An Interview with Author Patricia Prior about "Where Summer Left Us"

We spoke with author Patricia Prior, and interviewed her about her novel "Where Summer Left Us", part two in a three part series––the last part will be published this December. She told us all about herself, her work and just how much of herself she wrote into the characters. We enjoyed the interview very much, and we're sure you, as readers, will too. Thank you to Patricia Prior for entertaining all of our questions!

Q: Tell us a bit about yourself! Who are you, how did you get into writing, which work of yours are you most proud of?

A: I’m Patricia, and I live in Essex, UK, though I’m originally from Latvia. I’ve been making up stories since I was little, inspired by the children’s books I read and the places I grew up around. I was lucky to have parents who encouraged every spark of creativity. Latvia is full of these gorgeous, almost magical places that fuel imagination—my favourite spot was always the nature reserve park with its “Dwarf Forest.” That sense of wonder stuck with me and definitely shaped how I see stories today.

As a kid, I loved inventing little make-believe worlds and acting them out. By my teenage years, when Wattpad and online communities became part of my reading life, I started seriously dabbling in writing. In high school, I even took advanced literature classes. Ironically, I didn’t enjoy them much at the time, but so much of what I learned ended up shaping how I write today.

There was a big pause when I moved to the UK for university. I stopped writing for a while and just focused on living my early twenties, soaking up new experiences, many of which ended up inspiring my Hallow’s End series later on. Eventually, after working as a paediatric oncology nurse and later in childcare, I hit a point of burnout. My mental health was slipping, and I knew I needed something to bring me joy again. Taking the leap back into writing changed everything. It reignited my creativity, gave me purpose, and once I started, I couldn’t stop.

Now, I have more stories on my list than I’ll probably ever be able to write in one lifetime, but I’m proud of each book I’ve brought into the world. If I had to choose one that feels the closest to me personally, it would be Where Summer Left Us. That book touches on themes of burnout, failed dreams, and mental health in a way that draws from my own experiences as a nurse. It was important to me to explore the reality that you never truly know what someone is carrying unless you’re inside their head. Of course, all of it’s wrapped up in romance, hope, and found family, but that book, in particular, feels like leaving a piece of myself on the page.

Q: What’s the book about? Tell us where the story takes us.

A: Where Summer Left Us is set in the small town of Hallow’s End, a place I created to feel rooted in community and connections that linger long after you leave. It follows Daphne, a paediatric nurse who once dreamed of a bigger, brighter life in the city. She left her hometown, along with her childhood best friend and first love, determined to chase those dreams. But sometimes the things we work toward for years turn out to be the wrong fit. We cling to them out of pride, out of fear, out of the belief that changing direction somehow equals failure. Daphne’s journey is about realising that coming home, starting over, and reshaping your dreams isn’t failure at all—it’s growth.

The story is told in dual POV, so we also see everything through James’s eyes. For him, Daphne’s return forces him to face the feelings he’s buried since he let her go. At the same time, his own world is collapsing. He’s young, but he’s taken on the weight of being a caretaker, carrying everyone else’s burdens until the cracks finally show. His chapters are raw, peeling back what it looks like when someone doesn’t even recognise the depth of their own mental health struggles until they break.

Even with those heavier themes, this book is soft and hopeful at its heart. It’s filled with mutual pining, yearning, second chances, laugh-out-loud family dynamics, and sweet, swoony moments that balance out the ache. The flashbacks to their high school years layer in nostalgia, while their second-chance love story shows how sometimes the people who know us best are the ones worth returning to. It’s a story that captures the golden haze of summer and the bittersweet beauty of growing up in a small town.

Q: What are the most important themes you wanted to get out into the world with this book? Did you struggle to incorporate them into the writing?

A: The most important themes in Where Summer Left Us are the messy reality of your twenties—figuring out where you belong, what it means to come home, and learning that leaning on other people doesn’t make you weak. I also wanted to explore mental health, particularly high-functioning depression. James never recognises it for what it is, and that was important to me to show. He convinces himself he’s fine, keeps pushing through, and doesn’t realise how much he’s struggling until it all finally crashes. That silence around men’s mental health—where you don’t name it, you just carry it—is a big part of his story.

