Go Lightly

January 1, 2024

DEBUT Ada Highfield is a cabaret performer in a crowded British arts scene, ecstatic to be 26 and living the artist's life. She becomes entangled in two contrasting romantic relationships. One involves Stuart, a younger middle-class man from Liverpool who keeps to texting rather than spending money or time to meet up. The other involves Sadie, a fellow Australian expat who crashes temporarily with Ada before moving back to Perth. Neither of these relationships develops according to the typical beats of a romance novel, and readers hoping to cheer for either relationship (or both) to succeed will feel frustrated by the lack of insight into Ada's partners' perspectives. For instance, a long, pivotal section of the novel takes place in Florida, where Ada's sister lives, while Stuart and Sadie are occasionally present via text message but mostly serve as distant outlets for Ada's processing and gradual emotional growth. VERDICT Readers expecting a romance are likely to be disappointed, but this is an engaging portrait of the kind of person who is used to just getting things without planning or asking, from an easy immigration path to free lines of cocaine, as she looks ahead to the next phase of her life.--Katelyn Browne

Copyright 2024 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

February 12, 2024
Screenwriter Lee-Kennedy pivots to romance fiction with the low-key tale of a bisexual love triangle between 20-something slackers. Aspiring actor Ada Highfield, living the single life in London with her more responsible roommate, Mel, leaves a performance at the Edinburgh Fringe with two romantic opportunities: there’s fellow Australian Sadie, who Ada hooked up with after clubbing, and Liverpudlian Stuart, with whom she begins a text-based flirtation. When Sadie’s living situation suddenly sours, she moves in with Ada and the two resume hooking up, even as things deepen between Ada and Stuart. While trying to stay solvent and measuring herself against her sister’s more traditional life as a new mother in Florida, Ada leans into the thrill of both budding relationships. Lee-Kennedy showcases her flair for dialogue both in the apartment’s household dynamic and in the sense of cautiously building interest in Stuart and Ada’s texts. Though Ada is introduced as an impulsive free spirit, she, and by extension the novel itself, is surprisingly timid after the steamy opening. Despite a promise of playfulness, the story delivers far more understated anxiety. Still, Lee-Kennedy’s witty approach to the realities of modern dating is sure to draw readers in.

March 1, 2024
Ada Hightree is an aspiring actor who is getting by, not on money from acting jobs--she has hardly any of either--but on her good looks, charm, and breezy confidence. Ada has spent her life diving headlong into complicated situations searching for love, adventure, and a good time, and now she has come to several crossroads; most interesting to her, she is caught between pursuing a relationship with a man she has never met and a woman she's slept with once, neither of whom she knows very well. Debut novelist Lee-Kennedy deftly presents Ada's misconceptions over how she is received in this throwback novel of female recklessness, like Breakfast at Tiffany's, by Truman Capote, or The Dud Avocado, by Elaine Dundy, only now with lives further muddied by texting and social media. Ada is sometimes carefree, other times has a blustery optimism contrary to her circumstances; the book highlights the hilarity and melancholy of living life to the fullest and yet not feeling fulfilled.

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December 12, 2023
Brydie Lee-Kennedy’s debut, Go Lightly, is an honest, hilarious and often painful exploration of taking risks in life and love. Full of wry humour, it dives into the complexities of relationships—romantic, family, and friendship—and the different versions of ourselves we present to others. Twenty-six-year-old cabaret performer Ada is the free-spirited protagonist, an Australian living in London, struggling to make ends meet and launch her acting career. When Ada simultaneously falls for Sadie and Stuart, curiosity drives her to see where both roads lead. But when Sadie and Stuart find out about each other, and as pressures mount from Ada's family, friendships and finances, she must ask herself what she really wants. This is not your typical love-triangle romance with a neatly resolved ending, but a story about our deep-seated need for connection. The subplot that intrigued me most was the fraught relationship between Ada and her sister, Gabby, and I longed for more backstory and a deeper dive into this. Lee-Kennedy is an Australian screenwriter based in Sydney who has written for Netflix, Apple TV and Disney. Here, she has written a nuanced character who draws us into the modern, messy realities of finding our way in life and love. Her style, cadence and ability to subtly get under the skin of her characters will appeal to fans of Sally Rooney, Dolly Alderton and Naoise Dolan.