Available Formats
Hardback
Published: 14th October 2025
Paperback, Export/Airside
Published: 11th November 2025
Paperback
Published: 12th February 2026
Slow Burn: The highly anticipated, unputdownable debut novel from Oti Mabuse
By (Author) Oti Mabuse
Simon & Schuster Ltd
Simon & Schuster Ltd
12th February 2026
United Kingdom
General
Fiction
Modern and Contemporary romance
Contemporary lifestyle fiction
Paperback
384
Filled with scenes of sizzling passion, plot beats of swoon-worthy romance, anda cast of Black female characters that youll fall in love with, the unputdownable debut novel from Oti Mabuse brims with heat and heart. Perfect for fans of Talia Hibbert, Laura Jane Williams, Tia Williams, Farrah Rochon, Hannah Grace and Bolu Babalola.
For dancer Lira, Latin Ballroom is everything. Whilst her dreams of fame were cut short aged 19, shes never forgotten the connection she felt dancing with a stranger at the Paris World Championship afterparty 13 years ago.
Now, with her younger sisters pursuing their own successful dancing careers, and the responsibility of running the family dance studio falling to her, Liras ambitious flame is about to flicker out. Until achance encounter sees her secretly auditioning for Slow Burn, a new dance show about to embark on a 6-week European tour, and coming face to face with a blast from her past that sends her reeling.
Gabriele is the quintessential bad boy of the Latin Ballroom scene. Slim of hip, with long, lean muscles that pop, a chiselled jaw, dark eyes, obscenely long lashes, and a mouth that just wont give, it's no surprise when he lands the principal male lead role on Slow Burn. But, with just a few weeks to go till the tour starts, he still hasn't found his female co-star. All it takes is one audition to set his world on fire...
On the dance floor theyre smouldering, off it, theyre on fire.
As one of the most instantly recognisable faces in the UK and one of the countrys most beloved broadcasters, presenters and talent show judges, Oti Mabuse is a dancer of international success and renown, winning titles and championships across the world. The only professional on Strictly Come Dancing to win twice concurrently, she left after seven years on the show and became a judge on Dancing on Iceappearing on our screens to over five million viewers per week. Family and connection means everything to her and in December 2023 she welcomed her first child into the world. Oti spends her (hard won) downtime getting used to the rhythm of Mum-life and escaping into romantic fiction, which, second only to her love of dance, is her other passion in life. Her favourite authors include Colleen Hoover, Bernadine Evaristo and Dolly Alderton. My name, Otlile, means I am here in Setswana, and thats exactly what I am here. For too long women like me empowered, curvy, black women havent been able to see ourselves in swoon-worthy, heart-racing romances... I want to change that.Oti Mabuse