The People I Know Now, Jasmine Donaldson
Published by Mary Egan Publishing
$30, paperback, 220pp, 5 x 8”
ISBN: 9781067087555
Publication Date: 7 October 2025
‘The People I Know Now’ is a powerful young adult novel about love, loss and finding the courage to move forward.
After enduring the most difficult year of her life, nineteen-year-old Lyla Strafford spends a summer living with her Aunt Caroline in the small seaside township of New Brooke. With the support of a group of new friends, Lyla begins to heal, and she finds herself opening up to a boy who seems to understand her better than anyone else.
But just when things appear to be getting back on track, Lyla is faced with a life-threatening experience that stems from the trauma of times gone by. Challenged by the concepts of love, loss, and the definition of family, Lyla begins to question what it means to move forward when she can’t seem to leave the past behind.
About the Author:
Jasmine Donaldson is a 25 year old author from Auckland, New Zealand. She works at a library, and enjoys anything that sparks her creativity. She's always loved reading, and has a particular love for YA books. As a teenager she often found it difficult to find ones that captured her attention, and this is one of the reasons she decided to write her own. The People I Know Now is her debut novel.
Author Note:
I’ve always loved reading and writing, and being creative in all sorts of ways. I’ve worked at a boutique cinema, decorated pottery full time, and now I work at a library where I get to be surrounded by books every day.
Writing a novel has been a goal I’m proud to have accomplished. As a teenager I found it hard to connect with YA books, even though I loved reading as a child. That’s one of the reasons I wanted to write something of my own. The People I Know Now is inspired by places close to me and by characters built from little traits of people I know.
The books I enjoy most are character driven, with everyday people facing their own problems. When I wrote this, I wanted to include everything I love in a story: good character development, a sprinkle of mystery, and a dollop of romance.