Tandem Summer Bundle
Did you do our Summer Bundle quiz on IG? If so, your ideal Summer read is below… If not head over there now and find out!!!
If you picked mostly ‘A’ you need to read Double Booked
Double Booked by Lily Lindon is a laugh-out-loud debut romcom about Georgina, a 26 year old with a stable job, a stable boyfriend, and a shared calendar with a concrete routine. That is, until she deviates from this schedule and attends an indie lesbian pop concert and has the realisation she wants more from life, oh, and might also be bisexual.
What follows is a hilarious, witty, and big-hearted journey of self-discovery and self-love as Georgina tries to balance the life she’s always known with the life she wants to have.
Buy your copy here!
If you picked mostly ‘B’ you need to read Bunny
A dark academia setting with unhinged characters? Bunny by Mona Awa has you covered. Samantha Mackey is an outsider at her small and overly pretentious university, and there is nothing more off-putting to her than the clique of unbearable girls in her writing class who call each other ‘Bunny.’ But that begins to change when the Bunnies issue her an invitation and she is drawn down the rabbit hole and into a world of rituals, secrecy, and monstrous creations.
Whilst Samantha preferred the company of her dark imagination, she discovers that this exclusive group may be more sinister and spellbinding than even her mind could conjure.
Buy your copy here!
If you picked mostly ‘C’ you need to read The Dance Tree
Travel through both place and time this summer with The Dance Tree by Kiran Millwood Hargrave. Set in 1518 Strasbourg, this historical fiction tells the story of pregnant Lisbet, whose family secrets begin to unravel just as the women of their city are overtaken with an unrelenting need to dance and a state of emergency is called by officials.
Set against a backdrop of the dancing plague, The Dance Tree is a resonant and lyrically written story of four women as they fight against oppression and persecution for love and sisterhood.
Buy your copy here!
If you picked mostly ‘D’ you need to read This Is Gonna End In Tears
Liza Klausman delivers an atmospheric novel set over one long hot summer in 1984 that explores complex relationships and the romanticisation of time. This Is Gonna End In Tears follows Miller, Olly, and Ash, three childhood best friends, and lovers, until it all fell apart.
Now as adults, the three are drawn back together with unanswered questions and complicated emotions. But will these answers deliver closure or just ramp up more pain?
Buy your copy here!
If you picked mostly ‘E’ you need to read The Kiss Quotient
Stella Lane’s world revolves around mathematics. Its steady rules and formulas provide comfort and its algorithms leave nothing up to chance. But at 31 years old, Stella decides it's time to start dating. The only issue, she has very limited experience and the thought of kissing is not exactly thrilling to her.
Enter escort Michael Phan, who can’t afford to turn down Stella’s offer to be her guide and teacher on all things romance. As they begin to tick things off from Stella’s plan, she begins to realise it might not be that easy to keep emotions from the equation. The Kiss Quotient by Helen Hoang is a refreshingly sweet and seriously steamy debut romance you won’t want to put down.
Buy your copy here!
We did a quick fire quiz with some of our Summer Bundle authors, check out their answers below!
How many books do you read per month?
Lily Lindon: 4-6
Mona Awad: 10-12
Kiran Millwood Hargrave: 4-6
Helen Hoang: 1-3
Do you have any bad book habits?
Lily Lindon: Using lil post-its to bookmark my favourite lines
Mona Awad: I’m a spine breaker
Kiran Millwood Hargrave: Spine breaker!!
Helen Hoang: Page folder
Who are your writing role models?
Lily Lindon: Virginia Woolf, Oscar Wilde, Terry Practchett, Nora Ephron, Tim Minchin, Bo Burnham, and, you know, my actual friends
Mona Awad: Oscar Wilde, Jean Rhys, Margaret Atwood, Shirley Jackson, Kazuo Ishiguro, David Mitchell
Kiran Millwood Hargrave: Many of them are mentioned above - but I'd add Margaret Atwood, Barbara Kingsolver, Hernan Diaz and Nina Bawden. Bawden and Atwood in particular, for their ability to write across genres and age groups.
Helen Hoang: Julia Quinn, Jayne Ann Krentz, and Nalini Singh.
What was the most challenging aspect of writing this book?
Lily Lindon: The fear that readers would think Georgina was somehow meant to represent ALL bisexuals ever
Mona Awad: Truly thinking that it would never see the light of day.
Kiran Millwood Hargrave: I've never split so much of my own pain & love on the page - sharing such raw emotion terrified me.
Helen Hoang: I was obsessed with THE KISS QUOTIENT, so my challenge was staying physically healthy while writing.
Which was the most difficult passage to write?
Lily Lindon: Probs where Georgina finally comes out to her mum
Mona Awad: The final section--the story has a very climactic ending and goes pretty far into the fantastic. Landing it was a very intuitive and tricky thing.
Kiran Millwood Hargrave: More than anything, she needs a child with an ache so base and animal she has never tried to understand it. She has passed through every phase of want. Through the hatred that comes with desire so strong you could blunt your teeth on it, the closest to true hunger she’s ever known. Times when she would pluck her heart from her chest and fill their tiny, limp bodies with its beat, a cavity for her love. She understands why pelicans peck their own breasts for blood, why cuckoos cast out eggs. She would do violence for this child. For any of her children. A mother so many times over she cannot count it on her fingers alone.'
Helen Hoang: I cried when I wrote the scene where she beats the piano. That was a hard one for me.