The biggest challenge in writing this book was finding the right balance. My first few drafts leaned very heavy and dark, and while those themes mattered, I also wanted the story to feel light, summery, and romantic. It took a lot of rewriting to get to the point where it still reads like a love story but holds space for the serious parts too.

For Daphne and James, the heart of the conflict was never miscommunication. It was about what happens when darker thoughts get in the way of what we really want. James’s arc especially shows how easy it is to keep carrying everything on your shoulders until the cracks finally show. For readers who’ve experienced that first or second hand, I hope it feels honest. And for those who haven’t, I wanted to give a glimpse into what it’s like to fight against that constant inner voice telling you you’re not enough, that you should be doing more, that you should already be further ahead in life.

Q: How long did it take you to write this book? Did you grow in your writing during this time?

A: This book probably took me the longest to write (well, apart from my fantasy project, but that’s a completely different beast). It took me about three months and around five or six draft zeroes just to get to my very first messy full draft. I put so much work into perfecting that early version that by the time I had a solid Draft 1, the foundation was strong. After that, it was just a matter of building around it, expanding scenes, and shaping it into something I felt ready to send to my editor. Altogether, from starting the first words to publication, it was about seven to eight months.

This book also represents the biggest period of growth for me as a writer. It was my first time writing dual POV, experimenting with new styles, learning how to sharpen and tighten my prose, and finding the sweet spot for chapter lengths. Taking my time with it meant I learned so much in the process, and those lessons are now part of everything I write. I think readers can definitely see the difference and growth between Between Then and Now (Book 1) and Where Summer Left Us (Book 2), and that’s one of the reasons I’m so proud of this book.

Q: The usual question is, of course, why people should read your book. We’ll get to that later, but why would you read your book, if you hadn’t written it?

A: I’m a huge mood reader, so if I hadn’t written Where Summer Left Us, I know it’s exactly the kind of book I’d reach for. I’ll pick up almost anything with a pretty cover if it matches my mood, and this one would definitely pull me in. The story touches on experiences I’ve been through myself, and I always gravitate toward books that feel personal and real.

On top of that, I love any book with yearning and pining, and the angst in the flashbacks and drama would make me binge this one straight through.

Q: So… Why should people read your book?

A: People should read Where Summer Left Us if they love romance that feels like summer in a book. It’s got childhood best friends turned first loves, years of unspoken feelings, high school flashbacks, and that delicious pining you can’t help but root for.

It’s got all the small-town vibes too: matchmaking moms, supportive friend groups, lovable side characters you’ll want books about, and to top it off, a very good golden retriever named Stella. There are summer nights and beach days woven in, and at its heart it’s a story of two childhood best friends who became first loves, then strangers, and finally find their way back to sparks, and the realisation that they never really stopped loving each other. But it’s not just fluff. It’s summery and light, yes, but it also has that emotional depth that makes the romance hit even harder.

If you love yearning that stretches across years, flashbacks that break your heart a little, and characters who feel real in all their messy mid-twenties chaos, then this one’s for you.

Q: Are there any characters that you wrote parts of yourself into? Or did you detach yourself from the story to write from an entirely different perspective?

A: Anything I write will always have a little bit of me in it. It might start with a feeling I’ve had, an experience I’ve been through, or even just a message I want to put into the world. Then I twist it, expand it, or blow it up for the sake of the story. That’s usually where the heart of my characters begins. I don’t think I could ever write completely detached from the story. Even if the characters’ lives look nothing like mine, there’s always some part of me threaded into their journey. It’s what makes the writing feel real to me, and hopefully to readers too.

Q: Are there any scenes or plot points you cut out because they just didn’t work?

