Go Lightly
'nails the chaos, panic and joy of being young'
-
- $16.99
Publisher Description
'Sharp and funny and humane ... Brydie skewers everyone equally, but always with empathy, warmth and wit.' Monica Heisey, author of Really Good, Actually
'A novel that really nails the chaos, panic and joy of being young' Daisy Buchanan, author of Insatiable
'Captures twentysomething chaos ... Very funny' THE TIMES
A funny and tender twenty-first century story of family, friendship, and bisexual love – and how getting it wrong is sometimes the only way to get it right.
WHO IS ADA?
With Sadie she's an Aussie girl in London, a performer, a ball of creativity and a lover of food.
With Stuart she's funny and quirky, capable of finding romance in a dinner of crisps on a cold harbour and long train rides.
With her family she's the joker, the peacekeeper, the entertainer.
But she doesn't have to choose which version of herself to be… right?
Ada's answer to most questions is: yes. Every night is an opportunity to be thrilled and every morning a chance to recount it to her friends, so when she falls for Sadie and Stuart at the same time, she sees no reason not to pursue them both.
But as the realities of modern life begin to catch up with her, and everyone wants Ada to define herself in relation to them, she feels the weight of the questions: which version of yourself is most true? And do other people enhance your best self, or distort it?
Go Lightly is a tribute to party girls who'd rather enjoy the present than fear the future or regret the past, and a love letter to the community you find when you're far from home.
'Funny, perceptive and effortlessly engaging … I loved this novel' Lily Lindon, author of Double Booked
'Sharp, witty and...astute' THE HERALD
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Screenwriter Lee-Kennedy pivots to romance fiction with the low-key tale of a bisexual love triangle between 20-something slackers. Aspiring actor Ada Highfield, living the single life in London with her more responsible roommate, Mel, leaves a performance at the Edinburgh Fringe with two romantic opportunities: there's fellow Australian Sadie, who Ada hooked up with after clubbing, and Liverpudlian Stuart, with whom she begins a text-based flirtation. When Sadie's living situation suddenly sours, she moves in with Ada and the two resume hooking up, even as things deepen between Ada and Stuart. While trying to stay solvent and measuring herself against her sister's more traditional life as a new mother in Florida, Ada leans into the thrill of both budding relationships. Lee-Kennedy showcases her flair for dialogue both in the apartment's household dynamic and in the sense of cautiously building interest in Stuart and Ada's texts. Though Ada is introduced as an impulsive free spirit, she, and by extension the novel itself, is surprisingly timid after the steamy opening. Despite a promise of playfulness, the story delivers far more understated anxiety. Still, Lee-Kennedy's witty approach to the realities of modern dating is sure to draw readers in.