Pansies

On paper, Alfie Bell has made it: a six-figure London job, a penthouse, the car he promised himself at eighteen and a crowd of polished friends. Going back to his working-class hometown in the north of England, where everyone now knows he is gay, is another matter, and he expects nothing from it until he meets Fen, a florist with pink-tipped hair, hipster glasses and the kind of courage Alfie has never had. It should be a one-night thing, except Alfie has met Fen before: at school, where Alfie was everything he was supposed to be and Fen was the defiantly out kid he helped torment. As Alfie tries to make things right, the two of them have to decide whether a shared past can become a future. All About Romance called this Spires novel a splendid, heartfelt romance about forgiveness and accepting yourself.