Tobias Madden’s Quite the Pair is a laugh-out-loud tale of friendship and finding yourself, set against the lively backdrop of New York City.
Two best friends. One apartment. Zero chance of this going to plan. Austin and Sydney have been best friends since he moved into her shoebox apartment in New York City over a decade ago.
Now in their early thirties and living with their long-term partners, their lives are finally on track: Austin is performing on Broadway and Sydney is the VP comma Marketing at a lucrative tech start-up. Everything is perfect. They’re so happy. (Right?)
But when both of their relationships implode on the same night, Austin and Sydney realise that things weren’t quite as perfect as they seemed, and that their only option is to move back in together.
The pair make a pact to use their new twelve-month lease to break the cycle of their toxic habits. For Austin, this means not falling in love with every man who so much as looks at him; for Sydney, it means prioritising herself, for possibly the first time in history.
It’s not long, though, before Austin’s resolve starts to crack – a gorgeous children’s book editor has absolutely nothing to do with that – and Sydney slips back into old patterns, letting the shadow of Austin’s presence eclipse her own needs.
The question is: can people truly change? Or are these self-proclaimed soulmates doomed to repeat the same mistakes over and over … and risk losing each other in the process?
Originally from Ballarat, Tobias now lives in New York City with his husband and their Cavoodle. Tobias spent most of his life on stage, touring Australia and New Zealand with musicals such as Mary Poppins, CATS, and Guys and Dolls.
These days, he works full-time in publishing, tends to his daily dog-dad duties, and runs laps around Central Park. In his spare time, he can often be found writing on the Metro North train to Beacon. Tobias’s award-winning debut young adult fiction novel, Anything But Fine, was published in 2021, followed by Take a Bow, Noah Mitchell.
Quite the Pair is published by Penguin Books Australia and is available from good book sellers including QBD Books.
Image: Quite the Pair – courtesy of Penguin Books Australia