**"Two parts Gone Girl, two parts Notes on a Scandal. . .will play
with your expectations about who's the villain and who's the victim." --
Jennifer Weiner, USA Today
The acclaimed, bestselling author of This Could Hurt returns with
her biggest, boldest novel yet--an electrifying, twisty, and deeply
emotional family drama, set on Manhattan's glittering Upper East Side,
that explores the dark side of love, the limits of loyalty, and the high
cost of truth.
You can have everything, and still not have enough.
Cassie Quinn may only be twenty-three, but she knows a few things. One:
money can't buy happiness, but it's certainly better to have it. Two:
family matters most. Three: her younger brother Billy is not a rapist.
When Billy, a junior at Princeton, is arrested for assaulting his
ex-girlfriend, Cassie races home to Manhattan to join forces with her
big brother Nate and their parents, Lawrence and Eleanor. The Quinns
scramble to hire the best legal minds money can buy, but Billy fits the
all-too-familiar sex-offender profile--white, athletic, and
privileged--that makes headlines and sways juries.
Meanwhile, Cassie struggles to understand why Billy's ex Diana would go
this far, even if the breakup was painful. And she knows how the end of
first love can destroy someone: Her own years-long affair with a
powerful, charismatic man left her shattered, and she's only recently
regained her footing.
As reporters converge outside their Upper East Side landmark building,
the Quinns gird themselves for a media-saturated trial, and Cassie vows
she'll do whatever it takes to save Billy. But what if that means
exposing her own darkest secrets to the world?
Lightning-paced and psychologically astute as it rockets toward an
explosive ending, When We Were Bright and Beautiful is a dazzling
novel that asks: who will pay the price when the truth is revealed?
