Twinkle of Doubt by Patricia Leavy

Patricia Leavy, PhD is novelist, sociologist, and arts advocate (formerly Associate Professor of Sociology, Founding Director of Gender Studies and Chairperson of Sociology & Criminology at Stonehill College). She is widely considered the world's most visible proponent of arts-based research, which merges the arts and sciences. Patricia has published over 50 books, nonfiction and fiction, and her work has been translated into numerous languages. She has received over 100 book awards. She has also received career awards from the New England Sociological Association, the American Creativity Association, the American Educational Research Association, the International Congress of Qualitative Inquiry, and the National Art Education Association. In 2016 Mogul, a global women’s empowerment network, named her an “Influencer.” In 2018, she was honored by the National Women’s Hall of Fame and the State University of New York at New Paltz established the “Patricia Leavy Award for Art and Social Justice.” In 2024, the London Arts-Based Research Centre established "The Patricia Leavy Award for Arts-Based Research." In recent years, her passion has turned to penning romance novels.
​
Twinkle of Doubt explores how even great love can be shaken by uncertainty. Why was doubt—rather than fear or loss—the emotional core you wanted to examine in this sequel?

I believe doubt is at the core of a lot of people’s personal suffering. So often we doubt ourselves. We don’t feel like we are enough. There’s an audio in our heads telling us we’re not good enough, successful enough, attractive enough, popular enough. In short, we may play an audio in our heads that says we don’t measure up, we’re not loveable, or we’re not really worthy of love. That internal voice can be louder than any external voice. It can also cause us to doubt others. If on a deep level we do not feel loveable, how can we trust it when someone tries to give us love? In so many ways, the quality of our life and our relationships depend on our own relationship with ourselves. So, to me, doubt is essential to explore in love stories. 

Tess is a world-famous novelist whose work centers on hope, yet she struggles with feelings of unworthiness. What does her journey reveal about the gap between public success and private self-belief?

There’s a saying that “hurt people hurt people” but often that is not the case. Sometimes hurt people are able to love others in extraordinary ways. Some people turn their pain into compassion, empathy, and generosity, but that does not mean it removes all their struggles. We are often hardest on ourselves. Tess is in the lifelong process of recovery from childhood sexual assault. The trauma does not go away, but she learns how to carry it and lessen its effects, partly by loving others and partly by transforming darkness into light in her novels. Like Tess, we all carry scars. So, it’s really about working on our internal self. There is always a gap between our life as it is and as we wish it to be. Likewise, and especially in the age of social media, there is always a gap between public perception and private reality. The goal is to be aware of those gaps and do all we can to close them. Social media has ramped up our culture of comparison in ways that can make people feel terrible about themselves. But it isn’t even real. It’s a highly curated, filtered, highlight reel. Never compare your insides to others’ outsides. 

​Jack’s life in counterterrorism has trained him to anticipate danger, while Tess’s work invites faith and possibility. How did writing these contrasting worldviews deepen their relationship on the page?

We learn a lot from people with different experiences and ways of seeing the world. One of my favorite things about Tess and Jack’s relationship is how they help each other see the world, and themselves differently. It creates admiration and intimacy, which brings them closer together. 

​Marriage is often portrayed as an “arrival,” yet this novel shows it as an ongoing emotional practice. What did you want to say about love after the happy ending?

So much of pop culture shows marriage as “the end.” Romance novels and movies often end with proposals or weddings. Yet that’s not the end of romance, it’s only a beginning. Intimacy develops over time and can grow deeper and richer. While some of my novels explore early stages of “falling in love,” most center on love after “I do.” My hope in Twinkle of Doubt and many body of work as a whole is to show how love evolves, grows, deepens. I hope to show what intimacy actually looks like and feels like over the long haul, not just during early days of dating. My novels, and the Celestial Bodies Romances specifically, are not about falling in love, but rather, building love-filled partnerships.

Trauma quietly shapes both Tess and Jack. How did you approach writing healing as nonlinear—progressive, but fragile—rather than neatly resolved?

