EVERYONE I KISSED SINCE YOU GOT FAMOUS

A movie star returns to her hometown and realizes her feelings for her high school friend are more romantic than platonic.

At 31, Katie Price has won every acting award Hollywood has to offer and is looking to make her move into directing. Desperate for some downtime to work on a script she’s adapting, she heads home to Green Bay, Wisconsin, to spend Christmas with her parents. While there, she sees her high school best friend, Wil Greene. Wil deferred law school and stayed in Green Bay after her father’s death, and instead of returning to academia, she’s found satisfying work as an insurance adjuster. In the past year, she’s become famous for a TikTok channel where she kisses strangers, a sexy and insightful exploration of intimacy in the age of social media. When Wil and Katie see each other at a Christmas party, they instantly fall back into their old friendship like no time has passed, even resuming their teenage investigation into the personal life of their least favorite teacher. Wil and Katie slowly realize that their strong bond was actually romantic attraction, and they inch toward declaring their love for each other. The novel is beautifully written, exploring Wil and Katie’s evolution from friends to lovers as twin journeys of self-awareness. Katie’s reputation has been tainted and smeared in the press by an abusive ex-boyfriend for the past decade, and she’s wary of pulling Wil into the media maelstrom that is her life. Wil realizes she’s been hiding in Green Bay, afraid to take emotional risks after losing her dad. They’ve been friends for a lifetime, but only now do they know themselves well enough to understand they were in love all along.

A methodically told story of longing and belonging.