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M.L. Rio

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M.L. Rio

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December 2011

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M. L. Rio is an author, but before she was an author she was an actor, and before she was an actor she was just a word nerd whose best friends were books. She holds a master's degree in Shakespeare Studies from King's College London and Shakespeare's Globe and a PhD in English from the University of Maryland, College Park. ...more

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M.L. Rio I wish it were that simple! The characters, in their earliest iterations, were the result of my asking myself, "If you were to walk into a room where …moreI wish it were that simple! The characters, in their earliest iterations, were the result of my asking myself, "If you were to walk into a room where a small Shakespearean troupe was rehearsing, what personalities would you inevitably encounter?" And the fourth-years are what, after about six months of outlining and character development, I had to work with. I didn't at any point stop and say, "No, this person can't have that trait or say that thing because it doesn't conform to their archetype," or "This is what this character must do or say to conform to their archetype" because real people don't have archetypes. They're much more complex than that; thus also to good fictional characters. (In IWWV there's actually quite a bit of conversation about the students being consistently typecast and why that's often problematic. The short answer is that expecting real human beings to fit neatly in character categories established by drama or literature doesn't work.)(less)
Average rating: 3.99 · 450,413 ratings · 85,695 reviews · 5 distinct worksSimilar authors
If We Were Villains

4.10 avg rating — 398,651 ratings — published 2017 — 77 editions
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Graveyard Shift

3.11 avg rating — 46,289 ratings — published 2024 — 24 editions
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In These Hallowed Halls: A ...

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3.36 avg rating — 3,401 ratings — published 2023 — 8 editions
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Hot Wax

3.43 avg rating — 2,089 ratings — published 2025 — 13 editions
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Countdown to Launch

Dear readers,

Today, we are two weeks away from Hot Wax pub day. It’s an exciting but incredibly busy time; if you’ve following me on social media, you’ve probably seen a lot of event announcements, some early reviews, and even some early swag. But I wanted to go ahead and send this reminder for those of you who are less chronically online.

The Hot Wax book tour starts one night early at the Stran

Read more of this blog post »
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Published on August 26, 2025 02:30

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M.L.’s Recent Updates

M.L. Rio wrote a new blog post

Countdown to Launch

Dear readers, Today, we are two weeks away from Hot Wax pub day. It’s an exciting but incredibly busy time; if you’ve following me on social media, yo Read more of this blog post »
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Hot Wax by M.L. Rio
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In These Hallowed Halls by Marie O'Regan
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Death Comes Too Late by Charles Ardai
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Death Valley by Melissa Broder
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Quotes by M.L. Rio  (?)
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“For someone who loved words as much as I did, it was amazing how often they failed me.”
M.L. Rio, If We Were Villains

“You can justify anything if you do it poetically enough.”
M.L. Rio, If We Were Villains

“Were you in love with him?'
'Yes,' I say, simply. James and I put each other through the kind of reckless passions Gwendolyn once talked about, joy and anger and desire and despair. After all that, was it really so strange? I am no longer baffled or amazed or embarrassed by it. 'Yes, I was.' It's not the whole truth. The whole truth is, I'm in love with him still.”
M.L. Rio, If We Were Villains

Polls

August 2017- Vote For 1, Top 2 Win

Everything, Everything Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon by Nicola Yoon
My disease is as rare as it is famous. Basically, I’m allergic to the world. I don’t leave my house, have not left my house in seventeen years. The only people I ever see are my mom and my nurse, Carla.
But then one day, a moving truck arrives next door. I look out my window, and I see him. He’s tall, lean and wearing all black—black T-shirt, black jeans, black sneakers, and a black knit cap that covers his hair completely. He catches me looking and stares at me. I stare right back. His name is Olly.
 
  2 votes 18.2%

Lab Girl Lab Girl by Hope Jahren by Hope Jahren
Lab Girl is a book about work, love, and the mountains that can be moved when those two things come together. It is told through Jahren’s stories: about her childhood in rural Minnesota with an uncompromising mother and a father who encouraged hours of play in his classroom’s labs; about how she found a sanctuary in science, and learned to perform lab work done “with both the heart and the hands”; and about the inevitable disappointments, but also the triumphs and exhilarating discoveries, of scientific work.
 
