Despite being the backdrop of countless shows and movies, Canada has only recently been centred in the media. International bestselling author Amy Lea makes it a point for the country’s capital city to not just be the setting of her latest novel, but its own character.
The Bodyguard Affair revolves around Andi Zeigler, an assistant to the Canadian Prime Minister’s wife by day and raunchy romance author by night. When her latest book causes a scandal, she’s forced to go to great lengths to hide her real identity—with the help of Nolan Crosby, the Prime Minister’s protection officer and Andi’s failed hookup from three years prior.
The idea for the book originally came from a late-night watch of Love Actually.
“One of the side plots is Hugh Grant as the Prime Minister with his assistant, and I really liked that backdrop—I thought it was really spicy and fun, and so if I was going to use [this], the book had to be set in Ottawa, right?” Lea said.
While bodyguard romance and the near-federal offence of lying aren’t under Lea’s belt, the story doesn’t stray too far from her own life.
Lea is originally from Sudbury but came to Ottawa in 2013 to obtain her master’s in Public Administration and Public Policy from Carleton University. Immediately after, Lea worked as a policy analyst for almost ten years.
“I fell in love with [Ottawa] right away, just because it has a weirdly small-town feeling. I lived downtown, and I would walk by Parliament, the Supreme Court … It’s not Paris, but there’s something really nice and down-to-earth about it that I’ve always felt was really understated,” she said.
The book is packed with mentions of Ottawa locations from Peevey’s to the NCC Riverhouse, as well as an acknowledgment of her experience working in the nation’s capital political sector.
“I worked in proximity with people who always had juicy gossip and tidbits from The Hill. It definitely is not a romantic setting. It’s more like elbows up, scary political setting,” Lea said.
Andi mirrored a lot of Lea’s own experiences in writing on the side and even hiding it from her colleagues in the early days of her author work.
“Andi feels ashamed about writing and reading romance, which came from my own personal experience where I worked with a lot of colleagues who read very serious literature…I think it was internalized misogyny that I had to get over,” she said.
Of course, when Lea told her colleagues, they were nothing short of supportive.
Romance, in recent years, has earned its place in conversations and is garnering the respect it deserves, especially with hit series adaptations of romance novels.
Throughout the book, Andi often talks about this, almost as a way for Lea to share her own opinions on the matter.
“People often see old bodice ripper covers and they immediately assume that all of romance in general is trashy or a guilty pleasure is what people like to say,” Lea said.
“It bothers me. I get messages that say ‘I’ve read your book during a really difficult time in my life, I was going through a lot of things, and your book gave me an escape’… I don’t understand why happiness and joy are looked down upon. I think there’s just a lot of emphasis and value placed on sadness, especially if it’s written by a man, then it’s serious.”
Lea cites shows such as Heated Rivalry, a viral TV series adaptation of the books written by Rachel Reid, as further uplifting the notion that romance can hold raunch and heart at the same time.
The Bodyguard Affair is a light-hearted work that also balances themes of Alzheimer’s and other serious topics.
“I was really nervous because I knew that the tone of this book was different than my other ones. The others are very pure ‘rom-com,’ whereas this edges more into contemporary romance. It’s not purely funny,” Lea said.
The book also differed in that it was her first time writing dual perspectives.
“Usually, you only have to deal with one set of characters within their world, whereas if you have two, then you have two full lives, two whole arcs you have to carry forward,” she said.
Normally, Lea centres her male love interest around what the female main character needs. This time, it was almost a balance, Nolan becoming more of his own character through the writing process.
“Nolan definitely struggles with his upbringing; the resentment around his mom never being there for him all the time. I think that causes destabilization for a person … for him, deciding to stay and allowing Andi in completely is growth for him,” Lea said.
As for Andi, Nolan becomes a support system she never had with her own mother.
“Andi is very people-pleasing and buttoned down. I knew that she needed somebody who was going to be very accepting and was going to cheerlead her,” she said.
As for Lea’s next works, she says she is currently working on two books.
“I have two other young adult books, and this is going to be the third. It’s not announced, so I can’t say much, but it is more of a road trip, beachy type vibes,” Lea said.
She exclusively revealed information on the second. “I have an adult [book] that will come out, around next December and is set in the hockey world.”