Denise Williams has written 10 books since launching her writing career in 2020. Her latest “Just Our Luck” is a USA Today bestseller. Set in Des Moines, it’s a steamy romantic comedy. She’ll be on hand to discuss this and her other works from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. Aug. 28 in the meeting room at the Marshalltown Public Library. Arts + Culture Alliance Executive Director Amber Danielson will serve as moderator, and Beaverdale Books will be there to sell books after the event for a signing with the author.

“We are very excited to have her come to Marshalltown. We know we have lots of romance readers in our community and looking forward to this fun event,” said Library Director Sarah Rosenblum.

Williams said she’s excited to chat about her books which she says don’t just offer a couple in love with each other at the end, but also the process of finding someone who helps them fall more in love with themselves.

While Williams resides in Des Moines, she’s worked at ISU since 2008 in various capacities. Since July 2023, she has served as Director of Development – College of Human Sciences at the Iowa State University Foundation. Previously, she was the assistant director of Multicultural Student Affairs. She completed her Ph.D. in education with a graduate certificate in applied research methods from ISU in 2015. Becoming a bestselling romance novelist wasn’t a pathway she initially envisioned.

“I’ve always loved love stories, even when it was an adventure book or a thriller book or a horror book. I was always sort of teasing out: where is the love story? Where is that? I’ve always loved those,” she said. “I didn’t plan to be a writer. I wrote really awful poetry when I was a teenager and short stories. That was just always my happy place, but I never thought it would be a career until 2016 when I was a new mom and started writing, just to reconnect with my creativity. And that first little bit of writing I did turned into my first novel ‘How to Fail at Flirting’ which came out in 2020.”

“Just Our Luck” and her next book “The Re-Do List,” slated for release in January, are both set in Des Moines.

“I loved writing a book in Iowa that didn’t take place on a farm. Not that there’s anything wrong with those books, but to just show that we have cities here,” Williams said.

The fictional Joe’s Donuts featured in “Just Our Luck” is set in the East Village.

“I walked into Donut Hut off Douglas after I’d written the first draft of the book, and that is exactly the donut shop I was picturing,” she noted.

“Just Our Luck” centers on Sybil Sweet who visits a late-night donut store run by Kieran Anderson who “put his dreams of becoming a doctor on hold to take over running his family’s bakery, and after fighting a losing battle to save the place, he’s exhausted, broke, and no closer to getting back to school. But when a whirlwind of a woman sweeps in late one night, flirty energy gives way to more…until she runs out the next morning, leaving behind her winning lottery ticket.”

Williams said she strives to write characters with complexity.

“I’ve written about folks who are living with trauma, who are figuring out love of their bodies, who are dealing with workplace sexual harassment, you know all of these different things because those are issues that touch real people’s lives, but also showing that no matter what you’ve gone through in your life, no matter what trauma has touched you, no matter what you’re dealing with, you still deserve a love story,” she said. “You still deserve an epic love story…So getting to depict that on the page that everybody is deserving of that epic love story, to me, is really powerful and hopeful — in addition to writing fun, sexy characters and making it funny — is you get to have that undercurrent of giving people some hope.”

For questions, contact the library’s Information Desk at: 641-754-5738 ext. 4.

Williams’ books are published through Berkley. To learn more visit: www.denisewilliamswrites.com.