Today we’re spotlighting LOVER BIRDS by Leanne Egan!
Read on for more about the author and the book!
About the Author: Leanne Egan
Leanne Egan (they/them) is a queer non-binary author. While they were born and raised in Liverpool, their home is scattered across the country. Leanne’s upcoming book, LOVER BIRDS is a rom-com about love in all its forms – the love they have love for their home city, the chaotic and uniquely intense love that can only be shared by a group of teenage girls, the kinds of love that can be found in the most unexpected places – and most importantly, it is about learning to love the messy, embarrassing parts of yourself.
About the Book: LOVER BIRDS
A fantastic, queer enemies-to-lovers story — in one corner, a girl with ADHD experiencing her first girl crush in a monumental way; in the other corner, a posh, rich girl who’s new to school and has her own reasons to be guarded. Told with humor and heart, this is a perfect novel for Alice Oseman and Becky Albertalli fans and marks a great new YA romcom voice.
Isabel catches Lou’s eye the minute she arrives as the new girl in school. But Lou keeps her curiosity in check and even seems dismissive (which Isabel overhears). Then Lou is equally dismissive (which Isabel overhears)… and immediately a rivalry is born. Things become knottier when Isabel is asked to be Lou’s tutor, and even knottier than that when Lou starts to recognize her feeling as something other than disdain or derision. In fact, it might be… the opposite. There are many misunderstandings that need to be gotten past for Lou and Isabel to figure out how perfect they are for each other.
~Excerpt~
CHAPTER ONE
We’re talking about celebrity crushes when I see her for the first time. The tall girl in the fancy suit with the long red hair that falls, shiny and straight, down to the small of her back. She’s standing a few metres from us, looking down at her phone, leaning against the sixth- form building that we’re making our way towards.
“I’m just saying,” Katie insists, blond ponytail swinging as she whirls round to stop us in our tracks, like this is the most important conversation we’ll ever have. “Every girl’s got a list of female celebrities they think are fit. That doesn’t make me a lesbian—it just makes me a person with eyes.”
She’s looking at each of us in turn, like she’s waiting for one of us to back her up, but I can’t take my eyes off the fancy- suit girl. I’ve never seen her before, which is weird. It might be our first day as sixth- formers, but we’ve been going to this school for five years now and we know everyone in our year. And she’s got to be in our year because she’s wearing sixth- form clothes. Even if she does seem to have taken the “black and white officewear” instruction a bit more seriously than the rest of us, in our multipack Primark white shirts and black jeans.
“That would make you a bit of a lesbian, Katie.” Lily’s voice draws my attention back to the conversation briefly. “Like, one woman, maybe, but having a whole list is fairly high up there on the gayness scale, you know?”
Maybe she’s in the year above? But we know most of the people in upper sixth, too. I’ve definitely never seen her before.
“It’s called the Kinsey Scale, actually,” Mel interjects, and everyone rolls their eyes except Jas, who I don’t reckon is even capable of rolling her eyes. I think all the muscles required to do it just didn’t form in her, and went instead to whichever muscles you need to smile warmly at somebody.
My eyes flick back to the suit girl. She puts her phone into her pocket and seems to shrink into herself as soon as she no longer has something to occupy her, reaching up to tuck her hair behind her ears, eyes darting across the school grounds too quickly to land on anything.
“You’re telling me”— Katie is in full flow— “that if some dead fit celebrity walked up to you right now and was like, come to my mansion in Hollywood, and we’ll adopt a dog together, you’d all be picky about gender?”
“The question would be whether or not you’re actually attracted to them,” Jas says, as if this is genuinely a burning question that Katie needs help with instead of just some sidenote about having celebrity girl crushes that we somehow stumbled upon. “Acknowledging that a celebrity is classically gorgeous isn’t necessarily gay, but if you could see yourself, like, actually fancying them, then you might want to give your identity some thought.”
I watch as the girl practically melts with relief as Mrs. Anderson, the head of sixth form, approaches her. The girl reaches out to extend a hand, all formal and delicate, and Mrs. Anderson shakes it, a little taken aback. They’re saying something to each other now, but we’re still too far away to hear them.
“Well, yeah, I’m attracted to them”— Katie rolls her eyes— “but not in, like, a gay way.”
I snort, and she zeroes in on me.
“Was wondering how long it’d take for you to have an opinion, Lou.”
Title: LOVER BIRDS
Author: Leanne Egan
Release Date: 2/4/2025
Publisher: Scholastic
ISBN-10: 1546138056
ISBN-13: 9781546138051
Genre: Young Adult Fiction / Romance / LGBTQ+
Age Range: Ages 14 and up
