The film adaptation of the much-loved and viral rom com novel by Casey McQuiston – Red, White and Royal Blue – has wrapped production. The movie will come to Prime Studios, although no release date has yet been announced.

The novel centres around the star-crossed, secret romance between the son of the President of the United States and the Prince of England, the two have been sworn enemies since they were children but, after an international scandal, are forced to work together to execute damage control. The friendship quickly turns to a love story.

The cast was announced on variety – with actors Taylor Zakhar Perez and Nicholas Galitzine cast as the leading men in the Amazon Studios film adaptation. Taylor will play Alex Claremont-Diaz, the son of the President of the United States while Nicholas will play the role of Prince Henry of England. Meanwhile, Uma Thurman has been cast as Alex’s mother, newly elected United States President Ellen Claremont.

The movie will be directed by Matthew López.

While there has been no confirmed release date for the movie, both Taylor and Nicholas have shared a multitude of photos from set. This is bound to be a joyful watch!

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This year, we’ve had more word on what the Amazon Prime Video movie adaptation of Robinne Lee’s novel ‘The Idea of You’ will look like. Published in 2017, the book tells the story of 40 year old divorcee Solène Marchand who takes her daughter to meet her favourite ball band – August Moon – only to fall in love with the lead singer, 20 year-old Hayes Campbell – supposedly inspired by Harry Styles. The novel takes you through the highs and lows of their relationship and is a breathlessly romantic love against the odds novel. The movie adaptation has made some small changes, including making Hayes 24 and having their meet-cute at Coachella, rather than in Vegas and with Solène’s name changed to Sophie.

The movie version will star Anne Hathaway in the lead role and the film itself will be directed and produced by Michael Showalter (The Big Sick). Gabrielle Union and Hathaway will also step into producer roles.

Given the widespread popularity of the novel, doubtless the adaptation will be one of the bigger releases on Prime Video when it is released, although we do not have a release date yet to hand.

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If you’ve even casually scrolled through BookTok, you’ll be familiar with ‘The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo.’ The book has sold an absurd number of copies and has become a viral sensation. So far, what we know so far about the movie adaptation is fairly limited, however, we do know that the novel will be adapted for Netflix by Liz Tigelaar (‘Little Fires Everywhere’) and Reid herself will be one of the executive producers for the new movie.

So far, no release date or casting have been announced for the film but we will update this page as more information gets released.

The adaptation was announced in March 2022, so it may be some time before we get any further details.

The novel though revolves around reclusive Hollywood legendary film actress Evelyn Hugo, who has chosen to recount the story of her life to reporter – Monique Grant. Hugo recounts the story of her time in the Golden Age of Hollywood, her rise to fame, her seven marriages and the secrets and lies behind each one. The novel is a twisting and turning book full of surprises, intrigues and mystery that will translate flawlessly to the screen – we hope!

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[tps_title]1. Black Cake by Charmaine Wilkerson[/tps_title]

For mothers who love a good literary fiction novel, filled with suspense and family history. The novel centres around Byron and Benny who are reunited at their estranged mother’s funeral. When she leaves them a lengthy voice recording, it becomes clear that the history of their family is built upon a wealth of secrets.

In the novel both Byron and Benny grapple to establish an understanding of the woman they knew.

For mothers in need of a good book to curl up to, this is the one – we haven’t yet heard of anyone who hated this.

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Taylor Swift has taken to Instagram to share the news that she has written a new song for the forthcoming movie adaptation of ‘Where the Crawdads Sing.’ Of the track she shares, ‘Where The Crawdads Sing is a book I got absolutely lost in when I read it years ago. As soon as I heard there was a film in the works starring the incredible @daisyedgarjones and produced by the brilliant @reesewitherspoon, I knew I wanted to be a part of it from the musical side. I wrote the song “Carolina” alone and asked my friend @aarondessner to produce it. I wanted to create something haunting and ethereal to match this mesmerizing story.’

Adapted from the best-selling novel written by Delia Owens, ‘Where the Crawdads Sing’ is a captivating mystery. The book tells the story of Kya, an abandoned girl who raised herself to adulthood in the dangerous marshlands of North Carolina. For years, rumors of the “Marsh Girl” haunted Barkley Cove, isolating the sharp and resilient Kya from her community. Drawn to two young men from town, Kya opens herself to a new and startling world; but when one of them is found dead, she is immediately cast by the community as the main suspect. As the case unfolds, the verdict as to what actually happened becomes increasingly unclear, threatening to reveal the many secrets that lay within the marsh. Where the Crawdads Sing stars Daisy Edgar-Jones (Normal People) as “Kya Clark,” Taylor John Smith (Sharp Objects) as “Tate Walker,” Harris Dickinson (The King’s Man) as “Chase Andrews,” Michael Hyatt (Snowfall) as “Mabel,” Sterling Macer, Jr. (Double Down) as “Jumpin’,” and David Strathairn (Nomadland) as “Tom Milton.” Olivia Newman (First Match) directs the screenplay by Lucy Alibar (Beasts of the Southern Wild) based upon the novel by Delia Owens. The 3000 Pictures film is being produced by Reese Witherspoon and Lauren Neustadter.

