Lynn Painter is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Better Than the Movies, The Do-Over, Betting on You, Mr. Wrong Number, The Love Wager, Nothing Like the Movies, and Fake Skating. She lives in Nebraska with her husband and pack of wild children, and when she isn’t reading or writing, odds are good she’s guzzling energy drinks and watching rom-coms. You can find her at LynnPainter.com, on Instagram @LynnPainterBooks, on X @LAPainter, and on TikTok @WesBennettsMom.
Tell us about Fake Skating. What sparked the idea for this story?
Initially, I just wanted to write a hockey book because who doesn’t love a sports romance, right? But when I went up to see my Minnesota cousins and do book research, I fell head-over-heels in love with their town and its hockey community. Suddenly it was just as much about found-family and Minnesota as it was about hot hockey players hockeying around! 😉
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What drew you to sports romance? What are some of your favorite setups that this trope provides?
I’ve always been a sports fan, but having three sons who played and obsessed over athletics definitely made it kind of hardwired inside of me. And my favorite setup is definitely the fish-out-of-water concept of pairing a very not-interested-in-the-sport person with the athlete. I mean, how fun is that? When Dani sees Alec at practice for the first time, she isn’t prepared for how…HOCKEY he is. How good he is. I lovelovelove sports romance; can you tell??
As an author who writes for tweens, teens and adults, what are the unique joys and challenges of writing across these age groups? Do you have a favorite?
Writing YA is definitely my favorite. I feel like when you’re a teenager, you allow yourself to really sit in your emotions in a way that you never will again. It’s so deep and beautiful, even when it hurts, because you linger instead of turning it off (which is ultimately how we learn to survive heartbreak, right?).
When you’re sad, you lean into your sad girl autumn playlist and re-play each and every painful moment of what’s transpired in your mind, over and over again. You skim over NOTHING, sinking deep into all that unbridled, raw emotion.
And when you’re in love, you lean into your oh, shit, are we in love playlist and spend endless hours translating the tiniest of touches, deconstructing the smallest of syllables spoken, and questioning the nerves sparked by a lingering look that you know was shared.
We revel in the details, as young adults, even when it hurts, and there is potent magic in that. I truly believe it’s why the relationships we traverse during those years become such a huge part of who we are.
What’s something you want readers to know about each of your Fake Skating main characters?
Alec looks like a hockey god but is the SWEETEST down-bad boy underneath it all.
Dani doesn’t play a sport and appears shy, but she’s tougher than Alec.
What drew you to childhood friends as the starting point for your main characters?
I looooove stories where the main characters have history. It’s so fun to allow each of them to slowly reconcile what they thought they knew about the other with the reality of who they’ve actually become.
What are some of your favorite sports romance reads?
I was OBSESSED with Susan Elizabeth Phillips’ Chicago sports books back in the day, and I loooooooved Alexa Martin’s football books. Fumbled is still an all-time fave. Rachel Gibson also had some banger hockey books.
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What are you currently reading?
I recently finished Haymitch’s Hunger Games book (Sunrise on the Reaping) – amazing, of course – and I’m also reading Anywhere With You by Ellie Palmer.
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What are you currently watching?
I caved and just started watching The Summer I Turned Pretty because I get asked about what team I’m on (Conrad) at every event I attend.
What are you currently listening to? (podcast, audiobooks, music)
I’m a big fan of the New Heights podcast (who isn’t lol), and I cannot stop listening to Role Model, Sombr, Aidan Bissett, Haiden Henderson, Daniel Seavey, Alfie Jukes and – of course – Conan Gray. (I spend way too much time on Spotify)
What are you working on next?
I’m currently working on edits for First and Forever, my NFL romcom that comes out next May, and I’m also writing my next Young Adult book right now, which is a fish-out-of-water story that takes a normal, middle-class midwestern girl and throws her right in the center of an affluent New York City private school.
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