Mother-daughter duo release romance set on Orcas Island
Published 1:30 am Wednesday, July 8, 2026
It’s extra magical when romance blooms against the backdrop of Orcas Island.
Author Ayn Gailey, in her first foray into rom-com, has released “Hungry Love” under the pen name Tomiko Diaz, with her daughter Gray serving as editor. The novel is the duo’s first installment in what they hope will be a three-part series set on Orcas, featuring island businesses and characters based on local residents.
In 2014, Ayn finished her first work of fiction, a novel that Michael Carlisle, who represents Nobel prize-winning writers, appreciated. He introduced her to a younger agent at his firm. That agent thought her book was spanning two genres — chick lit and literary fiction — and she had to choose which to pursue. She was also told, “chick-lit and romance are dead.” Ayn put the project on hold to make a living editing other people’s work.
“Then I started reading romance. It had a huge resurgence in the last decade, fueled by COVID and better writing in the genre,” she explained. “Jennifer Crusie was my gateway drug into romance. And then I couldn’t stop!”
Ayn, whose writing has appeared in Cosmopolitan, Elle, Latina and Kinfolk, and whose memoir “Pornology” was adapted into the film “A Nice Girl Like You,” felt inspired to revisit her previous novel and write both versions. The literary version won a residency at Hedgebrook and is a few months away from completion. The romance was rewritten with her daughter’s keen editing eye and Gen Z perspective. The result is a “slow-burn, forced-proximity, enemies-to-lovers romance” published by St. Ōde Press, the publishing house Ayn operates with Sara Farish.
“Gray is a publishing minor at Emerson and has a history of writing locally from a very young age, but she prefers editing,” Ayn said. “Gray was also new to romance, but she and her friends have been increasingly consuming it over the last few years.”
Darvill’s Bookstore will host a book launch on Thursday, July 9, after hours, with plenty of time to discuss indie publishing, the novel’s sizzling sex scenes and plot twists.
“Hungry Love” centers on Ava Diaz, a rising food editor, devoted girlfriend and survivor of a childhood that taught her love comes with fine print. But when a dinner she’s sure will end in a proposal takes an unexpected turn, Ava’s carefully curated life collapses in a single course. The last person Ava expects to offer her a lifeline is Gavin Jones, her ex’s older brother — a man who has always treated her like a problem he can’t quite solve. So when he offers her a summer job as his private chef on a remote Pacific Northwest island, she surprises herself by saying yes.
It turns out Ava has a gift: creating meals that help people mend broken hearts. Unfortunately, proximity has a way of complicating things. And the more time Ava spends with Gavin, the harder it becomes to ignore the chemistry between them. Meanwhile, her best friend’s exploration of asexuality challenges everything Ava thought she understood about desire and devotion.
“I don’t know if I would have written this if I’d stayed in Los Angeles,” Ayn said. “Not only did our community inspire the characters, but I had a writing group of locals who helped me through the journey. All of the beta readers were Orcas Islanders. I feel like it’s a love letter to our community.”
The entire series will take place on the island, and Ayn is committed to representing people of color and LGBTQ+ characters in her work. “Hungry Love” is available for purchase at Darvill’s and online retailers.
“I think it’s really nice to see a different perspective in romance. Some people are comparing the work to that of Emily Henry’s if she’d grown up in a multicultural family and had queer friends,” Ayn said. “My favorite thing about romance is that when you read it, you get to experience the feeling of falling in love again. I hope I’ve captured that.”
