Andrea Thome

Andrea Thome is an award-winning American author, former broadcast journalist, and the wife of Baseball Hall of Famer Jim Thome. Known for her emotionally rich fiction set against the backdrop of small-town America, Andrea has built a devoted readership with novels that blend romance, family, and the search for belonging. She is not to be confused with Andrea Thome the playwright — this Andrea Thome is the bestselling author whose books have earned critical acclaim and national literary awards.

Broadcasting Career

Andrea's writing career followed a successful run in television news. She began as a sports reporter for a Cleveland television station, where she covered professional sports and developed the storytelling instincts that would later define her fiction. She went on to anchor both sports and news broadcasts for Ohio network affiliates before stepping away from broadcasting to focus on writing and family. Her transition from the newsroom to the novelist's desk brought the same disciplined work ethic and eye for narrative detail that made her a compelling on-air presence.

Novels and Awards

Her debut novel, Walland, launched the Hesse Creek Series — a trilogy set in the mountains of East Tennessee that follows intertwining love stories across a luxury resort community. Walland won the prestigious Ben Franklin Award and a NAIA (National Award for Independent Authors) honor, with Kirkus Reviews calling it an enjoyably readable love story with quirky wit. The series continued with Seeds of Intention and concluded with House of Belonging, each book deepening the world Andrea created and earning enthusiastic praise from readers and book clubs nationwide. Andrea followed the Hesse Creek Series with Mine Again, the first book in her Sunflower Series, which explores new characters and settings while maintaining the warmth and emotional intelligence her readers have come to expect.

Personal Life

Beyond her fiction, Andrea is recognized for her involvement in the literary community and her connection to professional sports through her marriage to Jim Thome, who was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 2018 after a 22-year career that included 612 home runs. The couple previously lived in the Chicago suburbs in Burr Ridge and have been featured together in publications including West Suburban Living. Andrea currently resides in the Chicago area, where she is at work on three new manuscripts.

The Portrait

This branding portrait by Michael Schacht — black off-shoulder attire, vintage typewriter, stacked books on a reclaimed-wood desk — is a lifestyle composition designed to capture Andrea's world as a storyteller. The visual language is intentional: the typewriter speaks to craft and permanence, the books to a growing body of work, and the elegant styling to the polished yet approachable voice that defines her writing. It is a portrait of an author at the height of her creative output, rooted in the discipline of putting words on the page.