Naughty and nice: Olathe author’s steamy Christmas book isn’t typical holiday fare

Sierra Simone, a USA Today and Wall Street Journal bestselling author, has been called the “Queen of Erotica.” She also is a former librarian, a mother of two and a graduate of the University of Kansas.

So it makes sense that Simone’s first Christmas book is both naughty and nice.

Simone, who as Bethany Hagen has lived in Olathe almost her entire life, co-wrote “A Merry Little Meet Cute” with her best friend, Julie Murphy, who happens to be a New York Times bestselling young-adult author.

“For Julie, it was her first spicy book,” Simone said. “And for me, it was my first comedic book.

“I finally lured her over to the spicy side.”

“A Merry Little Meet Cute,” published by the Avon imprint of HarperCollins and released Sept. 20, tells the story of plus-size adult film star Bee Hobbes (aka Bianca Von Honey) who “gets semi-accidentally cast in a wholesome, Hallmarkesque kind of movie,” Simone said.

“She is trying to keep her identity on set a secret, but one person does know who she is, and that’s the hero. He knows because he’s already a fan of her other work.”

That hero, a man named Nolan, is — like the real-life Hagen — a graduate of Olathe North High School. Most of the book is set in Christmas Notch, Vermont, where the holiday is celebrated every day and where everything, including the strip club where Bee works, has a Christmas theme.

Simone emphasizes that readers shouldn’t judge this book by its cover.

“The cover is very innocent, very sweet looking,” she said. “But it is just as spicy as any of my books. In fact, instead of calling it a rom-com, I’ve been calling it a raunch-com.”

Simone began her writing career as a young-adult author, which was when she met and became fast friends with Murphy.

“I transitioned into writing spicier fare as sort of a vacation from my real books,” she said. “And then I wound up liking the vacation so much I just stayed there.”

In seven years on the spicy side, she has authored 17 books, which she described as “erotic romance, and most of them are on the forbidden or taboo side.”

Best known among them is “Priest,” the tale of a handsome Catholic priest who finds love in the confessional and embarks on forbidden romance. It was included on Glamour’s list of “20 erotic novels you won’t be able to put down (or stop thinking about …)” and on HappyMag.tv’s “36 of the best erotic novels of all time,” a list topped by “Lady Chatterley’s Lover.”

“Priest” and the ensuing two books in its series are set in the Kansas City area, as is Simone’s “Misadventures of a Curvy Girl.” That novel follows a Kansas Citian who ventures into the Flint Hills.

“Her car breaks down, and she’s rescued by two hunky farmers,” Simone said.

“Misadventures of a Curvy Girl” was included in a 2021 BuzzFeed list of “20 Super Sexy Novels Full of Taboo, Kink, Toys, and More.”

Simone credits BookTok, a subcommunity of TikTok that focuses on literature, for much of her books’ popularity.

Tishni S. Weerasinghe, a TikTok personality and BookTok content creator, has said, “Sierra Simone is an author who I consider the queen of erotica, just because I don’t think any of her books have ever left me not in shock.”

“A Merry Little Meet Cute” (if you’re wondering, “meet cute” is a book or movie term for an adorable first encounter of two characters who proceed to have a romance) could shock a few readers who are expecting typical holiday fare based not only on the cover but also what they’ve read online.

The novel makes lists of recommended holiday reading from such traditional media outlets as Parade, Country Living and Cosmopolitan. Buzzfeed includes “A Merry Little Meet Cute” on its list of “16 Delightful Holiday Romances That Will Make You Feel Merry and Bright.”

Not bad for a book that began as a lark.

“Honestly, it started more as an inside joke than anything else,” said Murphy, who like Simone is a former librarian. “It was definitely nothing either of us had planned.”

Murphy wrote the No. 1 New York Times bestseller “Dumplin’,” which was turned into a 2018 movie starring Jennifer Aniston and Danielle Macdonald. She and Simone had discussed a collaboration for years before they began formulating the idea for their offbeat Christmas book during a two-woman writing retreat at a cabin in the Oklahoma woods.

“When we started on this book, what we really wanted was for it to capture the same feeling as sitting in a bed with your best friend eating pie and watching a cheesy movie,” Simone said. “Sort of like a joyful, slumber party, silly feeling.

“It wound up being so much fun that we kept making room (to work on) it, until Julie had to ’fess up to her agent that she had written a very naughty book.”

Murphy emphasized that “A Merry Little Meet Cute” is not appropriate for her usual YA readers but says it has plenty of humor to go with its raunchy romance. She said the comic touch came naturally for Simone.

“Her fans know her for these dark and heavy books, but she’s actually just completely hilarious,” Murphy said. “I think this was really fun for both of us to step outside our comfort zone but do it together, which made it all much less scary.”

Simone’s sense of humor is apparent in her nom de plume. When she originally ventured into the romance/erotica world, she thought it would be a brief fling. So she quickly picked a pen name based on a formula that creates people’s would-be stripper or porn names: the street you grew up on and your middle name.

Bethany Simone Hagen lived on Sierra Circle in Olathe.

“I thought of it in like five minutes,” she said, “and then it became my entire creative life.”

Meet the ‘Meet Cute’ authors

Sierra Simone and Julie Murphy will appear at the Mid-Continent Public Library-Woodneath Library Center, 8900 N.E. Flintlock, to discuss and sign their new book at 7 p.m. Dec. 9. More information at mymcpl.org or 816-883-4900.