Friends & Fiction

On this episode, the full F&F family gathers to celebrate the launch of our very own “queen of the beach read” (Cosmopolitan), NYT-bestselling author Kristy Woodson Harvey’s new book Summer State of Mind, which is, of course, our May Pick of the Month! Kristy is the New York Times, USA TODAY, and Publishers Weekly bestselling author of fourteen novels, including Beach House Rules and the Peachtree Bluff series. A Happier Life is in development for film with MGM/Amazon and The Summer of Songbirds is in development for television with Hulu. There’s good reason why People magazine dubbed Kristy the “go-to for elevated beach reads.” Her latest—featuring a burned out NICU nurse, a former hot shot baseball player turned high school coach, an abandoned baby, and a batty aunt with long-buried secrets—whisks us away to the tight-knit coastal community of Cape Carolina and shows us that sometimes life conspires to bring us exactly where we belong. Join us as we celebrate Kristy’s launch in grand F&F style with special guests, a signature cocktail, games, and laughs galore. Trust us—you do NOT want to miss this one!

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On this episode, Ron Block & Patti Callahan Henry welcome two authors both with new novels about Hollywood icons—Lynn Cullen with hers about Marilyn Monroe, When We Were Brilliant, and Priya Parmar with hers about Katharine Hepburn, The Original. Priya Parmar is the author of the novels Exit the Actress and Vanessa and Her Sister, a New York Times Notable Book, who also writes for musical theater. Her stunning new novel, The Original, plunges into the tumultuous life of screen icon Katharine Hepburn, a star whose passionate spirit and fluid sexuality shattered Hollywood’s rules and redefined what it meant to be a woman in film. Lynn Cullen is the nationally bestselling author of Mrs. Poe and The Woman with the Cure. Her dazzling new novel, When We Were Brilliant, is about the unlikely pair—blond bombshell Marilyn Monroe and serious photographer Eve Arnold—who made a deal that would change both of their lives. We are so excited to talk to both authors about these fascinating new books which paint a vivid picture of two iconic women and their fierce struggle for independence and authenticity in Hollywood’s Golden Age.

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On this episode, Mary Kay Andrews & Kristy Woodson Harvey welcome iconic NYT-bestselling crime writer Tana French to discuss the third and final book in her million-copy-bestselling Cal Hooper trilogy, The Keeper, which just debuted at #4 on the NYT bestseller list upon its release. Tana French is the New York Times bestselling author of nine previous books, including In the Woods, The Searcher, and The Hunter. Her novels have sold more than eight million copies worldwide and won numerous awards, including the Edgar, Anthony, Macavity, and Barry awards, the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Best Mystery/Thriller, and the Irish Book Award for Crime Fiction. She joins us from her home in Dublin to discuss her highly anticipated new mystery, The Keeper, a masterwork of atmospheric suspense that brings the story of one of her most beloved characters to a spellbinding conclusion.

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On this episode, Kristin Harmel, Patti Callahan Henry & Mary Kay Andrews welcome this month’s F&F Featured Authors, #1 NYT-bestselling novelist V.E. Schwab and screenwriter and YA author Cat Clarke to discuss their new locked-room thriller (co-written as Evelyn Clarke), The Ending Writes Itself, our April 2026 Pick of the Month, which Stephen King has proclaimed as “in the running for best mystery of 2026!” V.E. Schwab is a #1 New York Times bestselling author known for her genre-defying works like The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue and the Shades of Magic series. Cat Clarke is a screenwriter and author known for her gripping, coming-of-age thrillers that appeal to readers of all ages. Friends for more than fifteen years, they’ve joined forces as Evelyn Clarke to deliver The Ending Writes Itself, a propulsive psychological thriller that doubles as a razor-sharp satire of the publishing industry. In this book, six struggling writers are invited to the estate of one of the world’s bestselling novelists on a remote Scottish island for what they think is a writers’ retreat. When the reclusive genius author turns out to be dead with his final book left unfinished, these writers are thrust into a high-stakes 72-hour competition to craft an ending in return for a life-changing sum of money and the promise of a career-defining relaunch. We had so much fun talking to this duo about their buzzy new book that Karin Slaughter declares “an absolute must-read!”

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For Easter week, we are re-airing one of our favorite episodes from the vault! Join us as Kristy Woodson Harvey, Patti Callahan Henry & Mary Kay Andrews talk to our own Kristin Harmel about her 2025 instant NYT-bestseller, The Stolen Life of Colette Marceau—about two jewel thieves, a priceless bracelet that disappears in 1940s Paris, and a quest for answers in a decades-old murder—which is out in paperback this week. One of the founders and hosts of Friends & Fiction, Kristin is the New York Times, USA Today, and #1 internationally bestselling author of more than a dozen novels, including The Forest of Vanishing Stars and The Book of Lost Names, whose books are published in more than thirty languages and are sold all over the world. On June 11th of last year, the Fab Four gathered to celebrate the launch of Kristin’s The Stolen Life of Colette Marceau, a book that Hazel Gaynor called a “dazzling diamond of a novel,” and which instantly debuted on the New York Times bestseller list. Now is the perfect time to re-air this episode as the book releases in paperback on March 31st. We hope you will tune in for this chat, now with a brand-new intro recorded by Kristin herself.

 

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