You have one shot to make your dream come true, and the only person standing in your way is... your former crush turned current nemesis. 😅

Our July book is Sparks Will Fly by Laurel Holl!

Sparks fly and robots clash in this sports romance for nerds

With life stuck on hard mode, nothing is going according to plan for Mari Williams. Not her career, not her family commitments, and definitely not her lifelong dream of building combat robots for competition. When she’s offered entry into the most famous combat robotics event in the world, it’s the chance of a lifetime and an opportunity to change everything.

Battling against difficult team members, increasing chronic pain, and a terrible robot, Mari must use all her skills to find a path to victory. However, there’s one problem even her brilliant mind can’t solve: Jacob Moore, her biggest rival, childhood crush, and the man who ruined her dreams.

When Jacob tries to make amends by offering assistance, Mari must decide if giving him access to her robot means a chance to win it all, or a chance to get hurt all over again.

Sparks Will Fly is a sports romance for nerds. This rivals to lovers slow burn features a disabled plus-size heroine, a missed-connections romance, robot fights, and an underdog story full of heart. Perfect for people who wish BattleBots had kissing and fans of Ali Hazelwood.

Your new indie romance author bestie, Laurel Holl (she/they), is a thirty-something bisexual disaster who got yelled at for reading her library books in math class growing up.

Laurel graduated from school with plans to write the next Great American Novel—which she’s doing, since so far all of her books are set in America and they’re pretty great (in her opinion). She writes contemporary romance with heart and brings her lived experience with disability, body positivity, and neurodivergence to her stories.

Before returning to writing she spent a decade in the marketing field. Now she shares her tips and tricks for other indie romance authors to use.

Laurel lives in the Midwest with their husband, dog, and two cats. When they’re not crying over a word document, you can find them reading, swearing at their video games, or stopping on the hiking trail every 15 feet to take a picture of some moss.

Fat Forward Book Club will meet Friday, July 24 at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT to discuss Sparks Will Fly in the community Discord!

Meeting on the third Friday of every month at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT via Discord, Fat Forward Book Club will read and discuss a variety of books by fat authors, about fat experiences, and/or featuring fat characters based on votes from Bindery subscribers. We'll explore books across multiple genres and target audiences/age groups to discuss depictions of fatness in fiction and nonfiction, as well as how perceptions of fatness in the book world have changed or stayed the same in recent years.

All followers are invited to participate in monthly book club discussions! They can also vote on each month's book club pick and to suggest future titles for consideration, among other additional perks. Please see the membership tab for details!

If you're not already following this Bindery Page, please click the link in the top right corner to sign up! It's free, easy, and takes just a few seconds. Every community member helps us reach our goal of creating a fat-focused publishing imprint.

Once you follow, don't forget to register for the Fat Forward Books Discord server for bookish discussion all day, every day, and for our monthly book club meetings!

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Pre-order your copy of Sparks Will Fly directly from author Laurel Holl and get a special bonus bundle for subscribing to Fat Forward Books! Click here for details and to get the exclusive discount code. ⚡️