First published 2018
Millie Morris studies female serial killers for a living and deflects every personal question with a joke. She is one of four close friends, all professors at UC Santa Barbara, all perpetually single. When a university event gets upgraded to a black-tie gala, the group makes a pact: join a dating app, find a date, show up together. Simple enough. Except the night before anyone downloads anything, Millie and Reid Campbell spend half a night together that neither of them can quite explain. They agree to forget it and stay friends. Then the app goes live. The guys collect matches immediately. Millie collects unwanted photos. So she builds a second profile under the name Catherine, a fictional woman who says the things Millie cannot bring herself to say out loud. Catherine is open. Catherine is warm. Catherine starts exchanging long, honest messages with Reid. Millie knows this is a problem. She also cannot stop. The story turns on a simple question: can someone who has spent years keeping people at arm's length let the one person who matters actually get close.
Genres: fiction, contemporary, adult, adult-fiction, comedy, contemporary-romance
Vibes: charming, heartfelt, humorous, intimate, romantic, witty
Tropes: emotional-vulnerability, fake-identity, friends-to-lovers, slow-burn
Setting: UC Santa Barbara
Period: 21st-century
384 pages · Paperback · Piatkus