Zibby Books

Coming August 5, 2025 

The author of My What If Year is back with a fun, witty debut novel that takes you inside the world of extreme wealth and charitable giving. 

Lucia thought she had it all figured out—until life in London as a new mom and expat turns everything upside down. She’s just barely keeping it together when she unexpectedly lands a glamorous job as a philanthropic advisor to the poshest families in England. But is the world of the uber wealthy everything it’s cracked up to be? 

At work, she’s rubbing elbows with royals and taking champagne-fueled meetings with heirs to the next generation of wealth; while at home, her teething one-year-old is up at all hours of the night, and her husband’s growing connection to his ex-girlfriend is making her question their marriage.

Something’s gotta give in this relatable and heartwarming dramedy about a woman caught between her career ambitions, her family’s needs, and the person she’s becoming.  Can Lucia rediscover herself before it all falls apart? And can she still do some good in the world while she’s at it?

Coming September 23, 2025

The acclaimed, New York Times bestselling author of The Book of Ruth and A Map of the World returns with a stunning coming-of-age novel about girls, mothers, and finding one's way in the world. 

Seventeen-year-old Phoebe was never interested in her birth family. But on the cusp of her high school graduation, her adoptive mother, Greta, insists on a visit to meet her biological parents and siblings. The encounter is a jolt, a revelation that derails Phoebe.

With the help of her best friend Luna, Phoebe runs away—as far as their friend Patrick O’Connor’s chaotic home, where she hopes to go unnoticed among his thirteen siblings. But when Phoebe asks Patrick to chop off her hip-length hair, she’s suddenly transformed. Patrick’s older brothers can’t help but notice the striking, Peter Pan–like stranger who has suddenly appeared in their midst.

What starts as an adolescent rebellion soon spirals into a whirlwind of self-discovery and unexpected connections. As she grapples with her shifting identity and strained relationships, Phoebe must navigate the tumultuous road out of girlhood and chart a new and unknown course.

Coming December 2, 2025

What really happened all those years ago?

When Marlowe, an illustrator living in New York City, returns to her family’s bewitching Hudson Valley estate for the holidays, she discovers a murder on the property that draws her back into the haunting case of her teenage best friend’s disappearance twenty years earlier. Marlowe soon finds herself unraveling the tangled dynamics of this small town and the legacy of a summer home that holds both secrets and scars. What follows is a gripping mystery that weaves between past and present as Marlowe confronts the fallibility of her own memory, the shocking truth about her lost friend, and an ultimatum that will change the course of her life.

In this chilling debut novel, Julie Doar parses themes of family loyalty, class tension, friendship, and identity, building toward a dramatic payoff that keeps readers guessing until its final moment.

Coming July 1, 2025

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Paper Palace, a Reese’s Book Club Pick, comes a debut poetry collection that paints a moving portrait of a rich life from childhood to love to marriage to motherhood to divorce and beyond.

What the Deep Water Knows by Miranda Cowley Heller is a series of exquisite reflections on love in all its seasons. In poetry that is lyrical and quick-witted, gentle and devastatingly frank, Cowley Heller contemplates time, marriage, and motherhood. Her words will envelop you and bring you to the water’s emotional edge:

“I stand in bare feet at the break,
icy water soaking my cuffs.
A scoop of pelicans dives on bait fish
—relentless, cruel.
Kelp fronds mourn them in the glassy deep.
A hermit crab creeping on to shore
skittles its way across the sand.
In the blue, a soot tern wings loop-the-loops.
And I lift my face into the wind.”

from “Things the Tide Has Discarded”

Coming June 3, 2025

Does your past define your destiny? Told through multiple perspectives, rich with emotion and immersive dual timelines, The Summer We Ran weaves together a story of lost love, devastating secrets, shocking sabotage, and the painstaking decision two people must make in order to fulfill the futures they each desire.

In the summer of 1996, teenage Tess Murphy’s mom gave her two rules to abide by: keep quiet and stay out of trouble. Her mother landed a new job as a cook at an affluent Virginia estate and didn’t want anything to risk the opportunity, least of all her outspoken daughter. What no one saw coming was Tess falling deeply in love with the boy next door, high-society Grant Alexander.

Over a few wondrous and heat-filled months, Tess and Grant’s love blooms so ferociously it feels utterly impossible that anything can keep them apart, until tragedy strikes and the teenagers find themselves pained by betrayal with little hope to repair the damage that’s been done. 

