I am building a list of commercial and genre fiction from romance and romcoms, to young adult and adult fantasy, to crime, thrillers and mysteries. Across the board I am looking for hooky pitches, compelling characters and page-turning drama.

I am an obsessive reader of romance. Give me all your cowboys, mafia dons, shadow daddies, ice hockey captains, campus heartbreakers, bikers and billionaires. If your writing builds on a familiar trope (soft spots include enemies-to-lovers, fake-dating and love triangles) then I would be delighted to see it, but I am particularly excited to find projects which surprise me with a new spin on these formulas. Right now I am especially looking for books which marry romance and thriller, darker-edged love stories, romcoms which thrive on chaos, and romance with a clever twist of magic like Rebecca Serle’s In Five Years – one of my favourite books of all time. I would love to represent more work in this space by under-represented voices.

In fantasy I still need a heavy dose of romance (read: spice) along with a gripping hook, an imaginative world and a strong female character facing impossible decisions. I’ve never met a book with trials that I didn’t like, particularly when paired with a deadly premise or an intriguing magic system. Series and standalone submissions are welcome. Recently I’ve loved Anathema by Keri Lake, Nisha J. Tuli’s Artefacts of Ouranos series and Direbound by Sable Sorensen.

When it comes to crime fiction, my favourite writers include Ruth Ware, Lisa Jewell and Lucy Foley. I am looking for fast-paced standalone thrillers which press on bruises, unmask unthinkable villains and are immaculately plotted, but most of all, that are told through an engaging narrative voice that is pacy and feels effortless to read. I love working through the mechanics of a good murder plot and want novels which do this from ambitious and creative new angles like Gillian McAllister’s Wrong Place Wrong Time or Keigo Higashino’s The Devotion of Suspect X. Most recently I’ve become obsessed with Uketzu’s Strange Pictures and Strange Houses, so if you’re working on anything like that, please send it my way.

I studied English Literature at the University of Bristol and joined David Higham Associates in 2017 after a spell working in marketing and events. As well as building my own list, I am Head of Audio at DHA, work with our Managing Director Lizzy Kremer and run DHA’s Open Days for Under-Represented Writers.