As someone who can suffer with their mobility, especially during my time through school, I really appreciated a female lead character that had a health issue that affected her mobility, and I only wished I’d have had access to this whilst I was in secondary school! I feel it’s important to shed light on characters that other teens can relate to that may not be as prominent in other works, and also some of the issues discussed with other characters opens up the bounds even more. Little do they know they've already discovered each other online, and have more in common than they think . . . About This Edition ISBN: Again, unable to walk, Ireland returned to writing with a new perspective. Reflecting on how her disability had affected her health, Ireland took inspiration from her life to craft a teenage protagonist with arthritis—and, slowly, what would become The First Move started to take shape. “Living with arthritis for so long, it was a no-brainer for me to have a disabled female character as my lead,” Ireland says. Teenage heroes Jenny began writing in the sleep-deprived days after Rory was born, and got more serious about it in 2017 when she did a writing course with the literary agency, Curtis Brown.

For Jenny Ireland, pain from arthritis has been part of life for 13 years. But now the Northern Irish author has tapped into that, as Juliet—the teenage protagonist in her début novel The First Move—suffers from the same condition she does. With this goal in mind, she wrote Juliet, a teenage wallflower with arthritis who doesn’t believe she is worthy of romance. Although Ireland wasn’t diagnosed with arthritis until her twenties, the writer empathises with what it would have been like to live with the disease as a teenager. “They have my respect,” she says of teenagers living with disabilities. “It’s hard enough being [that age] without adding on top of it. Any teenager going into school with that something extra is a hero.” I don’t freak out about the tiny things any more. I’m more inclined to go for it and write about what I want I was a bit less enthused by the romance. Renia questions whether Miles loves the real her or whether he’s just reacting to his old crush on her 16-year-old self, and I must say, I questioned that at times. Also, although Miles was pitch-perfect most of the time, always being very accepting of Rey’s past and her current issues, there was that fight at the end, which seemed to show that deep down, he wasn’t quite as accepting as all that. I’m in two minds about that. On one hand, I liked seeing he wasn’t quite perfect, but on the other, that might have come a bit too late in the book, and he didn’t quite redeem himself from what I felt was a really mean, almost unforgivable thing to say.

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Editorial director Carmen McCullough acquired “binge-worthy” summer thriller Liar’s Beach by Katie Cutugno, securing UK and Commonwealth rights from Jocelyn Lange at Random House US. Described as “a high-stakes YA thriller full of secrets, lies, privileged teens and beach parties”, it is out in May 2023. I was thinking about how I would have felt in that position as I was so incredibly self-conscious at school and mortified by everything,” says Jenny. “I think young people dealing with anything extra in school are heroes because it's already hard enough being a teenager.” A new kid called Ronan arrives locally who is good-looking and smart and acts like he's cooler than everyone else. Juliet doesn't realise that she has already encountered him online as he also plays chess. It's his escape as he is plagued by guilt over what happened to his brother Ciaran. In a “whatever-doesn’t-kill-you way”, Ireland credits her encephalitis with giving her the confidence to write about chronic illness. “[Since my surgery,] I don’t freak out about the tiny things any more. I’m more inclined to go for it and write about what I want.”

Little do they know they've already discovered each other online, and have more in common than they think . . .

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During the period around her first diagnosis, after having studied French law, Ireland worked as a paralegal. “It wasn’t the career for an anxious person,” she tells me over Zoom from Belfast. Ireland quit law after getting married and starting a family. But just weeks after each of her two children were born, she suffered months-long arthritis flare-ups that left her unable to walk. Bedridden and home with young children, Ireland began writing. I would love it if my kids grew up reading stories of kids their ages with disabilities and chronic illnesses Here’s a spoiler. Real life doesn’t work like that. Real life is a first kiss with way too much saliva, with someone you barely know, behind the sports hall at breaktime. Your best friend is keeping lookout and whispering that you’re taking too long, when you’re only trying to figure out a polite way of stopping the slushy horror show. Real life is your other best friend doing way more than kissing, with someone else, at the same time, a few metres away. The writer is married to Chris, whom she met at school and began dating at 19. They have two children, Lyla (9) and Rory (8), and Jenny’s arthritis went away during pregnancy. While research is still ongoing, one theory is that the mother's immune system changes to prevent rejection of the foetus, which also decreases pain and inflammation. Ronan is the new kid: good looking, smart, a bad boy plagued by guilt over what happened to his brother Ciaran. Chesslife is his escape. Take a Look at Our Summary of November Highlights, Whether You're Looking for the Latest Releases or Gift Inspiration

