Welcome readers! I’m so glad you stopped by! For this edition of my Fave Summer Reads blog series, I am featuring The Idea Of You, by Robinne Lee. Robinne Lee is an author, actor and producer, and has been gracious enough to chat with me about her swoon-worthy summer read. The details of our discussion will take place over two posts.

A little bit of background: Right before I turned 50, I was searching for a new book to read, when I saw the following: “What if your teenager’s fantasy was your reality?” That was the tagline on the cover of the paperback for Robinne Lee’s novel, The Idea Of You. Upon further research of the book, I learned that the main character, Solene Marchand is divorced, turning 40, an artist and gallery owner, and mom to a pre-teen, Isabelle. The incident: By a strange twist of circumstance, Solene finds herself backstage at an August Moon concert, face to face with the lead of the band, 20 year old Hayes Campbell, who is also her daughter Isabelle’s fantasy crush. My thought at that time? BRING. IT. ON…

As someone who was a teen in the 80’s, frequent concert-goer, British pop music enthusiast, and woman way closer in age to Solene than to Hayes, I could relate…So, I bought the book, and read it immediately. The result: The Idea Of You is beautiful, heartbreaking, glorious, and oh-so-steamy in every jet-setting chapter. If you have ever fantasized about traveling to luxurious locales, sunbathing on a yacht, taking a romantic getaway in a villa, and living life on the arm of the world’s hottest and most charming British pop star, this book is for you. 

The Idea Of You resonates on so many levels: the age of the protagonist who is a career woman in the art world, the pop star fantasy, the mom of a pre-teen and everything that goes along with that. On top of that, the glittery, jet-setting travel in this book presented itself at a time when no one was going anywhere, due to Covid-19. This book did not disappoint. I have read and re-read this book. I have also listened to and re-listened to the audiobook. 

**A note about the heat level: The love scenes in Idea Of You are steamy.  Really steamy. Incredibly steamy.  

**A note about the audiobook: It is not to be missed. Robinne Lee herself narrates this story to perfection. But, be forewarned: If you have kids that ride with you in the car, you will not want to play the audiobook over the speakers, due to the steam factor. *no comment*…Wait…maybe one comment, from my teen who was in the car when a steamier scene unexpectedly came on when I started the car (The longest 1.8 seconds, ever)…”Seriously, mom?” My response, as I frantically pressed the pause button on my Audible app: “It’s for work.” 

Within the pages, Robinne Lee has created characters and a story arc which is so well written. Every character has depth, and the real-world implications of their choices, the good and the bad, are written with finesse. There is a glorious, glitzy side to this story, but there is a flip side to that glamorous life, which Robinne Lee relates to the reader as well. All that glitters isn’t gold, and there is a dark side to all of that beauty.  The consequences of their relationship can be dire. Seriously, this book is so good.

So, getting back to this blog series about some of my favorite summer reads, I decided to reach out to author Robinne Lee, to ask if she might be interested in doing a little interview for the post. To my wonderful surprise, she said she would, and we had a wonderful chat together about all things The Idea Of You. In the end, I had so much material, so much I wanted to share, I realized that I will need to break up the interview into two parts. Part one will focus on her background, some of her insights into the travel depicted in the story, and the musical thread woven within the story.

Which brings us to part one of my interview with author Robinne Lee!

Writer’s Block: Thank you so much for speaking with me today! I wondered if you could just give us a really brief background on what brought you to become a writer. I know that you’re also an actor.

Robinne Lee: I have always, I would say, acted, wrote or written for my enjoyment since I was little, since I was very young. Those two things were most interesting to me, and I guess they were hobbies, as I would describe them. And I always just kind of wrote for myself. I wrote my first book when I was 14 years old by hand, it was like 884 pages, and it was for myself. Then I started another book, when I was 16, and it went on for a few years. When it got to 1200 pages, and I had no real end goal in sight, I stopped writing. And then I worked on a book for about six years, and I thought I was definitely going to publish it, but I could not sell it. After that I kind of shut down for two years, until I got the idea for The Idea Of You. That was kind of like the wake up call. But I kind of thought, “You know what, I like this idea, I’m going to write it.” But because I’d had the experience of the last book, I was not going to give up seven years of my life to sell it. So I decided I was going to write it as quickly as possible, which is kind of in real time. I knew this story was going to take place over the course of the year. And so I gave myself about a year to write it. And I was never more than three months behind. It took me 15 months to write the first draft. I edit as I go along, so I end up with a very, very polished first draft. I spent another two months doing notes and then sent it out to an agent. The first agent I sent it to loved it, and he spent about three months doing notes, and then I spent three months on his notes. We sold it within like two weeks of putting it out there.

Writer’s Block: Well, I just love the story. Obviously. I have read it and reread it. I also have the audio book. And I love the audio book. I think you are masterful at the voicings and everything else. It’s a pleasure to listen to. It’s a pleasure to read. I thank you for writing it.

Robinne Lee: Thank you so much. 

