Lizzie Huxley-Jones
Hello! Thanks for joining me in the 5 star recs zone. Please feel free to follow - I don't tend to add people back as I don't actually use Goodreads myself any more. I just come back here to pop down the recommendations that I post on Twitter and Instagram where I'm @littlehux so you're better off finding me there as I really don't use Goodreads much at all any more.Official Bit:Lizzie Huxley-Jones (they/them) is an autistic author and editor based in London. They are the author of the queer holiday rom-com Make You Mine This Christmas (2022) from Hodder Books, the summer romance Hits Different co-written with Tasha Ghouri (2024) from Hot Key Books, and Vivi Conway and the Sword of Legend (2023) from Knights Of. They write joyful stories that centre queerness and disability.They are the editor of Stim, an anthology of autistic authors and artists, which was published by Unbound in April 2020 to coincide with World Autism Awareness Week. They are also the author of the children’s biography Sir David Attenborough: A Life Story (2020) and a contributor to the anthology Allies: Real Talk About Showing Up, Screwing Up, And Trying Again (2021).They also work with writers and publishers as a sensitivity reader and editorial consultant, and were an editor at independent micropublisher 3 of Cups Press.In their past career lives, they have been a research diver, a children’s bookseller and digital communications specialist.They tweet too much at @littlehux, taking breaks to walk their dog Nerys.They are represented by Abi Fellows of DHH Literary Agency.
Make You Mine This Christmas
Lizzie Huxley-Jones
It's the golden rule of pretending to be someone's girlfriend: don't fall for their sister.
After a year from hell, Haf is ready to blow off steam at a Christmas party: a kind stranger, a few too many drinks and suddenly she's kissing Christopher under the mistletoe - in front of his ex-girlfriend.
The next day the news is out that they're apparently a couple, madly in love and coming to Oxlea to spend the festive season with Christopher's family. But Haf doesn't have better holiday plans and to save her new friend from embarrassment, she agrees to pretend to be Christopher's girlfriend for Christmas.
It has the makings of a hilarious anecdote they'll be telling for years. Until Haf meets Christopher's sister: the mysterious, magnetic and utterly irresistible Kit. Maybe love was waiting for Haf in this quiet little town all along . . .
Vivi Conway and the Sword of Legend
Lizzie Huxley-Jones
“The problem with growing up listening to bedtime stories about monsters, magic and myth is that you don’t really question it when a lake summons you…”
The lake has been calling to twelve-year-old Vivi Conway. On the day she and her Mams will move from Wales to London, she sneaks out to investigate what is calling her there. Instead of a quiet swim, she finds Excalibur (much smaller than she expected), a ferocious monster (much scarier in real life than in her mythology books), a new friend (which she doesn’t want at all) called Dara and a ghostly dog named Gelert (who can talk).
Gelert insists that Vivi is part of a magical group of children who share the souls of witches from legend and must protect the world from being taken over by the evil King Arawn of the Otherworld. Oh, and now she can magically control water. With a little extra help from spiky Stevie and sweet-hearted Chia, Vivi must come to terms with her magical destiny and be brave enough to embrace true friendship.
The first book in a fantastical series that combines a quest for magic and friendship with Welsh mythology and a pinch of science, all within a contemporary setting.
Stim: An Autistic Anthology
Lizzie Huxley-Jones
Around one in one hundred people in the UK are autistic, yet there remains a fundamental misunderstanding of what autism is. It is rare that autistic people get to share their own experiences, show how creative and talented and passionate they are, how different they are from media stereotypes.
This insightful and eye-opening collection of essays, fiction and visual art showcases the immense talents of some of the UK's most exciting writers and artists - who just happen to be on the spectrum. Here they reclaim the power to speak for themselves and redefine what it means to be autistic.
Stim invites the reader into the lives, experiences, minds of the eighteen contributors, and asks them to recognise the hurdles of being autistic in a non-autistic world and to uncover the empathy and understanding necessary to continue to champion brilliant yet unheard voices.
Under the Mistletoe with You
Lizzie Huxley-Jones
Ready to spend a quiet Christmas with his nearest and dearest, Christopher has closed up shop in his bakery, he's wrapped up and packed up his presents, and he's found someone to stay in his flat over the festive period. Everything is under control. That is until the mysterious person he's rented his flat to turns out to be none other than...
Nash Nadeau, an actor - and the star of all Christopher's favourite Christmas movies. In fact, he's the guy Christpher's been crushing on for the whole past year. Since last Christmas.
For Nash, this Christmas was a chance to escape Hollywood, to go to a small town and hide away, alone, in a place where no one knows who he is. But when a huge snowstorm hits, the whole country grinds to a halt. There's no way Christopher is leaving, and there's nowhere else for Nash to stay. The two of them are just going to have to weather this together, snowed in for Christmas...
Vivi Conway and the Haunted Quest
Lizzie Huxley-Jones
The gang have been hunting for Isabella for weeks, but there’s no sign of her in the Unlands. They can’t even find the portal through to Annwn. And Vivi hasn’t told the rest of the gang about what happened with the villainous Arawn appearing in her dream. She definitely hasn't mentioned how scared she is to fall asleep, in case he reappears. Even Nimue has been quiet. As much as Vivi wants to hope that it’s all over, part of her knows it isn’t...
On Dara’s birthday, an invitation comes from their cousin Violet; come stay on Bardsey Island for a week, stay at their cottage, and celebrate Halloween. And bring all your friends! Vivi can’t refuse an opportunity to go back to Wales, and her friends are immediately excited for star-spotting, foraging, hiking, and just general adventuring. Little do they know, they are about to be thrown into a huge high-stakes treasure hunt, with the fate of the world resting on them (again). And Vivi’s feeling that Arawn is just waiting to reappear is only growing stronger...
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