Skip to content Skip to footer

Mighty Millie Novak

Additional information

Author

Elizabeth Holden

Genre

YA – Contemporary, YA – Romance

Release Date

August 20, 2024

Publisher

Flux

Tags

Queer

Categories , Tag Product ID: 20126

Description

Social anxiety, her parents’ divorce, and messy friendships won’t stop Millie’s pursuit of what she wants—in roller derby or in love. But her own lies might . . .

Sixteen-year-old Millie Novak is stuck in an “if only” rut. If only she were stronger and faster, maybe her roller derby teammates would take her seriously. If only she had the guts to go back to in-person learning, maybe she’d have a social life. If only she weren’t such an awkward mess, maybe she could get the attention of that cute girl on the all-star derby team. And don’t get her started on her family!

After the one-two punch of her beloved older brother’s departure for college and her parents’ overdue split, Millie decides it’s time to reinvent herself. With the help of her new friend Pumpkin and a little bit of deceit, Millie crafts a plan to cement her status on the team and get her crush to fall for her.

But reinvention isn’t easy. Millie’s constantly shown up by show-off teammate Stork, and the only way she can get her crush’s attention is through increasingly elaborate lies. Worse, she begins to suspect Pumpkin is not the supportive friend she’d imagined. Toughest to handle? Realizing the person she’s in love with might not be her longtime crush, after all.

About the Author

Photograph of author Elizabeth Holden
Photo Credit: Dutcher Photography

L

ike the protagonist of her debut novel, Mighty Millie Novak, Elizabeth Holden (she/her) is an avid roller derby player. She’s been a blocker with Madison Roller Derby since 2015. Liz’s league-mates know her as Auntie Matter; her derby name is a reference to her job teaching college physics at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville. (And, yes, she is also an aunt.) She got her M.S. in physics from Northern Illinois University because she knew she could still write fiction with a physics degree but would have a hard time doing physics with a writing degree.

When not busy writing, playing derby, or teaching, Liz is most likely leading international trips with her company, Leaping Hound Travel. She’s led tours with themes as varied as cakes and coffeehouses in Budapest and Vienna to vampires in London and Paris.

She also co-hosts an X-Files podcast, We Want to Believe, with her sister, Helen, exploring the real-life science behind each episode (or lack thereof).

Liz believes the ideal conditions in which to write a novel are in the dining car of a train traveling through the Alps, with a pot of tea beside you–though she does most of her writing at her home in Wisconsin. Her tattoos are vibrant and numerous, her laugh is loud, and her heart belongs to her pet greyhounds.

More 2024 YA Contemporary Debuts