Boreal Book Club: Hello, Juliet by Samantha M. Bailey

Welcome to STYLE Canada‘s Boreal Book Club: a monthly meeting narrated by Girl Well Read, for bookworms who’re looking to scour new pages. Since we aim to shine a spotlight on all things Canadian in life and style, beauty, and health and wellness, it goes without saying that every instalment of the Boreal Book Club will feature a Canadian author and their latest title. Be sure to use the hashtag #BorealBookClub to share with us on social! 

Photo credit: @fireflydistributedlines via Instagram 

Ivy Westcott fled LA as her acting career imploded. In a flash, she lost her first love and chosen family—her Hello, Juliet castmates. But she never discovered who turned her closest friends against her. Now the whole world knows her as #PoisonIvy.

A decade later, Ivy is horrified when a celebrity exposé thrusts the Hello, Juliet cast back into the limelight, dredging up the old scandals she hoped to escape. Desperate for a fresh start and some financial stability for her mother and manager, Ivy agrees to participate in a top-secret reunion episode.

Ivy’s poised for a comeback, but past betrayals become a present danger when she and the man who once broke her heart find their costar dead.

Determined to find justice and clear her name, Ivy must tear down the facades of cast and crew to uncover chilling secrets that have plagued the Hollywood set from day one. Or she could be the next to die.

Photo: Samantha M. Bailey (Dahlia Katz Photography)

Hello, Juliet is a soapy thriller about the perils of fame. Told in a dual timeline from Ivy’s point of view, it is a searing, behind the scenes look at show business.

With its shocking twists and satisfying epilogue, Hello, Juliet is Bailey’s best book yet.

SAMANTHA M. BAILEY is the USA TODAY and #1 international bestselling author of Woman on the Edge, optioned for series adaptation, Watch Out for Her, shortlisted for Canada Reads 2025, and A Friend in the Dark, an Amazon Charts bestseller. Her novels have sold in twelve countries.

Bailey lives in Toronto with her family.

Photo credit: @sbaileybooks via Instagram

GWR: Readers may not know this about you, but you started writing what was once referred to as “chick lit.” How did you make the transition to thrillers?

SMB: After my first two books died on sub, and it was clear that chick lit was a hard sell, I started writing women’s fiction. Then I had kids, and as my fears and worries grew, my books got darker. My debut, Woman on the Edge, was actually a dark women’s fiction, and it was my amazing agent who encouraged me to turn it into a thriller. I’d always wanted to write thrillers, and her advice was one of the best things to ever happen for me. I found my true passion.

GWR: What was the inspiration for Hello, Juliet?

SMB: I’m addicted to TV and fascinated by celebrity. I’d always wanted to set a book in Hollywood and the world of soapy, glossy shows, especially the behind-the-scenes drama. The inciting incident came to me first. When Ivy Westcott returns to the set of the teen drama she starred in, and fled a decade earlier, to film a reunion episode, she finds the body of one of her former co-stars in her old dressing room.

GWR: This is your fourth published novel (Samantha is also the author of Woman on the Edge, Watch Out for Her, and A Friend in the Dark). Does your writing process change book-to-book?

SMB: Yes and no. I usually start with the premise and characters then create a detailed outline. At the same time, I draft chapters to see if the premise is propulsive and has enough forward momentum. I also compose countless emails to myself, jot ideas on any paper I can find, record ideas when I’m on the go. My process is all-consuming. I’m trying, though, to find a better balance and shut off my brain at the end of the day and on weekends, depending on how tight my deadline is.

Photo credit: @sbaileybooks via Instagram

GWR: Do you pair your characters to the book—who would survive the scenario—or do you write them situationally?

SMB: While I generally know by the time I finish the outline who survives and who doesn’t, I’m much better at rewriting than drafting. So, it often takes a few drafts for me to truly understand my characters, what they want, who they are, and what’s at stake for them. I follow their lead so the story unfolds as organically as possible.

GWR: How do you write effective red herrings when you are so close to the material?

SMB: Good question! By rewriting and working with excellent editors. It will be a few drafts before I can effectively place red herrings, reveals, and twists, because it’s not until I’m fully immersed in my characters’ worlds that I can see where I need to add those details.

GWR: Tell us about the research you did for the novel. 

SMB: It was the most fun I’ve ever had writing a book because it was the first time I could travel for research. I spent five glorious days in LA with Meredith Schorr, my author BFF. We went everywhere Hello, Juliet takes place. We strolled Santa Monica Beach and the pier, went to Culver City, West Hollywood, and took a bus tour of all the hot spots, including a dangerously steep drive up Mulholland Drive, where we stopped to gaze at the Hollywood sign. We spent a lot of time on Sunset Boulevard, where we had dinner with Jon Lindstrom, my fellow thriller author, who’s also currently an actor on General Hospital and Beyond the Gates. He also drove us up and down the Sunset Strip, so I could hop out and take photos inside iconic bars, like Whiskey a Go Go.

GWR: Hello, Juliet is told in a dual timeline, but from only one character’s point of view and with the use of social media—how did this structure come about? 

SMB: Painfully. Ha ha. I generally do a dual timeline/dual POV, but this is my first novel with a dual POV for one character, told ten years apart. It took a lot of hair pulling and teeth gnashing to fit it all together. And the social media was really exciting to write but also tricky because I had to go back to 2014 to make it as accurate as possible. Because it’s a book about the dangers of fame and how quickly public perception can change, social media needed to be included.

Photo credit: @sbaileybooks via Instagram