Happy to welcome Jessica Guerrieri to the blog this week to chat about her debut novel, Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea
Author Name: Jessica Guerrieri
Book Title: Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea
Book Genre: Women’s Fiction
Release Date: May 13, 2025
Publisher: Harper Muse
Welcome, Jessica! Please tell us a bit about Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea.
It’s a gut-punch disguised as a beach read. A story about motherhood, addiction, and
the quiet unraveling that happens when a woman loses herself while trying to hold
everyone else together.
What drew you to writing contemporary women’s fiction?
Because it’s not just women’s fiction—it’s the emotional undercurrent of real life. It’s the text thread between sisters, the internal monologue at school pickup, the whispered
confessions that never make it into holiday cards. Writing in this space lets me tell the
truth about what women carry, what we bury, and what it costs to pretend we’re fine.
Fans of which authors might gravitate toward your book?
Readers who love Claire Lombardo, Celeste Ng, or Liane Moriarty might find something familiar here—especially if they’re drawn to stories about complicated women, emotional landmines, and the quiet tensions that simmer beneath family life. I’d also include Sarah Damoff, whose debut The Bright Years powerfully explores the cost of
alcoholism on a family. We recently connected through The Book Gang podcast with
Amy Allen Clark and have since developed a friendship—her writing is raw, honest, and
deeply affecting.
How long did it take for you to write the book? Did you do any research?
Door to door, I started writing Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea in October of
2020, and it was published on May 13, 2025—which, in the publishing world, is lightning
fast. The first draft poured out of me in nine months—like some sort of emotional
exorcism—but the “crappy first draft” was exactly that. It took hundreds and hundreds of
hours of writing and rewriting to find the right balance of poetic prose and accessible
book club fiction—the kind of language that hits emotionally without sounding
overworked.
Research-wise, I pulled mostly from lived experience: sobriety, motherhood, grief, the sticky gray area between coping and collapse. I interviewed Emily Dilbeck, a very talented artist and painter, whose insights helped shape a character in the book. And if you count two solo trips to Half Moon Bay as “market research” (which I absolutely do), that counts too. I also spent a lot of time rereading my old journals… which should probably come with a trigger warning.
Thank you, Jessica! Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea is out NOW.
Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea
Leah O’Connor is torn between the life she’s currently living and the allure of a phantom life that can no longer be hers.
Swept off her feet by the gentle charm of Lucas O’Connor, Leah’s unexpected pregnancy changes the course of her carefree and nomadic existence. Over a decade and three children later, Leah is unraveling. She resents the world in which her artistic aspirations have been sidelined by the overwhelming demands of motherhood, and the ever-present rift between herself and her mother-in-law, Christine, is best dulled by increasingly fuller glasses of wine.
Christine represents a model of selfless motherhood that Leah can neither achieve nor accept. To heighten the strain, Lucas’s business venture, a trendy restaurant that honors his mother, has taken all his attention, which places the domestic demands squarely on Leah’s shoulders. Seeking an ally in her sweet sister-in-law Amy, Leah shares a secret that, if made known to the wider family, could disrupt the curated ecosystems that keep the O’Connors connected.
As Leah dances with the devil while descending further into darkness, her behavior becomes more erratic and further alienates her from both Lucas and the wider family. Leah’s drinking threatens the welfare of her family, prompting Amy to turn to Christine for support. A duel for loyalty ensues. When the inevitable waves come crashing down, it’s the O’Connor women who give Leah a lifeline: the truth of what they’ve all endured. But Leah alone must uncover the villain of her own story, learn how to ask for help, and decide if the family she has rejected will be her salvation or ultimate undoing.
This masterful blend of book club and literary women’s fiction offers a frank rebuttal to Wine Mom culture and is perfect for fans of Celeste Ng and Liane Moriarty.
Author Bio:
Originally from the Bay Area, Jessica Guerrieri lives in Davis, California, with her husband and three young daughters. Jessica has a background teaching special education but left the field to pursue a career in writing. Her debut novel, Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea, won the Maurice Prize for Fiction from her alma mater, UC Davis. With over a decade of sobriety, Jessica is a fierce advocate for addiction recovery. Connect with her online at jessicaguerrieri.net; Instagram: jessicaguerrieriauthor; X: @witandspitup; TikTok: @jessstayssober.