By day, Rachel Lithgow, a single mother of two teenagers, ran a consultancy connecting nonprofits to global resources. By night, she endured a year of memorably awful dates — now the centerpiece of her new memoir.
Released Thursday, Lithgow’s “My Year of Really Bad Dates: A Memoir” (She Writes Press; distributed by Simon & Schuster) chronicles a year of unsuccessful dating, applying humor and vulnerability. The memoir addresses divorce, dating, single motherhood, PTSD, grief, loss and starting over in midlife.
Lithgow, who is based in Long Beach and Manhattan, also runs The Noga Agency, helping nonprofits achieve their philanthropy goals. She said writing a memoir and running a business is a balancing act.
“Juggling a personal life of dating while raising two teenagers alone with no custodial or financial support, while starting a business and publishing my first book, was not a resounding success,” Lithgow told Long Island Business News. “But some things in life you can’t [go] over or around, but rather, you have to just go through and come out the other side. Hopefully stronger.”
With connections to the theater and television world, Lithgow is the former daughter-in-law of John Lithgow. Her audiobook is brought to life by actress Jodie Sweetin, best known as Stephanie Tanner on Full House and Fuller House.
As an established writer, Lithgow has been published in The New York Times, Daily News, Time, The Advocate, The Jerusalem Post, The Huffington Post, Los Angeles Times, The Times of Israel, eJP, The New York Observer and Buffalo News.
For her Long Island book launch, Lithgow is appearing at Blue Door Books in Cedarhurst on Nov. 17 at 5 p.m., Long Beach Public Library on Nov. 18 at 7 p.m., The Next Chapter in Huntington on Dec. 2 at 5 p.m., and Northport Books on Dec. 4 at 5 p.m.
Content Warnings: sexual assault, stalking, blackmail, coercive control, infidelity, trauma
Summary:Jenna, who runs a successful private therapy practice, still struggles with trust issues of her own. She’s made a promise to stop snooping in her husband Colten’s phone, but sometimes she can’t help herself. One night, she discovers a troubling exchange between him and his cousin Bodie, who’s one of his closest friends. A dancer from a bachelor party they both recently attended is threatening Bodie, claiming they crossed a line sexually and that she’ll expose the truth to his family if she doesn’t get what she wants. They don’t know much about this woman, or how far she’s willing to go. But Jenna might.
Lexus Chardonnay, the stage name of the dancer from the party, is one you don’t forget. And Jenna’s heard it before—from one of her clients.
Kaitlyn is a medical school student who dances on weekends to put herself through school. Jenna’s been her therapist for years, except she hasn’t seen her for three months. Not since Kaitlyn stopped showing up for treatment, without explanation. As Jenna begins to listen back to their past sessions, desperate for answers, a more complicated picture emerges, and she must decide who to trust as her career and her family hang in the balance.
Courtesy of Simon & Schuster
Everyone says they want honesty in a relationship, but how many of us have sneaked a peek at a partner’s phone when nobody’s looking? Jenna knows she shouldn’t, yet one quiet night, she breaks her promise and scrolls through her husband’s texts. What she finds isn’t your run-of-the-mill flirty message or a secret Instagram account. It’s something much more alarming: a digital Pandora’s box that threatens not just her marriage, but the very career built on trust and confidentiality.
Lucinda Berry’s new thriller, This Is A Safe Space, puts a modern twist on the old idea that some secrets refuse to stay buried. In an era when our whole lives (and our darkest lies) can hide behind a lock screen, this story taps into a very real, very today kind of fear. What if the person who creates a “safe space” for others has nowhere safe for herself? It’s a question Jenna is forced to confront as her professional world collides with a deeply personal nightmare.
1. Our Phones, Our Secrets
What would someone find if they opened your phone right now? It’s a disarming question, and in This Is A Safe Space, the answer nearly shatters one family. Jenna’s late-night phone snooping isn’t just a plot device; it’s a painfully relatable lapse in judgment. In an age of fingerprint locks and Face IDs, the smartphone has become a diary, confession booth, and safe deposit box of our secrets all in one. Jenna promised herself she’d trust her husband Colten, but the temptation of that glowing screen proves too strong. And when her worst suspicions appear confirmed by a string of cryptic texts, it kicks off a chain reaction of suspicion and fear.
This thriller gets how a tiny breach of digital privacy can snowball. One moment of “just checking” leads Jenna into a web of lies connecting her home to her therapy practice. It’s a modern scenario that feels disturbingly familiar, tapping into the way real trust issues often begin with a single notification at 2 AM. By anchoring the mystery in something as ordinary as a text message, the story makes its psychological punches hit close to home!
