Smiling With Friends

Everyone loves Lena Hart. No one knows how hard she works to make that possible.

At twenty-nine, Lena is the dependable one-the friend who remembers every birthday, solves every problem, and always knows what to say. Her career is thriving, her social life looks effortless, and her reassuring smile never slips.

But behind that smile, Lena is exhausted, detached, and quietly disappearing from her own life.

When a mistake at work and a frightening night alone make it impossible to keep pretending, Lena finally admits that she is not fine. With the help of therapy and the people who refuse to stop seeing her, she begins confronting the grief, family patterns, and fear that taught her to earn love by being useful.

As Lena learns to set boundaries and ask for support, some relationships deepen while others struggle to survive the change. Most difficult of all, she must discover who she is when she is no longer performing for everyone around her.

Smiling with Friends is an intimate and hopeful contemporary novel about hidden depression, friendship, grief, self-worth, and the courage to let yourself be known.