A BRIGHT AND GUILTY PLACE
A cross between the familial celebrity powder keg of Taylor Jenkins Reid's Malibu Rising and the question of truth and power in a marriage in Lauren Groff's Fates and Furies, A BRIGHT AND GUILTY PLACE (84,000) is the story of a regular woman's attempts to have it all while her relationship unravels under Hollywood's bright lights.
For an average person, Skye Moretti knows a lot about surviving in Hollywood: keep your mouth shut. It’s a lesson she learned all too well after her marriage to Will Graham — son of rock star Jack Graham, CEO of Graham Records, and the father of her daughter — crumbled, leaving her fledgling art gallery close to ruin. Women everywhere envy her marriage, but the gallery is her first love. It’s the one thing Will believed took too much attention away from their family. And now, Skye has nowhere to go but back into Hollywood’s fray to save it.
Skye sets out to drum up new clients — and runs straight into Will at her first event. But something isn’t right: he’s looking for her, swearing the Grammy winner he discovered is out to kill their family. Despite their separation and plus-ones, Skye decides to sneak Will out of the event before his erratic behavior hits social media. But it all goes wrong. Hours later, he’s threatening suicide on the roof of his high-rise condo, and paparazzi are recording far below.
Overnight, their relationship is once again a viral sensation, and Skye, her daughter, and her gallery become the target of an insatiable media and fanbase. The more time Skye spends fighting, the more she begins to question the motives of everyone around her, including her famous ex-father-in-law — and her own. Soon, the guilt Skye’s carried for the last year is all she can think about. But saving her gallery means reigniting an old relationship — one tied to the real reason behind their separation and Will’s breakdown. And when Will recovers, Skye must ultimately decide if chasing her dreams is worth losing the only thing the world believes she should have ever dared to want in the first place.
I’m currently querying this manuscript while I work on my second. Interested? Get in touch.
A few books I love…
The Heart’s Invisible Furies by John Boyne
The Idea of You by Robinne Lee
Atonement by Ian McEwan
The Dinner List by Rebecca Serle
The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger