Amy Lea is the international bestselling author of romantic comedies for adults and teens, including Mindy Kaling’s Book Studio selection Woke Up Like This. Her acclaimed works have been featured in USA Today, Entertainment Weekly, Cosmopolitan, and ELLE Canada, and has been long listed as a CBC Canada Reads finalist. They have also been optioned for film and sold to over a dozen foreign territories.
When Amy is not writing, she can be found fangirling over other romance books on Instagram (@amyleabooks), eating potato chips with reckless abandon, and snuggling with her husband and two goldendoodles in Ottawa, Canada.
Tell us about The Bodyguard Affair. What sparked your interest for this particular romance dynamic?
The Bodyguard Affair is a standalone romcom which is about Andi, who lives a double life: By day, she’s the super professional personal assistant to the Prime Minister’s wife, and by night, she writes steamy romance under a pen name. When her steamy romance about an assistant and Prime Minister goes viral, everyone thinks it’s based on a real affair. To make the rumors go away, Andi decides to fake date the PM’s bodyguard as a cover.
As loyal employees, they’ll pretend to date for the summer, just long enough to put the scandal to bed and save their boss’s reputation. In an unexpected plot twist, Andi and Nolan discover that keeping their romance strictly fictional might be easier said than done.
The idea first came to me in late 2022 after rewatching Love Actually. Hugh Grant playing a young, charming Prime Minister with a flirty assistant was such a fun dynamic, but I wanted to put my own twist on it. I’m from Ottawa, which is Canada’s political heartbeat, so setting a romance here felt very personal. I also spent years working in government while writing romance in secret constantly wondering, what if people found out? Would I lose the respect of my colleagues? Or my job? That “what if” was the spark that lit the whole story.
Last, I have a soft spot for the bodyguard trope. I decided to skip the romance with the PM altogether because falling for the bodyguard is much sexier.
Andi Ziegler is both a government employee and a steamy romance novelist under a secret pen name. What was your favorite aspect of writing a character with such a dual identity?
I loved playing with the tension between Andi’s two worlds. On one hand, she’s in this high-profile, high-stakes job where discretion is everything (managing schedules, events, and relationships for the Prime Minister’s wife). On the other, she’s secretly writing unabashedly steamy romances under a pen name, which is the ultimate creative freedom.
What made it fun was exploring how those identities clash. She has to be polished, careful, and politically correct at work, but in her writing, she can be bold, provocative, and completely herself. That push-and-pull created so many delicious moments for the story!
Tell us about your MMC. What do you think readers will swoon over?
Nolan Crosby is the Prime Minister’s bodyguard who is back in his hometown of Ottawa to help care for his mother, who has early-onset Alzheimer’s (who he has a complicated history with). What I love most about Nolan, and what I think readers will fall for, is the gap between how he presents himself and who he truly is. On the surface, he’s stoic, guarded, and a little gruff. But underneath, he’s a complete softie who feels things deeply and will move mountains for the people he loves. That mix of strength and vulnerability makes for the sweetest heroes.
Which of our favorite tropes can we expect to see in this novel? What drew you to those ones?
Fake dating – It’s one of my all-time favorites because it creates built-in tension with the pressure to keep up appearances juxtaposed with those little cracks of real feelings slipping through.
Workplace romance – I love the dichotomy between professionalism and attraction.
Bodyguard – I love the mix of protectiveness, competence, and quiet devotion!
If The Bodyguard Affair were adapted for the screen, who would be your dream actors for Andi and Nolan?
Honestly, I have no idea! I wrote this book with the two main characters being a total blur in my head (most of my characters are blurs).
What is your favorite winter reading (or writing) setting?
My favorite winter setting is probably cozied up in bed under my duvet! But my fantasy winter setting would be a chalet or cabin with a beautiful A-frame view of the snow-topped trees and mountains with a fire crackling in the background.
What is your favorite holiday movie of all time? Specifically a romance holiday movie?
I LOVE The Holiday and Love, Actually (it gets a lot of hate but I just find the end so heartwarming. And justice for Emma Thompson’s character!)
Two recent favorites that had me laughing out loud are Love Hard with Nina Dobrev and Our Little Secret with Lindsay Lohan.
What are some books you’ve loved in 2025?
Problematic Summer Romance by Ali Hazelwood
Buy the book now: Bookshop.org | Amazon
Julie Chan is Dead by Liann Zhang
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We Used to Live Here by Marcus Kliewer
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Any Trope But You by Victoria Lavine
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What are some movies/shows you’ve loved in 2025?
- The Summer I Turned Pretty
- Squid Game
- White Lotus
- Running Point
- Overcompensating
- The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives
- Nobody Wants This
What are you working on next?
I am currently working on my next young adult romance! I can’t say much about it right now, but the vibes are very 1989 Taylor Swift era. I am very excited about it.
The Bodyguard Affair by Amy Lea
By day, Andi Zeigler works as an assistant to the Prime Minister of Canada’s wife, but by night, she writes steamy romance novels under a pen name. But when her latest novel, The Prime Minister & Me, sparks rumors about an affair between her and the Prime Minister, Andi has to smooth out this scandal fast. She ropes Nolan Crosby, the PM’s new bodyguard, into a fake dating scheme, but the two quickly realize that this fictional romance might just become reality.
Buy the book now: Bookshop.org | Amazon
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