  2 votes 18.2%

The Little French Bistro The Little French Bistro by Nina George by Nina George
From the New York Times and internationally bestselling author of The Little Paris Bookshop, an extraordinary novel about self-discovery and new beginnings. Marianne is stuck in a loveless, unhappy marriage. After forty-one years, she has reached her limit, and one evening in Paris she decides to take action. Following a dramatic moment on the banks of the Seine, Marianne leaves her life behind and sets out for the coast of Brittany, also known as the end of the world.
 
  2 votes 18.2%

Time and Again Time and Again (Time, #1) by Jack Finney by Jack Finney
A story that will remain in the listener's memory, "Time and Again" is a remarkable blending of the troubled present and a nostalgic past, made vivid and extraordinarily moving by the images of a time that was...and perhaps still is.
 
  2 votes 18.2%

If We Were Villains If We Were Villains by M.L. Rio by M.L. Rio
Enter the players. There were seven of us then, seven bright young things with wide precious futures ahead of us. Until that year, we saw no further than the books in front of our faces. Part coming-of-age story, part confession, If We Were Villains explores the magical and dangerous boundary between art and life. In this tale of loyalty and betrayal, madness and ecstasy, the players must choose what roles to play before the curtain falls.
 
  1 vote 9.1%

Perfect Perfect by Rachel Joyce by Rachel Joyce
In 1972, two seconds were added to time. It was in order to balance clock time with the movement of the earth. Byron Hemming knew this because James Lowe had told him and James was the cleverest boy at school. But how could time change? The steady movement of hands around a clock was as certain as their golden futures.
 
  1 vote 9.1%

West of Sunset West of Sunset by Stewart O'Nan by Stewart O'Nan
A “rich, sometimes heartbreaking” (Dennis Lehane) novel of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s last years in Hollywood...

Fitzgerald’s orbit of literary fame and the Golden Age of Hollywood is brought vividly to life through the novel’s romantic cast of characters, from Dorothy Parker and Ernest Hemingway to Humphrey Bogart. A sympathetic and deeply personal portrait of a flawed man who never gave up in the end, even as his every wish and hope seemed thwarted, West of Sunset confirms O’Nan as “possibly our best working novelist”
 
  1 vote 9.1%

An Abundance of Katherines An Abundance of Katherines by John Green by John Green
Katherine V thought boys were gross
Katherine X just wanted to be friends
Katherine XVIII dumped him in an e-mail
K-19 broke his heart
When it comes to relationships, Colin Singleton's type happens to be girls named Katherine. And when it comes to girls named Katherine, Colin is always getting dumped. Nineteen times, to be exact.
 
  0 votes 0.0%

Swing Time Swing Time by Zadie Smith by Zadie Smith

Dazzlingly energetic and deeply human, Swing Time is a story about friendship and music and stubborn roots, about how we are shaped by these things and how we can survive them. Moving from northwest London to West Africa, it is an exuberant dance to the music of time.
 
  0 votes 0.0%

The Rules of Half The Rules of Half by Jenna Patrick by Jenna Patrick
The Rules of Half explores what it is to be an atypical family in a small town and to be mentally ill in the wake of a tragedy--and who has the right to determine both.
 
  0 votes 0.0%

11 total votes
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Topics Mentioning This Author

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Game Night: This topic has been closed to new comments. April challenge of the month - Boggle 102 176 May 03, 2017 04:31AM  
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“I switched to thoughts of the play. It was by far the healthiest item to concentrate on. Rehearsals were only days away; there is something wildly exciting about a company assembling for the first time on stage. There is also something strangely sexy about it. I can't pin it down, there just is.”
James Kirkwood, P.S. Your Cat Is Dead

“Hope is a desperate man's currency.”
Paul Tremblay, The Little Sleep

“People are islands,' she said. 'They don't really touch. However close they are, they're really quite separate. Even if they've been married for fifty years.”
Ian Fleming, Casino Royale

“Surround yourself with human beings, my dear James. They are easier to fight for than principles.”
Ian Fleming, Casino Royale

“In his mind he fingered the necklace of the days to come.”
Ian Fleming, Casino Royale

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