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Hi Lizzie, the book is so close to being released, how are you feeling?

It still feels surreal. I can’t believe I’m in this position. I can’t believe people that I don’t know are going to be reading Yinka. I think there’s a buzz happening a little bit on social media and it’s trickling down, which is good.

100%. One of the things which really jumped out to me about the book is that obviously there’s so much joy, it’s so fun. There are so many important topics throughout the book. You’ve got family relationships, faith, colourism… how important was it to infuse those ideas and have some important messages even while you’re having this joyful and fun book?

So, I definitely wanted to make it fun and relatable. I think my natural writing style is very witty anyway. At the same time, I wanted it to have depth and be relatable, especially for black women – there’s certain things that we go through with colourism and texture-ism and things like that. I just didn’t think it will be as three-dimensional if I didn’t include those important topics. When it comes to faith and when it comes to mainstream fiction, I really struggled to find a book with a Christian character, they were always in Christian visions. That was something I wanted to change, you know, you can be Christian and be relatable when it’s fun, and show that Christianity is not old-fashioned and is personal and intimate as well. I dabbled with both serious issues, but also the fun stuff as well.

I always look through books and faith is sidelined – either books are promoted as Christian books or sideline characters. I loved the way it was infused into the tapestry of normal life.

Thank you.

In terms of the creative process in creating the book, it obviously took a few years to make and has been a long time. Can you talk about the initial idea and how it came to the published copy?

I’d probably say in total, it’s been maybe five years, maybe even a bit more. I started back in my early to mid 20s and Yinka actually started off as a short story – I had a blog that I ran, and at the time, I was feeling the pressure from my mum to find a husband. I decided to use this experience as inspiration to write the Yinka story – about a British Nigerian woman whose in her thirties and feeling that pressure from her mom and aunties as well. I was feeling the pressure coming through, but the idea to turn it into a novel came later on. So, I attended this workshop, and I met this fantastic author called Jackie Lee. At some point, I wanted to get feedback on my writing, so I shared my blog with her. In addition to giving me really constructive and helpful feedback, she said, ‘You know what, I really like this character and I think you should turn her into a novel’. I took it on and I guess the rest is history, but it was a very long journey with lots of ups and downs. When I first started writing, I had no clue what I was doing, I just kind of jumped into it blindly. So, I think the first year and a half involved me just starting and restarting, I was just winging it, there was no plan, nothing.

Then, I read this really good book called ‘Story Engineering,’ which I recommend to all writers. That’s when I had my lightbulb moment, and I realised that my writing is a craft, and there needs to be structure and conflict and compelling characters, so I went back to it. I think from there, that’s when I started to invest in myself as a writer. I had to learn how to get better at storytelling and how to improve my writing, so I did things such as attend online, creative writing courses, workshops, reading more, networking. That really helped me get to the position to submit my early draft of Yinka to the TLC Pen Factor competition. I was reluctant at first because I felt like I don’t think I’m good enough. I was just praying to be long listed, and actually ended up winning the competition – that’s how I met my agent. To cut a long story short, she asked me for the pages and synopsis.

I really appreciate you talking about writing like that. I think it’s so easy for young writers who are coming up and thinking, I have to be perfect straight away. Even if you’re amazing at telling stories and writing, it’s a craft that you have to dedicate to and spend time with. I was reading through and thinking that there’s so many relationships in this book that you’ve really fleshed out, and it feels so real.

That again is not an immediate thing that happens, writing is rewriting as well. Some of the things that you’ve probably read probably came in the last edit of Yinka, but they made all the difference.

I mean, as I said, I found the relationships so interesting, particularly between the female characters, like with her sister Kemi. It’s such a transitional point in both their lives with Kemi having a child and sort of growing apart. What did that relationship mean to you, in terms of them growing apart, but then coming back together? I think every girl experiences that at some point in their life, when people are going through different life stages at different times?

It’d be interesting if Yinka was the older one. Kemi is younger, but she’s the one that’s kind of got her life together – according to society’s standards – she’s married, and now she’s expecting a child. I thought it’d be interesting to explore that dynamic and how it impacts the relationship. Yinka loves her sister, but she realises that her sister is walking on eggshells around her, she doesn’t want to share too much of our joy with them, because she’s cautious that Yinka’s not in that position, and she wants to be in that position and is older as well. It has affected their relationship because Yinka feels awkward around Kemi and withdraws from Kemi because now her mom is spending more time with Kemi because she’s pregnant. All that impacts the relationship and I’m sure there’s many people out there who are in the same boat as well.

I mean I reacted to every female in this book – it was just so fascinating to me their relationships, particularly with Nana, when obviously she’s pushing Yinka to go to therapy or counselling. Seeing that line of how far to push someone, I found that very interesting. Can you talk a bit about how you wanted Yinka’s journey to go, in terms of her realising her own self worth?

