Hannah and Sophie are close after growing up together. They are not only best friends, they are cousins. But they live different lives. Sophie lives in a grand house and goes to a private school, her mother constantly trying to mold her into a country club diamond when Sophie would rather relax without all the pressure.

Hannah’s mum and sister of Sophie’s mum – follows a completely different style of parenting. She lives by the motto, “It’s your life.” If Hannah wanted to watch a horror movie, her mum left it up to her to make the decision and allowed Hannah to make her own mistakes. She was always there if Hannah needed her, but unlike Sophie, sometimes wished her mum would be tougher so she didn’t have to shoulder some of the harder stuff.

Sophie has a friend group apart from Hannah, and Hannah has her best friend Lincoln, so when Sophie is at a party one night, Hannah is not with her. The first thing she knows about it is a text from someone to say they think Sophie is the reason for the ambulance that has arrived.

Hannah is frantic trying to contact Sophie, hoping the text was wrong. It’s actually even worse. Sophie is dead. Opioid overdose. Hannah’s world falls apart.

Sophie had another best friend in her private school world named Gabi. Hannah and Gabi find talking to each other about Sophie helps with the grief and guilt. Soon they put their heads together with a plan. They are going to figure out who gave the drugs to Sophie. Who is responsible for her death?

This plan kicks off a year after Sophie’s death, and involves spending time away from her home town, reinventing herself and attending Sophie’s school for senior year. A long-time debating rival is getting close, but she is still hurting from his behaviour in the past.

Can Hannah hide her connection to the girl who tragically died? Can she and Gabi keep their friendship hidden? Can Hannah begin to trust the boy that broke her heart when she was 14, and most important of all – who was responsible for Sophie’s death?

Told in two timezones:

• Junior year of Hannah, including life before Hannah’s best friend and cousin Sophie died, and the fallout afterwards
• Senior year of Hannah, hiding her true identity to discover who was responsible for supplying Sophie the drugs that killed her

This is a story of love, deep grief and surviving it, revenge for a lost loved one and guilt about not knowing that loved one had a serious problem and didn’t think they could talk to them about it.

Swapping between the two time zones is clearly shown in the book and keeps things interesting as clues are revealed. But this is far from an “Aha!” mystery, or a “Gotcha!” reveal, as substance abuse is so much more complicated than one person selling to another. Main character Hannah reinvents herself to find out the truth, nearly losing herself in the process.

A beautifully written, sometimes raw, thoughtful and heart wrenching novel on expectation, friendship, wealth, misconceptions, love and loss.

Perfect for fans of Kathleen Glasgow.

Thanks to Bloomsbury & Net Galley for the Review Copy of this novel.

Author – Emery Lord

Age – 14+

(2023, Bloomsbury, Crime, Family, Friendship, Grief, Growing up, Love, Revenge, School, Secret, Guilt, Debating, Rivals, Cousins, Drugs, Opioid Use, Overdose, Mystery, Clues, Social Media, Sewing, Wealthy, Private School, Blame, Responsibility, Recovery, Rehab, Support, Understanding, Oxycodone, Substance Abuse, Guilt)