Life is hard. Read romcoms.
It is the end of a long day. You have been working at a job you don’t like much but can’t leave because everything is dangerously expensive. You have trudged to the train station through the dark, through some puddles. At work in your breaks you checked the news and...
Chloe Michelle Howarth on writing
When I wrote my first novel, Sunburn, I was keen to write a very queer, very Irish story. I never imagined that people from countries all over the world would relate to it. The push and pull of both loving and rejecting your home town; living in a quiet, conservative...
Horror Must Reads
This Halloween, VERVE authors are bringing you their scariest reads for the spooky season. Add these recs to your TBRs and prepare to be terrified. Zee Carlstrom Picks: TENDER IS THE FLESH by Agustina Bazterrica Let’s kick things off strong with an Argentinian novel...
‘Slashed Beauties’ Origins
I hung back as my husband waited for his turn to speak to the woman at the desk. Why? Because I knew he was going to ask politely to see a man’s severed head. We were in a museum in Pavia, Italy, where my husband was attending a medical conference. It’s partly because...
Dark reads for dark nights
Autumn is setting in, which means it's time to start considering what books to read for the long nights. What books read best when the wind is rattling your window? Which plots stick with you when your feet feel cold in your fluffy socks? We've got a list of Autumn...
The summer I fought brain rot
A few shows and films have absolutely been dominating our brains and social media this summer so to give you a break from the screens, here’s which books to read based on your binge-watching obsession! If you loved The Summer I Turned Pretty, you’ll...
Betsy Lerner on mental health representation
You wish a lot of things for a first novel, but for me, my hope, is the readers find the depiction of mental illness to be true. I was diagnosed with manic-depression (as it was then referred to) as a teenager in 1975. It would be another fifteen years before I...
Most Anticipated Summer Reads of 2025
This has been one hot summer and it's not over yet! We're giving you the books we cannot wait to dive into before autumn arrives. Lisa's Pick: Sunstruck by William Rayfet Outside of our own brilliant 2025 summer reads for July and August - Send Flowers, The Rivals...
From Activist to Novelist: The Emotional Journey Behind Send Flowers
When I was a toddler, I told my mum that I wanted to ‘paint the flowers’. I didn’t mean I wanted to scrawl petals in childish brush strokes. I wanted to paint the actual flowers in our garden. I thought that they were so beautiful that some unseen artist must be...
‘Do These Stilettos Make My Debut Romance Novel Look Like an Agent of the Patriarchy?’ and Other Pressing Questions
If you’ve ever plucked your eyebrows then wondered if it was anti-feminist, welcome to my spirit canoe. It is a place of wanting cake and eating it off a strange cultural plate, where we get tangled in reclaiming our power and losing it in the same stroke. Beauty is...