Published April 1, 2025

INSTANT NATIONAL BESTSELLER 

"Razor-sharp, darkly comedic, and emotionally piercing. With the satirical bite of Richard Russo’s Straight Man, the introspection of Fredrik Backman’s A Man Called Ove, and the reinvention of Andrew Sean Greer's Less, Kenney’s vivid prose transforms the mundane into unexpected hilarity."
—Booklist (starred review)

An Indie Next & LibraryReads Pick for April

The Office meets Six Feet Under meets About a Boy in this coming-of-middle-age tale about having a second chance to write your life’s story. 

Bud Stanley is an obituary writer who is afraid to live. Yes, his wife recently left him for a “far more interesting” man. Yes, he goes on a particularly awful blind date with a woman who brings her ex. And yes, he has too many glasses of Scotch one night and proceeds to pen and publish his own obituary. The newspaper wants to fire him. But now the company’s system has him listed as dead. And the company can’t fire a dead person. The ensuing fallout forces him to realize that life may be actually worth living. 

As Bud awaits his fate at work, his life hangs in the balance. Given another shot by his boss and encouraged by his best friend, Tim, a worldly and wise former art dealer who is now confined to a wheelchair, Bud starts to attend the wakes and funerals of strangers to learn how to live.

Thurber Prize-winner and New York Times bestselling author John Kenney tells a funny, touching story about life and death, about the search for meaning, about finding and never letting go of the preciousness of life.

A USA Today Bestseller
Featured in the Washington Post

“Zibby Owens has done the literary world a great service, collecting important views at a critical moment in history. As she says, this is not a time to lower your voice. Kudos to her and all the authors here for sharing valuable insight, emotion, and perspective on the often misunderstood Jewish experience.”
―Mitch Albom, author of Tuesdays With Morrie

An intimate and hopeful collection of meaningful, smart, funny, sad, emotional, and inspiring essays from today’s authors and advocates about what it means to be Jewish, how life has changed since the attacks on October 7th, 2023, and the unique culture that brings this group together.

Frequently Bought Together

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On October 7th, 2023, Jews in Israel were attacked in the largest pogrom since the Holocaust. It was a day felt by Jews everywhere who came together to process and speak out in ways some never had before. In this collection, 75 contributors speak to Jewish joy, celebration, laughter, food, trauma, loss, love, and family, and the common threads that course through the Jewish people: resilience and humor. Contributors include Mark Feuerstein, Jill Zarin, Steve Leder, Joanna Rakoff, Amy Ephron, Lisa Barr, Annabelle Gurwitch, Daphne Merkin, Bradley Tusk, Sharon Brous, Jenny Mollen, Nicola Kraus, Caroline Leavitt, and many others. On Being Jewish Now is edited by Zibby Owens, bestselling author, podcaster, bookstore owner, and CEO of Zibby Media.

All profits will be donated to Artists Against Antisemitism. 

Contributors:
Abby Stern
Ali Rosen
Alison Hammer
Alison Rose Greenberg
Alix Strauss
Aliza Licht
Alli Frank
Alyssa Rosenheck
Amy Blumenfeld
Amy Ephron
Amy Klein
Anna Ephron Harari
Annabelle Gurwitch
Barri Leiner Grant
Bess Kalb
Beth Ricanati
Bradley Tusk
Brenda Janowitz
Cara Mentzel
Caroline Leavitt
Corie Adjmi
Courtney Sheinmel
Danny Grossman
Daphne Merkin
Dara Kurtz
Dara Levan
David K. Israel
David Christopher Kaufman
Debbie Reed Fischer
Diana Fersko
Eleanor Reissa
Elizabeth Cohen Hausman
Elizabeth L. Silver
Elyssa Friedland
Emily Tisch Sussman
Harper Kincaid
Heidi Shertok
Ilana Kurshan
Jacqueline Friedland
Jamie Brenner
Jane L. Rosen
Jeanne Blasberg
Jennifer S. Brown
Jenny Mollen
Jeremy Garelick
Jill Zarin
Joanna Rakoff
Jonathan Santlofer
Judy Batalion
Julia DeVillers
Keren Blankfeld
Lihi Lapid
Lisa Barr
Lisa Kogan
Lynda Cohen Loigman
Mark Feuerstein
Nicola Kraus
Noa Yedlin
Rebecca Keren Jablonski
Rachel Barenbaum
Rachel Levy Lesser
Rachelle Unreich
Rebecca Minkoff
Rebecca Raphael
Renee Rosen
Rochelle B. Weinstein
Samantha Ettus
Samantha Greene Woodruff
Sharon Brous
Shirin Yadegar
Stacy Igel
Steve Leder
Talia Carner
Toby Rose
Zibby Owens

Published February 4, 2025

Are they hot flashes? Or is it just getting hot in here?

