Bestselling Young and New Adult author Micalea Smeltzer, has been giving us beautiful, inspiring and brilliant romance novels that teach us about the meaning of true love, first love and soulmates. She reminds us that when it comes to the person we love, being without them just isn’t an option. Through her novels, Smeltzer shows us the beauty and magic in the world and reminds us that no matter what’s happening in our lives, we can get through anything with a little help from those we love and some self belief.
Smeltzer has an ability to break our hearts and then put them back together with her words and her stories, whisking us away into another world. She teaches us that when you meet the right person they make us want to be better. To meet someone who makes you want to be a good, better version of yourself because they believe in you enough to make you think you can be. She show us just what people are capable of when you meet someone who inspires you and is equally inspired by you.
Smeltzer is an author from Winchester, Virginia. She’s always working on her next book, and when she has spare time, she had said she loves to read and spend time with her family.
In a recent interview, Smeltzer has opened up and spoken about her Trace and Olivia series and in particular, Finding Olivia.
How far would you go to find yourself? That’s the question that’s been haunting Olivia Owens for years.
All Olivia has ever wanted to do is live and make mistakes, but her preacher father has made that impossible. She believes that her years at college will be her ticket into the real world and her chance to be wild and spontaneous. But she’s never been able to do it on her own.
At the start of her sophomore year, she only has four things crossed off her Live List, but that’s all about to change thanks to a chance encounter with Trace Wentworth. She’s about to learn that there’s more to this reformed bad boy than just his looks and panty dropping smile.
Trace can’t explain what it is that draws him to Olivia. All he knows is that he wants to get to know the girl with the sad smile but sparkle in her eyes.
When she tells him about her list, he knows that this is his chance to get to know Olivia Owens. Trace is determined to show Olivia that she can do all the things she’s ever wanted to do. So, he begins to help her cross things off her list, even the more outlandish requests.
What happens along the way is more than what Olivia or Trace ever expected.
Love, laughs, and a list. That’s the name of the game when you’re Finding Olivia.
When asked where she got the inspiration for Finding Olivia and how she came up with the story, Smeltzer explained that once she got the idea for the first scene she wanted to see how the story went. She said:
“Funnily enough, I got the idea for Finding Olivia when I saw someone get a flat tire. That first scene where they meet popped in my head. I was writing Undeniable at the time but Trace and Olivia quickly took over and I knew I wanted to see where their story went. Pretty soon after that the idea for her Live List was formed and it took off from there.”
She also went on to say that she didn’t initially mean to write more than one novel for the Trace and Olivia series, but felt that the characters demanded another story. She said:
“It was only supposed to be one book but Trace is bossy and demanded another book. Then it just spiraled out of control from there and I wanted to do the spin offs.”
When asked if there was a deeper message to her novel Finding Olivia that she wanted to get across, Smeltzer told us that she wanted her readers not to try to be “perfect” but to instead be themselves. She said:
“Ultimately, my message with Finding Olivia was don’t focus on perfection because it doesn’t exist and you hold yourself back if you try to be “perfect” because there’s no such thing as perfect. We all define perfect as something different, therefore it doesn’t really exist.”
Throughout her Trace and Olivia series, most of Smeltzer’s main characters had a bad or difficult home life. She told us that the reason she does this in her books is because it can help drive her plots forward. She said:
“The bad home life thing happens a lot because that can really help drive a plot forward–especially since I don’t like a lot of drama between my couples. As a reader I hate when a couple is constantly getting together and breaking up so I definitely don’t like to do that as a writer.”
When asked if she personally connects with any of the characters from her series, she admits that most of the characters are different from her, but she relates mostly to Olivia. She tells us:
“Personally connect…not really, most are pretty different from me personally but from that series I connect the most to Olivia and her struggles to fit in.”
You can connect with Micalea Smeltzer and keep up to date on all the latest on upcoming book releases and events on her website, Facebook, Twitter, and GoodReads.
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