Off Book with Katie Jung: Ghosts, Yearning, Romance Misconceptions & You’re the One That I Haunt
A hot ghost. Upper East Side drama. A little My Best Friend’s Wedding. A little Gossip Girl.
And just enough paranormal romance to officially kick off spooky season.
We’re going Off Book with debut romance author Katie Jung, whose novel You’re the One That I Haunt arrives September 22 from Penguin Books.
Meet Katie Jung
Katie describes You’re the One That I Haunt as “Gossip Girl meets My Best Friend’s Wedding with a hot ghost love interest,” which is frankly a very efficient way to get our attention.
The paranormal romance is set in New York City and blends romance, magic, mystery, family dynamics, female friendship, and Upper East Side vibes into a very fall-ready package.
Although Katie is based in Syracuse, she grew up spending a lot of time in New York City and later traveled there regularly for work with the Wildlife Conservation Society. That familiarity mattered when she was writing the book. She wanted the setting to feel like the actual experience of spending time in New York, not just the movie version of it.
As New Yorkers, we noticed.
From Writing in Secret to a Penguin Book Deal
Like a lot of writers, Katie had been making up stories basically forever.
But she returned seriously to fiction after her oldest son was born, looking for something creative that belonged to her. She joined local writing groups, took classes, and eventually wrote a contemporary romance that received agent interest but no offer of representation.
Then came manuscript number two.
While watching old comfort rom-coms, Katie revisited My Best Friend’s Wedding and started thinking about why that particular era of romantic comedy still feels so satisfying.
The question became: How do you capture that 90s and early-2000s rom-com feeling in a novel?
Her answer was You’re the One That I Haunt, with one minor adjustment.
Ghosts.
Katie later participated in the romance mentorship program Smooch Pit, where she worked with a published or soon-to-be-published romance author to refine the manuscript and her querying materials. This time, the querying process led to multiple offers, an agent, and eventually a two-book deal with Penguin.
Or, as Katie put it, the whole thing was slow until suddenly it wasn’t.
The Part Nobody Tells You About Publishing: You Also Become a Content Creator
Writing the book is only part of the job.
Once publication gets closer, authors are also making Reels, TikToks, graphics, promotional posts, preorder content, event announcements, and everything else required to convince the algorithm that your book exists.
Katie loves finding creative ways to talk about her novel, especially because there are so many different angles to work with: romance, mystery, magic, New York City, spooky season, and Gossip Girl-style Upper East Side drama.
But even a seven-second Reel can take an absurd amount of time to make.
And while promoting book one, Katie is also writing book two.
And raising three kids.
Suddenly our complaining about editing Instagram videos felt slightly less compelling.
The Polish Family History Behind Libby
Katie also brought pieces of her own Polish heritage into You’re the One That I Haunt.
Her paternal grandfather immigrated from Poland, and her father grew up in a multigenerational household with his Polish grandmother. Katie was extremely close with both of her own grandmothers, and those relationships helped inspire Libby’s relationship with Babcia in the novel.
The food, family traditions, little sayings, and even singing Happy Birthday in Polish all pull from Katie’s own experience.
It gives the story another layer beyond the central romance, something Katie cares deeply about in the romances she reads and writes.
So What Actually Makes a Great Romance?
Katie’s favorite genre is, unsurprisingly, romance.
But part of what she loves about romance is how much territory exists inside it.
Historical romance. Contemporary romance. Romantasy. Paranormal romance. Speculative romance. Mystery with a love story. Fantasy with a love story.
Her own sweet spot is often romance with a little magic, because magic lets you raise the stakes beyond everyday life without necessarily committing to hundreds of pages of fantasy worldbuilding.
Which is also one of the things Katy has come to appreciate about romance since starting Genre’d.
Finding romance books with mystery, fantasy, suspense, or magical elements completely changed her perception of what the genre could be.
The Book That Brought Katie Back to Reading
Like plenty of adults, Katie had a stretch where she stopped reading as much.
Then a friend recommended Sally Thorne’s The Hating Game.
And that was it.
The enemies-to-lovers workplace romance reminded Katie what it felt like to be completely consumed by a book. She immediately reread it after finishing and started working her way through romance from there.
That included authors like:
Emily Henry
Carley Fortune
Ali Hazelwood
Ashley Poston
Romance became the genre that pulled her back into being a reader.
Romance for Beginners vs. Romance for the Fully Converted
Naturally, we asked for recommendations.
For someone newer to romance who also likes fantasy, Katie recommends Rachel Gillig’s Shepherd King duology, One Dark Window and Two Twisted Crowns.
The combination of romance, plot, magic system, atmosphere, and payoff makes it one of her favorite entry points.
For someone already deeply committed to romance?
Katie recommends Games: A Love Story.
Her description?
Basically economics meets sex.
The book follows a graduate student studying economics in New York and a powerful Wall Street figure whose intense debates about politics, economics, and society operate as a kind of intellectual foreplay.
One Goodreads review apparently described it as “porn for Capricorns.”
Elyse added it to her list immediately.
Obviously.
We Need to Talk About Yearning
If there is one thing Katie wants from a romance, it is yearning.
Slow burn. Almost kisses. Interrupted moments. One person being completely down bad while the other has absolutely no idea.
Give her all of it.
Katie also loves romances where the characters feel like complete people outside of the relationship. They have careers, ambitions, friendships, family problems, complicated histories, and flaws.
The romance matters enormously, but it isn’t the only thing happening in their lives.
That approach also shows up in You’re the One That I Haunt, particularly in the female friendships and family relationships surrounding the central love story.
Because falling in love tends to drag everything else you’re carrying into the room with you.
