Go Lightly
A Novel
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- $10.99
Publisher Description
"Brydie Lee-Kennedy's writing is sharp and funny and humane. A passionate chronicler of the ridiculous—in people, in society, in sex—Brydie skewers everyone equally, but always with empathy, warmth and wit." —Monica Heisey, author of Really Good, Actually
For readers of Dolly Alderton and Candice Carty-Williams, a spiky bisexual love story that introduces the unforgettable Ada—a free-spirited Holly Golightly for the age of DMs who follows the whimsies of her heart wherever they lead.
Ada is a seeker, a perpetually moving ball of excess. A twenty-six-year-old Australian living in London, she ekes out a living as a cabaret performer and part-time temp. Yet Ada can't imagine wanting to be any other age or any other place. Every night is an opportunity to be thrilled and every morning a chance to recount her escapades to friends.
So when Ada falls for Sadie and Stuart at the same time, she sees no reason not to pursue them both. But as the responsibilities of adult life begin to encroach—bills, family, more bills—and Sadie and Stuart find out about one another, the people around Ada increasingly insist it’s time for her to settle down. Can she resist the inevitable?
Effortlessly hilarious and painfully relatable, Go Lightly is a love letter to girls who are the life of the party; girls who say yes without fear. In smartly observed and endlessly warm prose, Brydie Lee-Kennedy contemplates the great freedoms and greater uncertainties of modern love and friendship, introducing an utterly flawed yet charming character who revels in her youth and sexuality while reckoning with a serious case of main character syndrome.
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.