Two x Three
by C.R. Hale
Released: Apr 15, 2026
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Why this book and why now?
Ingrid Voss has been a side character in several of my other novels. An executive that is controlled and precise, the kind of person who walks into a room and quietly reorganizes the air in it. I kept writing her into scenes and then leaving her there. At some point the question became unavoidable: what would it actually take to get through to her? Not to destroy her. To show her that control and living aren’t the same thing. That was the original intention. Her lesson, her growth. What I didn’t expect was that the other two women in the book would refuse to stay in the background. By a third of the way through, I knew the ending I’d planned wasn’t earned. The story needed to be bigger. So it became bigger. Whether I pulled that off is for readers to decide. The book that exists is not the one I started writing, and I think that’s why it works.
Would you and your main character(s) get along?
Ingrid and I would not. We might survive a business meeting — there’d probably be some mutual professional respect — but privately, it would be a disaster. The reason is uncomfortable: I recognize too much of myself in her. Her version is more extreme, hopefully, but the underlying patterns are close enough that two people with the same blind spots rarely make easy company. Sasha I’d get along with immediately. She’d be too fast for me in certain situations. But I know people like that, and they’re some of the most genuinely refreshing people to have in your life. Her sense of humor alone would be enough.
Is there anything you wish readers knew before diving into this book?
This book doesn’t resolve into a clean binary. Not every situation does, and the story doesn’t pretend otherwise. Come in expecting a familiar shape and you might need to let go of that early. What’s on the other side of that is, I hope, worth it.
What’s one fun fact about your book that most people wouldn’t know?
My previous novel, Monica, took more than ten years from concept to publication. Two x Three took six to seven weeks. I’m not sure what that says about either book, but it says something.
Were there any scenes or characters that surprised you as you wrote?
Sasha arriving at Ingrid’s apartment for the first time. I had the outline, I knew the key beats, I thought I knew how that chapter would go. Then Sasha walked in and just took over. Her voice, her observations, the way she reacts to a world that is the complete opposite of her own. It generated more ideas than I could contain. The scene ended up different from what I’d planned. It’s also, I think, the funniest chapter in the book. Some scenes you write. Some scenes write themselves. That one belongs to Sasha.
Which character was the most fun to write, and which was the hardest?
Sasha. For both, which still surprises me a little. She’s chaotic in the best way. Funny, warm, holding her life together with what looks like pure instinct and somehow making it work. Her scenes had an energy I rarely get. Essentially, she is already demanding a sequel. But she was also the hardest. Ingrid I understand intuitively. I’ve known people like her, and if I’m being honest, I recognize some of her patterns in myself. Sasha operates on a completely different frequency. Making her feel genuinely real rather than like a sketch of spontaneity took more work than any other character in the book.
If your book had a scent, what would it smell like?
Red wine and good food in a room with a view. The kind of meal where the conversation is more dangerous than the menu.
Do you outline your books in detail, or do you prefer to discover the story as you write?
I build the complete outline, chapter by chapter, every important beat mapped, most cliffhangers calibrated. It is a masterpiece of planning. Then, at roughly the two-thirds mark, I change everything. Sometimes additions, sometimes full restructuring, occasionally revisiting every single chapter changing the plot. And yet the finished novel usually lands seventy to eighty percent faithful to the original outline. Make of that what you will.
Who are your biggest literary influences?
My reading doesn’t stay in one lane and has changed over the years (yes, I am old). If I’m honest about the writers whose work has shaped how I think about intimacy and the space between what people say and what they mean: Tiffany Reisz, Megan Hart, Sally Rooney, Sarah Waters, Harper Bliss, Anaïs Nin. They don’t all sit next to each other on a shelf. Together they might explain a bit about why this book is the kind of book it is.
