Today we are very excited to share an interview with author Lillie Vale!
Read on to learn more about the author, the book, and a giveaway!
Meet the Author: Lillie Vale
Lillie Vale is the author of books for both teens and adults, including Wrapped with a Beau, The Decoy Girlfriend, Beauty and the Besharam, The Shaadi Set-Up and Small Town Hearts, an American Library Association’s 2020 Rainbow Books List selection. She writes about secrets and yearning, complicated and ambitious girls who know what they want, the places we call home and people we find our way back to, and the magic we make. Born in Mumbai, she grew up in Mississippi, Texas, and North Dakota, and now lives in an Indiana college town. Find her on Twitter @LillieLabyrinth and Instagram @labyrinthspine, or visit her website lillielabyrinth.com.
About the Book: HIT ME WITH YOUR BEST CHARM
The occasionally magic, always superstitious town of Prior’s End is famous for three things:
Whimsical charm at the annual Fall Festival.
The legend of the wishing well hidden in a forest bristling with secrets.
And Nova Marwood’s missing hiker father.
Every year without him, it gets easier to pretend Nova doesn’t believe in myth and magic. Easier to pretend she’s doing okay. Easier to pretend she doesn’t have a secret crush on the girl she fake-hates.
Kiara Mistry is the luckiest girl in town and the thief of every crush Nova had her heart set on first. In theory, Nova should resent Kiara. But it’s getting harder to deny her feelings.
When Nova lays an unintended hex on Kiara at the Fall Festival, and one misfortune after another swiftly follows, soon Kiara’s very survival is at stake. To reverse the bad luck, Kiara’s exes turned BFFs commence a quest for the miraculous wishing well. There’s only one person who can get them there . . . Nova.
But to save Kiara—and maybe find her dad, too—she’ll have to believe in something much stronger than magic. Nova will need to believe in herself.
~Author Chat~
YABC: What gave you the inspiration to write this book?
Once upon a time, way back when, I thought this book was originally going to be a full-on contemporary rom-com. But my publisher was open to seeing something different, and since I’ve been writing magical and spooky stuff for longer than I’ve been writing rom-com, I was raring to rejig the premise of Hit Me with Your Best Charm. I remember doing some interviews during the release of my previous YA novel, Beauty and the Besharam, where I was like “All my published books so far have been firmly grounded in reality! I hope I get to flex with some spooky stuff soon!” Dear Past Lillie: you totally did!
I can usually pinpoint the exact spark that inspired me to write each of my novels, but in the case of Hit Me with Your Best Charm, its genesis was a lot of little sparks that luckily came together in a story I wanted to tell. Things like “All my published books take place in summer, and I’d love a cozy, spooky, autumnal setting this time!” and “As a LOTR girlie, I’d love to write a big friend group going on a quest to save one of their party, and OOOOOH, let’s call it The Fellowship of the Fling!!!” and “How about a mystical wishing well where instead of wishing for something, you can wish to undo something?”
YABC: Is your main character like you?
I don’t intentionally write my characters to be me or anyone else I know, but there are aspects I recognize tucked away in mannerisms, personalities, fashion, beliefs, and quirks. Sometimes it’s something completely inconsequential that adds texture to the character. For example, Nova and I both love the cherry Tootsie Pop the best! Her dad’s hiking outfit is eerily similar to my dad’s hiking outfit.
There are some references to The Lord of the Rings sprinkled throughout, and there’s this convo between Nova and another character discussing Aragorn’s hotness as he throws open the doors and strides majestically into the throne room at Helm’s Deep with the grim face of a man who’s stared death in the face and won. When I first watched that scene as a kid, I loved it. Probably couldn’t articulate why, but twenty-plus years later? I still love it. I always talk about how each book is a time capsule of who I am at that moment in time as well as encapsulating who I’ve been, and I think this convo in Charm particularly captures that.
YABC: How do you know when a book is finished?
When it’s T-minus 1 minute to deadline. Kidding! The honest answer is I think most writers will happily keep fiddling with their manuscript for as long as someone lets them get away with it. At some point you get sick of it when you realize the improvements are marginal, at best. Revision should refine your ideas and improve clarity and coherence, but it’s easy to get caught in the endless cycle of “The book will be mind-blowing if I just do this one thing!” and then, of course, realizing that it’s never just one thing. You have to have faith in yourself and be really firm that once you’ve done everything you set out to achieve, you turn in your manuscript and trust your editor to let you know if you pulled it off.
YABC: When did you know you wanted to be a writer?
I’ve been telling stories and making books out of construction paper from a really young age, which eventually turned into sharing my writing online, like fanfic and roleplay, and from there it evolved into writing novels.
I wrote my first full-length manuscript ever during NaNoWriMo while I was at university just to see if I could do it, and I had my first book deal (for a different, much more polished manuscript) right after I graduated! Despite writing my whole life, for some reason, pursuing publication only became a dream after I finished writing that first manuscript, scribbled late at night or in between classes. Being an author sounded so lofty, you know? Like one of those impossible jobs, like being an actor, which is one of the suggestions my high school guidance counselor made after I took a career quiz. And in college, I was determined to Study! Something! Serious! Even though my passion very clearly lay elsewhere!
So, even though I’ve always been a writer, it was only after the first hurdle of writing a full book that I knew how much I wanted to be a published author. I’ve been fortunate that I got my heart’s desire at a young age and even more fortunate that I continue my dream job writing books.
YABC: What type of scene do you love to write the most?
This changes by the day. Yesterday, lush description and lyrical language. Today, zingy, zippy banter. And tomorrow? Probably a kissing scene. Or that moment when my hero/ine realizes they’re in deep, and they have it bad for their love interest, but of course they’re not going to admit it just yet!
YABC: If your character could meet a character from another book, who would it be?
Nova and Kavya (from my previous YA novel Beauty and the Besharam, a rivals-to-lovers contemporary fairytale reimagining ft. a grumpy girl and a sunshine boy) would get on like a house on fire. They’re both plucky, tenacious, and honestly, kinda messy when it comes to their love lives, so they’d have the best gossip and advice chats (which, let’s face it, like a lot of protagonists, they’d both be better at giving than following)!
YABC: What’s your least favorite word or expression and why?
That’s a hard one! Can I give you my favorite word instead? My favorite word is a total gimme; I try to incorporate the word “labyrinth” in every book I write! It’s also part of my Instagram username (@labyrinthspine), which is a bookish play on “labyrinthine” (another favorite variant)! Labyrinths and writing have a lot in common: They both guide us on a journey to our center (our inner self, our truth, our purpose) and then back out again, into the world. They may meander, they may surprise, but they will never lead to a dead end.
YABC: What fandom would you write for if you had time?
That’s between me and my AO3! 😉
YABC: What’s up next for you?
I’m always working on the next book! Now that my first magical book is published, I want to keep writing more of them!
Title: HIT ME WITH YOUR BEST CHARM
Author: Lillie Vale
Release Date: July 15, 2025
Publisher: Viking Books for Young Readers
ISBN-10: 0593623916
ISBN-13: 9780593623916
Genre: Young Adult Fiction
Age Range: 12+
