Sophia Gravia is Scotland’s rising star in romance fiction. Nasim Asl talks to her about her rise to literary fame.

Glasgow Kiss
By Sophia Gravia
Published by Orion

What Happens in Dubai
By Sophia Gravia
Published by Orion

Sophie Gravia is certainly impressive – she works as a nurse (as does her protagonist Zara), writes around her shifts, self-published her debut novel and now has bestselling books A Glasgow Kiss and What Happens in Dubai to her name. We met in a Glasgow café, Sophie fresh from a research trip abroad for her next book, and I was blown away by how warm, open, and genuinely grateful she is for the well-deserved success she’s experienced.

A Glasgow Kiss and What Happens in Dubai are the first books you’ve written – and they’ve both done so well. How did they come about?

It was all so random. I was on holiday with my friends, and the night before I’d had a really dodgy date – the panty sniffer one! I put it in the first chapter of A Glasgow Kiss! That was my first online date ever. I told my friends, and they were killing themselves laughing. One of my friends told me to blog it – I’d never blogged anything in my life. Soon after I ended up off work for a while, so thought I’d start blogging anonymously as Sex in the Glasgow City. It got thousands of hits.

Your first online date! That’s really bad luck. Had you written much before writing about your dates?

No. I’d really enjoyed writing in school, but I didn’t feel like my grammar or stuff like that was good enough. I’m a nurse, and my work was really intense during Covid. We had a wellness session one day, where we had to stand up in front of a group and say one thing that we’d done for ourselves during the pandemic. There were doctors standing up saying they’d started playing violin, or abstract painting…when they came to me I just cried and was like ‘I don’t do anything’. I started writing my book that night when I got home. It was really easy to write. The next book was harder because there were expectations!

How was it then, entering the publishing industry, finding an agent, getting signed to Orion as someone who didn’t have any experience with it?

I watched a YouTube tutorial and self-published on Amazon! I couldn’t afford to print it myself or get copies printed to sell. It was mental, it ended up selling thousands. Normally, they sell 200 copies a year that way, but before I got signed, I’d sold over 20,000 in a couple of months. I designed the cover myself, did it myself, but I’m so pleased to have been picked up and have it published with Orion.

One thing I really enjoyed was the dialogue – it felt so real to read, as though I was just sitting in the pub with pals listening to them chat.

A lot of the characters are based on real people – my best friend is totally Zara’s best friend, Ashley. So I was just thinking ‘what would she say?’.

What’s the reaction been to your books from other people you know? How have they reacted to the sex scenes and explicit parts of the novels?

I really worried about it. My family is Catholic, my mum is the holiest person. I told them I’d written a book but that I didn’t want them to read it because it was like 50 Shades of Grey! They were all so proud and really supportive.

Aw, that’s great to hear. Do you tell normally tell the people you date that you write romance books?

 I usually put a picture of me holding a picture of my book on my profile so they know straight up, but 95% of the messages I get are from people asking to be in the third one…I often get told bad stories from random people I meet though. I was in a taxi and the driver had read my book and knew who I was, and he gave me the most horrific story you’ve ever heard in your life. I don’t think people would believe me if I put it in the next book!

That must have been awful, because there are some quite graphic things in there already! Let’s talk about that though – because your books are unusual a little in the genre, by being so honest when talking about bodies, and bodily functions, and how things all work. Your writing on sex feels frank and refreshing because you’re not romanticising it.

I just don’t have a filter. It’s all genuinely the way I talk in everyday life. I’ve reread things I’ve written and thought ‘oh, I can’t say that’ but my friends all love it. I write it all the way I think it in my head. Some things I do think are a bit too much so I cut back, but the period stories – half the people say those things are their favourite parts, because something similar has happened to them. It’s just an unfiltered approach to sex.

That’s quite important though, especially for women who are taught to have a filtered approach.

Yeah, of what it should be like! I get a lot of messages from people who say they think they’re the only one who has had these experiences, so it’s nice to show it happens to everyone. Not everyone has someone to talk to about it, and it’s great for people to realise they’re not alone about it.

There’s a lot to unpack there too about female bodies and pleasure, our body image and how we perceive ourselves.

There’s a lot of Zara focusing on her own body, and I was really keen to keep that in the book because that’s how real people feel. They look in the mirror and put themselves down. It’s from the character’s perspective, that’s how people think. But I’m pleased that by the end of the second book you can see how Zara’s grown in terms of body image, even with the cosmetic treatments she gives to other people, enhancing their own unique beauty rather than changing them.

It’s really lovely to see you writing this, in Glasgow, about Glasgow, while the wider genre of romance is having such a moment, especially with younger audiences.

I love watching Netflix, Grey’s Anatomy. I listen to a lot of audiobooks in the car, so I’ve read a lot of the really popular TikTok ones – Love Hypothesis, Spanish Love Deception. But I need to listen to self-empowerment books to get in the zone to write. I’m such a Leo. The readers are sometimes too young…I was in Waterstones a few weeks ago and a girl asked me to sign her book, and I was like ‘oh my god, no!’. She was 14, and I was telling her she couldn’t read it, she was too young! I was thinking I was going to ruin her childhood. There’s no age limit on books!

But would you rather have teenage girls read books like yours, which are honest, and more unfiltered and based on real experiences than be watching porn?

…That is true. It’s more like reality. But I’ve got kids and I’d die if they read it the now! But the ending…I didn’t want to give my books a romcom ending. I didn’t want that, it’s not realistic. I wanted to her to be sure of herself, for it to be about character growth. One of my friends reads my books for me, and she thinks the books are just a love story between Zara and Ashley, and I really think it is.

You’re partway through your third book, and that marks the end for Zara…

She’s like my younger self, maybe more naïve…I know how it ends, but how do I write without her? I’m signed for a fourth book with new characters, but it feels weird not having Zara or Ashley or Raj or Tom.

Glasgow Kiss and What Happens in Dubai by Sophia Gravia are published by Orion, priced £8.99.