FINALIST FOR THE 2026 RAKUTEN KOBO EMERGING WRITER PRIZE (LITERARY FICTION)
A GOODREADS HOTTEST DEBUT NOVEL OF 2025

A sharply funny and tender story about two strangers with only one thing in common: their father.

After her father abandoned Mickey and her mother for his new family, Mickey resolved never to think of him again. Years later, she’s fine without him. Yes, she drinks, but only sometimes—and, really, she can’t not. But with only $181 to her name, she’s not above attending some mandated therapy to access the not-insignificant inheritance he’s left her in the wake of his death. She’ll happily kneel at the Kleenex altar if it means she’ll soon be bingeing Bridgerton with a bottle of Russian Standard, five million dollars richer.

One town over, Arlo has more issues than most of her clients. Being a therapist has not prepared her for grief. She adored her father—his laughter, his charm, the smell of his cologne. She thought he adored her, too, but now he’s given his inheritance to a daughter no one knows, and Arlo is at a loss.

But unbeknownst to either woman, their problematic father had one dying wish, throwing them together on a crash course that will either break—or save—them both.