Hi there! I am Holly, the author of Nothing But The Truth, a novel coming out with Dutton.
Nothing But The Truth follows Lucy Green, a Hollywood publicist who makes a wish for a perfect day on the eve of her thirtieth birthday and wakes up unable to lie. Having gone to bed expecting her milestone birthday to be a big day because she’s poised to land a new client, get a hard-earned promotion, and finally get a proposal from her boyfriend Caleb who checks every box on her Mr. Perfect list, she gets a big surprise when nothing goes according to plan.
One area that falls dramatically off track is her love life. Thanks to her compulsory honesty, she realizes that she shares no real connection with Caleb and has been holding out for the life Instagram promised her—marriage, two kids, a labradoodle, and a house in the suburbs—when she didn’t even want it in the first place. During a comedic yet satisfying breakup scene that I will not completely spoil, Lucy realizes that she’s passively engaged in her relationship and has only been telling herself she’s happy.
In writing Nothing But The Truth, I aimed to touch on all facets of a woman’s life—career, romantic relationships, friendship, health and body image—and how honesty (or the lack of) plays part in each. Portraying Lucy and Caleb’s failing relationship was a way to show how social expectations can reach all the way into something as significant as committing to a partner. Lucy realizes she only expects Caleb to propose because she has been told all her life that it is the obvious next step at their age and relationship status. This realization makes her further realize that she is actually unhappy and settling for their unfulfilling relationship out of convenience and expectation. They are not physically compatible, were not on the same page about their future, and essentially coexist independently of each other, yet they look good on paper, so they’ve stayed together. But is looking good on paper really worth anything if there is nothing deeper? Being forced to admit they aren’t truly good together is one of the biggest challenges of Lucy’s day and speaks to how women in particular are expected to tolerate and accept situations that make them unhappy rather than speak up. Through telling the truth, she finds freedom in admitting that she was simply going along with expectations by planning for a future she didn’t want and that didn’t make her happy in the present.
While Lucy is forced to confront the truth about her relationship due to a magical intervention, my hope is that readers who may relate to her situation find inspiration to seek honesty in their own relationships. Like Lucy learns, just because social pressure says we should obtain certain relationship statuses to be happy doesn’t mean that we have to, and being honest with ourselves about what we truly want can change everything.
Nothing But the Truth is available from Amazon and Bookshop.