Yeah, so I really wanted to get Yinka to reach a breaking point, so that the choice comes from her. I think that’s really important to feel that she needs to see someone, as opposed to her being pushed into therapy and not getting the most out of it. She’s not going to open up and she’s doesn’t even want to be there in the first place. So yeah, I gave her quite a hard time, I put her through so many things.

It was a very important part of the story and it just felt so natural that that was the journey she went on. I think, sometimes in life you have seasons where everything just seems to go wrong.

I did think it was beautiful to see someone who was kind of resistant to it, and then showing them at the end, I just found it such a beautiful ending, that it wasn’t necessarily just falling into the straight romcom tropes of her ending up with the right person. How important was that as part of the story and rounding out in that way?

Yeah, that was very important to me, because before, I wanted her story to be relatable. In life, we all have goals and deadlines and sometimes you don’t meet them. I wanted to deal with hope. I think the end is a good balance of the two, I’ve got a mix of the two. I’m very happy that you said that about it ended because that was actually what I wanted to achieve. I think it is so easy to end films and books with that being the end and being happy. Actually, sometimes it’s almost more joyful – that she found the joy from within rather than it being from external stuff.

I love the fact that we’re viewing love as a more multifaceted thing nowadays than just necessarily romantic love, but almost having that love, which she has for her sister and being an aunt and her mom. It was just such a joyful note to end the book.

Thank you.

 I’m so excited for people to get their hands on this book, because it’s just phenomenal, so congratulations.

Thank you so much.

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It Ends With Us by Colleen Hoover is one of the most popular books on TikTok. Teased on Instagram, the novel now has a movie adaptation in the works. It Ends With Us is about Lily, a woman who grew up in small town in Maine and who now lives in Boston. She sparks with the stunning neurosurgeon, Ryle Kincaid, but can’t stop thinking about her first love, Atlas Corrigan. Atlas suddenly reappears in her life, leaving her to question the relationship she’s built with Ryle and just how healthy it may be. Colleen Hoover has described the book as “hardest book I’ve ever written,” given that the abusive relationship it displays between Ryle and Lily is based on her own parents’ relationship.

The novel is planned as a movie adaptation and will be developed by Justin Baldoni’s company Wayfarer Entertainment. The project is currently in development and the first draft screenplay was finished around September 2021, as Baldoni announced on Instagram.

Casting

In 2023, it was announced that Blake Lively will star in the leading role as Lily Bloom, alongside Justin Baldoni as Ryle.

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The long-anticipated movie adaptation of Kristin Hannah’s much loved novel The Nightingale is finally getting its movie adaptation release to the baited breath of fans worldwide. The novel is a multi-million No. 1 bestseller, having sold over 4.5 million copies worldwide and so there is widespread hype and building anticipation for this movie release. The book has been adapted for the big screen by Dana Stevens (“Safe Haven,” “City of Angels”).

The film will star real-life sisters Dakota Fanning (as Vianne Mauriac) and Elle Fanning (as Isabelle Rossignol) and is directed by Mélanie Laurent (star of Inglorious Basterds) and produced by Elizabeth Cantillon. The novel centres around the two sisters who struggle to survive and resist the German occupation of France in World War II. It was inspired by the story of a Belgian woman, Andrée de Jongh, who helped downed Allied pilots to escape Nazi territory. Filming started in 2020 and in April 2021, Netflix and Disney signed a deal with Sony for the right to stream and broadcast the film, finally, on 23rd December 2022.

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[tps_title] 10. An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir [/tps_title]

This series is centred around a unique fictional universe based on ancient Rome. In An Ember in the Ashes, Tahir writes about Laia – a scholar, a class of people oppressed and enslaved by the Martials. When her brother is captured by the Martials’ elite soldiers, called Masks, and her connection to the Resistance is discovered, she poses as a slave and infiltrates the military academy where Martials are trained. The story is immensely complex but builds a compelling and satisfying story and layered universe.

Pick up a copy here.

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[tps_title] 12. Without Merit [/tps_title]

The Voss family is anything but normal. They live in a repurposed church, newly baptized Dollar Voss. The once cancer-stricken mother lives in the basement, the father is married to the mother’s former nurse, the little half-brother isn’t allowed to do or eat anything fun, and the eldest siblings are irritatingly perfect. Then, there’s Merit.

Merit Voss collects trophies she hasn’t earned and secrets her family forces her to keep. While browsing the local antiques shop for her next trophy, she finds Sagan. His wit and unapologetic idealism disarm and spark renewed life into her—until she discovers that he’s completely unavailable. Merit retreats deeper into herself, watching her family from the sidelines, when she learns a secret that no trophy in the world can fix.

Fed up with the lies, Merit decides to shatter the happy family illusion that she’s never been a part of before leaving them behind for good. When her escape plan fails, Merit is forced to deal with the staggering consequences of telling the truth and losing the one boy she loves.

Pick up a copy here.

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