TJ Alexander’s Newest Queer Holiday Romance

Imagine a formulaic, Hallmark-esque holiday romance: a big-city, career-minded person returns to their tiny hometown for the holidays and falls in love with a local restaurant owner, a turn of fate that changes both of their lives for the better.

But make the main character a late-30s trans man named Eli Ward and the local restaurant owner his childhood friend turned high school ex-boyfriend, Nick Wu. Weave in tidbits of modern queer culture, witty, descriptive writing, and emotionally raw, intimate moments that provide a glimpse into the transgender experience, and you have TJ Alexander’s (they/them) newest book, Second Chances in New Port Stephen.

Luckily for those who crave cheesy meet-cutes, fake dating disasters, and enemies-to-lovers tropes, Alexander, author of Chef’s Kiss, Chef’s Choice, and Triple Sec, is a queer romance icon. The trans, nonbinary author is singlehandedly crafting diverse queer fiction where nonbinary, transgender, and even polyamorous relationships take the stage while fulfilling quirky rom-com storylines.

New Port Stephen, which goes on sale on December 5, takes meet-cutes (or “remeet-cutes,” as Alexander says) to a whole new level. Eli and Nick’s fortuitous meeting in the sparkling aisle of a liquor store (20-something years after their devastating breakup in high school) is a shopping cart collision inspired by the author’s hometown. And with devastatingly accurate depictions of small-town, rural life, it’s instantly clear Alexander adhered to the age-old adage “write what you know.”

“I come from a small town in South Florida, the kind of place where if you go to one of the four Super Walmarts at two in the morning, you will run into somebody you’ve been to high school with, kind of place,” they reflect, sharing the inspiration for the book’s rural Florida backdrop.

“But I was thinking, wouldn’t it be funny if I started running into some of the old people I used to know, that I grew up with or went to school with? And I had this strange idea of ‘Oh, what if I ran into any exes, wouldn’t that be a hoot,’ because these are people that I’ve lost touch with, and obviously things are very different with me,” they explain. “That’s the kernel of the idea that New Port Stephen came out of.”

The 333-page book flips between Eli and Nick’s perspectives, letting the reader peek into the minds of both characters as they reconnect through runs on the beach and paddle-boarding escapades while they rehash high school memories and dismiss budding romantic feelings.

“From Eli’s perspective, growing up in this town is a real head spinner,” Alexander says. “You know you’re growing up, you know something is wrong. You’re not 100% sure what it is, or how to tell somebody, and you’re not sure where you’re going to get help. And you know that it has something to do with being gay or some flavor of queer.

“And so you’re just sort of desperate for any small scrap of queerness that you can find out in the world that might be able to tell you what is happening,” they add. “And you’re not going to get all your answers because it’s 1990-something, and the internet is a baby, and you don’t know any out queer people in real life … That was my experience, and I borrowed on that for Eli’s backstory.”

Alexander’s favorite scene in the book is Eli and Nick’s outing to the only gay club in New Port Stephen, an adventure inspired by the author’s trip to a tiny gay club in their hometown.

“It was so many kinds of queer people and so weird in the extremely dated fashion and extremely dated music choices,” they laugh. “You know the conversation (Eli and Nick) have with the bouncer where Eli is convinced it’s some sort of theme night because everything is so retro… word for word stolen from what happened to us that night.”

The author’s humorous, relatable, and easy-to-read writing style makes the book a definite holiday read. But under the cloak of sarcasm and romantic misadventures, Alexander explores themes of trans identity and the struggle of coming out when you’re middle-aged.

“Nick is the ‘straight’ guy that Eli dated in high school, and he’s sort of coming to terms with maybe not being as straight as everyone had assumed … I think his experiences, as a cis man of color, specifically a Taiwanese-American man, mirrors Eli’s experience as a white trans man,” Alexander says. “Obviously they’re not exactly the same, but I think that there are so many commonalities between the experiences of people who have been largely ignored by society or by media.”

“There’s a lot of strength in recognizing that in each other and being like, oh, okay, actually there is a lot of stuff that we can do together or that we need to do together,” they continue. “I think that the love story between Nick and Eli is kind of a beautiful metaphor for that—that we can love each other even though there is a portion of the world that is not loving us.”

Second Chances in New Port Stephen can be preordered here.

Photo courtesy of the author