Work · Lit Check

Recommendations from people whose taste you already admire.

Readers trusted Reese’s Book Club to help them find their next story. Through the Reese’s Book Club × Apple Books partnership, I helped turn that audience insight into Lit Check: a recurring editorial series pairing trusted voices with personal audiobook recommendations.

Belief

Taste is one of the strongest forms of storytelling.

Emily Henry seated on the Lit Check set, surrounded by the production team and camera equipment. — Behind the scenes with Emily Henry · Photo: Carly Sharp

My role

Editorial Strategy
Creative Direction
Series Development
Talent Strategy
Creative Production
Interview Development
Production Management
Partnership Marketing
Author & Talent Relations
Cross-functional Leadership

The Idea

One thing we heard from our book club community all the time was, “What should I read after this month’s pick?” We loved that question because it meant people weren’t just reading one book with us every month—they trusted Reese’s Book Club to help them discover what came next.

Some of my favorite conversations about books aren’t really about the book at all. They’re about the person recommending it and the story behind why it mattered to them. We wanted to create more opportunities for discovery by sharing recommendations from trusted voices across the Hello Sunshine family and inviting our community into their reading lives.

Enter Lit Check. Instead of asking someone to promote a book, we asked them to share the audiobooks they genuinely loved, the stories they’d recommend to a friend, and the books that had stayed with them long after they finished listening.

Great recommendations feel less like marketing—and more like a friend saying, You have to read this.

The Voices

Four readers. Four points of view. No copy-and-paste format.

Every person brought something different because we weren’t trying to make four versions of the same episode. We wanted readers to discover recommendations through different genres, lived experiences, and communities.

Riley Keough · Photo: Carly Sharp

Actor · Storyteller · Reader

Riley Keough

Fresh off Daisy Jones & The Six and the release of From Here to the Great Unknown, Riley felt like the perfect bridge between books and entertainment. We wanted to spotlight her as an actress, storyteller, and reader whose recommendations carried the same thoughtfulness she brings to her work.

From Here to the Great Unknown · Photo: Carly Sharp

Emily Henry · Photo: Carly Sharp

Romance author · Trusted recommender

Emily Henry

Emily has become one of the defining voices in romance, with multiple adaptations on the horizon. Readers already trust her taste, so inviting her to recommend the books she loves felt like giving book lovers even more of what they were already asking for.

I’m a romance girlie, so after the shoot, I went home and read every single book on her recommendation list.

Inside the Apple Books shelf · Photo: Carly Sharp

Ashley Elston with First Lie Wins · Photo: Carly Sharp

Thriller author · Devoted genre reader

Ashley Elston

Thriller readers are just as voracious as romance readers, and after First Lie Wins became one of Reese’s Book Club’s biggest thrillers, Ashley was the perfect person to spotlight the genre.

One of my favorite moments was hearing her tell the story behind why she recommends Finlay Donovan Is Killing It because by the end of it I immediately wanted to read it too.

The Midnight Feast on audio · Photo: Carly Sharp

Nadia Caterina Munno · Photo: Lexus Gallegos

The Pasta Queen · Memoir reader

Nadia Munno

Nadia gave us something completely different. Better known as The Pasta Queen, she introduced memoirs into the series and helped balance the recommendations beyond fiction.

It also gave us a chance to reach a lifestyle audience who might not have expected to discover their next audiobook through someone they already followed for recipes.

A recommendation with a side of pasta · Photo: Lexus Gallegos

Behind the Production

This project taught me so much about creative production because it was the first time I’d been involved in a shoot from beginning to end. I was scouting locations, securing releases, contracting photographers, managing production budgets, routing approvals, representing Apple on set, reviewing edits, and helping shape every episode from the first brainstorm all the way through final delivery. What I remember most, though, are the first and last shoots because together they bookend the whole experience.

Jane K Lee and her creative partner taking a mirror photo while scouting The Bowery Hotel the night before Riley Keough’s shoot. — The night before Riley’s shoot at The Bowery Hotel · Personal archive

First shoot · New York

For Riley’s shoot, my creative partner and I flew into New York late the night before, dropped our bags at the hotel, and headed straight to The Bowery Hotel to walk the space and figure out how everything would come together the next morning.

There were definitely nerves because we’d never done something quite like this before, but there was also this excitement of thinking, okay…I think we can actually pull this off.

Jane K Lee and Emily Henry smiling together while reviewing a phone during filming. — Filming with Emily Henry in Los Angeles · Photo: Carly Sharp

Last shoot · Los Angeles

By the time we got to Emily Henry’s shoot, everything felt different. We knew our rhythm. We knew how to stage the Books app on camera, how to coach talent through the format, and how to make the recommendations feel natural.

It felt less like figuring it out and more like getting to enjoy the process we’d spent months building. We started by hoping the idea would work, and by the end we knew exactly what kind of series we were creating.

I love bringing a vision to life with the right people.

What Stayed With Me

There's so much editorial thinking that goes into building something like this. It starts with one observation—our community wanted more recommendations—and then every decision after that becomes an exercise in taste. Who should we invite? What genres are we missing? What questions will lead to the most interesting stories? How do we make each episode feel true to the person instead of forcing everyone into the same format?

I also got to experience a side of creative production that was completely new to me. Watching an idea move from a brainstorm into creative briefs, production schedules, location scouts, shoot days, edits, client reviews, and eventually seeing the series featured on People alongside the talent we’d worked with felt surreal.

More than anything, Lit Check reminded me how much I love bringing a vision to life with the right people. Projects like this only work because everyone brings something different to the table, and when there’s a clear purpose behind what you’re making, every creative decision gets stronger. The recommendations weren’t just lists of books—they were stories about why those books mattered to each woman. Giving them the space to share that perspective made the recommendations feel like they came from a friend, which was exactly the point.

Emily Henry and Jane K Lee smiling together after the Lit Check shoot. — With Emily Henry after filming · Photo: Carly Sharp