The Romantic Tragedies of a Drama King

By: Harry Trevaldwyn

Narrated by: Harry Trevaldwyn

This program is read by the author.

Heartstopper meets Derry Girls in this wonderfully hilarious rom-com about finding your first love when your personality might be too big for the world around you.

Patch Simmons has decided that this is the year he will get a boyfriend, so it's goodbye to his French pen-pal Jean-Pierre and hello to the world!

Unfortunately, the only other "out" boys in his school year are dating each other, so finding a boyfriend isn't going to be easy... Until fate finally intervenes and two new mysterious boys join drama club: Peter, who’s just moved from New York (very chic) and his best friend, Sam.

Patch is confident that one of them (although either of them will do!) will be his first boyfriend. So armed with his single mum’s outdated self-help books, his over-supportive best friend Jean and an alarming level of self-confidence, Patch is confident that this mission will be a complete success. Whether or not they actually like boys or him is a problem for later.

The Romantic Tragedies of a Drama King is a heartfelt, laugh-out-loud comedy from rising star Harry Trevaldwyn, a story about boldly being yourself, going for what you want, but never losing sight of who truly has your back.

A Macmillan Audio production from Wednesday Books.

©2025 Harry Trevaldwyn (P)2025 Macmillan Audio

Critic reviews

"The story succeeds as a sweet romance while also subverting expectations and giving equal weight to the importance of friendships in a thoughtful and moving way...A winning debut: the perfect blend of hilarious and heartfelt."—Kirkus (starred review)

"This reads like a car wreck sitcom: impossible to look away from in the best way possible. It is difficult to imagine fans of Heartstopper not loving Patch and his larger-than-life personality on the quest for love."—School Library Journal (starred review)

"Actor Trevaldwyn crafts a sparkling debut starring an aspiring teen actor living in small-town England."—Publishers Weekly

Drama is Served

Loved the book. It was a bit hard to get past the unlimited drama served and how selfish Patch can be in the first half of the book. Eventually it came together in the end and I found myself rooting for Patch and all the drama he stirred up.

So good!

I loved it, freaking hilarious and moving and just the right amount of drama. 😉 I wish I’d have had this when I was his age.

Fun, Lighthearted Teen Comedy

Loved the sense of humor in this, could've used a little more depth in some of the characters, but it was quite short. Nonetheless I really enjoyed the characters themselves and had a lot of fun. The author as the narrator worked here, he had a good voice for it.

Hilarious and Heartwarming

The story is sweet, entertaining, and hysterical. You’ll probably love it if you’re a fan of Heartstopper or any other Alice Oseman books. Harry Travaldwyn’s performance is fantastic, making the characters alive and laugh-out-loud funny. It feels like you’re watching a TV show more than listening to a book. Loved it.

Quite Possibly the BEST EVER….‼️

I have already read/listened (📖/🎧) three times so far. My guess is that I will keep replaying the audiobook (🎧) on repeat as I have “Red, White & Royal Blue”.
Not only is this book, it’s story, it’s characters and dialogue (both internal and external) absolutely fabulous, but the narration is right up there with Ramón De Ocampo’s, “Red, White & Royal Blue”, Kevin R. Free’s, “When Ben Loved Tim”, Mark Sanderlin’s, “Jay’s Gay Agenda”, Simon James Green’s, “Boy Like Me” and Noah Galvin’s & Froy Guttierez’s, “What If It’s Us”/Here’s To Us.
There are SO MANY wonderful books out there, but of the one’s that are lucky enough to be narrated, there are FAR. FAR fewer that are EVEN BETTER on audiobook and the one’s that are diminished in the process (for those of us who are disabled) is quite a disappointment.
When you find an author’s self-narrated work and that narration takes an ALREADY awesome book and THEN makes you want to listen to it over and over again, just “blows my mind” while filling my heart with joy.
THIS is such that book. If “The Romantic Tragedies of a Drama King” were ever made to a “limited series” would be the trifecta of trifectas (that and if Patch’s story were to be continued)… 💃💃💃‼️

Cute and fun with a bit of angst

I loved the story, and the author’s narration is 10/10! It’s a cute story with a few twists and turns and a great group of characters.

Beautiful, funny, sweet

This book is healing to our queer inner children, and all of us who were teenagers once.