First published 2024
On a hot summer evening in Paris, a troubled American TV actress hides behind sunglasses and a baggy sweatshirt while waiting for ice cream on the Ile de la Cité. She encounters a tall, striking blonde with an unplaceable accent. When male tourists harass them, the blonde produces a knife and drives them away. This moment sparks an intense friendship between two women who have both survived male violence. The actress fights with raw instinct while her new companion operates with cold calculation. Each believes she understands the other, but both are completely mistaken. Their bond emerges from a high-profile sexual abuse scandal that has shaped their lives in different ways. As their relationship deepens, the women discover that trauma and self-preservation can drive people to unthinkable acts. Their collision course spans decades and continents, revealing how brutality and misogyny warp lives regardless of surface appearances. The story builds to a devastating betrayal that forces a reckoning with love, survival, and the question of how one woman could so completely destroy another.
Genres: fiction, literary-fiction, mystery, contemporary, thriller
Vibes: dark, emotional, intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Paris
Period: contemporary
336 pages · Paperback · Vintage
Content warnings: abuse, sexual-assault, violence