About the Book:

How to Stop Time meets Thieves’ Gambit in this thrilling, romantic and witty supernatural YA novel.

Gracie was born into a secret community hidden within ordinary society: the Perpetuals. Her family are abnormally long-lived, resilient and fast-healing. But, it turns out, Gracie is mortal… which means she’s vulnerable.

When the truth emerges, her immortal boyfriend Arty dumps her.
Even worse, while her invincible peers embrace pulse-pounding extreme sports, Gracie’s parents prepare to wrap her in cotton wool.

Permitted ‘one last adventure’, Gracie heads on an international trip with her friends – though her hard-to-read ex, Arty, ends up joining them. And, as they reach New York, things take a dark turn…

Arty is hiding a dangerous secret that threatens to expose the whole Perpetual community. Could Gracie, a mortal girl, be the key to saving them all?

An original, romantic and high-stakes speculative novel from the author of Totally Deceased and Cloud Nine,
perfect for fans of Jennifer Lynn Barnes.
A secretive family of immortals hidden within the real world, like the Cullens in Twilight – plus a second-chance romance, the thrills of a life-threatening blackmail and heist plot, and international adventure across London, Paris, Norway and New York.

Find on Goodreads. Find on Bookshop.org UK (affiliate link).

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About the Author:

Sue H. Cunningham writes award-winning young adult fiction with humour and a hint of magic. She won the Dudley Teen Book Award 2025, the WriteMentor Children’s Novel Award 2020 and was an SCBWI Undiscovered Voices winner in 2022. She has also been shortlisted/longlisted for other awards including Northern Writers’, Bath Children’s Novel Award, Sussex Amazing Book Awards and Buckinghamshire Book Awards.

Her debut murder mystery, TOTALLY DECEASED, was published October 2023 and supernatural romcom CLOUD NINE followed in February 2025. Her third book, NEVERLAST, will publish in August 2026. She’s also sold more than fifty short stories to magazines in the UK, Australia, Sweden, Finland and South Africa.
Sue lives in Manchester with her husband, two sons and a super clingy cockapoo. When she’s not writing, or tripping over electric guitar cables and decapitated squeaky toys, she works for the NHS.

Instagram | TikTok

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Interview:

Pitch your book in 10 words!
This is really hard! I’m going to go with: Adrenaline junkie near-immortal suddenly learns she has human expiry date

Gracie and her friends love parkour. Why did you choose this sport as the thrill-seek they specialise in?
I wanted a sport which is accessible to ‘ordinary’ people but that can still be dangerous for risk takers – I got vertigo just researching some of those YouTube videos! I also liked the urban aspect of parkour which slotted in really well with my city scenes in London, Paris and New
York.

The Perpetuals can heal from any injury, but they don’t have any other superhero skills – such as super strength. Why did you want their only difference from us to be the ability to mend?
I love a hint of magic but I like to skate around the edges and stay within a recognisable contemporary setting. People are living much longer these days so my little genetic quirk allowing our Perpetuals to heal and live a long time didn’t seem too far into the realms of fantasy. I love superhero stuff but I didn’t want to stray into Marvel or Heroes territory (which they do so well). Also, I think having superhero skills allows characters more solutions and leeway for problem solving – I didn’t want to make life too easy for them!

Gracie’s discovery that she’s a Neverlast and not a Perpetual brings mortality crashing down on her and her circle. What do you hope readers take from Gracie’s journey through that realisation?
I’m a firm believer that life is short and precious and that we should make the most of every day (which I’ve recently realised is a bit of an ongoing theme in my books!). I hope that Gracie’s journey reminds readers that we shouldn’t waste time worrying about things we can’t change
and try instead to live our biggest and best lives.

What high-adrenaline sports would you take up if you were a perpetual?
Ha, I am seriously uncoordinated and not at all sporty but if I knew I couldn’t injure myself, it would probably be something like para gliding or sky diving. My dad was a sergeant-major in the parachute regiment and broke just about every bone going so he has always discouraged the
idea of jumping out of planes for fun!

Gracie is travelling with a group of perpetual friends her age. Did you have a favourite to write? Did any surprise you?
I always have such fun writing my secondary characters and Hiro (a hacker from Tokyo) is probably my favourite. We recently visited Japan and the people we met were just so lovely –kind and polite like Hiro. I also enjoyed writing Frøya, Gracie’s Norwegian cousin as she is super blunt and doesn’t give a stuff what anyone thinks of her (secretly, I’d love to be more like her). I was pleasantly surprised she has had such a warm reception from early readers!

Arty breaks up with Gracie early on in a very callous manner, which makes the possibility of a reunion a bit of a marmite concept. Why do you think it’s important not to shy away from writing and consuming narratives where the reader might not agree with a character’s choices –
romantic or otherwise?
Arty has his own reasons for dumping Gracie and wanting to keep her far away from him which become clearer as the book goes on. Absolutely, he doesn’t manage the break up very well but he’s a teenage boy under a lot of stress and I think it’s realistic that someone in his position
without much experience might well misjudge how to handle things! I feel it’s really important for characters to have flaws and make mistakes (otherwise we wouldn’t have much of a story) and as an adult (and mum of sons) writing for a teen audience I try to be as authentic as I can, trying to see (and remember!) things through a teenage lens and not to overuse the benefit of adult hindsight. I know some readers will find it difficult to get on board with Arty’s decision making but I hope others will forgive him!

This book is set in 2026, playing around real events – but you had to write it before these events took place. How do you juggle writing a book set in a specific time and place with not making it feel too confined to that moment?
I have no idea why I decided to use the World Cup timeline! In some ways, it was handy to have a framework to stick to and places where my characters needed to be on certain days but I frequently felt like I’d made a rod for my own back. For example, Comic Con UK usually happens in early July but this year it was cancelled altogether. And there was a juggle between my guys spending Bastille Day in Paris and then getting to New York for the World Cup Final
(with a little detour along the way!). I had no idea who would qualify for the World Cup Final when I was writing so I handled this by making Gracie far too preoccupied at the time to know what was going on either.

Please recommend a UKYA book you think readers will love.
The Wycherleys* by Annaliese Avery. Cursed regency witches with ballgowns and broomsticks – a magical, classical comfort read I absolutely adored!

Thank you, Sue!

*Affiliate link