Everyone will love you
The People’s Republic of Love
THE PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF LOVE
March 2026 from SRL Publishing.
BUY NOW at Waterstones, Foyles, Amazon, SRL Publishing – or order at your local bookshop!
Tamsin is an engineer who likes to remain firmly behind the scenes. But when her best friend gets caught up in a twisted, life-threatening reality show, she must follow Charlotte across the ocean to a place where there is no escaping the spotlight, the infamous People’s Republic of Love.
In this newly created country, ruled by whoever has the most online followers, Tamsin must build herself a sensational backstory, using any trick or scandalous lie she can. But she does not yet understand how this country works, with its intoxicating blend of power and popularity. It seems the Republic will give you everything you desire… if you hand over your whole self in return.
A touch of Love Island, influencers gone rogue, a tunnel engineer, a jealous voice artist, a sociopathic narcissist who just so happens to be in charge of everything… plus cryptic tattoos, an obsession with Isambard Kingdom Brunel, and that subway scene from Crocodile Dundee, all wrapped up in a toxic look-at-me society… welcome to The People’s Republic of Love, upmarket reading group fiction by Heather Child. Released by the world’s first climate-positive publisher SRL Publishing
Will you love it? Read more…
The People’s Republic of Love
Celebrities have their own country… What could go wrong?
When Charlotte becomes one of the contestants in a hot new reality game show, Outta my Room, she feels like she’s hit the jackpot. With the fame and exposure the game is guaranteed to bring, her profile in the hedonistic Republic of Love will be elevated. She needs all the followers she can get to keep the lifestyle she wants.
Her friend Tamsin is the complete opposite. Fighting to be taken seriously as an engineer, she has no interest in fame or the island nation of the Republic and the antics of its Governor, a narcissistic sociopath who delights in humiliating his subjects for entertainment purposes. But one click is about to change her whole life.
As the escape room challenges become more dangerous, Charlotte realises that the horrors the contestants have to face all seem to be psychologically traumatic experiences from her past which she has no wish to revisit. When the contestants start being picked off, one by one, winning the show becomes much less important than just surviving it.
Meanwhile a single photo has turned Tamsin into an overnight sensation. It offers her fame, fortune, a ticket to the high life in the Republic of Love. But Tamsin is more concerned about the horrors being inflicted on her friend. Realising that this newfound popularity could help her get close to Charlotte, and the people running the show, she embarks on a path that will seemingly offer everything anyone could ever wish for.
But it’s a house of cards, and Tamsin knows – if she doesn’t act quickly enough – the whole thing will collapse and bury them all.
More book reviews
An absorbing story that really makes you care about its main characters – and which shows how things are never really over, even after the hero’s pulled off an impossible rescue. Recommended.
Blue Book Balloon
A cracking page-turner of a thriller. Loved it. *****
Espressococo
A gripping & engaging modern read!
Books_my_cats_stole
In a snow globe of a world, where the algorithms are everything and popularity is currency, The People’s Republic of Lovetakes a compelling look at what happens to the brittle structures of social media when someone stops playing by the rules. Heather Child has taken a classic locked room mystery and given it a Black Mirror-esque twist, to create a compulsively readable vision of a future that may be just a step away from our present.
Anne Corlett
If you love an atypical thriller with an underlying social commentary, this is it.
Aratecla
“I’m a celebrity, get me out of here” meets “Squid Game” [ . . . ] An immersive read. I flew through it in just two days.
Howseofbooks
Heather Child has an uncanny ability to tap into our deepest fears of the increasing influence of social media on our lives, and turn them into all too realistic nightmares. Her books are compulsive reading – a glimpse of a future that is frighteningly possible
HJ Reed
The People’s Republic of Love is very much the future coming over the hill […] I highly recommend this thoughtful tale
Runalong the shelves
Read in one sitting […] the characters were great.
Bookedbybeers
A dystopic vision, all enveloped in a well-paced thriller, gripping and thought-provoking.
JamReads
I loved this! Such a fantastic setting and concept.
Mrsbookburnee
The Republic will give you everything in return for all you are. ****
Bathtime Bookclub
Development supported by Hawkwood College and The Francis W Reckitt Arts Trust
Images: with thanks to Peggy Anke via Pexels (video), Marcos Paulo Prado via Unsplash (woman), Ragnar Vorel on Unsplash (island)