“It made me cry and laugh and rage…A really important, timely book. Sheer brilliance.” —Lucy Foley, New York Times bestselling author of The Guest List

“Thoughtful, smart and painfully true.” –Cosmopolitan UK

He said he was looking for a “partner in crime,” which everyone knows is shorthand for “a woman who isn’t real.”

April is kind, pretty and relatively normal–yet she can’t seem to get past date five. Every time she thinks she’s found someone to trust, they reveal themselves to be awful, leaving her heartbroken. And angry. Until she realizes that men aren’t looking for real women–they’re looking for Gretel.

Gretel is perfect–beautiful but low-maintenance, sweet but never clingy, sexy but not too easy. She’s your regular, everyday Manic-Pixie-Dream-Girl-Next-Door with no problems.

When April starts pretending to be Gretel, dating becomes much more fun–especially once she reels in the unsuspecting Joshua. Finally, April is the one in control. It’s refreshing. Exhilarating, even. But as she and Joshua grow closer, and the pressure of keeping her painful past a secret begins to build, how long will she be able to keep on pretending?

“The most freeing, reassuring book on dating after #MeToo I’ve read. Perceptive. Hilarious. Brilliant.” –Laura Jane Williams, author of Our Stop

“Holly Bourne’s unique voice immediately invites you in and you can’t look away. Gritty, funny and poignant.” –Beth O’Leary, author of The Flatshare

In this darkly funny novel, two women reunite after a decade of estrangement, only to confront the forces that destroyed their friendship in the first place.

From the day they first meet as teenagers, Fern and Jessica are best friends. Despite their differences, they are there for each other throughout everything, navigating the difficulties of growing up and fitting in. That is, until Jessica crosses a line that Fern can’t forgive.

But now, more than ten years later, Jessica has unexpectedly reappeared in Fern’s life.

A lot has changed for them both–but can their relationship be different now that they are older? Is it possible for either of them to rewrite the roles they’ve been cast in? Or will their shared history ultimately be doomed to repeat itself again?

Set between the present day and the early ’00s, When We Were Friends is a blisteringly funny and devastating novel: both a joyful celebration of female friendship and a razor-sharp look at the damage we can all cause to those we claim to love the most.