I am delighted to be able to announce today that my 12+ novel, Love, Lies & Lemon Pies, will be published by Stripes next May!

Very appropriately, the main characters of this book – Lottie and Mac – came to me while eating cake with my agent, Gemma Cooper, in a local coffee shop one day. We were talking about what project I’d like to tackle next and, in between mouthfuls,, Gemma said: “You love baking. How about a book with baking in it?” And I said, “Maybe a school Bake Club?” and we were away.

For the next few months, as I worked on the story, that was what we called it. I tried out recipes, pitted my characters against each other, and uncovered all their secrets. Until, one day, I knew Bake Club was about a lot more than just a club for wannabe bakers. It was about love and lies – and friends and trusting people and coming clean and being afraid – as well as about baking lemon pies for a national baking competition.

I loved writing this book. As I wrote about the members of Bake Club bickering, disagreeing and – finally – becoming friends, I felt they were my friends, too. Like I was one of the gang. I hope that you feel the same way when you read the book.

And my even better news is – I get to do it all over again! Stripes will be publishing the companion novel to Love, Lies and Lemon Pies for Valentine’s Day 2015. Which means I’d better get writing it – I can’t wait!

In the meantime, here’s a bit more about Love, Lies & Lemon Pies for you:

The first rule of Bake Club is: Everyone lies.

Sixteen-year-old Lottie is on a mission to protect her biggest secret, and it’ll take every lie and every baking trick she can muster.

One year on from her father’s death, the school counselor is on her back about her slipping grades and refusal to take part in school activities. All of which Lottie could handle, if they weren’t threatening to pay her mum a home visit.

So Lottie agrees to join Bake Club, relying on the recipes her dad taught her to help the other members take part in a national baking competition. But from the very first chocolate chip cookies, it’s clear that she’s not the only one keeping secrets.

There’s Jasper, the goth kid, and Ella hiding the truth about her grandmother. Grace’s perfect life turns out to be not so sweet and Yasmin is just looking for a place to escape.

And then there’s school bad boy Mac. He’s been threatened with expulsion of he doesn’t take part. But as he bakes with Lottie, she starts to uncover his secret: he wants a different life to the one people expect for him. And amazingly, he discovers he really loves baking too. But only one of them can win the coveted baking apprenticeship on offer, and Lottie won’t let Mac beat her – even if she is falling for him…