Love at First Sight is out today!

here's how I feel about it

👋🏼👋🏼👋🏼 Hi! Long story short: I’m a bestselling novelist who started investigating how to build a life in August 2024, because despite my supposed dream career I wasn’t ~vibing~ in the way I wanted to be. I felt like something was missing? Unpicking what it takes to build a life (like, a good one) led me to taking a job in a high school, just to see. Turns out books light up my brain but pastoral work with teenagers feeds my soul, so now I might be in the middle of a career change. I don’t know. I’m currently studying children and young people’s mental health, whilst also promoting my latest rom-com Love at First Sight. Apparently I contain multitudes. Don’t we all?

I’m proud to say that Grazia magazine once declared that I am a ‘general all-round-speaker of what-is-in-our-heads’, Stylist said my honesty and voice are unique, I was Marie Claire’s #BreakFree from Fear Ambassador many moons ago, and I’m a ‘Happiness Expert’ according to The Independent. I’m almost 40, a solo parent by choice, and I truly believe on going all in on the adventure of your own life. Knowing all this means you’re all caught up. WELCOME!!

Today is the day! My latest novel is out in the world!

Like I said when I announced the book, my behind-the-scenes of LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT is: I was inspired by Jennifer Lopez’s seminal 2000’s movie The Wedding Planner. I loved the idea of what would happen if you found your perfect match, when he is perhaps (im)perfectly matched to somebody else. This is my version of that. I loved writing it. Jessie, the protagonist, was just oh-so-very clear to me: a career nanny, a weight-lifter, a woman who has given up on love. And then along comes Cal.

The official blurb is this:

She’s found the one. He’s just not the one for her.

Jessie doesn’t believe in love at first sight. Until one sunny Saturday in London, a fire alarm in Whole Foods throws her into a stranger's arms. Cal is charming and funny: their chemistry is instant.

Quick-fire flirting turns into the most romantic day of Jessie’s life. But that evening they're forced apart before swapping numbers. Jessie is devastated – has she just lost the one?

After weeks of searching, Cal turns up on her doorstop holding two dozen red roses. It feels like fate.

The only thing is, they’re not for her…

What’s interesting about publishing a book today, now, in light of how honest I’ve been about how publishing makes me feel, is that it’s a really nice chance to reflect. I wrote this almost two years ago! I was a whole different person then! I’d write for an hour in the gym car park every morning, after breakfast club drop-off for my kid, and it was my escape. An escape from the gnawing feeling of I’m not happy and I don’t know what to do about it. I feel trapped. As we know, I needed to separate writing from publishing, and my sense of self from that too. Whilst I figured that out writing Love At First Sight was something to disappear into. I think anyone who writes will say that: creating your own world to live in for a while is a haven. Heck, any reader would probably say that too. Lord knows that why I read!

It is dedicated it to the girls I used to work out with back then, my 9.30 crew. I hope that if you pick up a copy, Love At First Sight will be a light-hearted, fun, dreamy romance with characters you enjoy and a supporting cast who you come to think of as friends of your own. Please do leave an online review if you like it, or tell your friends.

Enjoy!

Laura x