About the Book:
Love, rivarly…orcs?
Misfit and hardcore fangirl Anissa is finally coming out of her shell. She’s leading a tabletop role-play game with friends, is officially part of the group chat with the girls from college, and she’s managed to bag work experience on the set of her favourite TV show, ‘Of Wrath and Rune’. Things couldn’t be going better. . .
That’s until she meets Callum, the hot new actor behind her favourite character on OWAR, and gets totally starstruck. Only Callum writes her off as an obsessive fangirl and now working on set is about to be very awkward. So much for meet your heroes – now he’s her worst enemy.
Battling her newfound friendships, her rivalry-turned-maybe-something-more with Callum, and the occasional fictional orc, Anissa’s about to realise that sometimes getting lost in the fantasy isn’t always what it’s cracked up to be…
Find this book on Goodreads and Bookshop.org UK (affiliate link).
About the Author:
Beth Reekles is the author of the bestselling YA series The Kissing Booth (now also a hit trilogy on Netflix) alongside several other rom-com novels. Her tenth book and debut adult novel Love, Locked Down was published in 2022. A self-confessed nerd and rom-com fan, she is now a full-time author and shares movie reviews on her Instagram.
Interview:
Pitch your book in 10 words!
A fun, nerdy enemies-to-lovers romcom for fangirls!
What do you think is the most important thing in crafting a truly believable and gripping enemies-to-lovers romance like Callum and Anissa’s?
Snark and banter are essential, but I also think that animosity needs to come from both sides for an enemies to lovers romance to feel truly gripping… Especially since it usually means both characters are free to be their ‘worst’ selves around each other. There’s something magical about falling in love with someone when that’s what you see first, and uncovering all the good parts afterwards, instead of having to put your best foot forward then try to stay ‘perfect’.
One of the big obstacles in the book is Callum’s celebrity, and the way fandom interacts with and blurs the line between the actors they love, the characters they idolise, and the real people in their lives. Why did you want to explore this darker parasocial side of fandom?
Social media is such a huge part of everyday life now, and with so much immediate access to people you’d never otherwise interact with – especially celebrities – those lines between ‘interesting famous person’ and ‘another friend on my feed’ get blurry fast. I find it fascinating; I’m so interested in social media as a whole. Plus, it’s sad to see that so many people feel comfortable leaving cruel or callous comments on social media – not to be constructive, but just to be unkind, forgetting that there’s another human being on the other side of the screen. It was interesting to be able to explore some of that with Callum and Anissa in this book!
We absolutely loved the way Anissa processes her feelings about Callum through her FanFics and the group TTRPG, just as Cerys did in DO YOU SHIP IT with art and Fanfic. What do you think makes fandom such a creative and important safespace?
For me it’s that connection you build to a character, and the community you can find there. You might be going through a hard time but be able to really relate to a fictional character’s struggles, feel a bond and kinship with them you struggle to access in real life – maybe simply because whatever’s going on is something that’s difficult for you to talk about, or put into words. But having that medium of fanfic or fandom to help guide you through, or connect you to other people who love the same thing you do and help build your confidence, creativity… It’s so brilliant and so important. Plus, with things like fanfic or fanart, the barrier to entry is so much lower if you find something like writing an intimidating idea – you already have characters and a world to play with and build from, to help you flex those creative muscles and build new skills!
Would you be a Silversmith shipper or a Silvermoon shipper?
Silvermoon! I’m a sucker for enemies to lovers!
Over the course of the book, Anissa is diagnosed with ADHD and her experiences really chimed with us. What drew you to write a neurodivergent lead?
A lot of what Anissa is dealing with on that front is from my own experience. (I remember the first time I learnt about time blindness and hyperfocus, things started to make a LOT of sense to me about how my brain worked haha!) When I was editing DYSI, I noticed that Anissa went from very quiet and reserved at college to being incredibly animated once she was ‘allowed’ to talk to someone about something that she was really interested in, and realised that I’d naturally already written her as neurodivergent without necessarily intending to. I didn’t want to leave that part of her story out now she’s the main character. She deserved to have her whole story told!
FOR REAL THIS TIME expands the lore of Or Wrath and Ruin, the IP the fandom has formed around. Who is your favourite OWAR character? Would you ever be tempted to write Of Wrath and Ruin?
Oh, I’m definitely tempted haha! There are a few chapters already lurking on my computer, I think it would be such a fun world to explore if I ever got the chance – especially since I love character-driven narrative, and dip into sweeping fantasy worlds with fanfic quite often! I do have a soft spot for Lady Adanna’s devoted guard Devon, but I think Rogdan is my favourite – scrappy, no-nonsense, and I reckon he’d be good comic relief too!
Please recommend a UKYA book you think readers will love.
THE END CROWNS ALL*, by Bea Fitzgerald
Thank you, Beth!
*Affiliate link
#UKYASpotlight 
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