RACHAEL JOHNS is a leading writer of contemporary relationship stories around women’s issues. Her book The Patterson Girls won the ABIA Award in 2016 for General Fiction and she has also won the prestigious Romance Writers of Australia RUBY Award twice. Her latest novel, The Other Bridget is a feel-good romantic comedy. AKINA HANSEN writes.
It’s been almost three decades since Helen Fielding’s character Bridget Jones first arrived on the literary scene. Fielding’s novel was first published in 1996 to much acclaim, and it was lauded for its ground-breaking and refreshing portrayal of 30-something single women. And while, for obvious reasons, parts of the story have definitely not aged well, Bridget Jones and her litany of hilarious and questionable decisions, and strengths and flaws continue to resonate with women today.
For author Rachael Johns, this is especially true.
‘Bridget Jones is one of my favourite characters – she’s so relatable. She has simple hopes and dreams that many of us share; she wants love, a stable career, and to be healthy. She’s also loveable because she makes mistakes and gets herself in embarrassing situations.’
Much like the novel, the 2001 film adaptation was released to much commercial and critical success and it introduced a whole new audience of people to the clumsy, loveable and affable Bridget Jones (played by Renee Zellweger). This further cemented the character’s status as a female cultural icon and in turn she’s arguably become one of the most recognisable literary characters in the world.
‘Bridget Jones’ Diary is probably the book that has had the biggest impact on my life because it gave me the epiphany that just because a book is light, entertaining and commercial doesn’t mean it can’t be meaningful for someone. Ever since that epiphany I’ve been trying to write books that entertain, make you think and touch your heart,’ Rachael says.
Certainly, Rachael has accomplished this and more, making a name for herself within romance fiction through becoming a bestselling, ABIA-winning author of The Patterson Girls, and several other romance and women’s fiction books as well as winning the prestigious Romance Writers of Australia RUBY Award twice.
Her latest novel, The Other Bridget, is a feel-good romantic comedy that follows librarian Bridget Jones as she navigates life, love and relationships in the modern age.
This novel is a loose tribute to Bridget Jones’ Diary: Rachael’s character is named after the famous fictional character, she’s a hopeless romantic who finds herself in an unexpected love triangle and, like the novel, she has a surrogate family who provides her with sage advice in times of uncertainty.
Unlike the 1996 novel, The Other Bridget is set in contemporary times in Fremantle, Western Australia. After a string of failed dating encounters, Bridget makes the bold decision to pursue love the old-fashioned way – she deletes her dating apps and decides to let fate lead the way.
With the help of her fellow librarian friends, Bridget begins her new dating chapter. She starts by ramping up her social and extracurricular activities in the hopes of broadening her options. However, after a rather large night out and a few too many drinks, she mistakenly stumbles into her new neighbour’s house and is greeted by a disgruntled man, setting off a very unneighbourly war.
What Bridget hopes will be a smooth and new dating chapter, ends up being as bumpy and challenging as before. But when her local Italian barista, Fabio, asks her out, finally things look like they could be taking a turn. Yet, she can’t help thinking about her cranky and troublesome neighbour, Sully.
‘I have a post-it note on my office wall that says “Conflict, Chemistry and Emotion” and I believe these are the three core elements of a good romance novel. You need to feel like the two main characters are absolutely perfect for each other at the expense of everyone else, but to go on a journey you want to see that this love doesn’t come easily for them and they have to overcome obstacles internally and externally to be rewarded with their happy ending. That’s the conflict. The chemistry is not just physical attraction but also a connection of minds and souls, and the emotion is between the characters but also the reader and the characters. The reader needs to feel invested and connected to the people they are reading about, and you do that by tapping into universal emotions such as love, grief, fear, anger, revenge, and so forth,’ Rachael tells me.
Like all good romantic comedies, The Other Bridget, takes the reader on an emotional and at times funny journey as Bridget fumbles her way through life, friendships, and love. But importantly, this story also sheds light on serious issues. In the novel, we learn that as a teenager Bridget was hospitalised with an eating disorder. This was inspired in part by Rachael’s own lived experience.
‘Most of my life I’ve struggled with body image issues. Finally in the last 10 years or so, I’ve come to love my body (most of the time) and not inflict rigorous diets and exercise on it, but in my teens I suffered from anorexia and attempted bulimia.
