Beth Reekles (pen name of Beth Reeks, born 7 June 1995) is a Welsh author of
young adult fiction.
Biography
Beth Reekles was born on 7 June 1995[2] and grew up in
Newport, Wales where she attended local primary school Mount Pleasant Primary and comprehensive
Bassaleg School.[3] She graduated from
Exeter University with a degree in physics.[4]
When Reekles was 15, having grown tired of stories of "vampires and werewolves", she wrote her first young adult novel, The Kissing Booth, publishing it chapter by chapter on
Wattpad, a story sharing site.[3][5][6] The novel was immensely popular, winning the Wattpad 2011 prize for Most Popular Teen Fiction,[1] and when she was 17, she was offered a three-book contract by
Penguin Random House.[7][8]The Kissing Booth was published by Penguin Random House in 2012, followed by Rolling Dice and Out of Tune.[9][10] A year later, she was named by Time magazine as one of "The 16 Most Influential Teens of 2013".[11][12]
She was named in The Times as one of the "Top 25 under 20 The new icons of a generation" in 2014.[13]
The Kissing Booth was adapted for film, also titled The Kissing Booth, which premiered on
Netflix in 2018.[5] A sequel The Kissing Booth 2: Going the Distance was published in 2020 and a film adaptation, The Kissing Booth 2, premiered on Netflix the same year.[14] A third film The Kissing Booth 3: One Last Time accompanied by a book was released on 11 August 2021.[15] Reekles's first adult novel, Love, Locked Down, was published by
Sphere Books in February 2022.[16] Beth's novel Faking It was published on 2 February 2023.