Sally Blakely studied theater, media arts, English, and education at the University of Montana. When she's not writing, she's reading, or making far too many playlists. She lives in Montana with her husband. Her debut, Friends to Lovers (Canary Street Press, July 22, 2025), is a dual-narrative novel about two childhood best friends who agree to be each other's plus-ones every year for wedding season in order to stay in touch.
Handsell readers your book in 25 words or less:
People We Meet on Vacation meets The Summer I Turned Pretty. Two lifelong best friends have one last summer to fall in love!
On your nightstand now:
Silverborn by Jessica Townsend. This is one of my favorite middle-grade series of all time and I've been counting down the days for the U.S. release of this book! Jessica Townsend is such an incredible voice in the fantasy space.
Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid. Daisy Jones & the Six is one of my all-time favorite books, and in another life I dream of going to space, so I'm particularly thrilled about this latest from TJR.
It's a Love Story by Annabel Monaghan. I love Annabel! She so kindly read and blurbed Friends to Lovers and I've been looking forward to this book since she released her last one.
Favorite book when you were a child:
This is so hard to narrow down! I read and re-read the Enchanted Forest Chronicles by Patricia C. Wrede and particularly loved when a romance was introduced in the second book, Searching for Dragons, which probably should have told me something about the genre I'd most love writing later. From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg is a lifelong favorite.
Your top five authors:
This feels equally hard to narrow down, but five who are particularly important to me or have impacted my reading/writing life in some way are Sarah Dessen, Emily Henry, Alice Hoffman, Maud Hart Lovelace, and Ray Bradbury.
Book you've faked reading:
This is one of my more embarrassing stories, but in grad school we were reading The Tempest in this great class called Shakespeare and Film. It was also taught by my favorite professor, which makes the whole thing worse. Before we started reading, I thought he asked who was looking forward to reading The Tempest, so I raised my hand and was pretty confused when no one else did. Turns out, he asked who had already read The Tempest and he of course asked what I thought of it when I read it and instead of owning up to my mistake I just sort of blacked out and stumbled through some answer along the lines of "Yeah, I enjoyed it. Kind of crazy!" Oof.
Book you're an evangelist for:
I have two! (Not that I think these books need me to be an evangelist for them, but I'll never stop talking about them.)
Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt--so far, I haven't recommended this to someone who hasn't loved it.
The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune--this book feels like a hug. Would die for Arthur Parnassus.
Book you've bought for the cover:
Probably more than I realize, but I can't seem to think of a specific one right now. There are so many talented people designing cover art and so many gorgeous covers out there that I think picking up a book because it catches your eye is totally valid.
Book you hid from your parents:
I don't think I ever hid books from my parents! I didn't grow up around a lot of romance readers so I maybe didn't discuss those books with them as much once I started reading them, but definitely never hid them.
Book that changed your life:
Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel García Márquez. We read it my senior year of high school and I had strong opinions that I shared, loudly, during discussion. That class is what made me want to be an English teacher and where I started to feel more comfortable discussing books and stories. I remember buying a new copy for the school so I could keep my heavily annotated and dog-eared one.
Favorite line from a book:
From Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt: "Humans. For the most part, you are dull and blundering. But occasionally, you can be remarkably bright creatures."
Five books you'll never part with:
Practical Magic by Alice Hoffman, because even if I'm reading it for the 10th time, it feels as absorbing as the first.
This Lullaby by Sarah Dessen, because it's what I based the first book-shaped thing I wrote around, at 13.
Emily of Deep Valley by Maud Hart Lovelace. I loved reading from the perspective of this other character in the Deep Valley world, and my sister gifted me this book at a time I very much needed to read about Emily finding her way in the world. I return to it almost every winter.
Fifteen by Beverly Cleary. I read this so much as a kid! Jane and her qualms. I'm always on the lookout for the exact version my library had, but for now my paperback is just fine.
And honestly, that copy of Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel García Márquez. It feels like a time capsule. It has roughly 100 little tabs sticking out of its yellowing pages, and all these notes in the margins that sound a little silly now, but that felt like profound discoveries back then. I love having this tangible evidence of caring so much about something.
Book you most want to read again for the first time:
The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller. I'm probably an evangelist for this book too, honestly. Would read it and erase it from my memory and read it again 1,000 times if I could.