The First Move

Product Information

For Jenny Ireland, pain from arthritis has been part of life for 13 years. But now the Northern Irish author has tapped into that, as Juliet—the teenage protagonist in her début novel The First Move—suffers from the same condition she does. Over the next five years, Ireland wrote four novels, all unpublished.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.

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.You know which movies are the worst? The ones set at Christmas. Teenagers with above-average good looks, festive jumpers and mistletoe, Tiffany boxes and fake snow, wrapped up with perfect smug smiles. 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. Jenny began writing in the sleep-deprived days after Rory was born, and got more serious about it in 2017 when she did a writing course with the literary agency, Curtis Brown. Seventeen-year-old Jules (real name Juliet - her mum's obsessed with the Baz Luhrmann film) is a bit cut off from her peers due to her arthritis (yes, young people can get it too). It could be worse - she has loving parents and her friend Michael is ever loyal and supportive. Other friend Tara is a little less so (but has her own issues).

There are a few cliches here - the gay best friend, the online chat with a "stranger" who turns out to be someone you know - but this was a brilliant read which I thoroughly enjoyed. The whole part where they are figuring out each other's real identities had me on the edge of my seat! Miles had a crush on Renia when they were in high school. He is recently divorced and their paths cross. He now acts on that crush. Renia treats him bad, but he continues his pursuit and she softens toward him. That was the best part of the story. It brought the book into the romance category, but their relationship felt like a secondary story. More time is spent on other relationships like Renia wanting to meet her adopted daughter Ashley, things going on with Sarah (Miles’ 16-year-old-daughter), and Renia’s troubled relationship with her mother. I enjoyed things happening between Sarah and Renia. It would have been neat if more happened with the adopted daughter Ashley. 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. 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

About Jenny Ireland

My favourite thing about the writing process is the first draft, where you can just get it all out and see what it is. I find that part so exciting! My least favourite thing is probably coming up with plot. I love people, with all their various quirks, and could think about characters all day. Plot on the other hand… What are you working on now? I was a bit less enthused by the romance. Renia questions whether Miles loves the real her or whether he’s just reacting to his old crush on her 16-year-old self, and I must say, I questioned that at times. Also, although Miles was pitch-perfect most of the time, always being very accepting of Rey’s past and her current issues, there was that fight at the end, which seemed to show that deep down, he wasn’t quite as accepting as all that. I’m in two minds about that. On one hand, I liked seeing he wasn’t quite perfect, but on the other, that might have come a bit too late in the book, and he didn’t quite redeem himself from what I felt was a really mean, almost unforgivable thing to say. Dystopian Fiction Books Everyone Should Read: Explore The Darker Side of Possible Worlds and Alternative Futures 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. As someone who can suffer with their mobility, especially during my time through school, I really appreciated a female lead character that had a health issue that affected her mobility, and I only wished I’d have had access to this whilst I was in secondary school! I feel it’s important to shed light on characters that other teens can relate to that may not be as prominent in other works, and also some of the issues discussed with other characters opens up the bounds even more.

It was so cute, fluffy and sweet. I don’t really read YA but this makes me want to get into genre more. This was definitely a Cinderella story x Queen’s Gambit themed. That’s spot on. It was so good - like this is a book I’d recommend to a younger version of me. My problem with most YA books being that they’re cringy - this wasn’t at all. I love the rep. It’s great and not harmful. Sheds light on what it’s like living with the disease and what it’s like for the people around you- yes young people can have it too. Delicate topics were well handled. I didn’t think it would be such an emotional read. The characters are three dimensional and very loveable. Yes, there’s the cliché queen bee and the gay best friend but I ate it up. I loved Juliet and Micheal’s friendship. He was there for her and was a true friend to her. I loved the healthy portrayal of her relationship with her parents and how they supported her. With this goal in mind, she wrote Juliet, a teenage wallflower with arthritis who doesn’t believe she is worthy of romance. Although Ireland wasn’t diagnosed with arthritis until her twenties, the writer empathises with what it would have been like to live with the disease as a teenager. “They have my respect,” she says of teenagers living with disabilities. “It’s hard enough being [that age] without adding on top of it. Any teenager going into school with that something extra is a hero.” I don’t freak out about the tiny things any more. I’m more inclined to go for it and write about what I want The writer is married to Chris, whom she met at school and began dating at 19. They have two children, Lyla (9) and Rory (8), and Jenny’s arthritis went away during pregnancy. While research is still ongoing, one theory is that the mother's immune system changes to prevent rejection of the foetus, which also decreases pain and inflammation.

LoveReading4Kids Says

Little do they know they've already discovered each other online, and have more in common than they think . . . The First Move is a book that reminded me of the power of love and the hope for the future YA embodies so well. 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. 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'.

Knowles commented: “Dark secrets, quests, enemies and lovers. Family curses, morally dubious villains and summer feuds – our 2023 YA titles truly offer something for every reader whatever their genre of choice. It’s an exciting time for YA and we believe these books and their talented, creative authors are about to make it even more exciting.”

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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.” In fact, the family angst was the best thing about the book, and it was really, really good. In addition to the sections about Renia's mother, there's the stuff with her birth daughter. This is developed really slowly, and Lohmann doesn't make it into some sort of insta-connection. It feels realistic, both painful and hopeful at the same time, and I really liked it. I also liked Renia's relationship with Sarah, Miles’ daughter, in whom she sees bits of herself. 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. Little do they know they've already discovered each other online, and have more in common than they think . . . About This Edition ISBN: Previously announced acquisitions for Penguin’s 2023 YA offering include the newly titled queer love story Straight Expectations by writer, presenter and LGBTQI+ advocate Calum McSwiggan, alongside Yorkshire=set coming-of-age drama Good For Nothing by Mariam Ansar.