Trapeze Books falls for Yeboah’s Big Chaotic Energy

Trapeze Books has acquired the debut rom-com Big Chaotic Energy, and another novel, from writer, content creator and body image advocate Stephanie Yeboah in a two-book deal.

Editorial director Sareeta Domingo acquired UK and Commonwealth rights excluding Canada from Hattie Grünewald at The Blair Partnership. Big Chaotic Energy will be published in hardback in February 2025, with the follow-up novel due to be published in 2026.

Big Chaotic Energy centres on Artemis "Temz" Owusu, a successful marketing exec and social media "plantfluencer" who has never been lucky in love, though not for a lack of opportunity. She has no shortage of dates or confidence, fiercely embracing her size 26 body—but for some reason her relationships don’t seem to stick.

However, things change when California-based tech entrepreneur Ruben slides into her DMs looking for plant care advice, and their long-distance digital flirtation grows. But when he asks for a photo, Temz momentarily panics and commits the cardinal online sin: becoming a catfish. Suddenly she’s embroiled in a web of deception with a man for whom her feelings are only growing stronger. When a promotion at work lands her the opportunity to visit Ruben’s stomping ground in Oakland, it could either be the opportunity for her to finally come clean and score her man—or it could lead to total chaos.

Domingo said: “From the very first page I was laughing out loud—and thrilled to have come across a rom-com that is genuinely funny as well as enthrallingly romantic. Stephanie’s debut is full of heart, and with a powerful message about maintaining a consistent sense of self-worth. Temz is exactly the kind of romantic heroine that the genre is still woefully lacking—a beautiful, relatable, driven and nuanced Black woman. I’m thrilled to welcome Stephanie to Team Trapeze for her first foray into fiction—she’s a brilliantly talented and vivid author.”

Yeboah said: “I am so excited to be working with Sareeta on my first fiction novel and to be joining the Trapeze family and to have found a home that shares my passion for the story. I’m thrilled to be diving into the world of fiction after what feels like such a long-anticipated step in my literary journey; Big Chaotic Energy has been such an exciting labour of love and I cannot wait to share the story and for my readers to fall in love with the characters as I have. I’m also incredibly grateful to my agent Hattie Grünewald at the Blair Partnership for her constant support and guidance throughout this process.”

Grünewald added: “From the opening paragraph of Stephanie’s novel I knew I had something incredibly exciting on my hands – Temz is such a brilliant heroine and the novel had me laughing out loud the whole way through. We’ve found a fantastic partner in Trapeze and I can’t wait for Big Chaotic Energy to reach readers.”