About the Book:
Zella is co-hosting the student radio show – which would be great if she didn’t have to share it with her horrible ex, Dave.
Her classmate Killian is brash, opinionated – and his mother happens to run the writing seminar of Zella’s dreams.
When Zella suggests he help her out by fake dating her, Killian sees an opportunity. He has his own reasons for getting close to Zella . . .
But when he starts to trip up on his own lies and their friendship begins to fracture, Zella might have to open her heart to the possibility that what she’s looking for has been there the whole time.
Find on Goodreads. Find on Bookshop.org UK (affiliate link).
About the Author:
Elle McNicoll is a bestselling and award-winning novelist and screenwriter. Her debut, A Kind of Spark, won the Blue Peter Book Award and the Overall Waterstones Children’s Book Prize, as well as Blackwell’s Book of 2020. She is a four time Carnegie nominated author, and was shortlisted for the Books Are My Bag Awards 2020, 2021 and 2022, the Branford Boase Award 2020 and The Little Rebels Award 2020 and 2021. She was also honoured in the US with the Schneider Award, 2022. Her second novel, Show Us Who You Are, was Blackwell’s Book of the Month and one of The Bookseller’s Best Books of 2021. Her first fantasy middle grade, Like a Charm, was nominated for Best Children’s Book for Older Readers in the first ever Week Junior Book Awards, and was highly praised in the New York Times. Her debut novel, A Kind of Spark, has also been adapted for television, is Emmy nominated and won Best Children’s Programme at the Broadcast Awards and a Royal Television Society Award. She is twice nominated for the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award and the winner of the 2025 Books Are My Bag Young Adult Readers Award for Wish You Were Her. Her adult debut, Unapologetic Love Story, published in 2026.
Interview:
Pitch your book in 10 words!
Swoony Cyrano retelling with neurodivergence instead of a big nose.
This is a fake dating romance with the autistic reality of miscommunication. How do you choose which tropes to include in your romances and what individual stamp you want to put on them?
Well, tropes tend to reveal themselves during the first draft of the novel. They seem so glaring when a book is being marketed, but when I’m writing, I have no idea what’s going to end up on an instagram carousel in a year’s time. Miscommunication is always going to be in my books because it’s such a constant in my life. I like to think I have a very good grasp of communicating a story, where I get to play God and decide everyone’s motivations, but when it comes to reality, I’m not very adept at expressing myself in person. Or over email!
This book is written solely from Zella’s perspective (save for a single chapter flashback). How do you decide which perspective(s) to write a romance novel from?
I started writing the novel in third person/dual pov, the same narrative style I used for SOME LIKE IT COLD* and WISH YOU WERE HER*, but as soon as I got to about chapter three, I decided it felt wrong and I rewrote everything. I think the dramatic irony is what (I hope!!) will keep people reading. YEARNING DIFFICULTIES needed Killian to exist in Zella’s point of view almost entirely, so the reader can scream in frustration for most of the book. Haha!
Zella and Killian both end up participating in Lake Pristine’s medieval faire and its joust. What inspired this tableau for their interpersonal drama?
I grew up in an area of Scotland where such things were very popular. It also felt very in keeping with Lake Pristine. And I got to have lots of sword fighting, which is a direct homage to Cyrano de Bergerac.
As the title suggests, there’s a fair bit of yearning in this book – as well as the difficulties in expressing this. What do you think makes yearning so attractive in a romance novel?
We all do it. If we’re truly alive. And I think, like all good things, a lot waiting makes the end result more satisfactory. It’s also deeply connected to being neurodivergent. In Killian’s case, he was diagnosed young. Like me. That means growing up with a very warped view of yourself due to how society frames disability. So yearning in all matters becomes second nature to you.
What was your favourite moment to write between the pair?
I always love to write an argument. But I think Killian verbally sparring with Dave in chapter two was my favourite.
Zella doesn’t realise – maybe even hasn’t let herself realise – she’s autistic at the start of the book. Her journey over the book really chimed with Sifa (who was diagnosed in her early 20s), who hadn’t seen that in YA before. Why do you think it’s important we can read about characters who represent the wide spectrum of diagnosis journeys?
This is my tenth book and my third novel for young adults. I meet so many bright and brilliant young women who are undiagnosed and unable to access the services they need. But I meet many more who are too ashamed to even try. Because the world has forced that shame on them. So I wanted to write Zella for them. It was important to me.
A few of the characters, including Zella, are more honest when on the airwaves. Why do you think radio has such an important, enduring presence, even in the days of social media?
I think we feel less perceived when it’s just our voice. It’s intimate. And it strips away material things.
Movies have a great deal of emotional significance to Zella. Why do you think the magic of movies translates so well into romances – even when the movies in questions aren’t romances themselves?
I think we need to enchant the world around us. Film is, by nature, aspirational and romantic. Applying that lens to fiction, and to life, makes everything more meaningful. Or rather, it becomes easier to find the meaning.
YEARNING DIFFICULTIES is the third in your seasonal quartet of romances set in Lake Pristine (with the last one coming next year). Which season would you most want to visit Lake Pristine?
I had a lot of fun in Autumn (this book)! I love the ren faire and the Halloween ball (despite how catastrophically wrong everything goes in the book). But I also have a lot of really fun things planned for spring!
We also get to meet the couple who are the focus of your next YA romance, CHERRY ON A SUNDAY. Can you give us a hint of what to expect in their story?
*Nervously looks to publishers to see if that information is public yet*
Passion. And drama. Lots and lots of it.
Please recommend a UKYA book you think readers will love.
BURY YOUR FRIENDS* by Benjamin Dean. I think Ben is so good at writing realistic young adults. And his work is so cinematic. I want it all to be adapted!
Thank you, Elle!
*Affiliate link
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