The Unexpected Mess of It All: Winner of the 2025 ACT Literary Awards! A romance YA for readers of NINA KENWOOD, JENNA GUILLAUME and WAI CHIM.

by Gabrielle Tozer

Overview

A very funny and fraught 'enemies-to-will-they-won't-they' romance between family friends Jamila and Billy.

Jamila Dakhoul wants to escape her life.

Forget everything.

Forget that her only friends are strangers on the internet.

Forget that she's stuck in a caravan after a fire destroyed her family's house.

Forget that Year 12 is a brutal hellhole where bullying is an Olympic sport.

Forget Billy Radcliffe once and for all.

But as Jamila tries to untangle the messy threads of her life on a weekend away with her family, it becomes clear that she can't outrun her past, no matter how hard she tries ...

A coming-of-age story about falling apart, starting over, and the people and places you can't live without from the award-winning author of Remind Me How This Ends, Can't Say it Went to Plan and The Intern.

AWARDS
Winner - ACT Literary Awards 2025 (YA Fiction)
Shortlisted - 2025 ACT Literary Awards

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781460714478
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	05/01/2024
Sold by:	HARPERCOLLINS
Format:	eBook
Pages:	352
File size:	3 MB
Age Range:	14 Years

About the Author

Gabrielle Tozer is an award-winning author based in regional New South Wales. Her latest works include The Unexpected Mess of It All, which won the 2025 ACT Literary Award for Young Adult Fiction, beloved picture book Before We Met (illustrated by the award-winning Sophie Beer) and Can't Say it Went to Plan.

Over the years, Gabrielle has received honours including the State Library of Victoria's Gold Inky Award for her debut YA novel, The Intern, and appeared on the Children's Book Council of Australia's Notable List for Older Readers for Remind Me How This Ends.

Gabrielle loves sharing her passion for creativity with readers and aspiring writers, and has worked as a mentor for the Regional Arts Network's Horizon program, Regional Arts Australia's Regional Scribes program and the ABC's Heywire initiative.

Gabrielle is currently working on four new books for HarperCollins.

Say hello: gabrielletozer.com