What if a divorced celebrity mom of an autistic child escaped the spotlight and found love again?

Exploring motherhood in romantic comedy. (Guest Post)

Today we are featuring a guest post by romance author Lindsay Hameroff about parenting in fiction.

When I started working on my third novel—a story about a woman who unexpectedly returns to the Pennsylvania lake house where she spent her childhood summers—I knew I wanted my main character, Marissa, to be a burnt-out single mom. I’d never written a protagonist who was a parent before, so I expected this to be a challenge. I did not, however, anticipate that it would become a central theme of the novel. But as the idea took shape, Marissa’s struggle to balance her own needs with her desire to be a good mother became an inextricable part of the story I was trying to tell. Looking back, I think it might’ve been a story I needed to tell.

In Rewrite the Stars, which releases on July 7, 2026, Marissa doesn’t just find romantic love; she also finds her way back to herself. At the lake house, she realizes how much of her identity she’s lost since becoming a mother, and as the summer progresses, she starts to reclaim those missing pieces.

Many moms experience some sense of identity loss after having kids. Once your priorities shift, it’s all too easy to lose yourself in the process. For me, writing is a way to re-center when I feel like my sole purpose in life is playing chauffeur and battling endless piles of laundry. But it wasn’t until I started drafting this book that I realized how much I had to say about motherhood and the constant juggling of everyone’s needs, including my own.

As I mentioned, motherhood wasn’t the initial inspiration behind this novel. That seed was actually planted two years ago, when Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez were breaking up (again). It seemed like every time the press ran a story, Ben’s first wife, Jennifer Garner, would get dragged back into the narrative. My friends and I texted about it constantly. Why wouldn’t they leave her alone? We wanted (nay, demanded!) justice for Jen, a mom who was clearly bearing the brunt of parenting, yet somehow couldn’t avoid her messy ex’s drama.

It also got me thinking about Jen’s acting career. In recent years, she’s stepped back from Hollywood to prioritize her family, and I found myself reflecting on my own career path. Before my second child was born, I was a full-time English teacher. I was on maternity leave when the pandemic hit, and when my son was diagnosed with autism at eighteen months and early intervention was recommended, I needed to stay home to manage the services he needed. It worked out okay for our family–we were already relying on my husband’s health insurance and the pivot allowed me to pursue my longtime dream of becoming a writer. But a lot of families are not so lucky. And when sacrifices are required, more often than not, it’s the women who make them.

When I start brainstorming a book, I tend to weave two or three ideas together. As I was mulling the Jen/Jen/Ben love triangle, I was also in the thick of autism therapies. We spent a lot of time in the car, since my five-year-old was splitting his week between general ed preschool and center-based autism services. My husband is a terrific partner, but he’s also a physician, and his busy schedule meant I handled most of the daily load: the drop-offs and pick-ups, the weekly parent training, and the home visits from therapists. (He manages a lot of behind-the-scenes tasks, especially when it comes to medical insurance, a part-time job in itself).

It was a lot to juggle, even with a partner who was loving and helpful, and during the long drives, I occasionally found myself wondering, as writers often do, how things would look if the circumstances were different. What would it be like if my marriage felt unbalanced? What would it be like to raise an autistic child as a single mom, or even as a married one with a disengaged partner? Soon, those questions merged with the celebrity romance I’d been brainstorming. What if a divorced celebrity mom of an autistic child escaped the spotlight and found love again? And that question set Rewrite the Stars into motion.

Romance is the highest-selling fiction genre, and according to the Romance Writers of America, roughly half of its readership is women aged 30–54 (aka, prime parenting age). It makes sense; the genre is pure escapism, and who needs an escape more than exhausted moms, who are not only juggling their own lives and careers but also the mental load of parenting? (Trust me, I could go on and on about the myriad of ways in which romance novels fulfill women’s unmet emotional needs, but that’s another article entirely). And one thing I’ve learned in the three years I’ve been publishing books is that there is a huge demographic of romance readers who are not only moms, but specifically, moms of children with special needs.

Readers want to see themselves in a story’s protagonist, because it deepens relatability and builds emotional investment. So whenever a reader tells me that Marissa made them feel seen as a mother, I feel like I’ve done my job. But while I’m thrilled that this story resonates, I’ll admit that writing a mom as a main character had its share of practical challenges. Specifically, now that I’ve created these fictional children, how do I get them out of the way?

Last year, I did an event with Laurie Gilmore, author of the Dream Harbor series. She was promoting her newest title, The Strawberry Patch Pancake House, and during our discussion, I asked her about the experience of writing a main character who was a single dad. Laurie told me her biggest hurdle was finding realistic ways to get his daughter off the page. A couple needs alone time together for intimacy to flourish, and as any parent will tell you, that’s no small feat with kids around.

I faced the same problem while writing this book. Marissa is spending the season at the lake house with her two young kids, and while I wanted to explore her life as a mom, I also needed her kiddos to leave so she could pursue her romantic relationship with Jesse, her carpenter turned love interest. Since the book is set in the summer, I did the same thing with Marissa’s kids that I do with my own: I packed them up and sent them off camp (and then later, on a trip with their father).

Luckily, that challenge helped me to build Marissa’s character, because it provided a vehicle to explore that push-pull feeling we all experience as moms. We want (and need!) time away from our kids, but the minute we get it, we feel guilty and miss them. No matter what we do, we are like the “vegetarian” vampires of Twilight: never fully satisfied. So instead of avoiding it, I harnessed that tension in order to enrich Marissa’s emotional arc. Writing it was healing for me as well, and I hope readers will find her story both relatable and enjoyable.

Representation is important, so if you’re looking for more romances featuring single mom protagonists, here are a few of my favorites:

• Seven Days in June, by Tia Williams

• Nora Goes Off Script, by Annabel Monaghan

• First-Time Caller, by BK Borison

I also recommend This Could Be Us, by Kennedy Ryan, which features a single dad raising autistic twins. Kennedy is a fellow autism mom who drew on her experiences while writing. She’s also an advocate and the co-founder of LiFT 4 Autism, an annual charitable book auction that fundraises for Kulture City, a national autism organization.

Finally, I’d love to close out with a quick plug! Preorders are crucial to the success of a book and if the plot of Rewrite the Stars resonates with you, I’d be so grateful if you purchased a copy. As an extra incentive, I’m currently running a preorder campaign from now to 7/1/26 through my local indie bookstore, Cupboard Maker Books. If you order a copy here, I’ll not only sign and personalize it for you, but I’ll also include a boyfriend bookmark shaped like Jesse, Marissa’s dreamy contractor love interest. You can also subscribe to my newsletter to get updates about other promotions and tour dates.

Thank you so much for reading! I hope my book will provide you with both a sweet, summer romance and a reminder that it’s never too late to reclaim ourselves, even amid the messiness of motherhood.

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Lindsay Hameroff is a writer, humorist, and former English teacher raised in Baltimore, Maryland, and based in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Her writing has been featured in McSweeney's Internet Tendency, Weekly Humorist, and fan letters to Harry Styles.

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