Expect a story about friendship and falling in love in
What was the inspiration behind your most recent book?
I’ve always been a huge fangirl (and still am!), so I felt particularly drawn to working fandom into my next YA romance. I love a trope too, so it was fun to play around with a few of those in "The Fangirl Project." Plus, I got to have a lot of fun creating a fake fantasy series for the characters to be fans of!
What does Reading Rainbow mean to you?
To me, Reading Rainbow is all about celebrating diversity on all levels — the everyday, the major moments, and everything in between. It’s about seeing yourself with confidence and in the comfort of the pages of a book and being able to share that with people.
Why do you feel diversity is so important when it comes to writing books?
Stories are such a vital way we all connect — with each other, an experience, a particular feeling — and inclusivity and representation are an important part of that. Romance books in particular are such a great, comforting, safe way to process something — they always have a sense of hope to offer. Offering diverse viewpoints is also an important way to help other people see from a new perspective, even if the main character in a book isn’t someone they can directly relate to. We should all get to feel seen, somehow. (For instance, I have a motor disability that affects my hands. I was often told by classmates it “wasn’t a real disability,” but then Doctor Strange came out and I got to see my tremor reflected in the mainstream, and people around me finally understand it better. It was such a small thing, but felt huge to me!)
Tell us a little more about the book and why you decided to write it.
"The Fangirl Project" is all about Cerys and her mission to prove to her long-time crush and best friend Jake that she’s the perfect fangirl — and therefore his perfect girlfriend. She feels their friendship is threatened by his new bestie, cosplayer and hardcore fandom nerd Max; she’s struggling to fit in at a new school, and dealing with her parents’ ongoing divorce. Cerys approaches fandom with quite a judgmental lens at first, but learns to love it all and find community in it — and find herself in the process. (And a swoon-worthy romance, of course!) As the resident weird kid at school, I heard a lot of the things Cerys thinks about fandom, so it was fun to bring her through to the other side and become a true fangirl!
What can fans expect from your book?
A fun, lighthearted, sweet read all about the joys of being a fangirl! It’s a story about fandom, friendship, and falling in love.
What's up next for you in the bookish world?
My next adult rom-com (The Layover) will publish in the US in December. It’s about three strangers on their way to break up the same destination wedding. I’m working on some edits for my next YA romance, and I’m also in the middle of a bit of a passion project for a witchy rom-com I hope to publish! As if my TBR pile wasn’t keeping me busy enough, haha!
