by John Searles
First published 2026
Helen Gurley Brown stands in a Manhattan boardroom in 1965, clutching her chance to save Cosmopolitan magazine. The soft-spoken author of Sex and the Single Girl has just three issues to prove herself. She assembles a team of ambitious single women who throw themselves into creating a new kind of magazine. The gorgeous Book Editor plots revenge against her married lover. The Sex Editor takes a disastrous trip to test the world's first champagne glass hot tub. The Entertainment Editor battles Joan Crawford and interviews a Park Avenue call girl, uncovering shocking secrets. As Helen fights to establish her vision, the story moves between her present struggles and her painful past, revealing the experiences that shaped her into a controversial figure. These women navigate workplace politics and changing gender roles while building something unprecedented. Helen must overcome her own doubts and society's resistance to create a magazine that speaks to women's real lives.
Genres: american-fiction, 20th-century, business, contemporary, biographical-fiction, 21st-century
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, found-family
Setting: Manhattan, New York
Period: 1965
377 pages · Hardcover · Mariner Books
Content warnings: sexism