When We Were Bright and Beautiful: A Novel

"When We Were Bright and Beautiful" is a novel by Jennifer Weiner that explores the dark side of love, loyalty, and the high cost of truth. It follows Cassie Quinn, who knows money can't buy happiness but believes family matters most. When her younger brother Billy is arrested for assaulting his ex-girlfriend, Cassie races home to Manhattan to join forces with her family to hire the best legal minds. The Quinns face a media-saturated trial, and Cassie vows to save Billy at any cost, even if it means exposing her own darkest secrets.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 336 pages
Publication date: 12 October 2023
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers Inc

The acclaimed and bestselling author of This Could Hurt returns with her most significant and daring novel yet—an electrifying, twisting, and profoundly emotional family drama set on Manhattan's glittering Upper East Side that delves into the darker aspects of love, the boundaries of loyalty, and the immense cost of truth.

Cassie Quinn may only be twenty-three, but she possesses certain knowledge. One: money cannot purchase happiness, but it is undoubtedly preferable 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 rushes home to Manhattan to join forces with her older brother Nate and their parents, Lawrence and Eleanor. The Quinns scramble to hire the most skilled legal minds money can buy, but Billy fits the all-too-familiar sex-offender profile—white, athletic, and privileged—that makes headlines and influences juries. Meanwhile, Cassie struggles to comprehend why Billy's ex-girlfriend Diana would take such drastic measures, even if the breakup was painful. And she knows how the end of first love can shatter someone: Her own years-long affair with a powerful, charismatic man left her shattered, and she has only recently regained her footing.

As reporters gather outside their Upper East Side landmark building, the Quinns brace themselves for a media-saturated trial, and Cassie vows to do whatever it takes to save Billy. But what if that means revealing her most 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 masterpiece.

Weight: 262g
Dimension: 135 x 203 x 23 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780063142039