A: Oh gosh, yes! Because I went through so many draft zeroes, there were quite a few scenes that never made it into the final version. The one I was most sad to cut was a flashback from Daphne’s POV at a high school football game (she was a cheerleader, James was the quarterback, and he gets hurt). It was such a yearning, tender moment, but in the end it just didn’t fit the flow of this book. I couldn’t let it go completely though, so I stripped it down and reworked it into the final Hallow’s End book, Kind of a Big Feeling, which follows Ivy and Caleb.

Another one that went through endless rewrites was the goodbye scene (the big break-up moment when Daphne leaves her small town after high school). There are people who read early versions that were much more dramatic and angsty, but ultimately I had to rein it in to serve this story better. Maybe one day I’ll find the right book to use that deleted scene in, but for now it lives in my drafts folder.

Q: Where did you draw inspiration from, when you were looking for outside inspiration? Did you do a lot of research? Did you look for pictures with the right vibe?

A: Funny enough, the first spark for Where Summer Left Us came from Taylor Swift’s song Betty. I’m a huge fan of her music, so it’s no surprise that most of my book playlists end up full of her songs. A lot of my stories start with a tiny piece of inspiration like that—a lyric, a vibe, or even just a feeling—and then I daydream until it grows into something big enough to start planning out.

Since this was book two set in the same small town, I already had the setting and atmosphere to build from, which made things easier. The real inspiration came from what I was working through at the time in my own life—questions of where I fit, what I should be doing, and all the messy feelings that come with your mid-twenties. In a way, I was processing a lot of that on the page. And honestly, writing a summery, warm book during the dark winter months was the best kind of escape.

Q: Are there any easter eggs in your story, or things that you’d only see if you read the book a second time?

A: Yes! Most of the easter eggs in Where Summer Left Us are little nods for my Swiftie readers. There are definitely some lyric-inspired vibes tucked in there if you know what to look for. I also slipped in a tiny James easter egg back in book one that a lot of people missed unless they were really paying attention. For anyone who didn’t catch it, it was the moment when Vinnie is looking out the window after first moving to town and sees a young guy walking a golden retriever—that was James.

I do love hiding hints and foreshadowing, but I don’t usually pack as many into my romance books as I do with my fantasy series. Still, they’re there, and I think a reread would definitely make you spot a few things you didn’t catch the first time.

Q: Rapid fire word association. One word (yes, you’re allowed more for titles) to describe your book for different topics. Here we go. 1: song, 2: different book, 3: color, 4: meal or food, 5: weather type, 6: environment (forest, cinema, kitchen, etc.), 7: mood.

A:

1. Song: Cruel Summer by Taylor Swift

2. Different book: Happy Place by Emily Henry

3. Color: Pink

4. Meal/Food: Ice cream

5. Weather type: Summer with a chance of that perfect drizzle rain

6. Environment: Beach

7. Mood: Happy tears

Q: Is there anything else you’d like to tell us about you or your book?

A: Where Summer Left Us is book two in my interconnected Hallow’s End series. Each book can be read as a standalone, but for the best experience I recommend reading them in order. The final book, Kind of a Big Feeling, comes out on December 15th. It’s a friends-to-lovers romcom full of bad timing, messy feelings and holiday chaos. Perfect for fans of early 2000s movies, golden-retriever boys in crisis, and the girl who always seems to have it all together—until him.

I wanted that book to feel light and full of romcom nostalgia, while still carrying the heart of the Hallow’s End series. It’s definitely the most playful of the three, and I think it’s the perfect way to wrap up the series.

Q: Lastly, where can people find you and your book?

A: All available on amazon and kindle unlimited

Between Then and Now - https://mybook.to/BetweenThenAndNow

Where Summer Left Us - https://mybook.to/WhereSummerLeftUs

Kind Of A Big Feeling – https://mybook.to/KindOfABigFeeling

For UK I am working with an independent bookstore in Liverpool (Happily Ever After Book Shop), who have sprayed edge signed editions of book 1 and 2.

Book 1 - click here

Book 2 - click here

Audiobook for book 1 - click here

Where Summer Left Us audiobook coming early 2026

For those more interested in what I am up to and other books, including my dark fantasy, follow me along on Instagram @authorpatriciaprior

Newsletter - click here

Website - click here

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