Avon falls for lockdown love story from Chloe James

Avon has fallen for a love story set in the first weeks of lockdown by Chloe James.

Senior commissioning editor Tilda McDonald bought world all language rights to Love in Lockdown from Kate Nash at the Kate Nash Literary Agency. Avon will publish Love in Lockdown in autumn 2020.

The synopsis explains: “Love in Lockdown is a love story about meeting the right person at the wrong time, set against the backdrop of the first weeks of lockdown in the UK. It centres on two neighbours who might not have given each other a chance under ordinary circumstances—but ‘meeting’ on their balconies, unable to see one another, makes them reconsider their views on love and who The One might be.”

James is a pseudonym for Fiona Woodifield, author of The Jane Austen Dating Agency (Bloodhound). She said: “I am so incredibly excited to be working with such an amazing team and to be writing a love story set during lockdown—I really hope it might bring a much needed glimmer of positivity and hope to 2020.”

McDonald added: “I’m very proud to publish Love in Lockdown—Chloe is such a talent and the perfect person to find the brighter side to these dark times we find ourselves in. We feel there is an appetite for uplifting reads about love against the odds which simultaneously reflect our current reality. Sophia and Jack’s story is such a moving, feel-good one that we hope that it will lift readers’ hearts.”

Nash commented: “I am simply blown away at this timely and touching story.”