What is the title of your latest release?
IF ONLY YOU KNEW
What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book?
Childhood best friends attempt to matchmake each other to disastrous results, all while fighting the fact that they’ve been soul mates all along.
How did you decide where your book was going to take place?
IF ONLY YOU KNEW is the third book in the Oakwood Bay series, which is where the book takes place. It’s a coastal, fictional small town on the East Coast, and given that Summer (the female lead) is a competitive surfer, you get to visit various beaches and surf locations in the area!
Would you hang out with your heroine in real life?
Summer is known for loving to host a social event, and for her skills in mixology. She’s also an avid romance reader herself, so the answer is a big yes!
What are three words that describe your hero?
Loyal, compassionate and hilariously self-deprecating.
What’s something you learned while writing this book?
I made it my business to learn the ins and outs of surfing to create as authentic an experience for the reader as possible. I’m talking hours of online competition footage and tutorials, and following surfers on social media - many of which enjoy recording their surf sessions, which was also incredibly helpful for writing.
Do you edit as you draft or wait until you are totally done?
Both! As much as I try to save editing for the end, on days where the words just aren’t flowing easily, I will go back and edit some scenes just to feel productive.
What’s your favorite foodie indulgence?
I don’t think it quite qualifies me as a foodie but I would gladly have sushi every day.
Describe your writing space/office!
There’s nothing particularly special about it. A desk covered in sticky notes with scene ideas and edits I need to remember to make, and my published books on display to remind myself that I can, indeed, write a book from start to finish when the writing gets challenging.
Who is an author you admire?
I love anything from Tessa Bailey and Christina Lauren!
Is there a book that changed your life?
The Hating Game by Sally Thorne was my introduction to romance as a genre, so I guess that would be it!
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.
I started out indie publishing which is an incredibly fulfilling experience for me. I had finished what would become my debut novel, and just had a nagging desire to know whether people other than me would think it was a good story which led me to publishing it!
What’s your favorite genre to read?
The vast majority of what I read is romance. There’s something very addictive about finishing a book in a great mood.
What’s your favorite movie?
I’m not big on movies but I do love myself a 90s or early 2000s romcom.
What is your favorite season?
Definitely summer.
How do you like to celebrate your birthday?
I like to keep things low key – a dinner with loved ones is all I really need.
What’s a recent tv show/movie/book/podcast you highly recommend?
Heated Rivalry, just in case anyone still needs a push to watch it!
What’s your favorite type of cuisine?
Anything Mediterranean.
What do you do when you have free time?
I will either read or hang out with my toddler, husband and dog!
What can readers expect from you next?
I have a couple of very fun cold-weather books in the works!
Oakwood Bay #3
Summer Prescott and Parker Woods have been best friends since they were three years old. Now thirty, neither of them feels like they have a good handle on adulthood. While their friends are coupled up and thriving, they’re struggling through career crises and disastrous dates, and frequenting the same old bars and surf spots they’ve been going to for years—until, on a whim, Summer decides to hand over her love life to Parker. After all, who better to help find her soulmate than the person who knows her best?
But when the date Parker introduces her to goes from husband material to dead end in one publicly humiliating swoop, Summer is so devastated that she breaks up with both men. And she decides to embrace a fresh start away from home by entering a surf competition that’ll have her chasing waves around the world.
Parker soon realizes the troubling truth—he’s spent nearly thirty years by Summer’s side and has only just realized that he’s in love with her. Now he’s on a mission to win back not just her trust but her heart, before she slips away for good.
Romance Contemporary [ Atria Books, On Sale: February 17, 2026, Paperback / e-Book, ISBN: 9781668093856 / ]
Ellie K. Wilde dreams up love stories with a lot of heart and the kind of spice that makes your knees shake. She writes male leads with big personalities and sweet, cinnamon-roll insides and women who discover they’re just as tough as they wish they were. Happily-ever-afters only.
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