Kristina Forest Talks Grief, Historical Romance, and 2000's R&B in The Love Lyric
When I spoke with Kristina Forest back in December about her newest release, The Love Lyric, she was in the midst of processing saying goodbye to the series that she released into the world just two years ago. But her journey with this series started back in 2019 when it was simply a concept. Her inspiration in writing a trilogy focusing on siblings come from historical romance, specifically works of authors many have re-discovered in the current age of Booktok and Bookstagram such as Beverly Jenkins and Julia Quinn.
“I was inspired by historical romance. Lisa Kleypas was my biggest inspiration, and I was like I would love to write something like that where it’s a series and each book is about a different sibling.” Kleypas’s Hathaway series was actually the inspiration for the names of the Greene sisters: Iris, Violet, and Lily. “Each sister would be named after a different flower. My grandmother and mom are big gardeners. I wanted to name each sister after a flower and the plot came later. It actually took some time for me to sit down and write the first book.”
When writing the sibling dynamic with Iris’s role as the eldest daughter in mind, Forest drew inspiration from her own dynamic with her elder brothers as she’s the youngest of four children. When writing Iris, she looked back on her perspective of her second eldest brother. “My brother is six years older than me and was like the third parent. He was driving me to school, cooking us breakfast on the weekends, and there’s a lot of responsibility that comes with that. We all joke now that he’s my mom’s secretary.” Forest’s intention for each sister throughout the third book was recognizing their roles in their family and seeing Iris’s unwavering dedication to both their immediate family and her own that she created with her first husband.
Her previous books had the two younger Greene sisters, Lily and Violet, both discovering and re-discovering love in their individual books. In the third and final book, eldest sister Iris is exploring new love while dealing with the grief of losing her husband several years prior. Forest’s reasons to have Iris’s story be of a widow and mother re-discovering love came from her wanting to step out of familiarity with her own life. “Iris definitely intimidated me. Because I gave her this back story in The Neighbour Favor, I had to follow through with it when it came time to writing her book. I’ve experienced loss and with grief but not that particular kind with the loss of a partner. I put a lot of pressure on myself to do right by her. People wanted to see Iris’s happy ending after the traumatic experiences she had been through in her life.”
The writing process for leading characters in romance can be done both traditionally and unconventionally. When it came to researching for Iris’s backstory working in marketing within the beauty space, she drew inspiration from three things: her past work in publishing in subsidiarity publishing rights, learning about the beauty world when reading Glossier: Ambition, Beauty, and The Inside Story of Emily Weiss’s Glossier., and following brands on social media. “The intentional research was reading that book, and it was looking at newer companies like Ami Cole and Saie. Looking at their social media feeds and just me being a consumer of beauty. Walking into Sephora and seeing what brands speak to me and that went into Iris’s job.”
The character of Angel was written with some pop culture inspiration from music documentaries. “I watch a lot of documentaries and when I was growing up, I would watch Behind The Music all the time. Just things I paid attention to over the years that went into Angel’s backstory.” Part of Angel’s backstory in the book came from her hearing the story of D’Angelo’s How Does It Feel music video and his label turning him into a sex symbol. “He was this really sheltered kid who grew up in a very religious household in the south, but he had this talent and wanted to do something with it. He embraces his role sex symbol but that was the origin of that idea.”
Part of her intentional writing when plotting out their story was for Angel to be someone who wants to pursue Iris while also having respect for her history and boundaries. “He is patient with and is very respectful with what she’s gone through. His experience growing up with the childhood he had has made him empathetic to other people and particularly to Iris. I didn’t want her (Iris) to be in a relationship where someone was rushing her. I wanted him to be earnest and open and loving and sweet cause that’s what she needed. She needed a soft place to land and that’s what Angel was for her.”
And when it comes to a possible fan casting for a future adaptation, Forest doesn’t have an exact vision board for these specific characters. She does however have a first draft pick for Xavier from The Partner Plot. “I think for Xavier, I could see Aaron Pierre”. (This was prior to the infamous Jennifer Hudson Show spirit tunnel.)
Readers of the series have been anticipating this entire into the Greene trilogy as they followed Iris in her supporting role in the two previous books where her sisters where the main characters. Now she is the main character in her own story when she falls in love with R&B singer, Angel, when he is brought on to be the face of her job’s social media campaign. Her approach when writing the relationship was for it to feel realistic with the journey of love while mourning the loss of your first love. Forest shared that while during the writing process, her grandmother passed away. It ended up being a cathartic experience when writing a journey of experiencing loss while moments of joy happen around you. "I really tried to work hard to balance joy but also just the reality of losing someone you love.”
When writing Iris’s romance with Angel, Forest wanted Iris to be surprised at what kind of partner she would want from her mental checklist versus the partner she needed. “I felt like she needed someone to bring her out of her shell and surprise her and make her have fun. I felt like she really needed someone to remind her “Girl you are only 32. You are young and beautiful and deserve to have fun. To fall in love and have an epic love story.”
The Love Lyric is a beautiful story that tackles heavy topics of loss and grief, rediscovering your identity professionally and personally, and how to find love again after unimaginable heartbreak. Forest has created a literary universe where Black love is not only seen but felt through the pages of her writings. The Love Lyric is out now where all books are sold. You can also get The Neighbour Favor and The Partner Plot where books are sold as well.
