This Love

'One Day for a new generation' Grazia

'A beautifully written, generous-hearted, clever, tender, fresh and unputdownable novel about queerness, family and forgiveness. I loved This Love.' Elizabeth Day

Find yourself in this sweeping tale of queer friendship and chosen families that will keep you laughing, crying and endlessly turning the page.

When Mae and Ari meet their final year at the University of Leeds, their connection is magnetic. Mae, whilst stubborn and no stranger to breaking hearts, needs Ari's bright light to guide her out of her self-centred ways; Ari, vibrant, charming and reeling in the aftermath of a scandal in New York, clings to Mae as his grounding anchor.

As the years sweep by, the two traverse the tumult of life: toxic partners and hidden secrets, the heavy weight of grief, and a complicated, unignorable desire to start a family . . . If they can hold onto one another in the face of the relentless past and the inevitable future, they might discover how to build something beautiful out of their expansive, boundary-breaking love.

Spanning ten years of extraordinary friendship, This Love is a vivid and epic tale of finding your soulmates, building an unconventional family, and the limitless, ever-changing forms love can take.

'Astute, tender and utterly joy-filled. This is the love story we've been waiting for' Elle

"Everything you want from a novel . . . funny, sexy, and moving" Claire Lynch, author of small: on motherhoods

One Day for a new generation. Grazia
A beautifully written, generous-hearted, clever, tender, fresh and unputdownable novel about queerness, family and forgiveness. I loved This Love. -- Elizabeth Day
Astute, tender and utterly joy-filled. This is the love story we've been waiting for. Elle
We're calling it . . . This Love is the new One Day The Sunday Times Style
The best parts of Sally Rooney and Gabrielle Zevin merge for this exquisitely paced, modern yet timeless story of love and friendship . . . Pitch perfect, I adored this completely absorbing and compulsive gem. -- John Marrs, author of The Good Samaritan
Incredible . . . a beautiful book full of emotion that will stay with me for a long time. -- Nina Pottell, Books Editor at Prima
I wouldn't be at all surprised if This Love was my book of 2024. The world-building and storytelling is exquisite, the characters so real, the plot perfect. I'm madly jealous of everyone who hasn't read it yet. -- Laura Pearson
Bursting with queer joy and tenderness, This Love is original, compelling and totally gorgeous. An immensely enjoyable ode to the extraordinary power of friendship and forging your own kind of family. I adored it. -- Roxy Bourdillon, DIVA magazine
I had a whirlwind romance with this book. Rarely have I seen myself so clearly in literature. Safe to say I loved it. -- Suzi Ruffell
Anchored by complicated real-world challenges, this novel explores the weight of secrets, toxic partnerings, grief and desire all whilst celebrating the greatest love in so many lives, friendship. Evening Standard
An intensely readable novel about all the love that doesn't fit inside society's neat boundaries -- Laura Bates
This Love is everything you want from a novel, it's funny, sexy, and moving. It's a book full of queer joy that lets us imagine all the hopeful possibilities in the word 'family'. -- Claire Lynch, author of small: on motherhoods
This is a book I will return to again and again. I finished it in the early hours of the morning and was bereft. It's about relationships, our concept of family, what soulmate means . . . I could go on! It's beautiful. -- Jennie Godfrey
It charts its twists and turns with appealingly breezy, emotionally attuned prose Daily Mail
Moving, engrossing and queer as hell, Lotte Jeff's debut novel is a gorgeous love letter to the extraordinary power of queer friendship and forging your own kind of family DIVA
I was bereft when I turned the last page, as I didn't want to leave Mae and Ari behind . . . Beautiful and full of emotion, it will stay with me for a long time. -- Nina Pottell, "Books of the Month" Prima
A moving portrayal of platonic love and chosen family. It's a reminder that a soulmate doesn't need to be a romantic connection, and that love takes many equally crucial forms. Women's Weekly
Touching, surprising and gloriously enjoyable debut, which charts the challenges and joys of unconventional families, of fluidity and friendship, and of love in every possible incarnation. -- Marie-Claire Chappet Harper's Bazaar
This Love is a brilliantly rich portrayal of family. Both the family we are born into and the family we find, forge and fight for no matter the cost. I fell so deeply for its messy, passionate, glorious characters and their new ways of making and sustaining love, be it romantic, platonic or a soul-mate connection that belies traditional definition. Jeffs has created a world so vivid, I felt I was living in it and was immediately bereft when I turned the last page. -- Amy Beashel
Reminiscent of Patti Smith and Robert Mapplethorpe, Mae and Ari have an immediate and incandescent connection that defies categorization. It's a sincere pleasure to watch this richly rendered, embodied, and deeply queer cast of characters crash headlong into each other and be transformed. -- Emma Copley Eisenberg, author of HOUSEMATES and THE THIRD RAINBOW GIRL
Lyrical, meandering, and astute, This Love is a love letter to what friendship can be, and what a novel can do. -- Chloé Caldwell, author of WOMEN
A beautifully wrought, tender, funny, and wholly original story about the magic that happens when friends become family. I was totally immersed in the characters and their world, and started missing them the moment I finished reading. -- Gabrielle Korn, author of YOURS FOR THE TAKING and THE SHUTOUTS
This Love had me deep in my feelings. Lotte Jeffs is the real deal, and many writers will, justifiably, never forgive her for creating such a tender, engrossing, and unforgettable debut. -- Ruth Madievsky, author of ALL-NIGHT PHARMACY

Lotte Jeffs has spent her career writing columns, profiles and think pieces for the British press. She has worked as an editor for ELLE and ES Magazine, and is the author of How to be a Gentlewoman: The Art of Soft Power in Hard Times, co-author of The Queer Parent and the children's picture book My Magic Family. She co-hosts the podcast From Gay To Ze, about LGBTQ parenting and pop culture. Lotte has won the PPA Writer of The Year Award and The Great British Podcast Award.

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