Booksmart

In this episode, Sunny and Allie sit down with New York Times bestselling author Lyla Sage, writer of western romances like the Rebel Blue Ranch series and Sweetwater Peak duology. Lyla joins the girls in Melbourne, her final stop before she heads back to the U.S. after a whirlwind Australian tour.

She started her career as an author by independently publishing her debut novel, Done and Dusted, directly on Amazon. Within just a couple of weeks, she was laid off from her full-time job and poached by one of the Big Five publishing houses for a book deal that most writers can only dream of. Three years later, a TV adaptation of Rebel Blue is in the works, and the author is gearing up for three big releases in 2027.

In this special conversation, Lyla gets candid about creating a blueprint for a new type of man—progressive, devoted, and kind— through her fiction, while celebrating the unrivalled value of familial and platonic love. They discuss ghosts, mental health, social media, only-child accusations, and whether the author takes issue with being branded as an overnight TikTok sensation.

We hope you enjoy this chat, and you can buy any of Lyla Sage's books at QBD with 5% off using the code ‘BOOKSMART’ online or at the checkout:

https://www.qbd.com.au/search/?q=lyla+sage&utm_source=booksmart&utm_medium=booksmart&utm_campaign=booksmart&utm_id=booksmart&utm_term=booksmart&utm_content=booksmart

It's Halloween ya'll (basically), and it's time to get spooky! In this book club episode, Sue Ann a.k.a. Ma (Sunny) and Helen Sharp (Allie) review Shailee Thompson's slasher rom-com 'How to Kill a Guy in Ten Dates'.

This debut novel follows cinephile Jamie Prescott, who gets caught in the middle of a murder spree at a speed-dating event with her best friend Laurie and must use her encyclopedic knowledge of the romance and horror genres to make it as a real-life Final Girl.

It's funny, scary, and surprisingly... incredibly horny?! Finding love is hard at the best of times, let alone in the middle of a killing spree. Tune in to this unhinged Halloween book club special to find out whether our girls figured out who the killer was and whether they've got what it takes to survive the night.

You can purchase 'How to Kill a Guy in Ten Dates' by Shailee Thompson online with QBD Books using the following link:
https://www.qbd.com.au/how-to-kill-a-guy-in-ten-dates/shailee-thompson/9781761826788/?utm_source=booksmart&utm_medium=booksmart&utm_campaign=booksmart&utm_id=booksmart&utm_term=booksmart&utm_content=booksmart

On a very special episode of Booksmart for asexuality awareness week, Allie Daisy King had a chat with Alice Oseman, English author, illustrator, and screenwriter best known for creating the beloved Emmy Award-winning & New York Times best-selling queer series Heartstopper.
Alice is openly aromantic asexual, which lends itself well to her plethora of characters on the aroace spectrum through her stories. In this chat, Allie and Alice kiki about the utter dearth of asexual & aromantic characters in media, the struggles with representing marginalised groups without wanting those stories to seem monolithic, and what the future of Alice's work holds.
We hope you enjoy this chat, and you can buy any of Alice Oseman's books at QBD with 5% off using the code ‘BOOKSMART’ online or at the checkout:
https://www.qbd.com.au/search/?q=Alice+Oseman&utm_source=booksmart&utm_medium=booksmart&utm_campaign=booksmart&utm_id=booksmart&utm_term=booksmart&utm_content=booksmart

In this bonus episode of Booksmart, hosts Sunny and Allie meet with Canadian author Bal Khabra, of the beloved hockey romance series Off the Ice — which includes Collide, Spiral, Revolve, and Embrace.

Khabra rarely does on-camera interviews and is notoriously private, but in this exclusive interview, the author shares her observations on the growing appeal of the sports romance sub-genre. The trio discuss how romance authors are leading the charge for diverse representation in literature, and why Hollywood adaptations of popular fiction often tend to lag behind real-time reader preferences.

Khabra also reveals details about her upcoming cowboy, second-chance romance Last Call, her unique strategy for recruiting beta readers directly from Goodreads, and what inspired her transition from a faceless author persona to front-facing book tours and reader events.

You can buy any of Bal Khabra’s books at QBD with 5% off using the code ‘BOOKSMART’ online or at the checkout:
https://www.qbd.com.au/embrace/bal-khabra/9781037201554/?utm_source=booksmart&utm_medium=booksmart&utm_campaign=booksmart&utm_id=booksmart&utm_term=booksmart&utm_content=booksmart

In this very special episode of Booksmart, co-host Sunny had the sublime opportunity to interview English actress Daisy Edgar-Jones for the Sense and Sensibility junket held in Sydney last week.
Edgar-Jones plays Jane Austen's beloved Elinor Dashwood, the sensible older sister of Marianne and Margaret Dashwood, whose emotional restraint is tested when she grows attached to Edward Ferrars. The actress is no newcomer to book-to-screen adaptations, having risen to prominence for her roles as Marianne Sheridan in Normal People and Kya in Where the Crawdads Sing. She is also set to star in the upcoming production of Gabrielle Zevin's novel Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow.
Listen to hear the stars' thoughts on adapting classic literature, maintaining your sensibility, curating the perfect angsty playlist, working with Australian author and screenwriter Diana Reid, and reading Sarah J Maas's Throne of Glass and ACOTAR series.
Sense and Sensibility arrives in cinemas across Australia on October 15th, 2026.