The First Move

Product Information

On the whole, though, I really enjoyed this. The writing is good and flows smoothly, and the pacing is generally good as well. There's a bit of a draggy section round the middle, but things got going again soon after, and I raced to the end. With a thrilling will-they-won’t-they rollercoaster ride of a plot revealing their respective struggles through a compelling dual narrative, The First Move is that story that’ll move readers while putting great big grins on their faces. During the period around her first diagnosis, after having studied French law, Ireland worked as a paralegal. “It wasn’t the career for an anxious person,” she tells me over Zoom from Belfast. Ireland quit law after getting married and starting a family. But just weeks after each of her two children were born, she suffered months-long arthritis flare-ups that left her unable to walk. Bedridden and home with young children, Ireland began writing. I would love it if my kids grew up reading stories of kids their ages with disabilities and chronic illnesses Now 36, Jenny was born in Belfast to Paul Flynn, a GP, and Rosie Flynn, a piano teacher, and she has an older brother Adam. She studied law and French at the University of Liverpool. “I had no idea what I wanted to do,” she laughs. “I got to live in Paris for my Erasmus year, which was brilliant.” Little do they know they've already discovered each other online, and have more in common than they think . . .

Knowles commented: “Dark secrets, quests, enemies and lovers. Family curses, morally dubious villains and summer feuds – our 2023 YA titles truly offer something for every reader whatever their genre of choice. It’s an exciting time for YA and we believe these books and their talented, creative authors are about to make it even more exciting.”For Jenny Ireland, pain from arthritis has been part of life for 13 years. But now the Northern Irish author has tapped into that, as Juliet—the teenage protagonist in her début novel The First Move—suffers from the same condition she does. Book Genre: Contemporary, Contemporary Romance, Disability, Romance, Young Adult, Young Adult Romance The First Move is a book that reminded me of the power of love and the hope for the future YA embodies so well.

I like just about everything about this book. Every characters feel real. The challenges, past and present, that they face felt normal, like things I can relate to. Renia is damaged, but not broken and not self-pitying. Miles starts off seeming maybe a little to good to be true, but his human failings show up, and we learn that even with all his good intentions, he's just as likely to screw up as anyone. Sarah, Miles' teenage daughter irritates me at times (not always), and that is definitely the point. She is suppose to be caught in that awkward phase between childhood and adulthood. I have a difficult time imagining a teenager actually saying some of snotty things she says in front of other grown-ups because my children would honestly never do that--they'd think it, but not say it aloud! But I can be persuaded that there are teens who would. Penguin Random House Children’s imprint Penguin has announced a string of new YA authors added to its list for 2023, with books ranging from “heart-stopping” thrillers and fantasies to inclusive and high-concept romances.The First Move is an uplifting and inclusive own-voice YA romance debut. Perfect for fans of Emily Henry, Alice Oseman and Netflix’s The Queen’s Gambit. About This Edition ISBN: But Ireland’s real-life inspiration didn’t stop there. Her husband had always been a chess fanatic and had tried to spark her interest in the game for years. After they watched “Magnus”, the 2016 documentary about Norwegian chess grandmaster Magnus Carlsen, she was finally hooked. After learning the game, Ireland saw chess as the perfect setting for a will-they-won’t-they romance. She wrote Juliet a love interest, Ronan, who she would meet through an online chess game. In the novel, the pair fall in love without realising they know—and hate—each other in real life. Making her move

I'm not the target audience for a YA romance, but who cares? The gorgeous cover immediately drew me in.

Retailers:

I never plan anything. I wish I did. I have friends who plan, and it looks like a lovely way to write but my brain doesn’t seem to work that way. Apart from the time that I write (5am-7am) it’s all a bit chaotic. I just have a general idea, an idea of the midpoint and a vague idea of the ending before just diving in and seeing where the characters take me. Although the hospital experience can be called traumatic, for Ireland, recovery was the hardest part. In the six weeks after leaving hospital, she could barely walk and her short-term memory noticeably suffered. She gained two stone in body weight from her required steroid medication. In just over a month, her entire appearance changed. Ireland says: “I hated that [the weight gain] bothered me, but it did. I had been put through all that and I didn’t even look like myself any more.” I was a bit less enthused by the romance. Renia questions whether Miles loves the real her or whether he’s just reacting to his old crush on her 16-year-old self, and I must say, I questioned that at times. Also, although Miles was pitch-perfect most of the time, always being very accepting of Rey’s past and her current issues, there was that fight at the end, which seemed to show that deep down, he wasn’t quite as accepting as all that. I’m in two minds about that. On one hand, I liked seeing he wasn’t quite perfect, but on the other, that might have come a bit too late in the book, and he didn’t quite redeem himself from what I felt was a really mean, almost unforgivable thing to say. Here’s a spoiler. Real life doesn’t work like that. Real life is a first kiss with way too much saliva, with someone you barely know, behind the sports hall at breaktime. Your best friend is keeping lookout and whispering that you’re taking too long, when you’re only trying to figure out a polite way of stopping the slushy horror show. Real life is your other best friend doing way more than kissing, with someone else, at the same time, a few metres away. Editorial director Carmen McCullough acquired “binge-worthy” summer thriller Liar’s Beach by Katie Cutugno, securing UK and Commonwealth rights from Jocelyn Lange at Random House US. Described as “a high-stakes YA thriller full of secrets, lies, privileged teens and beach parties”, it is out in May 2023.