Katie Kirby and Lottie Brooks seize first 'majorly awkward' number one in the charts

Author and illustrator Katie Kirby scored her first Official UK Top 50 number one last week. The sixth book in the Lottie Brooks series, The Majorly Awkward BFF Dramas of Lottie Brooks (Puffin) went straight to the top with 20,995 copies sold through Nielsen BookScan’s Total Consumer Market and is by far the best first-week result for the series to boot.

Kirby, who ranked 13th among last year’s top 30 illustrators, also claimed her second Children’s and Young Adult number one last week. She was last at the top in August 2022 with The Mega-Complicated Crushes of Lottie Brooks (Puffin). Her children’s books have been gaining momentum since Lottie Brooks made her début in March 2021. Prior to last week’s release, the series record for most books sold in week one was held by Lottie Brooks’ Totally Disastrous School-Trip (Puffin), which cracked 14,000 copies in July 2023.

Tricia Levenseller’s The Darkness Within Us (Pushkin Children’s) joined Kirby in the top 10. The sequel to The Shadows Between Us (Pushkin Children’s) struck sixth overall, second in Children’s and YA and pole position in the Small Publishers chart. Levenseller chased Rebecca F Kuang’s Yellowface (The Borough Press) in the top 50, shifting 11,287 copies and falling just 274 copies behind Kuang. Since its 9th May release, not a single week has gone by without Yellowface appearing in the top 10 and last week it was the number one bestseller among independent retailers.

Romantasy sensation Sarah J Maas made multiple appearances in the top 50 and A Court of Thorns and Roses (Bloomsbury) was her highest entry in 10th place. All five books in the ACOTAR series hit the top 100 with a five-book paperback box set in 27th. A Thousand Broken Pieces by fellow TikTok star Tillie Cole (Penguin), who was in hot water with dark romance fans last year after featuring the Ku Klux Klan in her Hades Hangman series, entered the charts in 17th place with more than 7,700 copies sold.

In total, 10 new releases entered the top 50 last week, including Hot Girl Summer by the Scottish writer behind the “Sex in the Glasgow City” blog Sophie Gravia (Orion). Fourth time’s the charm for Gravia, who made her top 50 début in 30th place with more than 5,000 copies sold.

As predicted a fortnight ago, K X Song’s The Night Ends with Fire (Hodderscape) made a reappearance in the charts in 14th place overall and at number one in Original Fiction (OF) after not one, but two subscription boxes featured it this month. Song replaced another subscription-box pick at the top of OF.

Meanwhile, Claire Douglas’ The Wrong Sister (Penguin) and Tom Hindle’s Murder on Lake Garda (Penguin Cornerstone) retained the lead in Mass-Market Fiction in first and second place respectively. Pinch of Nom Airfryer by Kay and Kate Allinson (Bluebird) was similarly stubborn at the top in Hardback Non-Fiction (HNF) as was Politics on the Edge by Rory Stewart (Vintage), which seized its seventh PNF number one in a row.

No doubt off the back of the announcement of J D Vance as the Republican Vice-Presidential candidate on 15th July, Hillbilly Elegy (William Collins) rocketed back up the charts. Vance’s memoir narrowly missed out on a spot in the top 50 but rose to seventh place in the PNF chart. In the week prior, the same edition sold only seven copies. Last week, it sold 3,877. Hillbilly Elegy was also the number one audiobook in the UK according to data from Audible. Perhaps, next week it will be Kamala Harris’ turn...

The market swelled to £32m – up 4% on the previous seven-day period – and 3.6 million books were purchased. It’s the fifth time this year that TCM value has surpassed the £32m mark, which is £2m shy of the peak set in early March at £34m.