‘I never got to the point that Bridget does – where she is hospitalised – because a gap year overseas almost tricked me into eating again, but I got close. Family and friends were worried about me, and I just thought they were jealous because I had the willpower to lose weight when they did not. I’ve wanted to write about eating disorders for a long time, but it was only when I decided to show someone living life after recovering from anorexia that I was able to do it. Being in the middle of such an illness is horrific and I want to write books that are entertaining and uplifting, yet also shine a light on important issues.’
‘People have always read romance because stories of love with happy ever afters give readers the hope that they too can find that special someone.’
One of the biggest misconceptions about the romance genre is that it lacks substance and fails to explore the more serious issues of life. And yet, if anything, it’s one of the most versatile genres that allows both writers and readers to explore a diverse range of people, experiences, and places.
In recent years we’ve seen a revival of the genre with romance writers such as Colleen Hoover selling more copies of her novels than The Bible in 2022.
‘I’m stoked romance has become so popular, and I believe much of that is to do with young readers who are loud and proud in what they read, unashamed to embrace stories about love. Many of these readers are sharing this love on TikTok, so I think we have to give credit to that platform for the resurgence in popularity of the genre,’ Rachel shares.
Indeed, this resurgence is undoubtedly due to the social media app TikTok and it’s subcommunity, BookTok, which took off in the pandemic, amassing over 2 billion downloads by October 2020. Currently, the BookTok hashtag has over 200 billion views on the app and this number continues to grow.
One of the defining features of the romance genre is that it must have a happy ending. It’s unsurprising then that during the pandemic sales of romance fiction skyrocketed. In times of uncertainty and hardship people yearn for closure and comfort. However, what’s fascinating is that romance novels continue to dominate bestseller lists, proving just how popular the genre is with readers.
‘People have always read romance because stories of love with happy ever afters give readers the hope that they too can find that special someone. I do believe in this era where we’re connecting so much with people online, sometimes at the expense of real life, that readers are craving the kind of connections and relationships that romance books portray. You’re also guaranteed a happy, hopeful ending and when the world feels anything but, it’s no surprise we’re turning to fictional worlds to stay sane.’
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Rachael Johns is an English teacher by trade, a mum 24/7, a Diet Coke addict, a cat lover and chronic arachnophobe. She rarely sleeps and never irons. She is also the bestselling, ABIA-winning author of The Patterson Girls and a number of other romance and women’s fiction books, including her recent bestseller, Something to Talk About. Rachael is currently Australia’s leading writer of contemporary relationship stories around women’s issues, a genre she has coined ‘life-lit’.
Rachael has finaled in a number of competitions, including the Australian Romance Readers Awards. Jilted (her first rural romance) won Favourite Australian Contemporary Romance in 2012, and The Patterson Girls won the 2016 Romance Writers of Australia RUBY Award and also the 2015 Australian Book Industry Award for General Fiction.
Rachael lives in the Swan Valley with her hyperactive husband, three mostly-gorgeous heroes-in-training, two ravenous cats, a cantankerous bird and a very badly-behaved dog.
Rachael says:
Rachael says:I’ve been writing since I was 17 when I broke up with my first boyfriend (at the time I thought he was The One and was hugely devastated in the fashion of all 17 year olds). For some reason unbeknownst to me, I turned to writing as a form of therapy for my broken heart. It was enlightening to realise that with writing I could create whatever ending I liked. I wrote the story of me and The One and actually ended up killing him off. The writing was therapeutic, the story was cringe-worthy but I caught the bug.
Almost a decade later, after a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in Writing and English and after many, many attempts at writing different types of novels, I joined Romance Writers of Australia. Finally I learnt there was more to writing a book than just typing out random thoughts – I learnt about craft, conflict, consistent characters, etc – and I also learnt that I LOVED contemporary romance and that was what I wanted to write.
Eventually I found a publisher who liked my work enough to offer me a contract. My first book came out in December 2011 and I’ve been living the dream since then (i.e. working from home in my pjs). I mostly write in the genres of women’s fiction/life lit and rural romance, but have also written a biker romance and three short romances for Harlequin Special Edition.
I hope that if you decide to try one of my books – about pretty normal people creating pretty amazing happy ever afters – that you enjoy it and pine a little when it ends ?
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