Bestselling Author Duo Christina Lauren Talk Writing Romance, Sonic Collab and What’s Next (EXCLUSIVE)

Author writing duo Christina Hobbs and Lauren Billings—better known by their fans as Christina Lauren—have stolen the hearts of millions of romance readers since the release of their first book, Beautiful Bastard, in 2013. Twelve years later, their swoonworthy romances have been translated into more than 30 languages, and the pair currently has over 200,000 followers on Instagram. First for Women recently caught up with Christina Lauren to discuss their fame in the romance community, as well as their most recent venture: a surprise campaign with Sonic. Scroll on to learn more about what they are doing with the fast food chain and get an exclusive sneak peek into what the bestselling authors are working on next. 

Christina Lauren talk Sonic campaign and romance community 

On the day of their interview with First for Women, Christina Lauren had just wrapped up their national tour for the special-edition release of their 2018 novel Love and Other Words, an event they say helped them reconnect with their romance readers. 

“We love going out on tour. Being able to see people face to face is so rewarding,” says Billings, before explaining that their readers are one of the reasons they chose to participate in Sonic’s launch of their new Sweet Topped Lemonades and their Limeades for Learning campaign to donate 100,000 books to students all over the country, with the help of the nonprofit organization First Book. 

“It’s one of the reasons why, when we have an opportunity to do something like this, where we can partner with something like Limeades for Learning, we like to be able to use that reach to do good things and get books into people’s hands.” 

“The more we learned and the more we looked into it, we were just so excited,” says Hobbs. “They’re giving away so many books and raising money. And it was just such a natural fit for us.” 

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Christina Lauren offer a glimpse into their writing routine and what’s next 

For many people, co-writing a book can seem difficult, if not impossible, but for Christina Lauren, it’s second nature. Billings says, “We’ve worked together for 16 years, and this is how we learned how to write a book.” 

Something else the pair deals with is living in two different states —California and Utah—but according to Hobbs, that’s never been a problem either. 

“We couldn’t write in the same room,” she tells FIRST. “It’s great we get to be together all the time for the really fun stuff, and then do our quiet parts [like writing] apart.” 

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Before they can begin writing, though, the pair must have an idea in their heads, which Billings says is never a problem because “we kind of have a rolling list of ideas that we’ve been kicking around for a while.” 

“And whenever we’re getting ready to start writing a new book, we usually talk about which one we’re most excited to do, and from there, we just start outlining it,” she continues. “We always outline it in person. Christina usually comes out to California and we hang out for a few days, creating an outline. And then she’ll go home and quickly write what we call the ‘trash draft,’ which is every single thing that happens in the book. Then, I come in behind her and do the next layer and she comes through and does the next layer. So we kind of continually build on that initial skeleton of the outline that we made together.” 

Up next for the pair: a new book that’s scheduled for release next spring 2026. It’s still in early stages, says Hobbs, noting that they just turned it in, but they’re already outlining their next book—no details on that one, yet!