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Laura Wood

@lauracwood

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Autumn leaf enthusiast. Romance reader. Writer of fine cheekbones. #KissMeLikeYouMeanIt #AWildStrawberryPlace Jan 2027🍓#HouseOfSummerMagic June 2027 ✨

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It’s officially the best month of the year and the PERFECT time to pick up a copy of Kiss Me Like You Mean It, my small-town/ marriage of convenience/ brother’s best friend rom-com extravaganza. If you love autumn leaves and Gilmore Girls and Dolly Parton and maple-flavoured everything then do I have the book for you!

(And if you’re seeing this post in North America or elsewhere in the world and you want to get your hands on a copy then Blackwell’s online bookstore offers international shipping included in the price of the book!)

What happens in Vegas, never stays in Vegas . . .

Waking up in a Las Vegas hotel room with her brother’s best friend isn’t exactly rule-follower Ophelia ‘Lee’ Turner-Jones’ finest moment. She’s spent the past year trying to forget it ever happened, until a surprise email from a wedding chapel lands in her inbox. Now Lee has no choice but to track Nico down . . . and tell him they’re married.

The last place she expects to find the man who has always lived on the wild side is in a picture-perfect small town in Maine, full of lovable eccentrics. But that’s not the only surprise in store.

Breaking the news to him should be simple, but Nico’s life is complicated and there’s something that he desperately needs: a wife. His best friend’s little sister could be the answer to all his problems… as long as he can keep his hands off her.

Agreeing to play the role of happily married couple is risky enough. Doing it with the man she’s secretly loved for years, while the whole town throws themselves into the charade, might just end in disaster. Still, Lee can’t help but wonder if their fake relationship could finally be the start of something real. 🍁🍂🍁 by @lauracwood

I am SO excited that today I finally get to share my worst kept secret! The project I have spent ten years working on, this absolute labour of love, and slice of proper joy: in January 2027, A Wild Strawberry Place, my love letter to the life and work of Eva Ibbotson is being published by @picadorbooks!

This book started off as a biography, but it became a lot of different things - it’s about Eva and the incredible body of work she left behind, but it’s also about art and how we make it, it’s about romance novels and why they matter, it’s about the places that shaped Eva’s writing and the exquisite craft behind it. There’s treasure here, too, in the form of some of her unpublished writing, and the greatest short story I’ve ever read. She’s wise and witty and so, so funny.

It’s also about… me? I’ve been working on and off on this project for a decade and somehow I got tangled up in it myself. I wanted to write about the adventures I had, and what it means to get to know your hero when they’re not actually around, how strange and sad and wonderful it has been to make a friend who never knew me. I feel so much tenderness for Eva, and for this book and I can’t wait to share it with you.

The title comes from Eva’s novel, Magic Flutes, and I suppose really it says it all:

‘In Sweden,’ she said, rising to stand beside him and speaking very seriously, ‘they have a word for a place like this. It’s called a ‘smultronställe’. A ‘wild strawberry place.’ A place like that is special, it’s the most special place there is.’
Guy looked down at the berries she had tipped into his hand. Their scent, subtle yet piercing, seemed to overwhelm him with its sweetness.
‘Only it isn’t just literally a wild strawberry place,’ Tessa went on. ‘A smultronställe is any place that’s absolutely private and special and your own. A place where life is... an epiphany.’

For me, Eva Ibbotson’s writing is a wild strawberry place, and I hope this book will be one for you. You can preorder everywhere now, and start the year with a delicious treat. 🍓 by @lauracwood

Surprise!!!! I’m writing a new YA series and it’s the 90’s witchy rom-com of my dreams!!!

For YEARS I’ve been threatening to write this book and now thanks to @simonyabooks, @simonteen and the wonderful @yasminmorrisseyeditor it’s really happening.

House Of Summer Magic is a delicious, silly, funny, cozy romantasy about long-lost sisters; complicated inheritances; witchy happenings; chaotic baking; handsome, bad-tempered vampires; a small English town where magic is an open secret and a mischievous house with a passion for romance tropes, determined to play matchmaker. It is SO swoony with a nice dash of spice and a fated-mates trope that will have you kicking your feet.

