Hannah Brown on Her Debut Romance Novel: It’s a ‘Great Continuation’ of ‘My Journey’ After ‘The Bachelorette’
[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for Mistakes We Never Made.]
The Bachelorette alum Hannah Brown knows a thing or two about love stories. Fans have followed her journey to find true love onscreen and off, but now she’s ready for the next chapter. Brown’s debut romance novel, Mistakes We Never Made, is available for purchase now.
The story follows longtime rivals Emma and Finn as they embark on a last-minute road trip when her best friend, Sybil, goes missing just days before her wedding. Emma and Finn have a long history together, filled with so many almosts. As they try to track down Sybil, Emma and Finn’s long-held feelings for each other resurface and they finally settle years of confusion.
Below, Brown opens up about her plans for more romance novels, the actors she envisions as Emma and Finn, the Sybil situation, and more.
When did you realize you wanted to dabble in romance writing?
Hannah Brown: My first book [God Bless this Mess] I could have never imagined people would care that much about my life, much less make it like a New York Times bestseller. It was just wild to me. But something that I’ve always wanted to do was write a novel. I remember when I first became the Bachelorette and had gotten to this Hollywood world, an agent asked me, “What do you enjoy? What do you want to do? What are big dreams you have?” The first dream that I said that I wanted to do and had before everything was writing novels. I’ve always loved writing and reading myself. It was something that I knew would be a hard goal, but something I just always hoped I could do one day. Finally, it was the right time, and I had the space to be able to do it. As far as being in this romance genre, I love reading romance myself, but also, I think it’s a great continuation for people who have followed my journey and my own love story to be able to continue to give love stories for people to root for in a different way in this next chapter of my life.
Do you plan to write more?
I do. I’ve really enjoyed this process. I actually am working on book two right now.
Is it in the same universe? Can you tease who you’re going to focus on in the second book?
I think when people read the first book, there will be a character that they want to know a little bit more about. Why does she do the things that she does in the book? We will definitely lean into that, but there’s a core four groups of girls in this book. That was one of the big inspirations for even starting this. I really wanted a good, solid female friendship to be the root of these love stories. I think that’s one of the most beautiful love stories you can have in your life is with your female friendships. The idea is, in this first book, you’ll really be invested in Emma and Finn’s relationship, but also want to know more about Sybil, Nikki, and Willow. As we continue, people will want to get to know more about them and I’ll be able to share more and create more.
In a perfect world, would you want to do four books focusing on each of the girls?
In my mind’s eye right now, that would be amazing.
How much of yourself did you put into these characters?
Emma and the other girls are all parts of me. Emma is a part of me… It’s like, if I was more of this part of me, who would I be? And that would be Emma, that feeling the need to have everything under control, to be the one that is fixing things, saving face. If I really leaned into that, I would be Emma. I would say in high school and college, I identified with that part of myself a lot. I also now know through therapy and everything where that stems from. Obviously, this is a fun love story that’s really quick, fast read, but I also wanted there to be depth of like, why would somebody do what Emma does? Or react the way that she does and have that journey? I wanted that thread going through the whole thing for people to relate to in some way. I love escapism. I need it, especially right now that my life is so crazy. I’m like, just give me some book that’s in some fantasy world. I totally get that, but for anything that I do, whether it’s my podcasts, whether it’s how I show up onscreen, or these books, I want it to be an additive experience. That you didn’t just waste time or just fully escaped, but you learn something about yourself through this character and her own journey. That was really important to me. I think that a lot of myself and what I’ve learned about myself and those parts of me are throughout the book and how Emma’s kind of grappling with her fears, how she shows up with Finn, and how she just shows up in life in general.
Who are some romance authors who have inspired you?
I really love Emily Henry. I feel like she’s just done a wonderful job of creating a story that people just get sucked into. They’re just perfect for wanting that quick escape, wanting to feel good at the end. I love the way that she’s been able to create that for so many of us who love her writing. I also really love women’s lit just in general, so like a Taylor Jenkins Reid. Any of their books, I’m always first to want to read those. I’m inspired by a lot of different people, but those are the ones that just are top of mind.
Emma and Finn’s relationship had years and years of history. Did you ever consider ending the book in a different way? Maybe a not-so-clean-cut happily ever after?
In the romance genre, that’s the thing you always have to play with. People are signing up for the happily ever after, whereas with a women’s lit or something like that, that might not always be the case. I struggled [with it]. Sometimes, I just want them to blow up their life. It’s really interesting because you have to tell this story about this journey, and then, at the end, there has to be some type of resolution. It’s just part of the genre. So I knew I wanted it to end with a happy couple at the end of this, but I wanted to make it where Emma had to do a lot of work on herself through these few days of really just having that forced proximity, which is a trope in romance to have to deal with different beliefs that she had about herself and how she was supposed to be and how this was supposed to go and who Finn is and everything. There had to be that tension and those moments, but I always knew that they would end up together.
Did you always want to have an epilogue?
At first, that wasn’t going to be in there. But I love epilogues. I want to know what their life ended up looking like. Are they on a front porch swinging in rocking chairs? It depends on how far we go into the future. But I just thought it was great for people to see that Emma had a lot of dreams, and Finn was able to help her on that journey. I thought it was great to just have that nice, beautiful bow at the end. We were getting a nice wrapped present, but I wanted to put the pretty bow on the end for people to just really love this beautiful story that Emma and Finn go on because I think for most of the book, it’s a lot of miscommunication. You kind of have to wait until the end to see that they’re really together, they really decided to go all in, so at least give a little bit more and see them as a couple. Because in their past, they weren’t actually ever a couple either. So when doing those flashbacks, I wanted to give the reader that satisfaction of what are these two like when they’re really truly committed to each other?
There are so many books getting film adaptations. Do you have dream actors you envision as Emma and Finn?
The people I have in my head are probably a lot older than the actual characters are, which is weird. I think of an Emma Stone or a Sadie Sink, if we’re going more with maybe where they’re at in their life. And then Finn, I wanted him to look like Jesse Williams from when he was on Grey’s Anatomy. I say that in the book, so I’m like, do we have another Jesse Williams somewhere? I don’t know. But that would be the kind of look.
When it comes to Sybil, there’s some mystery about what happened to her on prom night years ago. Why did you decide not to give readers all the answers?
I hope it brings people in for more and want more. Hopefully, in the next book, some questions could be answered. But I think it was important for this story that there are so many question marks. Why did Emma even go on this wild goose chase when she doesn’t have all the answers, but she feels like it’s her place to step in? I think it had to be that way to be able to tell Emma and Finn’s story, for there to still be some unanswered questions because they don’t have these answers fully for themselves. And then, that is really maybe not fully Emma’s story, but that’s more Sybil for her to start to be honest with herself and with other people around her. Why is she running? That’s kind of Sybil’s question. I think it’d be really cool to explore that.
I love that there’s no love triangle between Sybil, Finn, and Emma. Sybil and Finn have a history, but it’s nothing romantic. They’re all intertwined, but Sybil and Emma are not competing against each other.
I think it would make sense for Emma being Emma to question things. But it really is about developing Finn as a character, because like I said, they haven’t ever been together. There’s not always been that trust fully within, so you have to build that trust of who Finn is through other relationships to be able to do that. But it was tricky because, like you said, you don’t want it to seem like it’s a love triangle. Sybil, we can already tell is a little bit of a hot mess. It was really important to ground Finn and his loyalty and trustworthiness in this space. It was difficult to make that work, but I feel like I accomplished it.
Mistakes We Never Made, Out Now
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