I’m always trying to balance fairy-tale, inspirational, aspirational love stories with realistic explorations of challenges human beings face. People need hope, joy, and escape, but if we gloss over all the hard stuff in life, it can make us feel worse, not better. So my novels are a mix of fantasy and reality. Healing from trauma is not linear. Nor is it ever complete. It is a process. It is always fragile, as human beings are fragile. Yet if we’re willing to engage in the messy and difficult lifelong process of healing, we can build wonderful lives. Finding people to support us on that journey can help that process. That is what Tess and Jack show us. 

​The anonymous threat against Tess introduces suspense while intensifying intimacy. How did you balance external danger with the internal emotional stakes of the story?

I love character-driven novels and in this series, I’m striving for layered characters who are aspirational and inspirational. But of course, every novel also needs a plot. With this book I really wanted to keep readers engaged so I opted for a high-stakes, dramatic plot point. The threat against Tess though, in actuality, is just an opportunity to show the effect on Tess, Jack and their relationship. So the story is much more about internal threats rather than anything external. In that regard, the threat is just a plot device, but hopefully one that keeps readers turning the page. 

​Chosen family plays a powerful role in this novel. Why is that concept so central to the Celestial Bodies Romance series?

Each of the central characters has been forced to cut ties with their childhood family for specific reasons. Tess suffered extreme abuse in her childhood home and has no relatives in her life. Jack was forced to let go of his family for their own protection given the dangers of his job. Omar, Tess’s best friend, was ostracized from his childhood family because he is gay. So the characters in the series have had to do what many people must do—create their own family of choice. Family estrangement is extremely painful and traumatic in its own right, so these things do not happen lightly. It’s an extremely difficult reality many people face. I’m glad to honor chosen families in this series—and show how very wonderful they can be—in the hope that it makes readers in this situation know they are not alone. I think it’s useful for everyone to distinguish between relatives and family. Sometimes there is overlap, but not always. 

​Throughout the book, love is portrayed as something that requires courage, not certainty. Was that a deliberate reframing of what “romantic strength” looks like?

Being vulnerable is integral to love. Vulnerability is not weakness. It is the opposite. Vulnerability requires courage. Being our truest selves and allowing another to see and know us as we truly are requires bravery. It requires us to believe in ourselves and in the other person enough to be honest and exposed. It’s the key to building intimacy, trust, and long-lasting love. It’s also incredibly beautiful when we’re able to do it. In all my novels I hope to illustrate what love actually looks like and feels like. Love isn’t something we say or even feel, it’s a verb. Love is something we do. Tess and Jack do love well because they have the courage to see each other to be seen. 

​For readers returning from Shooting Stars Above, how have Tess and Jack evolved—and what growth felt most essential for you to show?

The wonderful thing about writing multiple books that follow the same characters is that they evolve. Tess and Jack had a whirlwind romance, falling in love and marrying quickly. In Shooting Stars Above, we see their first year together. When Twinkle of Doubt begins, they are celebrating their second anniversary. We see how they have grown closer as a couple, and how they have each evolved on their healing journey, even though it’s a process, not a destination. There are some scenes that I especially love that show this growth and closeness. You can usually see it in how they share difficult things with each other that may be hard to say aloud, but they trust and love each other enough to try to find the words. That is growth. 

​Ultimately, Twinkle of Doubt asks whether we can believe we are worthy of love even when certainty slips away. What do you hope readers carry with them after turning the final page?

We are enough. We are worthy of love. We all carry scars and struggles, but if we love others and allow them to love us, healing is possible. Self-love is the hardest and most important love. Challenges will always come in life, but we can learn to breathe through them. 

---

Website: https://patricialeavy.com
Faceboook: www.facebook.com/WomenWhoWrite
Instagram: www.instagram.com/patricialeavy
X (formerly Twitter): https://x.com/PatriciaLeavy

Purchase options: Amazon | Barnes & Noble