Walker wins LGBTQ+ rom-com in five-way auction

Walker Books has won a “LGBTQ+ Angus, Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging” rom-com by début author Freja Nicole Woolf in a “heated” five-way auction.

Publisher Denise Johnstone-Burt and senior editor Non Pratt inked world rights to Never Trust a Gemini, and another book, from Gemma Cooper at The Bent Agency. 

The first book follows chaotic Cat Philips⁠—a zodiac-obsessed 15-year-old⁠—who is struggling with a desperate crush on her friend Alison and must “scramble through a fake boyfriend, house fire and an unexpected Christmas romance to find her happy ending”. Never Trust a Gemini will be out in summer 2023, with a follow-up in the series to come in 2024. 

Pratt said: “[...Gemini] feels like the book I’ve been wanting to read my whole life – funny, packed with characters I wish were my friends and joyfully inclusive.”

Herefordshire-based Woolf is 24 and has been writing novels and poetry since school. She says that LGBTQ+ stories “matter deeply to me”. Woolf added: “Never Trust a Gemini is a heartfelt passion project, which I wrote to make myself laugh when I really needed it. To have the opportunity to share my book with young readers is a dream come true."