Alice Rue Evades the Truth: A Novel

“Vibrant, voice-y, tender, genuinely funny, and bursting with all the imperfect charm of a real, hopeful love. I can’t wait to make everyone I know read this.”—Casey McQuiston, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Pairing

In this sapphic homage to While You Were Sleeping, a down-on-her-luck receptionist is mistaken as the girlfriend of a comatose man and doesn’t have the heart to come clean to his devastated family—even when she starts falling for his sister.

Alice Rue has never spoken to her longtime crush Nolan Altman, but after she saves his life, the EMTs tell his family that Alice is Nolan’s girlfriend. She wants to set the record straight, but Nolan’s in a coma, and if the family feels comforted by the idea of Nolan having his “girlfriend” by his side for what might be his last moments, isn’t it kinder to go along with it? At least for now?

The Altmans are impossibly nice and supportive, and there’s something about Nolan’s sister Van that makes Alice feel more seen and understood than she has in years. She knows it’s wrong to lie, but it’s easy to convince herself that she’s doing the right thing by evading the truth.

But what she can’t avoid is her growing chemistry with Van. Alice must decide if she can unravel this tangle of lies to salvage her chances with the woman who just may be the love of her life—especially if Nolan wakes up. Warm, witty, and full of heart, this debut rom-com is a love story for pessimists who secretly hope for their own happily ever after.

Emily Zipps is a disability advocate and is passionate about telling creative queer stories about women falling in love with each other, and also about stealing all of her friends' dogs for her manuscripts. Zipps works in higher education supporting students and lives in New Mexico with her wife and her dog. Alice Rue Evades the Truth is her first novel.