Just Another Dead Boy

In a world where everyone knows the date they will die, Regan’s job to be the perfect girlfriend to rich boys with days to live. Her two rules: Don’t fall in love. Don’t have hope. So far, she’s been able to follow them, but will the last client between her and a full-time “Juliet” contract be the one that breaks her?

Wild-child Regan works at a luxury resort as a “Juliet” for the Romeo & Juliet Service, promising to provide the illusion of star-crossed romance to rich boys on end-of-life retreats. She gets to live life on the edge—skydiving, partying, and doing a host of other people’s bucket-list thrills—then moves on to her next client. But when world-famous Death Date researchers the Dalys arrive, she’s tasked with her hardest client yet, their overachieving stone-faced son. Jude Daly sees right through the setup—he thinks she’s a parasite, and, frankly, she thinks he’s an entitled jerk. They agree to fake romance for the sake of Jude’s parents and Regan’s job, but as contempt turns into something else, news breaks of the first ever Death Date survivor. Will Regan break her ironclad rules so she and Jude can take on Fate together—before his impending Death Date catches up with them? A compelling and heartbreaking love story, in which Regan realizes she might have to stop living like today is her last—and start living like it isn’t.

Author Biography

Kelly McCaughrain’s debut, Flying Tips for Flightless Birds, won an unprecedented hat trick of awards at the 2019 Children’s Books Ireland Awards, as well as the Northern Ireland Book Award. Her YA novel Little Bang is short-listed for the 2025 Carnegie Award for Writing and the Children’s Books Ireland Awards. Just Another Dead Boy is her first YA speculative romance. Kelly McCaughrain was Children’s Writing Fellow for Northern Ireland for 2019–2021. She lives in Belfast.