Just as the leaves are starting to fall here in Pittsburgh, readers can swear they can also hear the sound of jingle bells and caroling. Local authors and couple Rachael Lippincott and Alyson Derrick are back to remind us that it’s never too early to start celebrating the holiday season with a feel-good read. In a sequel to their 2022 YA romcom, She Gets the Girl, their latest novella, Joy to the Girls, promises more romance and holiday fun along with a return to familiar snow-covered, tree-top-lined settings for fans.
SGTG introduced us to Pitt freshmen, Molly and Alex, as they navigate working through classes, odd jobs, and teaming up to try and win over their respective crushes in a Cyrano-type tale. The flirtatious Alex assists Molly in upping her game to woo her high school crush while Molly works on Alex’s softer, more compassionate side through a friendship to convince Alex’s ex-girlfriend that she’s long-term material. With the sequel here, it seems there’s more in store beyond the Steel City as the two set out for their senior year winter break with a familiar face to fans.
I reached out to Lippincott and Derrick for a quick catch up and to learn more about what readers can expect when they pick up a copy this season.
She Gets the Girl introduced us to Molly and Alex’s love story set at the University of Pittsburgh as they fell for each other in a classic unlikely friends-to-lovers story. The story also touches on important life lessons for those coming of age (and for those who might be a little older but still need to hear them). Do you think Joy to the Girls has more of that energy for eager readers?
Alyson: Absolutely. Though I will say, the subject matter of this novella feels much lighter than that of SGTG. When we began writing this, we really set out to just give readers more Alex and Molly as a thriving couple, but I think as the drafting process went on, we really dove into a couple of issues that two people who have been together all through college might be facing. You can expect some excellent holiday fluff blended with some more serious moments where Alex and Molly are clearly still learning how to grow together.
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Rachael: And also still learning how to grow apart! When we first saw them, they were just starting college, and now they’re at another huge life moment: finishing college and figuring out what’s next.
Senior year of college can come with so many questions for students: Are we really ready to be adults? Can we let go of the place that has helped us grow? And if so by how much? Who all from school is coming with me into adulthood? Are Molly and Alex facing any of these questions as we head into winter break with them?
Alyson: Yes. Yes. Yes. You are hitting the nail on the head. They are both trying to figure out what they want for next year. As a couple and individually.
We also met Cora Meyers in the last novel as Molly’s crush. Molly originally only had eyes for her former high school classmate and hoped that with Alex’s help she’d win her affection. But of course we know how that went with Alex and Molly ultimately falling for each other. As seemingly a more central character to this story, where does this story find Cora? How did you expand on her and what does she have going on in this go around?
Alyson: Over the last few years of college, Alex and Molly have become best friends with Cora, and it truly makes my heart so happy. There were so many readers who loved Cora and obviously felt heartbroken for her at the end of SGTG. I’m very glad we got to create this novella where Alex and Molly get to fix the mess they made of Cora’s love life. Lol.
Rachael: And we made sure to give her the swooniest masc lesbian love interest possible, haha. We really wanted her to have her happily ever after too.
After the success of last year’s Make My Wish Come True, I’ve got to ask, what brought you back to write another Christmas book? Are we headed back to Barnwich, PA to bring these stories together?
Alyson: Nothing more cozy and romantic than a weekend away in the North Pole of Pennsylvania and Barnwich!
Rachael: I think it also felt like such a nice and festive and LIGHT way to bring Alex and Molly back to readers in a way that didn’t have some overwhelming mountain of drama or a breakup. It helped us give the story the levity that we hoped for!
Any chances of also seeing Arden and Caroline from MMWCT? What new snow-covered, hot cocoa-laced, and twinkly light-decorated ground are we covering here?
Alyson: There may or may not be a cameo…Cora’s love interest, May, is a Swanson, so we get a major look into her big family and also the Swanson Christmas Tree farm where Caroline and Arden stole the Christmas tree from!
Though set outside of the city, MMWCT still had a very Southwest, PA feel to it. With our Pitt students heading out of the city, how much PGH can readers expect in this one?
Alyson: Actually, very little!
Rachael: We get a small taste of the biting Pittsburgh cold in the first two or three chapters. For Pitt students, I think they can definitely relate to walking around campus and getting back home in the dead of winter when your eyes are watering and hands are numb.
Right now (and seemingly always, but truly right now) sources of queer joy are extremely important. Books like yours are seen by many as safe havens and ports in the storm for young adult and adult readers alike and personally I would be remiss if I didn’t thank you for your writing. What inspires you to write stories like this in these times that can seemingly be hard to be….well inspired? Who do you hope these books reach and why especially during the holidays?
Alyson: I find the Instagram messages I get from readers to be pretty inspiring. I’m not always able to reply, but I read all of them and it really warms my heart to see what our books have done for some people. I always hope that any book I write ends up in the hands of a baby gay in small-town America somewhere. Someone who could really use a light in the dark.
Rachael: I’m so inspired by our readers and our community, really. I think, if anything, it makes me more ferocious of a writer. And a reader. I want to write more books, I want so desperately to get them in the hands of the readers that need and want them, I want to uplift the voices of my fellow LGBTQ+ authors. These times are hard, but my friendships, my community, has never been stronger. And that is the well I pull from.
Lippincott and Derrick are currently on tour promoting Joy To the Girls and hoping to spread the love and warmth this book will certainly bring to folks from Pittsburgh and beyond! You’re of course encouraged to pick up your copy wherever books are sold along with any of their other titles if you somehow don’t have them already. But of course the authors and this writer strongly encourage you to stop by a local shop here in the City that inspires their stories to get yours.
