the more, the merrier.”Bailey also thinks she’s written one of her favorite heroines with Chloe inDream Girl Drama— and that her arc is set to empower readers as much as to entertain them.

source: people.com