What is the title of your latest release?
THE MATCHMAKER’S COTTAGE
What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book?
THE MATCHMAKER'S COTTAGE is a cozy fall romance about the owner of a lakeside bed-and-breakfast who is reunited with her childhood sweetheart for a celebrity matchmaking scheme designed to revive both their careers. But as they work together, they're forced to confront the memories, regrets, and unresolved feelings they've spent years trying to leave behind.
How did you decide where your book was going to take place?
I always knew I wanted the story to take place by the lake in the fall. Autumn is my favorite season, and when I sat down to build this story from scratch, it just felt like the right place to spend my time. The town itself is fictional, but it's inspired by the lake communities of upstate New York, near the Finger Lakes. I wanted something that wasn’t Canadian - that setting is coming up in my next book! - but still evoked the feel of how I know and remember Canadian Cottage Country. In my mind, there's just something about those small lakeside cottage towns that feels timeless, and I knew it would be the perfect backdrop for something that felt cozy and nostalgic - a place readers would want to escape to right alongside the characters.
Would you hang out with your heroine in real life?
Would she want to hang out with me? Probably not LOL. I think I talk too much for her. But I would love to hang out with her, to sample some of her baking, and to hear all her ideas for Donwell Cottage. I can just picture sitting with her on the dock, a coffee in hand, reflecting on our regrets and hopes.
What are three words that describe your hero?
Optimistic, misguided, desperate
What’s something you learned while writing this book?
I learned a lot about Upstate New York and the Finger Lakes district where this story takes place! I also did a deep dive into the world of bed-and-breakfasts and quickly discovered there's a lot more to running one than baking cinnamon buns and making beds. It gave me a whole new appreciation for the people who do it and still manage to run a TikTok account making it look amazing!
Do you edit as you draft or wait until you are totally done?
I edit as I draft. It’s a bad habit that I’m trying to get out of because it definitely slows
me down when I’m writing. But for now I can’t move on until I’m happy with the previous
sentence.
What’s your favorite foodie indulgence?
Cinnamon buns, like Julia. Warm from the oven, with an icing that leans a bit sweeter than just the classic cream cheese frosting.
Describe your writing space/office!
My lap. I don’t have a desk, office, or dedicated space. I write wherever I am and wherever my laptop is - usually on the couch between activities or meals, or in bed after everyone has gone to sleep.
Who is an author you admire?
I can’t pick just one! I have huge admiration for friends who are authors, as well as authors I would love to meet one day, such as: Ali Hazelwood, Julie Soto, Kate Goldbeck, Hannah Bonam-Young, Ali Rosen, BK Borison, and the Canadian Romance Queen, Carley Fortune.
Is there a book that changed your life?
Julie Garwood’s THE BRIDE was the first romance novel I ever picked up, when I was around 15-16 years old, and I devoured all her books in secret, before moving on to other historical romance authors like Lynn Kurland, Lisa Kleypas, Julia Quinn and eventually getting into contemporary romance as well… but Julie Garwood was my first foray into the romance genre as a whole, and from then on, I was hooked.
Tell us about when you got “the call.” (when you found out your book was going to be published). Or, for indie authors, when you decided to self-publish.
We had just gone on sub in November, I believe. And we’d anticipated things would be quiet heading into the holidays (we were right). Not so quiet that I didn’t get two rejections fairly quickly, though! And then in January, I got an email from my agent saying that Sarah Blumenstock, Senior Editor from Berkley, loved her read of the MS we sent and would like to schedule a call - not “the call”, but certainly a call - to discuss things further. After a truly wonderful chat, and a week of back and forth ironing out logistics and what the future could possibly hold, I got the official “call” (in the form of an email!) from Sarah, with a pre-emptive offer of a two-book deal with Berkley! Truly dream-come-true stuff.
What’s your favorite genre to read?
Definitely all kinds of romance - contemporary, historical, rom-coms, anything that includes two people falling in love and ends in a happily-ever-after!
What’s your favorite movie?
