“You think all this live every day like it’s your last crap is about defying death, like you’re some kind of rebel. Like that’s brave.” He shakes his head. “That’s not brave. You need to stop living like today is your last and start living like it isn’t“
In a world where everyone knows the date they will die, wild-child Regan works at a luxury resort as a “Juliet” for the Romeo & Juliet Service, hired by parents to provide the illusion of star-crossed romance to rich boys on their way out.
Over-achieving Jude Daly soon sees through the set-up; he thinks Regan is a parasite, Regan thinks he’s an entitled asshole. They agree to fake romance for the sake of Jude’s parents and Regan’s job, but as mutual contempt turns into something else, Regan begins to wonder if they can take on Fate together. Can they do it before Jude’s Death Date catches up with them?
Coming June 2026!
WHY I WROTE THE BOOK
To me, negotiating adolescence always felt like a balancing act between reckless hedonism and profound issues, so wild child Regan and uptight, philosophical Jude were a clash made in heaven. My favourite books are fun reads with substance at their core, and this mashup of love and death, Fate and fake dating, Romeo and Juliet meets Dirty Dancing, made Just Another Dead Boy the most fun I’ve ever had at my desk.
Like Jude, I enjoy a good existential question! At the heart of this romance are the big issues I wanted to play with. I’m fascinated and appalled by the way humans will attempt to capitalise on anything, and when I heard the phrase ‘suicide tourism’ (meaning travelling for assisted dying) my brain jumped straight to flashy tourist resorts catering for your last days on earth, offering every bucket list luxury imaginable. But I wondered, if you could put anything on your bucket list, would you really choose lavish consumerism and thrill-seeking, or would you want to experience true love before you die?
I created a tourist resort where those dying young can do just that via The Romeo and Juliet Service. But rather than the guests, I was more interested in the people who would work there, and what it would do to them to live in a world of opulent glamour they can’t afford, to encounter death on a daily basis, and to know that everything, including their hearts, is a marketable commodity.
What makes life meaningful? What does a life well lived look like? And can star-crossed teens, Regan and Jude, figure that out before the clock runs out for one of them?