Love at First Page Author Panel with Bridie Blake & Olivia Tolich

Join debut Aussie romance authors, Bridie Blake and Olivia Tolich, at Nowra Library for an engaging conversation on modern romance!

Together, our authors will chat about their writing journeys through to publication, the value of the romance genre and its evolving cultural influence, and answer any audience questions in a Q&A at the end of the panel. This event promises to be a fun night celebrating reading and writing the stories we tell about love.

About the books

Side Character Energy by Olivia Tolich

After a series of Mr Wrongs, Bee has finally found her Mr Right. Attractive, mature—William is everything she’s been looking for.

Gertrude is Bee’s best friend since forever (and also her flatmate, workmate and Insta content videographer). She’s happy for Bee—just as she’s been sad for Bee during those romantic missteps, and supportive of Bee in everything else. Actually, now she thinks about it, Gertrude isn’t sure there even is a Gertrude that isn’t determined by what Bee wants or thinks or feels.

Panicked to realise she’s not the main character in her own life, she turns to William’s best friend, Arthur. He isn’t the obvious choice for life coaching—apart from anything else, Gertrude doesn’t really like him—but everyone else is…Well, there is no everyone else. Just Bee.

Arthur’s mission is to find out whether there’s more to Gertrude than she thinks, and if so, what it is. The problem is, that might throw up some hard questions—about her life, her choices and above all, her friendship with Bee.

Side Character Energy is a sharp, wise, hilarious novel about love—romantic, platonic and toxic—from a brilliant new voice in Australian fiction.

The Boyfriend Clause by Bridie Blake

Sabrina’s new Melbourne cafe, her lifelong dream, is struggling—despite her exceptional baked goods and fabulous coffee. Her love life isn’t faring much better—she just keeps dating the wrong kind of guy. But the boyfriend clause in her loan agreement requires her to be in a committed relationship or pay back the loan in its entirety. That would mean losing the cafe.

What could be worse? Making up a fake boyfriend, and accidentally giving him the name of the rude and brooding famous writer in her apartment block, the one she wildly insulted when he moved in—that’s what!

And when that leads to the rude and brooding writer joining her rambunctious family on a trip to England and a charade of perfect romance, Sabrina finds herself navigating a whirlwind of contradictory emotions. Including an unignorable awareness of just how infuriatingly hot the insufferable writer is.

But as the boundaries blur, one question looms large: what, or who, is he writing about?

The Boyfriend Clause is everything you could ask for in a contemporary romance: a totally relatable heroine, a steamy love interest, an offbeat family holiday, delicious pastries and just enough spice to set your heart on fire.

About the authors

Olivia Tolich

Olivia Tolich is an author based in Melbourne (Naarm). She works as an educational publisher and has a dog named Poppy who really hates that her human’s main interest involves sitting around staring at a computer. Side Character Energy is her first novel.

Bridie Blake

Bridie Blake lives and writes in Melbourne. She is a self-confessed daydreamer and consumer of reality TV who can sniff out chocolate like a bloodhound and will never turn down a coffee or an opportunity to listen to Taylor Swift.

Dymocks will be selling copies of both Bridie's and Olivia's books at the event.

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