Lisa Darling, a high-flying TV executive and twice-divorced mother of two, is navigating life with an opinionated teenager and a pet-obsessed grade schooler, organizing PTA events, and supporting her best friend through breast cancer treatment, all while in the throes of perimenopause. It’s no wonder her to-do list is on overdrive and she never has time for pilates or that DIY interior design project she keeps setting aside. 

But when LA-based media hotshot Zach Russo swoops in as a temporary stand-in for her best friend’s job, Lisa starts feeling overheated and flustered. But that’s just the menopause, right? She chooses to believe her hormone replacement therapy needs some adjusting, until she finds herself in a sexy—and seriously ill-advised—cinch with him. As things snowball, Lisa has to confront these long-forgotten feelings and ask herself what it is she wants and what it is she’s ready for. 

Hilarious, relatable, and delightfully swoon-worthy, It’s Getting Hot in Here is the laugh-out-loud, coming-of-middle-age, rom-com meets mom-com readers have been waiting for.

Published March 4, 2025

A girl takes on a series of identities to survive, shrouding herself in layer upon layer of secrets, until one morning years later when she is forced to reckon with her past.

On an ordinary day in an upscale suburb of Atlanta, Maya is making breakfast for her two sons, when her husband drops a red-and-blue striped envelope on the counter and asks a devastating question: Who is Sunny? 

Maya is sent reeling back to her childhood in Guyana—a time when Sunny was her only name. Unbeknownst to her husband, Maya is not who she claims to be. The letter, from her long-lost sister Roshi, now threatens to expose her true identity and shatter the seemingly perfect existence Maya worked so hard to build. 

As she frantically weighs the impact of the truth on her future, Maya relives the harrowing details of her past—her journey to America on the “backtrack,” the shock of being delivered into the hands of an abusive family while being severed from her own, and her many evolutions of self as she struggles to find a path forward against all odds.

But the letter contains urgent news which cannot be ignored. She has no choice but to confess her story of illegal immigration, abuse, addiction, and identity transformation to her unsuspecting husband, no matter the consequences.

Steeped in sensory detail, this striking debut transports the reader from the sugar cane fields of Guyana to the world of immigrant laborers in Miami to the affluent suburbs of Atlanta. Nanda Reddy takes us on a wrenching journey of assimilation, survival, and reinvention that explores the very construct of identity—all the while underscoring the strength of chosen family, love, and the resilience of the human spirit. 

Published December 3, 2024 

A Washington Post Noteworthy Book!

EVERY FAMILY HAS AN EDGE

In this hilarious, heartwarming tale, mother-daughter skiing champs face the bumps in their own relationship when an avalanche in a Swiss village forces them together.

Alpine skiing G.O.A.T. Claudine Potts and her daughter Wylie have been bred for gold medal glory. They’re skiing their way to fame, but this gilded future is cut short when a fall forces Claudine’s retirement and Wylie’s debilitating anxiety sends her off the slopes. 

With the collapse of their ski careers, their relationship falters and now it’s been years since Wylie and Claudine have even spoken. They live on opposite coasts, pursuing different passions, until a chance opportunity to pair up in a European fitness competition drives them back together. Can this duo survive snow-buried regrets and family secrets and have the happy reunion they’re hoping for?

 Set in a dreamy Swiss village with a colorful cast of characters, Bluebird Day will make readers laugh and swoon, as Claudine and Wylie slalom through the complicated terrain of lost ambition, past mistakes, and mother-daughter love.

Published November 12, 2024

A PEOPLE Magazine's Best Book of November 2024

A November 2024 Book of the Month Selection 

A USA Today Bestseller 

From the author of the global breakout bestseller The Last Love Note comes the story of a young woman struggling to piece her life back together in the wake of a tragic accident, and the man who gives up everything to help her. 

If you knew then what you know now, would you make the same choices? Imagine having a second chance with the one you never forgot. 

When Evie Hudson wakes in an unfamiliar hospital room, she thinks she’s fresh out of a teenage party with her best friend, Bree. Except, Bree isn’t around anymore and high school was years ago. Evie had just survived the crash that killed her husband, Oliver—whom she can't remember either. After suffering a traumatic loss of memory,  she’s left to connect the dots. But how?

