Pretending - Holly Bourne

WHY BE YOURSELF WHEN YOU CAN BE PERFECT?

**As featured on The High Low podcast**

'MAGNIFICENT. Brutally honest and righteously angry but still HUGELY enjoyable and engaging. I bow down!' Marian Keyes

'A thoughtful, intelligent, urgent novel women need to read.' Dolly Alderton

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He said he was looking for a 'partner in crime' which everyone knows is shorthand for 'a woman who isn't real'.

April is kind, pretty, and relatively normal - yet she can't seem to get past date five. Every time she thinks she's found someone to trust, they reveal themselves to be awful, leaving her heartbroken. And angry.

If only April could be more like Gretel.

Gretel is exactly what men want - she's a Regular Everyday Manic Pixie Dream Girl Next Door With No Problems.

The problem is, Gretel isn't real. And April is now claiming to be her.

As soon as April starts 'being' Gretel, dating becomes much more fun - especially once she reels in the unsuspecting Joshua.

Finally, April is the one in control, but can she control her own feelings? And as she and Joshua grow closer, how long will she be able to keep pretending?
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PRAISE FOR HOLLY BOURNE:

'Honest and unflinching' Stylist

'Funny, touching and painfully true' Grazia

'Relatable for any woman navigating emotional time bombs' Red

'Bourne incinerates the lies we're all capable of telling ourselves' Emerald Street

'Funny, real and heartbreaking' Lucy Vine

'Funny, sad, honest, insightful, up-to-the-minute' Roisin Meaney

'Smart, witty and perceptive. Razor-sharp on friendship, self-image and self-deception' Lucy Diamond

Holly started her writing career as a news journalist, where she was nominated for Best Print Journalist of the Year. She then spent six years working as an editor, a relationship advisor, and general 'agony aunt' for a youth charity - helping young people with their relationships and mental health. Inspired by what she saw, she started writing teen fiction, including the best-selling, award-winning 'Spinster Club' series which helps educate teenagers about feminism. When she turned thirty, Holly wrote her first adult novel, examining the intensified pressures on women once they hit that landmark.

Alongside her writing, Holly has a keen interest in women's rights and is an advocate for reducing the stigma of mental health problems. She's helped create online apps that teach young people about sexual consent and is an ambassador for Women's Aid.

MAGNIFICENT. The whole sorry mess of gender and sexual politics wrapped up in a compelling story told by an ADORABLE heroine. I feel educated and empowered from reading it. Brutally honest and righteously angry but still HUGELY enjoyable and engaging. I BOW DOWN!
Marian Keyes

'Unsettling and hopeful, enlightening and entertaining. A thoughtful, intelligent, urgent novel women need to read'
Dolly Alderton

Pretending is the most freeing, reassuring book on dating after #MeToo I've ever read. Perceptive. Hilarious. Reassuring. Brilliant.
Laura Jane Williams

I love this book! It made me cry and laugh and rage and fall completely in love with the characters and you MUST READ IT! It's beautifully written and completely engrossing but also a really important, timely book. Sheer brilliance.
Lucy Foley

Pretending looks at what it is to be a woman and makes the reader look inwards (or backwards), reflecting on past encounters with more awareness, forgiveness and understanding than ever before. Empowering, thought-provoking, honest, observant, heart-wrenching and uncomfortable - an exposing and healing read
Giovanna Fletcher

I cannot think of a more important modern love story to tell
Dolly Alderton, The High Low podcast

What looks like a lolzy rom-com is actually a punch-in-the-gut brilliant novel about consent and mental health. Don't let this one pass you by
Grazia

The amazing thing about Holly's writing is how she's able to say not just what we're all thinking but what we're even too afraid to admit to ourselves. Her books should be mandatory reading for everyone.

Thoughtful, smart and painfully true
Cosmopolitan

A brilliant, hard-hitting, tell-all-your-girlfriends-to-read-it book
Fabulous Magazine

Hugely entertaining rom-com for the post #MeToo generation
Daily Mail

As with all of Holly's books, I was totally hooked from the first page. Her unique voice immediately invites you in and you can't look away. Gritty, funny and poignant

What a painful, raw, important, hilarious, whip-smart triumph of a book.

I adore-love-worship this book. Every page brings another eye-wateringly relatable moment and I couldn't put it down. I was constantly laughing, crying, and nodding aggressively at every page. Holly Bourne is officially my favourite writer and this book is everything.

I really, really enjoyed but also really, really admired this book

One of Holly Bourne's greatest gifts as a writer is her ability to cut to the emotional core of her chosen subject and nowhere is that shown with more deftness than in Pretending. Searingly honest, intense, and insightful, this is a profoundly moving novel, and to my mind, Bourne's best work to date

So relatable, powerful and thought-provoking. April is a rare and wonderful protagonist, I fell for her instantly, I loved her rage and vulnerability and I constantly rooted for her even when I knew she was doing the wrong thing. This is a vivid, contemporary exploration of the darkest side of relationships, anger and powerlessness, but it's filled with joy too. If we've all been suffering from Gone Girl Cool Girl syndrome, Holly has written the antidote

Pretending is Holly Bourne at her best. It's a funny, feminist yet challenging read that will make many readers feel validated and seen
Red

Bourne's novels are so witty, so stingingly acute on millennial pop culture, that you only notice by stealth their serious intent
Metro

A funny, feminist and challenging story, which will make readers feel validated and seen. What an accomplishment for a novel
Red Magazine