Although the hospital experience can be called traumatic, for Ireland, recovery was the hardest part. In the six weeks after leaving hospital, she could barely walk and her short-term memory noticeably suffered. She gained two stone in body weight from her required steroid medication. In just over a month, her entire appearance changed. Ireland says: “I hated that [the weight gain] bothered me, but it did. I had been put through all that and I didn’t even look like myself any more.”Juliet believes girls like her – girls with arthritis – don’t get their own love stories. She exists at the edges of her friends’ social lives, skipping parties to play online chess under a pseudonym with strangers around the world. There, she isn’t just ‘the girl with crutches’.Ronan is the new kid: good looking, smart, a bad boy plagued by guilt over what happened to his brother Ciaran. Chesslife is his escape; there, he’s not just ‘the boy with the brother’.Juliet thinks Ronan thinks someone like Ronan could never be interested in someone like her – and she wouldn’t want him to be anyway because he always acts like he’s cooler than everyone else. Whereas, Ronan thinks life is already too complicated for dating and just wants to keep his head down at school.Little do they know they’ve already discovered each other online, and have more in common than they think . . . The First Move by Jenny Ireland – eBook Details But Ireland’s real-life inspiration didn’t stop there. Her husband had always been a chess fanatic and had tried to spark her interest in the game for years. After they watched “Magnus”, the 2016 documentary about Norwegian chess grandmaster Magnus Carlsen, she was finally hooked. After learning the game, Ireland saw chess as the perfect setting for a will-they-won’t-they romance. She wrote Juliet a love interest, Ronan, who she would meet through an online chess game. In the novel, the pair fall in love without realising they know—and hate—each other in real life. Making her move A Dark Inheritance, a mystery saga by British author H F Askwith was also acquired by Colthurst. World rights were signed from James Wills at Watson Little. The book will be released in January 2023.

Previously announced acquisitions for Penguin’s 2023 YA offering include the newly titled queer love story Straight Expectations by writer, presenter and LGBTQI+ advocate Calum McSwiggan, alongside Yorkshire=set coming-of-age drama Good For Nothing by Mariam Ansar. My favourite thing about the writing process is the first draft, where you can just get it all out and see what it is. I find that part so exciting! My least favourite thing is probably coming up with plot. I love people, with all their various quirks, and could think about characters all day. Plot on the other hand… What are you working on now? Both instantly engaging and finely nuanced, The First Move is a YA romance with real-life resonance and uplifting vibes. Always honest on the realities of living with a long-term condition and mental health struggles, it’s also happy-making, wholesome, and a whole lot of fun, with well-developed characters readers will root for and relate to. You know which movies are the worst? The ones set at Christmas. Teenagers with above-average good looks, festive jumpers and mistletoe, Tiffany boxes and fake snow, wrapped up with perfect smug smiles.It's a really bad time to come across Miles Brislenn again. Miles was a shy kid who went to the same school as her, and he had a huge crush on her. He recognises her the minute he sees her, but Renia has no idea who he is. She only knows he calls her Rey, so he must know her from her worst times. But as things come to a head with her daughter, Miles becomes a surprising source of support. Juliet believes girls like her - girls with arthritis - don't get their own love stories. She exists at the edges of her friends' social lives, skipping parties to play online chess under a pseudonym with strangers around the world. There, she isn't just 'the girl with crutches'.