Every woman needs a Regency-era social circle. Nicole has one.
They gather on Bekah's back porch under string lights and fireflies, arranged in camping chairs around a citronella candle, with drinks and children somewhere in the background. These are the women who saw her through the worst and stuck around for the aftermath. Weddings, pregnancies, cancer scares, divorces, death, a pandemic. They know each other in the way that only time and crisis can produce.
There's Bekah — the sweetest and most supportive, the one who asks if you can drive yourself home and means it. Claudia, who gets right to the point in her German accent and once declared men garbage with a conviction that felt like a gift. Deidra, who always sees the column potential in a disaster. Maya, who texts "hang in there, we love you" at exactly the right moment. Jocelyn, who reminds you not to rush.
They are the group chat that never sleeps. The ones who tell Nicole when she looks like she's trying too hard and show up anyway. The ones who prove, long before Daniel ever appears around a corner, that the love Nicole was looking for was already surrounding her.
That's the whole book, really.
The Mutual Appreciation Society — available May 5 at papertiger.store.