If Charmed, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, Clueless, and Practical Magic are in your DNA like they’re in mine, then I think you’ll love this book. @llmonts described it as ‘Ghibli meets Gilmore’ and that’s pretty perfect, too. From the beginning I was very clear about my goal: to make something that felt like Kiss Me by Sixpence None the Richer in book form. You’d better believe there WILL be moonlit floors, dancing fireflies and silver moons sparkling.

Looking forward to this next big fun adventure and bringing you all along with me, and thank you for always hyping me up - this would never have happened without you! ✨ by @lauracwood

Cosy season is officially here! And what better way to spend your time than reading the phenomenal Agency for Scandal series from @lauracwood. To celebrate the season, we’re giving away the complete Agency for Scandal series along with an exclusive character print by @sereneillustrations to one lucky winner!

To enter, all you have to do is:
🍂 Make sure you’re following @ireadya_uk and @lauracwood
🍂 Like this post and tag a friend in the comments below

Good luck! Competition closes 23:59pm on Wednesday 11th November. T&Cs can be found at the link in our bio. by @lauracwood

Welcome to The Aviary… for all a lady requires.

Of COURSE I had to ask @sereneillustrations to put her own magic spin on the ladies of the Aviary. Presenting: Felicity, Marigold, Sylla, Izzy, Maud and Winnie… so perfectly imagined! Ready to right wrongs in Victorian London and work from the shadows to take down terrible men. I LOVE these characters and these books so much. Start with The Agency for Scandal and collect them all.💕

If you adore this art work as much as I do (and if you don’t, WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU???) then check back tomorrow for something fun from @scholastic_uk! by @lauracwood

My friends got married!!!! And it turns out the recipe for the perfect wedding is Welsh choirs and Greek dancing. It’s Bara Brith and Greek meats. It’s a room full of board games and pick and mix and your hyper-competitive pals. It’s slow dancing to Jason and Kylie. It’s when your confetti envelope is a page from ‘I Capture the Castle’ because your bestie has the BEST taste. Happy Weddingween* to us all!!!!!

* I have been asked repeatedly not to keep referring to this special day as Weddingween but I fear it is not possible 🎃🎃🎃 by @lauracwood

Had the very best of birthday weeks and barely took any photos - drinking espresso martinis, baking a birthday bundt, sunny river walks, fancy pub dinners, so many lovely pals and a screening of Fallen Angels that was SO FUNNY I couldn’t see through my tears. Wholesome stick races and a trip to see the all-male production of As You Like it (incredible!!!! My heart!!!!) and… a perfect glass tomato. I feel very seen and very loved 🍅🍅🍅 by @lauracwood

It’s called YEARNING!!!!!!!!
#KissMeLikeYouMeanIt💋 by @lauracwood

It is the perfect time to read my beautiful autumn bébés!!! Whether you want cosy contemporary or swoony historical, I’ve got you covered. Both of these books are so delicious.

🍁 Kiss Me Like You Mean It is my funny, golden, small town rom com about a very anxious woman who accidentally marries her brother’s best friend (who she just happens to have been in love with for years). It is silly and chaotic and charming and it features an excellent dog named Taco.

🍂 A Single Thread of Moonlight is a Cinderella retelling where the Cinderella character runs away to foggy Victorian London and becomes a dressmaker, spending seven years plotting revenge against her wicked stepmother. It is full of excellent clothes, masked balls and many schemes. by @lauracwood

It’s a real book!!! Doing a final look through A Wild Strawberry Place, my love letter to Eva Ibbotson and I LOVE IT SO MUCH!!!!! (Writer pals we are going to be begging for blurbs imminently so please let me know if you want an early copy!)

This afternoon I worked on it at the cinema and took a break to watch Sense and Sensibility which I LOVED. I really enjoyed that it wasn’t so polite, that there was more dirt under the fingernails and sexy dancing and yearning Edward. I *was* dubious because as you all know I am an ARDENT fan of the Emma Thompson adaptation, but I think that’s why I liked this … it wasn’t trying to be the same thing so we get to have both. by @lauracwood

🚨 Mellow fruitfulness alert!!!!!!!! 🚨 by @lauracwood

Bea is six! My sweet, silly pal. I have appreciated her more than ever during this big year of writing. She’s been the best office mate, frequent employee of the month, and spent many, many, many hours benevolently accepting treats, and fuss from strangers while I worked in coffee shops. Our office Christmas party this year is going to be wild. by @lauracwood