Enter: Drew, a promising photographer whose chance encounter with Evie unravels the elusive details of her marriage and her husband’s death. As Drew watches Evie stitch the story of her life together, secrets emerge that might shatter both of their worlds.

This tangled second-chance romance leads Evie to question every decision she ever made. This time around, she’s seeing all the things she missed–and the life she gets to choose . . . again.

A wife, mother, and frustrated writer faces an impossible deadline for turning her life around in a hilarious debut novel about family, friendship, success, and exhilarating self-(re)discovery.

Pippa Jones is a fortyish former literary sensation who fears she will be a one-hit wonder. After the follow-up book she was almost done writing, Podlusters, had to be tossed (it ended up sharing a plot and title with superstar author Ella Rankin's summer blockbuster!), she couldn't write a thing. Months of staring at a blank page made her confidence vanish like a one-night stand. When she finds out that she has only five days left to finish (or rather, start) or repay an advance she's already spent, Pippa has a brilliantly original idea. Okay, fine, her twelve-year-old son came up with it as a joke, but Pippa and her teenage daughter approved.

Pippa's not only going to make a bold statement, but she'll change the book world while she's at it! Can she pull it off? At this point, she doesn't have a choice.

When Pippa's publisher gets intimately involved, it unlocks a series of plot twists she never saw coming. From the courtyards of posh Beverly Hills hotels and Malibu mega-mansions to Brentwood and Santa Monica bookstores, Pippa races against time--in her used Volvo--and discovers more about her career, marriage, family, friends, and herself than she ever could have dreamed up.

Published October 8, 2024

“The Undercurrent is a mystery of remarkable scope, bristling with intelligence, beauty, and humanity. It is, quite simply: stunning.” —Gillian Flynn, author of Gone Girl

Now featured in E! Fall Books of 2024

An overwhelmed new mother becomes obsessed with the unsolved disappearance of a young girl from her small Texas hometown—and unearths her own family’s dark secret.  

It’s 2011 and Deecie Jeffries’s missing person’s case in Austin, Texas, is still cold. New mom Bee, struggling with postpartum depression, is living in Portland, Maine, having left Austin–and those memories–far behind. Until Leo, her childhood crush and her estranged twin Gus’s best friend, suddenly resurfaces, drawing Bee back into their shared past. 

Bee’s predictable life is upended, pushing her to return to her childhood home and piece together a neighborhood’s shattered history. Bee becomes consumed with a need to uncover the truth about Deecie’s disappearance and what happened to the families who lived across the field from one another—Gus, Leo, and their mothers: Mary, a homemaker, whose only escape is the local community theater, and Diana, a serious academic dedicated to her studies.

Published January 7, 2025

“In this honest, insightful, and often hilarious account, Amy Wilson explores her experience and frustrations as a people-pleaser—her story will resonate with anyone who has said, 'Happy to help!' one too many times. I couldn’t put it down.”—Gretchen Rubin, author of The Happiness Project

Award-winning podcast host Amy Wilson has always been an ultimate helper. As a big sister, Girl Scout, personal assistant, sitcom sidekick, and, finally, mother of three, Amy believed it was her destiny to be a people pleaser. She learned to put others first and to look like she had everything under control, even when she very much did not.

Along the way, Amy started to wonder why doing it all had been her job. Still, when she tried to hand over some of her to-dos, no one was interested in taking them. And when she asked for help, in return, she got advice: have a sense of humor, quit nagging, and stop trying to be perfect.

Hilariously relatable, Happy to Help is a collection of essays about how you can be the one everyone else depends on and still be struggling—how you can be “happy to help,” even when, for your own sake, you shouldn’t.

Published September 10, 2024
Paperback coming June 24, 2025

GRIEF IS LIKE THIS . . .

Falling in love with your best friend, only to lose her to a mysterious death. 

Working for decades to achieve a dream, and just when it’s within reach, watching it threaten to go up in flames. 

Longing for your deceased father to celebrate with you when your first novel sells. 

Spending the first sleepless months in the throes of new motherhood alone, as your husband struggles to save his career.  

Befriending the woman who should be your enemy, because you are that lonely…

Annie, Jesse, Noah, and Juliette are tied together by their experiences of grief; they are separated by their own versions of the truth of what happened on a single night twelve years ago, when Juliette, a college freshman grieving her mother, and Noah, a high school senior fighting for a place in a world that told him he didn’t matter, found each other. Spanning decades, this complex, captivating story pulls back the curtains of cancel culture to explore ambition, empathy, art, desire, consent, motherhood, and what it really means to lose everything.

