Marina Adair is a New York Times bestselling author whose fun, flirty contemporary romances have sold over a million copies. She has hit #1 overall in Amazon Kindle Paid and was named a Best of TikTok. Her St. Helena Vineyard series was optioned and made into the original Hallmark Channel Vineyard movies Autumn in the Vineyard, Summer in the Vineyard, and Valentines in the Vineyard. Raised in the San Francisco Bay area, she holds a MFA from San Jose University. Marina currently lives in North Carolina with her husband, daughter, and two neurotic cats.

Nora Ephron’s You’ve Got Mail is more than just a romantic comedy—it’s a warm, witty meditation on connection, identity, and the strange magic of falling in love with someone you’ve never seen. For years, it was one of those comfort movies I returned to on rainy days, with a cup of tea in hand and a blanket wrapped around my shoulders. But what began as a nostalgic favorite gradually transformed into something more: a creative spark. That spark eventually became the novel I never knew I needed to write.

Falling in Love Through Words (and Banter)

When I first watched You’ve Got Mail, I was captivated by its charm. The banter between Kathleen Kelly (Meg Ryan) and Joe Fox (Tom Hanks), the New York City backdrop, the evocative soundtrack—it all felt timeless. But it wasn’t just the aesthetics that stayed with me. It was the emotional complexity of two people falling in love through words, while simultaneously clashing in real life. There was something irresistibly human about that tension—how we curate ourselves online, how we open up in writing in ways we might not in person, and how identities can shift depending on context.

That duality fascinated me. And that fascination eventually found its way into the heart of my enemies to lovers romcom, Love to Hate You.

In my novel, I wanted to explore a modern twist on the same theme: the unexpected connection that blooms into something deeper. I wanted to play with the different kind of healthy love and family: birth and found. For Summer it’s about balancing her family’s expectations with her own happiness, and for Wes it is making a connection that leads to unconditional love—something he has never experienced. While they are both exploring what family means, at their core they both want to be seen, understood, and loved for who we are beyond the surface.

The Slow Burn, the Secret, and the Spark

One of the most brilliant elements of You’ve Got Mail is how Ephron uses irony and timing to build emotional depth. The audience knows long before the characters do that they’re falling for each other. That dramatic irony creates delicious tension, but also empathy. As a writer, I wanted to mirror that layering of perception in my own story. I wanted readers to be in on the secret, to feel the ache of anticipation as my characters inch closer to the truth.

Summer’s independent spirit also played a huge role in shaping my heroine. She’s a woman who owns a romance and beach reads bookstore—not because it’s lucrative, but because it’s meaningful. Her connection to her family’s legacy, her love for romance, her belief in the power of story—it all defines her. In my book, Summer also runs a small, community-rooted business. She’s passionate, stubborn, sentimental—and much like Kathleen, she’s trying to find her voice in a world that often asks women to be quiet or accommodating.

But You’ve Got Mail isn’t just about romance or professional identity. It’s about vulnerability. The characters are flawed. Wes can be smug; Summer can be judgmental. But they grow. They soften. They challenge each other. That growth arc inspired how I developed the central relationship in my book. I didn’t want insta-love. I wanted misunderstanding, friction, moments where the reader might think, “They’re not right for each other”—until they are. Until something shifts.
Ephron was a master of voice—wry, observant, deeply intelligent. Her dialogue sparkled because it felt real and literary at the same time. That tone became my north star. I found myself watching her movies while writing scenes, absorbing the rhythm of her banter, the way she wove cultural references and emotional nuance into even the simplest exchanges. I didn’t want to copy it, but I wanted to honor it—to let that sharp, sensitive voice echo in the DNA of my own characters.

Celebrating the Cozy Magic of Everyday Life

There’s also something to be said for how You’ve Got Mail romanticizes everyday life in the best possible way. The rituals of cooking with one’s family, game nights, and quiet moments late at night between Summer and Wes—these small, ordinary moments become profound. They’re the fabric of intimacy. That quiet magic inspired the atmosphere I aimed to create. I wanted my book to feel like a warm light in the window on a cold evening. Cozy but honest. Sweet, but never saccharine.

Ultimately, writing this book was my way of having a conversation with a film that shaped me. You’ve Got Mail taught me that storytelling isn’t just about what happens—it’s about how we feel, and how we connect. It showed me that words can be the beginning of love, that timing matters, and that sometimes, the person we think is our enemy might just be our soulmate in disguise.

If readers come away from my novel with even a fraction of the warmth and wistfulness I felt watching Nora Ephron’s work, then I’ll know I did something right. Because at its core, my book is a love letter—not just to romance, but to the art of noticing, of waiting, of believing that something beautiful can bloom from unexpected beginnings.

And in that way, it all started with a little movie and a simple phrase: “You’ve got mail.”

Love to Hate You by Marina Adair

Summer Russo pours her heart—and savings—into reviving a struggling romance bookstore, only to have her dreams threatened by a big-box competitor run by grumpy, love-skeptic CEO Wes Kingston. Their rivalry heats up when a family vacation surprise throws them together under one roof, revealing that her nemesis is also her sister’s boyfriend’s brother. As sparks fly and enemies turn lovers, Summer and Wes must decide what’s really worth fighting for—their bookstores or their hearts.

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