The First Move

Product Information

Commissioning editor Tom Rawlinson scooped debut YA thriller Their Vicious Games by Joelle Wellington from Jenny Meyer of The Jenny Meyer Literary Agency for publication in July 2023. “This engrossing read about The Finish – a brutal and elite game where the rules can be changed at any minute – will make you think as it thrills,” the publisher said.

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. Upon waking up one week later, Ireland was told the virus had developed into encephalitis: inflammation of the brain. While unconscious, she underwent two brain surgeries and had a tube implemented to drain fluid from her brain to her abdomen. Although she’s now recovered, the tube is there to stay. 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. 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. 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.”

Take a Look at Our Summary of November Highlights, Whether You're Looking for the Latest Releases or Gift Inspiration Senior commissioning editor Naomi Colthurst acquired UK and Commonwealth rights for Chaos and Flame by Tessa Gratton and Justina Ireland in a two-book deal via Kim Ryan at Penguin Young Readers. Billed as “a scorching, enemies-to-lovers fantasy romance”, the book will be released in March 2023.

A new kid called Ronan arrives locally who is good-looking and smart and acts like he's cooler than everyone else. Juliet doesn't realise that she has already encountered him online as he also plays chess. It's his escape as he is plagued by guilt over what happened to his brother Ciaran.

In 2020, she was chosen for the scheme, and began having regular calls with an editor who coached her through finishing the novel. Then, in the autumn of 2021, Ireland was offered a two-book deal with Penguin Random House. “My kids still remember it as the day I said the ‘F-word’ three times in a row. Of course, it was truly warranted. It changed my life completely.” Ronan’s contained emotions, as well as his somewhat strained relationship with his mother, make starting at a completely new school daunting; the planning and approaching both his social life and school environment through chess makes for a niche but refreshing read, allowing more to be seen of his thought process as he references pieces moving or patterns/move sets of Grandmasters. My incredible mum and dad paid for it,” she says. “That was the start of everything really because the tutor said I could write and to keep going. I kept trying, although I got a lot of nos at first.” The turning point was when she applied for the Penguin Random House WriteNow programme in 2020. Jenny was one of 14 out of 3,700 entrants selected for mentorship by a Penguin editor. “It changed everything for me,” she says.

Both instantly engaging and finely nuanced, The First Moveis a YA romance with real-life resonance and uplifting vibes. Always honest on the realities of living with a long-term condition and mental health struggles, it’s also happy-making, wholesome, and a whole lot of fun, with well-developed characters readers will root for and relate to. There was a lot to like here. Renia is a really interesting character, and at a really interesting time in her life. I really appreciated how sensitively the issue of her having given her daughter in adoption was handled. This is not yet another book saying that giving a baby up, even when it’s patently the right thing to do, will screw you up for life. It’s true that Rey IS pretty screwed up about what happened, but I’d argue that it’s clear that this is more about her mother’s abandonment of her teenage self than about her own abandonment of her baby. It is still so rare to see disability representation in YA and Ireland provides a vulnerable and honest look at it. There is frank discussion of the impacts it can have on everyday life and how it changes your entire perspective on life. However, this is no inspiration porn. Instead, Juliet lives with her disability, which does affect every aspect of her life, but she is not solely defined by it. She is a sweet, hopeful and somewhat naive teenage girl, learning to adapt to a world that does not want to adjust for her. It leads to some real moments of anger and frustration that hit home. Ronan is also a fractured, flawed and fantastically human character that I adored. His rage at the world reminds you how rarely you truly know what is going on with someone.I was thinking about how I would have felt in that position as I was so incredibly self-conscious at school and mortified by everything,” says Jenny. “I think young people dealing with anything extra in school are heroes because it's already hard enough being a teenager.”

It's a really bad time to come across Miles Brislenn again. Miles was a shy kid who went to the same school as her, and he had a huge crush on her. He recognises her the minute he sees her, but Renia has no idea who he is. She only knows he calls her Rey, so he must know her from her worst times. But as things come to a head with her daughter, Miles becomes a surprising source of support. My copy of The First Move was provided to me by the Jennifer Lohmann herself, after I tweeted her to ask whether she knew if the e-version would be available in the UK. I'd read Wendy the Superlibrarian's review, you see, and it sounded like just my sort of book. Over the next five years, Ireland wrote four novels, all unpublished. Then, in 2019, she suffered another serious health scare. “All I remember is having a sore throat before it happened and feeling really depressed for a day or so,” Ireland recalls. She experienced headaches, vomiting and a spinning room before admitting herself to hospital. She was sent home—the doctors believed it was a migraine. Little do they know they've already discovered each other online, and have more in common than they think . . . Juliet believes girls like her – girls with arthritis – don’t get their own love stories. She exists at the edges of her friends’ social lives, skipping parties to play online chess under a pseudonym with strangers around the world. There, she isn’t just ‘the girl with crutches’.Ronan is the new kid: good looking, smart, a bad boy plagued by guilt over what happened to his brother Ciaran. Chesslife is his escape; there, he’s not just ‘the boy with the brother’.Juliet thinks Ronan thinks someone like Ronan could never be interested in someone like her – and she wouldn’t want him to be anyway because he always acts like he’s cooler than everyone else. Whereas, Ronan thinks life is already too complicated for dating and just wants to keep his head down at school.Little do they know they’ve already discovered each other online, and have more in common than they think . . . The First Move by Jenny Ireland – eBook Details

Featured Reviews

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.