What inspired WE ARE THE MATCH

by Mary E. Roach

WE ARE THE MATCH is a modern, sapphic reimagining of the myth of Helen of Troy, set against a backdrop of escalating violence between rival crime families. 

There are so many stories about Helen, and she’s a character that is talked about in so many different types of media, and talked over, so often. She’s the face that launched a thousand ships. She’s a woman who makes the fateful choice to leave, in some versions. She’s a woman kidnapped, in others. 

But I wanted to know who Helen would be, in solely the female gaze. Most of the characters in WE ARE THE MATCH are women, though there are certainly exceptions, both in the antagonists and the allies. But ultimately, Helen’s father and fiancé are both secondary characters, and Helen takes center stage, next to Paris—who, in this reimagining, is also a woman. 

This book is many things—it’s a love story, of course. It could be categorized as a romantic suspense, even. It’s action-packed and thrilling. But ultimately, for me, the why behind this story, the inspiration for it, was: who is the most beautiful woman in the world, who does she become, when the way we see her changes? 

The answer, for me, was someone powerful. Someone dangerous. Someone desperate, even. Because how desperate do you have to be to leave queenhood behind? Helen thinks her power lies in her desirability, in propping up her father’s reign and remaining complicit in the violence he inflicts. Something that her connection with Paris teaches her is the source of her power, and how to inhabit it more fully. 

Beyond the larger themes exploring power, complicity, and the female gaze, I found inspiration on the personal level. As a queer person engaged to a woman, someone who is visibly queer, our relationship is powerful, resilient against violence the way that Paris and Helen are. 

Who do we become, I asked these characters, when we have to survive the unthinkable? Who do we become, I asked them, when we love each other anyway? 

I didn’t know my wife-to-be when I first drafted this novel back in 2019, but I did know her when I revised it, and knowing her transformed my understanding of these characters, this story, all of it in a way that ultimately transformed their love story. There is a version of this book, a draft that exists, in which there is no HEA (happily ever after) for Paris and Helen. 

And then I met my wife, and I figured out how to give Helen of Troy the happily ever after that she’s so often robbed of. 

(This isn’t a spoiler, by the way—WE ARE THE MATCH is a romance novel, and all romance novels have HEAs or HFNs; it’s a core component of the genre, even if people like to argue about it). 

Ultimately, this book was a cathartic exploration of female power and how to fully inhabit our own—and it is a love letter to my wife, to whom the book is dedicated. If you are a woman reading this, I hope this novel proves cathartic to you, too. And if you are a queer person reading this, I hope you know I wrote this one for us.  

—

Mary E. Roach is a former teacher who now writes romantic, thrilling stories for all ages.

When she is not writing stories for and about powerful women, Mary enjoys running, teaching martial arts, and disappearing into the wilderness. Mary lives in St. Paul with her partner and their very disagreeable cat, Lulu.

WE ARE THE MATCH

Two women in love and in danger. Mob families at war. An explosive and enthralling contemporary reimagining of the Helen of Troy myth set against the splendor of the Grecian islands.

Paris is a fixer for mob families on the Grecian islands when a powerful crime lord hires her to investigate a bombing. Insinuating herself into Zarek’s circle is the chance for revenge that Paris has been waiting for since she was a child. Years ago, Zarek wiped out everyone she loved. Now it’s Paris’s turn. Her target? Zarek’s beautiful daughter, Helen.

Helen wants nothing more than to abandon the violent world in which she was raised―and worse, an arranged marriage to a man she barely knows. In Paris, Helen sees the perfect tool to help her escape. And in Helen, Paris sees a desperate woman who will be the perfect revenge. As the two work together to find the bomber, and their connection becomes increasingly intimate, Zarek’s empire grows more fragile and their own bonds of loyalty and purpose are tested.

When murder sends them fleeing to Troy, danger only brings Paris and Helen closer together―in love, in fury, and in the will to survive. If Zarek wants a war, Paris and Helen are ready to ignite it.

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Tags: featured, women writers

Category: On Writing