Asking for a Friend

Eden Jones has exactly three friends. And they’re all fake.

From a web of lies and social anxiety to true friendship and queer joy; this is the wonderful second book from the author of the Indies Introduce and Indie Next List pick, Jude Saves the World.

Why go through the stress of making friends when you can just pretend? It works for Eden and their social anxiety . . . until their mom announces she’s throwing them a birthday party and all their friends are invited.

Eden’s ＂friends,＂ Duke, Ramona, and Tabitha, are all real kids from school . . . but Eden’s never actually spoken to them before. Now Eden will do whatever it takes to convince them to be their friends -- at least until the party is over.

When things start to go better than Eden expects, and the group starts to bond, Eden finds themselves trapped in a lie that gets worse the longer they keep it up. What happens if their now sort-of-real friends discover that Eden hasn’t been honest with them from the very beginning?

Author Ronnie Riley creates a world full of queer joy and all the ups and downs of true friendship.

Ronnie Riley is a queer, nonbinary, trans femme writer based in Toronto, Ontario, who uses they/them pronouns. They created LGBTNPit, an annual Twitter pitch event for queer, trans, and nonbinary authors using the hashtag #lgbtnpit. They are a Special Event Manager who graduated with honours from George Brown College. It comes in handy for writing since they meet so many interesting real-life characters. Writing, watching TV, and reading books are some of Ronnie’s favourite hobbies. They love digging themselves into a new world and forgetting reality for a while. Ronnie enjoys crafting of all sorts, particularly loom-knitting warm hats, sewing cat toys and lavender heating pads, and cross stitching. They love fiddling around with graphic design, websites, and creating resources for educational purposes. Visit them at https: //www.mxronnieriley.com/