My guest today is bestselling romance author, Clare Swatman. Clare is going to talk to us about her writing journey, and her latest book, Five Things I Love About You, which was published yesterday. So grab yourself a cuppa, get cosy and let’s get chatting to Clare.

Author bio

Clare Swatman is the author of ten women’s fiction novels. Her latest, Five Things I Love About You, is a story about love, fate and friendship, and is set in Newcastle, London and Toronto. It was released worldwide on 24 April 2025.

She also writes psychological thrillers under the name CL Swatman. Her debut thriller, No Son of Mine, was released in December 2024, and her second, After The Party, is out in September.

Clare lives in Hertfordshire in the UK with her husband and two boys. Even the cat is male, which means she’s destined to be outnumbered forever.

You can find out more about her books at www. clareswatmanauthor. com, follow her on Facebook at Clare Swatman Author, or Insta and Bluesky, where she’s @clareswatmanauthor

Welcome to my blog, Clare. Congratulations on the publication of Five Things I Love About You. Can you tell us about your writing journey.

I can’t remember the exact moment when I realised I wanted to be a writer, but I do remember being a reader throughout my childhood. I devoured the Enid Blyton books then, later, was obsessed with Sweet Valley High and Flowers in the Attic. An eclectic mix!

For me, writing a book always seemed like something other people did, and it never occurred to me that I could be an author. Then one day when I was 14, I watched a TV show where the characters worked for a magazine (I can’t for the life of me remember what show it was!) and I decided that was what I wanted to do.

I went to university and studied French and Spanish, and wrote a number of music reviews and interviews for the university newspaper with bands including Korn, Republica and Skunk Anansie. It was pretty exciting for my first ever by-line!

After university I took an intensive nine-week post-graduate magazine journalism course and immediately started working for some in-house business magazines and writing press releases for Barrett Homes. Not very glam!

But by the time I was 24, I was working at Best magazine, and later worked my way up through the ranks to Assistant Editor at Bella magazine. I loved it – but I was starting to think about writing something else. Quite what that something else should be I wasn’t sure.

I tried starting a novel a number of times over the years but never got very far. My problem was that I wanted to be Margaret Atwood, but that just wasn’t going to happen.

It wasn’t until my children were two and four years old that I decided it was time to try again – and this time I realised I needed to take my experience as a magazine journalist and use it – which meant a more commercial way of writing than I’d previously tried. I had an idea I hoped was great, and I spent a year writing it in my spare time.

And I finished it!

That book eventually became my debut, Before You Go, and got an amazing publishing deal with Pan Macmillan and 21 publishers around the world. That was released in February 2017, and it’s been a rollercoaster ride since then, with many ups and down along the way.

The Mother’s Secret came next in 2018, but sadly my Editor had been made redundant so it came out with little fanfare.

I wrote another book, but my agent didn’t like it. So I wrote another one, and she didn’t like that either.

And then the pandemic struck, and I started doing some regular freelance work for a magazine again, and put book writing on the back burner, with the idea that maybe I’d do it again at some point.

But I’m very stubborn, and the thought of the two books I’d written niggled away at me until I couldn’t ignore them any longer. So, at the beginning of 2021, I decided to self-publish one of the books my agent hadn’t liked (that became Dear Grace and is very special to me), and I sent the other one out to Boldwood, a relatively new publisher back then who had been on my radar for a while.

And they loved it! In fact, they offered me a four-book deal, and it changed my life all over again. This time when I wrote a book, I knew it would be published, and it made me fall in love with writing all over again.

Before We Grow Old did really well, then the next three were published and I signed a contract for another five.

But of course I like to make life difficult for myself so I decided to write a secret book too, in a different genre. It was a dark thriller, and when I finished it I decided to ask my editor if she wanted to read it. She said yes – and she loved that too!

Now, I write commercial women’s fiction (sometimes with a magical twist) as Clare Swatman and psychological thrillers as CL Swatman and I love every minute of it.

Clare’s latest book

One fate, five clues, and a love story waiting to be told.

With Miranda’s children grown, a perfectly amicable divorce long behind her, and her career in need of a spark, life feels steady — but a little too predictable. She can’t shake the feeling that something has to change.

So, when she’s knocked off her bike and wakes up in hospital bruised but not broken, Miranda wonders if the universe is trying to tell her something. And when she starts to be plagued by recurring dreams featuring the same featureless man, she is convinced it’s a sign.

Her repeating dreams offer five clues to the man’s identity so, with nothing to lose, Miranda sets off on a journey to the future she’s always longed for. Somewhere there’s a life and a love waiting for Miranda, but when destiny finally presents itself, will she take the leap?

An uplifting, magical story about fresh starts, best friends and soulmates. Perfect for all fans of Lucy Diamond, Beth Moran and Jill Mansell.

Buy Link: Amazon

More of Clare’s Books

Starting over can be hard to do…

So when mum of two Beth moves out of her beloved marital home and into an unloved and unkempt cottage, she can’t help but feel demoralised. Faced with months of DIY and dust, her children Jacob and Olivia aren’t impressed either. But when Beth finds a box of letters while she’s clearing out the children’s room, things start to look up.

The correspondence is decades old, between agony aunt Evelyn and those in need of solace. Intrigued as to why the letters have been kept safe all these years, Beth can’t resist reading them, and as the wisdom and kindness of Evelyn falls off the pages, so Beth starts to feel she has a friend and champion in this woman she has never met.

Good advice doesn’t age, and as life starts to look brighter, Beth begins to wonder if she could track down Evelyn and thank her for her help. But as Beth uncovers more about Evelyn’s story, it becomes clear that everything is not as it seems. And now Beth is determined to bring peace to Evelyn as she has to her.

A spell-binding, heart-warming story of friendship, love and being brave enough to be yourself. Perfect for all fans of Jojo Moyes, Beth Moran and Ruth Jones.

Buy link: Amazon

When seven-year-old Fran first met Will they knew instantly that they were made for each other. For eleven years they were inseparable, but then, at the age of eighteen, Will just upped and disappeared.

Twenty-five years later Will is back.

Is fate trying to give them a second chance?

Still nursing the heart break from all those years ago, Fran is reluctant to give Will the time of day. The price Will must pay is to tell the truth – the truth about why he left, the truth about why he’s back…

And Fran has her own secrets to hide. The time has come to decide what Fran and Will really want from life – before it’s too late.

Unashamedly romantic, Before We Grow Old is a book full of love, laughter and tears, and you’ll be rooting for Fran and Will from the moment you meet them. Let Clare Swatman whisk you away for the love story of the year. Perfect for fans of Sophie Cousens and Isabelle Broom.

Buy Link: Amazon