Julia Quinn wants to write happy endings as much as we want to read them

In this final episode of Season 3 of Kobo in Conversation, we spoke with Julia Quinn, author of the Bridgerton series of Regency romance novels. She told us about what it was like to see her characters come to life on-screen, and we asked her whether we'll eventually see a cinematic interpretation of a Smythe-Smith musicale.

Julia shared so many of her favourite books and authors with us:

• The Bobbsey Twins -- since Nancy Drew was more her sister's thing
• A Rose in Winter by Kathleen E. Woodiwiss as excerpted in a 1982 issue of Good Housekeeping
• Books written under the many pen names Eleanor Hibbert, including Victoria Holt, Jean Braidy, and Philippa Carr
• Sweet Dreams -- which swiftly rejected her manuscript when she tried writing for the series at the age of 16
  
• Judith McNaught -- to whom Julia's mother compared her early work disfavourably, stating "well, it's not Judith McNaught!" (Julia's mother denies this.)
• Vanessa Riley -- author of racially diverse Regency romance novels
• Miss Butterworth and the Mad Baron, the upcoming graphic novel and book-within-a-book (featuring talking penguins!) that Julia is co-writing with her sister
• Julie Ann Long -- "an unsung gem that I love"
• Last Days of Summer by Steve Kluger, which Julia calls "an epistolary novel that I adore"
• Lost in Place: Growing Up Absurd in Suburbia by Mark Salzman -- a story about Julia's alma mater, East Ridge High