The Biggest Misconception About Romance
Katie has encountered a very familiar reaction since people in her life started learning that she writes romance:
So...sex?
And sure, sex can be part of romance novels.
But reducing the entire genre to smut misses almost everything interesting about it.
Romance can explore family history, friendship, self-worth, identity, ambition, trauma, vulnerability, and the question of how two imperfect people actually manage to build something together.
The sex scenes themselves can matter too. They can give readers a safe space to explore sexuality and intimacy.
But they are one part of a much larger emotional story.
And no, the presence of sex does not mean the writing is somehow less serious or less skillful.
We will apparently continue having this conversation until everyone gets it.
How Do You Actually Write a Sex Scene?
This led, naturally, to one of our favorite Off Book questions.
How do authors actually write sex scenes without making them painfully awkward?
For Katie, it starts with character.
A character who has never behaved a certain way for 250 pages probably should not suddenly transform into an entirely different person the second everyone gets naked. The intimacy should still feel like the same relationship.
As for language, Katie uses a simple test:
Would I ever actually say this out loud while telling a friend what happened?
Which immediately disqualifies certain phrases.
Especially “the folds.”
None of us are casually reporting back to our friends with, “And then my folds...”
Please stop.
Katie also tends to build intimate scenes in layers. First, she works out the physical logistics of what everyone is actually doing. Then she goes back and adds emotion, sensuality, and character.
And sometimes the timing is simply wrong.
While drafting her second book, Katie reached the point where her characters were finally supposed to have sex while she was about eight months pregnant.
Her response was essentially:
To be written later.
Respect.
Plotter, Pantser, or Somewhere in Between?
Katie usually writes chronologically, but she likes having a loose roadmap first.
Before drafting, she generally knows where her characters should be around the 25 percent, 50 percent, and 75 percent marks of the story.
Beyond that, she leaves room for discovery.
She does not want every chapter planned so tightly that nothing unexpected can happen once she actually starts writing.
If a perfect line or future scene comes to her early, she’ll save it in her Notes app and return
to it later. But for the most part, she likes discovering the story in order.
Second Chance Romance Is Having a Comeback
Katie has also recently come around on a trope she used to be much less interested in:
Second chance romance.
And honestly? Same.
There is something different about reading second chance romance as you get older.
People change.
The person someone was at 19, 22, or even 25 is not necessarily the person they are ten or fifteen years later. But the trope is tricky.
The original breakup has to be believable enough that you understand why they separated without being so unforgivable that you spend the entire book screaming, “DO NOT TAKE HIM BACK.” Friends-to-lovers presents a similar problem.
There needs to be a genuinely convincing reason these two people have spent years desperately in love while apparently refusing to do anything about it.
Give us yearning.
But give us logic too.
Katie Jung’s Reading Recommendations
We went into this episode expecting to talk about Katie’s book.
We left with significantly longer TBRs.
Books discussed include:
The Hating Game by Sally Thorne
One Dark Window by Rachel Gillig
Two Twisted Crowns by Rachel Gillig
Games: A Love Story
Check & Mate by Ali Hazelwood
Problematic Summer Romance by Ali Hazelwood
The Best Worst Thing by Lauren Okie
Into the Blue by Emma Brodie
The Write-Off by Kara McDowell
Metal Slinger
Light Bringer
Alchemised
Manacled
And because Elyse physically cannot allow an interview to end without trying to recruit another person into this fandom:
Yes.
We also discussed Dungeon Crawler Carl.
Matt Dinniman, the free publicity continues.
Fanfiction, Omegaverse, and Things We Have Learned Against Our Will
Another recurring Off Book theme?
Apparently every writer has a fanfiction story.
Katie has never written fanfic herself, but after hearing Ashley Poston talk about how creatively freeing it can be for published authors to write anonymously, without deadlines or expectations, she understands the appeal.
Which eventually brought us, through a series of choices nobody attempted to stop, to Omegaverse anatomy.
Katy recently encountered knotting while reading Ali Hazelwood and immediately went looking for a diagram.
The internet did not adequately deliver.
Elyse’s recommendation?
Take thee to fanfiction.
We assume the fan artists will handle it from here.
If Katie Could Only Read One Genre Forever...
Romance wins.
Easy.
Because romance can contain fantasy, history, mystery, magic, speculative elements, family drama, friendship, politics, and just about everything else.
Choosing another genre would mean giving up love stories entirely.
And Katie is not interested in living that way.
Fair enough.
About You’re the One That I Haunt
Katie Jung’s debut paranormal romance, You’re the One That I Haunt, arrives September 22 from Penguin Books.
Think:
✨ New York City
👻 A hot ghost love interest
🍂 Spooky-season romance
💌 My Best Friend’s Wedding energy
🥂 Upper East Side Gossip Girl vibes
🔮 A little magic
💕 Female friendship and family dynamics
🔥 And, naturally, yearning
In other words, your fall TBR has an opening.
Find Katie Jung
Follow @katiejungwrites on social media for book updates, release news, and details about Katie’s upcoming events and mini book tour.
She’ll also be celebrating the release with events in Syracuse and a stop at The Ripped Bodice in Brooklyn, with additional appearances planned through the fall.
Learn more at KatieJung.com.
Join the Conversation
What romance book would you hand someone who swears they “don’t read romance”?
And more importantly:
What book has the best yearning?
We need names.
Listen & Follow Genre’d
Listen to the full Off Book conversation with Katie Jung wherever you get your podcasts.
Follow @genredpodcast on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube for more author interviews, book reviews, recommendations, and extremely necessary conversations about fictional people.
Read widely. Judge freely.
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