Published July 30, 2024

A USA Today Bestseller! 

A Library Journal Best Book of 2024!

A Most Exciting Debut Short Story Collection of 2024 by Electric Literature

What happens when you are forced to let go of the things you love the most? What are you left with?  

In her stunning debut short story collection, The Goodbye Process, Mary Jones uses her distinctive voice to examine the painful and sometimes surreal ways we say goodbye.

The stories—which range from tender and heartbreaking to unsettling and darkly funny—will push you out of your comfort zone and ignite intense emotions surrounding love and loss. A woman camps out on the porch of an ex-lover who has barricaded himself inside the house; a preteen girl caught shoplifting finds herself in grave danger; a Los Angeles real estate agent falls for a woman who helps him detach from years of dramatic plastic surgery; a man hires a professional mourner to ensure his wife’s funeral is a success. Again and again, Jones’s characters find themselves facing the ends of things: relationships, health, and innocence.

Arresting, original, and beautifully rendered, this story collection packs a punch, just the way grief does―knocking us off our feet.

A deeply personal memoir about one woman's journey to finding her voice and rewriting her story by the creator and host of the award-winning podcast Moms Don't Have Time to Read Books(TM).

Zibby Owens has become a well-known personality in the publishing world. Her infectious energy, tasteful authenticity, and smart, steadfast support of authors started in childhood, a precedent set by the profound effect books and libraries had on her own family.

But after losing her closest friend on 9/11 and later becoming utterly stressed out and overwhelmed by motherhood, Zibby was forgetting what made her her. She turned to books and writing for help.

Just when things seemed particularly bleak, Zibby unexpectedly fell in love with a tennis pro turned movie producer who showed her the path to happiness: away from type-A perfectionism and toward letting things unfold organically. What unfolded was a meaningful career, a great love, and finally, her voice, now heard by millions of listeners.

An honest and moving story about relationships, love, food issues, the writing life, and finding one's true calling, Bookends will inspire and uplift.

From debut author Zibby Owens comes Princess Charming, a lovable and empowering new character!

Princess Charming can't quite seem to find her "thing." She's tried everything from cooking to hip-hop, and hasn't been able to perfect either. Even her cartwheels are subpar. But when the castle hosts a superstar for a special event, Princess Charming finally finds her time to shine. 

Princess Charming is about a brand-new princess character filled with fun, humor, and girl power. With a modern look and can-do attitude, Princess Charming is the perfect gift for all young readers who never give up!

Published April 2, 2024 

"Bride Wars meets Bravo’s Southern Charm as a young lawyer tries to get her best friend a coveted magazine cover—until her devious aunt gets in the way. Evans’ debut novel is a charming contemporary novel that fans of Sarah Adams will enjoy." —Booklist

Competition for a bridal magazine cover unleashes mayhem, forcing a mastermind maid of honor to stop being a people pleaser and start figuring out what she wants out of life. A hilarious, smart coming-of-age story.

Olivia “Liv” Fitzgerald’s life is on ambition autopilot. The soon-to-be-lawyer has her life plan set and can talk anyone into anything. Well, almost anything. When her scheming aunt throws her cousin, Kali, into a competition for Southern Charm’s cover alongside Liv’s best friend, Leighton, all hell breaks loose. To save the day, Liv only has to:

a) Secure the Southern Charm cover for Leighton
b) Keep Aunt Charlotte happy—and keep Kali’s wedding running smoothly
c) Finish her final year of law school and nab a coveted NYC big law job
d) Win over the guy of her dreams

Easy, right? From engagement parties to rehearsal dinners, readers will root for Liv as she balances her schemes, dreams, and double maid-of-honor duties.

Read the first chapter!

Published June 25, 2024

A divided family. A devastated community. And the disaster that brings them all together.

Pearce Oysters, a family drama set on the Louisiana coastline during the historic 2010 oil spill, follows the Pearces, local oyster farmers whose business, family, and livelihood are on the brink of collapse.

This is eye-opening, eco-fiction at its best—a story that highlights the grit and beauty of lives lived in an overlooked corner of the American South. Diving deep into the bonds of family, culture, class, and industry, the novel elevates the voices of deeply sympathetic characters: Jordan, the reluctant head of his family’s storied oyster company; May, his distressed, widowed mother; and Benny, his beatnik musician brother, who returns from New Orleans in their time of crisis.