1--What is the title of your latest release?
AS YOU WISH
2--What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book?
Three young American women become au pairs in Seoul and make a wish on an enchanted waterfall on a moonlit night. One wants to be more special, one wants to never fall in love again, one wants to find her birth mother.
3--How did you decide where your book was going to take place?
I love writing love letters to cities! I wrote one to Paris in my third novel, Half-Blown Rose, and my fifth novel, AS YOU WISH, is my love letter to Seoul. I fell in love with Kpop and Kdramas about five years ago and took Korean lessons, traveled to South Korea, just kept surrounding myself with the things I love so much. There’s a certain level of “obsession” I have to have and maintain in order to want to spend years and years working on a book, so I have to make sure the well is deep enough to keep dipping into. My love for Kpop and Kdramas proved deep enough, yes, so I loved setting As You Wish in Seoul because there is so much to write about and I loved describing the sights/sounds/tastes of things I experienced firsthand during my travels.
4--Would you hang out with your protagonist in real life?
There are three main protagonists in AS YOU WISH and the book is written through all three points of views. I’d hang out with all three of them, yes!
5--What are three words that describe your protagonist?
Lydia is shy, insecure, and artistic. Jenny is funny, heartbroken, and stubborn. Selene is cool, relaxed, and confident.
6--What’s something you learned while writing this book?
I continued learning Korean while writing this book and am still studying, so that’s a Big Something I learned while writing this book: a whole new alphabet and language!
7--Do you edit as you draft or wait until you are totally done?
I kind of do a mix of these! I do sometimes edit as I draft if I know what I need to do, but also at the same time, I keep it moving along as much as possible.
8--What’s your favorite foodie indulgence?
I wouldn’t call myself a foodie but re: indulgences…I love cake and pasta! Also, French fries and a big (huge) salad with everything in it!
9--Describe your writing space/office!
Most of the time, I write on my bed…sometimes at the kitchen table. I have to be at home. I can’t write out in the world.
10--Who is an author you admire?
Jane Austen.
11--Is there a book that changed your life?
After I read Emma in college, I became a Janeite…some years ago I traveled to her home in Chawton, England. I’m a member of the Jane Austen Society of North America. I love a lot of things and a lot of books, but all of Jane Austen’s novels have provided me so much comfort and joy ever since I read Emma, so that’s a book that has definitely changed my life for the better!
12--Tell us about when you got “the call.” (when you found out your book was going to be published)/Or, for indie authors, when you decided to self-publish.
AS YOU WISH is my seventh book, so my seventh time around, but although the experience wasn’t entirely new for me, it’s always exciting to get the news that a publisher wants to buy the book! It wasn’t a call this time, it was an email, and several different publishers were interested…it’s always a bit thrilling to finally nail down where the book is going to land and to be able to move the to next steps after that!
13--What’s your favorite genre to read?
I love the classics and literary fiction. I really love comforting, cozy fiction, too.
14--What’s your favorite movie?
Pride & Prejudice (2005) and Burning (2018).
15--What is your favorite season?
I really love them all because they all have their charms! I live in Kentucky, so we get all four seasons. But there is a very special spot in my heart for summer since my birthday is in July and I love sunshine as much as a little plant.
16--How do you like to celebrate your birthday?
I love my birthday so much and celebrate the entire month of July! I usually like to travel around my birthday. Once I took a train from Paris to Amsterdam on my birthday and another time I celebrated on the beach, so happily doing absolutely nothing. But I’m fine staying at home too since I am a housecat by nature. I am thankful for every day God decides to gift to me.
17--What’s a recent tv show/movie/book/podcast you highly recommend?
Sanditon. Such a comfort show for me! It started with an unfinished manuscript by Jane Austen and I love it so much from the costumes to the music to the lead actress. It’s beautiful and special to me.
18--What’s your favorite type of cuisine?
Beans! Pasta! Mexican! Southern home cooking!
19--What do you do when you have free time?
I love going for walks with my husband and playing Sims. I love reading letters/diaries of the artists I love (like Vincent van Gogh’s letters) and sketching the things I see. Watercolor, finding flowers, hanging out with my family, making soup, watching the same movies and shows over and over again…I love so many things, and I love learning new things/languages…I always have something new to immerse myself in and I love doing things slowly. My nervous system is very easily overstimulated, so I am drawn to quiet, soothing, slow things. There is so much quiet and wonder to be found.
20--What can readers expect from you next?
I am so thankful for the readers who find my books and connect with them! I have so much stubborn faith in the fact that books find their people. Readers can expect some quiet from me for the next little bit! And after that? We shall see! I am always keeping my eye out for beauty and tenderness.
A Novel
They say be careful what you wish for…
For Lydia, Jenny, and Selene, au pairing in Seoul is the opportunity of a lifetime. Lydia wants nothing more than to transform into a leading lady; Jenny is determined to swear off love for good 5,955 miles away from her ex; and Selene is convinced working in Korea will finally lead her to her biological mother.
During a combined family vacation with their host families, the women visit an enchanted waterfall on Jeju Island and make a wish under a full moon. Overnight, everything changes. Suddenly, Lydia is the girl everyone wants—except, strangely, her mysterious art class partner from Spain. Jenny is having secret, no-strings-attached fun with her host mom’s irresistible younger brother. And Selene is finally getting somewhere in her search for her mother thanks to a research-savvy photographer.
But when Jenny’s romantic feelings begin to deepen, she realizes her wish is standing in the way of true, lasting love. Her decision to return to the waterfall will have unexpected consequences and force the au pairs to confront the hardest question of all. Could it be that their friendship was the real magic all along?
Romance Contemporary | Fantasy | Paranormal [Tiny Reparations Books, On Sale: June 24, 2025, Paperback / e-Book , ISBN: 9780593476185 / eISBN: 9780593476208]
Leesa Cross-Smith is a homemaker and the author of Every Kiss A War and Whiskey & Ribbons. She lives in Kentucky with her husband and children.
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