When ghostwriter Zara becomes entwined with celebrity chef client, Jane Bailey, she starts to see the side Jane keeps hidden from the cameras and gets stuck in a plot she never saw coming.
Reeling from the death of her domineering father, Zara Pines accepts a ghostwriting gig for celebrity chef Jane Bailey. Jane, star of the thrifty and wildly popular cooking show 30 Bucks Top, invites Zara to live in her East Hampton estate for the summer. Jane insists she stays–this way, they can truly get to know each other.
As Zara starts to fall for Jane romantically, Jane sloughs off the curated personality she maintains for the media. Zara spends all of her time in Jane’s estate, shadowing Jane’s life–even wearing Jane’s clothes–and the line between the two women grows startlingly faint. Once Jane’s façade crumbles and sinister details about her past emerge, Zara watches herself change in ways she never expected. Can Zara get out before Jane subsumes her?
Swan Huntley is the author of the novels Getting Clean With Stevie Green, The Goddesses, and We Could Be Beautiful. She is also the writer and illustrator of the journal-style mini-tomes The Bad Mood Book and You’re Grounded (Summer 2024). Swan earned an MFA at Columbia University and has received fellowships from MacDowell and Yaddo, where she was the 2019 recipient of The LeSage-Fullilove Residency. She lives in Los Angeles, CA.