Jodi is originally from Kiama, a seaside holiday town on the south coast of New South Wales, and has lived in a bunch of different cities: Canberra (where she did her undergrad degrees), Wollongong (where she lived while she did her PhD in Sydney), and Hobart (where she held her first academic job) among them. Finally, in Not Here To Make Friends, we finally find out what the deal is with our villain Lily Fireball and producer Murray. In Can I Steal You For A Second?, two of the frontrunner contestants for Dylan’s affection fall in love with each other instead. Here For The Right Reasons is the love story of Cece, a contestant eliminated on the first night, and Dylan, the star of the show. These are all set on the same season of a reality dating show where, in a massive twist, it turns out no one can leave – even eliminated contestants. Her debut in this space is Here For The Right Reasons (2022), which will be followed by Can I Steal You For A Second? (April 2023) and Not Here To Make Friends (December 2023). Jodi has recently started writing rom-coms for adult audiences. Jodi wrote the first draft of this book when she was a theatre kid with too many emotions, so – even though it’s been revised and rewritten many, many times since then – it’s very close to her heart. It’s about a lot of things, but chief among them is theatre kids having too many emotions. She’s also the author of Libby Lawrence Is Good At Pretending (2022), a young adult contemporary romance with university-aged characters, published by Wakefield Press.

If Picnic at Hanging Rock meets Holly Black sounds like something you’d be into, these are the books for you. There are three books in the series available: Valentine (2017), Ironheart (2018), and Misrule (2019), all published by Penguin Teen Australia.

In her author life, she’s the author of the Valentine series, a young adult paranormal romance/urban fantasy series about smart girls, small towns, and scary fairies. Jodi is an author of romantic fiction for adults and young adults, as well as being an academic.

Jodi mcalister valentine series