Romantic novelist, the writer embraced by a couple, contrarily (5)
I believe the answer is:
ouida
'romantic novelist' is the definition.
(pseudonym of English novelist Maria Louise Ram)
'writer embraced by a couple contrarily' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'writer' could be 'i' (the person who is writing these clues) and 'i' is found in the answer.
'a' is present in the answer.
The remaining letters 'oud' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't understand.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
'the' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for ouida that I've seen before include "Pseudonymous novelist" , "Woman novelist" , "She wrote" , "'Under Two Flags' authoress" , "WRITER" .)