Writer’s Block: So this blog series is about some of my favorite summer reads. And of course, The Idea Of You I definitely put into that category. A lot of that has to do with the different locales that you take Solene and Hayes to.  Summer means ‘travel’ to me and I was curious, did you have a favorite place that you took those characters? Have you been to all those places? I just think that for someone like me, getting to live vicariously through these characters was amazing. 

Robinne Lee: It’s hard for me to separate the location from the actions or what happens in those chapters. Right? I love them each for different reasons. I can’t see them apart.

Writer’s Block: While the locales that Solene and Hayes visit, as well as the events and activities they experience may seem glamorous and fantastical to us, as readers, there is also another side to those experiences.  Tell us about that. Were they all places you had been to visit first-hand?

Robinne Lee: Yes, most of them I’ve already been to. Maybe there’s one or two that I haven’t been to but I researched it well enough that you wouldn’t be able to tell.

Writer’s Block: No, I couldn’t tell!

Robinne Lee: Most of the locations I had been to over the course of my life and then I’d go back and visit either while I was writing or shortly after I was writing to fact check. I had the idea of the place already in my head and kind of knew what would work and what wouldn’t. It’s kind of escapist in that way, I suppose. For Solene I wanted it to feel a little escapist. But for Hayes, it should feel a little bit like the drudgery of being on tour and what it’s like to be a celebrity in a band that’s that famous and that much in demand and that you’re never home. I very specifically never show you Hayes’s home. We’ve never seen where he lives because the idea is that he’s living out of a suitcase. He’s doesn’t have time to himself, and he doesn’t have time to get his grounding anywhere. And so, well, people will read it and be like, “Oh, it’s so incredible.” But I want you to also think of it from his point of view as, not being this wonderful, escapist, but kind of just a necessity.

Writer’s Block: Yes, yes. That’s actually a very fascinating take. I wear many hats, just as many people do. But one of my hats is that I’m a music educator. And so, I love music. I’m a frequent concert goer. And you know, I grew up in the 80’s and was a big Duran Duran fan. And during those times, let me tell you, being able to go to those concerts and just kind of fantasize about what it would have been like to actually be on tour with these people… It’s fascinating to me, and you rarely think about the drudgery of it, like you said.

Robinne Lee: What that does to you psychologically, not even the packing and unpacking of some suitcases, which I really hate to do. I love to travel. I hate packing. It’s exhausting! As I’ve gotten older, I’ve tried narrowing things down. But traveling nonstop is just, you know, it can take its toll on you. I also wanted to show what else travel does, not just physically but psychologically for someone.

Writer’s Block: In The Idea Of You, Hayes Campbell is one of the swooniest characters I have ever had the pleasure of reading, and part of the reason for that is that he’s the lead singer for the sensational posh British boy band, August Moon (if only it was real!). Can you tell us about your inspiration for Hayes Campbell, and for August Moon?

Robinne Lee: I don’t want to say it’s my dream group, but if I was a 16 year old girl, I think that August Moon would be my dream group. When I was younger, I wrote fan fiction about Duran Duran. At the time, I would just write short stories about what I thought their lives were like, based on what I could tell from reading interviews and watching documentaries or whatever. So I had an idea. It’s not like I just made things up some things I made up out of the blue, but a lot of it I was trying to stick with what I what I saw in videos and documentaries and so forth, and what I knew of what their schedules were like, the kind of craziness of travel etc. So, I’ve always been a bit of an anglophile and I love a British accent. I particularly love a posh British accent. But you know, I’ve never seen a band of posh guys. Most bands, when they’re together, to make it in the music industry, it’s just grueling. It’s not something that comes easy. And so most people are willing to kind of really go after it. They can’t rest on their laurels and just do something else if they fail. For them, it’s got to be something passionate, like, they’ve got to make this work. In August Moon, they have a posh upbringing, and still have a successful group. In the 90s, I managed a singing group with a friend of mine, a girls singing group, and one of the producers was one of the guys who was in the New Kids on the Block. I got to know them at the height of their fame, so I got to see that up close. And I got to see all the parts of it that I didn’t like. And so, I wanted to shed a light onto the industry that was, for me, kind of dark, you know, not all happy go lucky. But I also realized how, what a gift it was to be able to see what they were experiencing and how rare that was. And, and in ways it was magical, and in ways it was painful, and I wanted to try to capture all that, but also mix in the British charm bit. I had to make them contemporary, I wanted to make it current, because I also wanted to factor in fandoms today with the introduction of social media. 

Writer’s Block: Yes. With Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc., fans can connect with their idols, which the outcomes can be good, bad, or even terrible.

Robinne Lee: Yes. Just click a button, and they can tear apart your new album, your girlfriend, or whatever. I really wanted to show what that might be like.

For now, we’ll take a pause from our interview with Robinne Lee, but I’ll be back soon with part two, where Robinne will talk to us more about the writing of the story, and her relationship and connection to her characters. As someone who had the pleasure of talking to her first-hand about it, you will not want to miss it.

In the meantime, check out Robinne Lee’s novel, The Idea Of You, here.