Beverly Hills Adjacent

If its pilot season, working actor Mitch Gold probably hasn't noticed that his wife, June Dietz, has a really good new haircut. Or that she made spicy Thai shrimp from the Farmer's Market for dinner. During pilot season, Mitch becomes another man. And June, a tenure track poetry professor at UCLA, suddenly isn't sure that she likes what she sees. While Mitch competes for acting jobs with the casually confident Willie Dermot, June is being tortured by Willie's insufferably uptight wife Larissa and the other stay-at-home-exercisers at her daughter Nora's preschool. June's not clicking with anyone in L.A. these days.

Enter Rich Friend, smart, age-appropriate, bookish, and a wildly successful television producer, who focuses on June the way nobody has since she moved to L.A. June doesn't just fall into an affair with Mitch: she wallows in it. But she's also feeling guilty and unsure about what the next step might be: leave her marriage for her lover, keep both going, or cut off her fantasy life?

Set in the real west L.A., Beverly Hills Adjacent is satire with a giant heart; a sparkling debut novel with a lovable and very modern heroine at its center.

“Crisp, fast and sharp, Beverly Hills Adjacent has an ear for the crazy cadences of Hollywood, marriage and modern life.” —Meg Wolitzer, author of The Ten-Year Nap

“A smart novel about a Hollywood couple trying to survive TV pilot season.” —People StyleWatch

“The authors' sense of humor gives this book plenty of pep.” —Publishers Weekly

“A laugh-out-loud novel about the skewed mores and hungry hearts of Hollywood.” —People

“Steinhauer and Hendra have a gift for Hollywood vapidspeak.” —New York Times Book Review