This is a tough one, because I have several. When Harry Met Sally (and I’ll take this opportunity to plug my friend Kate Goldbeck’s novel, YOU, AGAIN, her gender-swapped When Harry Met Sally-inspired romance), The Wedding Singer, Ever After, The Princess Bride, Emma (2020), Pride & Prejudice (2005), Jurassic Park, and The Mummy.
What is your favorite season?
This one might be obvious - but definitely autumn! I love the cooler weather, the leaves changing colors, the crispness in the air that harkens the -ber months, and I love the holidays around autumn.
How do you like to celebrate your birthday?
Going to a fancy restaurant with my husband!
What’s a recent tv show/movie/book/podcast you highly recommend?
I’ll give you one of each. A recent TV Show is Widow’s Bay - hilarious, creepy, just overall extremely well done.
A recent movie is Voicemails for Isabelle - beautiful, evocative, sad, and hopeful.
A recent book that I read and loved was LEAVE AND COME BACK by fellow Toronto-based author Lavanya Lakhshi. A romance that touches on love, grief, and the complications of family as related to both those things.
A podcast I’ve always loved is Who? Weekly. If you like pop culture, are chronically online, and understand references that 98% of the population would never get, this one’s for you.
What’s your favorite type of cuisine?
I’d be remiss if I didn’t say the cuisine of my family’s cultural background, which is Greek. But I also love French food, as well as Japanese.
What do you do when you have free time?
Free time? What’s that?
What can readers expect from you next?
Next up is a wintry tale of redemption, rejuvenation, reunions - and only one bed. Stay tuned for more details soon!
A cozy fall romance wrapped in small-town charm reunites the owner of a bed-and-breakfast with her childhood sweetheart for a celebrity matchmaking scheme which has them both seeing stars.
Julia Schaeffer might run the most romantic little bed-and-breakfast in Upstate New York, but as far as that infuriating Ethan Duchamp is concerned, this older, wiser Julia has a strict “no vacancy” policy. Sure, she’s teetering on the edge of a financial cliff, and his half-baked plan to pair up his celebrity clients at her inn will undoubtedly be good for business…but how much forced proximity with the man who abandoned her is she supposed to take?
Ethan needs this to work. The dreamy, autumnal—and blissfully secluded—cottage from his childhood summers is the ideal setting for playing matchmaker to Hollywood’s next power couple. It’s the only way to save his PR career from the tabloid toilet. He knew that the inn and Julia’s warm, comforting homemade touch would inspire real feelings—he just didn’t expect them to be his. Again.
But as old wounds reopen, and their connection rekindles, Julia and Ethan are forced to confront the truths they’ve both tried to bury. In a town where nothing stays hidden for long, they’ll have to decide if they can rebuild what was lost—or if their second chance will be derailed by scars that have yet to heal.
Romance Contemporary [ Berkley, On Sale: August 11, 2026, Trade Paperback / e-Book / audiobook, ISBN: 9798217189519 / eISBN: 9798217189526 ]
Kat Sloane is a contemporary romance author whose novels blend emotional complexity, intimately drawn worlds, and the slow unraveling of guarded hearts. She writes about characters who are flawed but deeply human—people whose pasts are never quite as far behind them as they’d like, and whose journeys toward love require both courage and vulnerability.
Her stories often pair tender, character-driven romance with a strong sense of place, where the setting becomes as integral to the narrative as the characters who inhabit it. Whether she’s writing about second chances, unexpected connections, or the kind of love that changes everything, Kat captures the quiet moments that endure and the emotional payoffs that resonate beyond the last page.
Writing has been a constant in Kat’s life, from childhood notebooks to the online communities where she first shared her stories, and it remains one of her favourite ways to spend her free time. These days, she lives in Canada, having recently traded Toronto’s fast pace for the quieter rhythms of a smaller town just outside the city. When she’s not at her writing desk, she’s juggling the joyful chaos of family life and finding inspiration in the beauty—and messiness—of everyday moments.
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