2. One Name, Two Lives
Meet Lexus Chardonnay. It’s a stage name you won’t easily forget. For Jenna, it’s the name that makes her blood run cold. Those threatening messages on her husband’s phone revolve around a mysterious dancer with this flashy alias. But Jenna has heard it before, in a far different context. Lexus is actually Kaitlyn, a bright medical student who has sat across from Jenna in therapy for years. By day, Kaitlyn is studying to heal others; by night, under neon lights, she becomes Lexus, dancing to pay the bills.
This dual life isn’t just a plot twist; it’s a commentary on the curated identities people juggle. On social media, we often present highlight reels of our lives, and some of us even keep whole parts of ourselves hidden under alter egos. The novel deftly shows how those separate worlds can collide in an instant. Jenna suddenly realizes the woman sending shockwaves through her family is the same person she’s tried to help through panic attacks and personal struggles. It’s a collision of worlds that raises the stakes and begs the question: how well do we really know anyone, even those we’re supposed to trust most?
3. Victim Or Villain?
Thrillers thrive on uncertainty over who wears the white hat and who’s hiding a dagger behind their back. This Is A Safe Space takes that uncertainty up a notch. The dancer threatening Jenna’s family might be an extortionist preying on men’s worst fears, or she could be a young woman lashing out after surviving something unspeakable. The story constantly tugs the rug out from under assumptions. One chapter, you’re convinced Bodie (Colten’s hapless cousin caught in the scandal) is being unfairly trapped; the next, you wonder if he’s not as innocent as he seems.
It’s a fascinating tightrope walk between sympathy and suspicion. The novel asks if it’s possible to be both a victim and a perpetrator at once. In real life, people who are hurt sometimes hurt others in return, intentionally or not. Berry isn’t afraid to live in that gray area. She lets readers sit with the discomfort that comes when you simply can’t slot someone into “good” or “bad.” It makes the suspense that much more intense.
4. When Control Turns Coercive
Behind the thriller’s twists lies a sobering commentary on power and credibility. The situation Jenna uncovers isn’t just about a scandal. It’s about who gets believed and who gets blamed. Kaitlyn’s alter ego, Lexus, resorts to late-night threats and demands, behaviors that look like stalking on the surface. But the novel nudges readers to consider why she feels this is her only recourse. Women who speak up about being harmed are too often dismissed as “crazy” or attention-seeking, especially if their story threatens a tight-knit family’s reputation. It’s a frustrating reality that This Is A Safe Space digs into: if Kaitlyn truly was wronged, would anyone believe her without proof or pressure?
The flip side is equally unsettling. If she’s lying, then she’s weaponizing the doubt that real victims face, making it harder for others to trust women’s stories. The narrative walks this fine line without preaching. Instead, it heightens the suspense: every character is unsure who to trust, and that creeping feeling of being watched or manipulated keeps both Jenna and the reader on edge. Coercive control isn’t always overt violence: sometimes it’s a barrage of texts, a veiled threat, or the silent treatment that warps reality. Berry shows how these subtler forms of manipulation can be just as chilling, especially in a world where deleting a message doesn’t erase what happened.
5. Blurred Boundaries, Big Dilemmas
Therapists are supposed to keep a professional distance, but what happens when the “someone” needing help is on the other side of the couch and also at your dinner table? Jenna’s predicament is every psychologist’s nightmare scenario. Ethically, a therapist shouldn’t entangle their personal life with a patient’s, yet here she is, smack in the middle of her client’s secret crisis. When Kaitlyn vanished from therapy without a word three months ago, Jenna never imagined their next encounter would be like this. Now Jenna is combing through old session notes and audio recordings, searching for clues in conversations that were meant to heal, not solve a mystery.
The book grapples with the ethics of these dual relationships in a very human way. Jenna isn’t portrayed as a saint or a sinner for the choices she makes, just a person trying to protect her family and her patient at the same time. It raises tough questions: Can you ever really separate personal feelings from professional duty? Jenna knows the rulebook, but This Is A Safe Space shows how real life often laughs in the face of those rules. The tension of watching her walk that tightrope between what’s right as a therapist and what’s necessary as a wife and mother adds another layer of depth to an already twisty thriller.
6. When Betrayal Hits Home
Beyond the mystery and mind games, Berry delves into the emotional wreckage that betrayal leaves behind. Jenna might be a therapist, but discovering her husband’s possible deceit puts her on the other side of the couch, reeling, doubting, and hurt like anyone else. The novel illustrates betrayal trauma in a way that young readers and older ones alike can feel in their gut. When someone you love breaks your trust, it doesn’t just sting; it alters how you see the world. Jenna’s outlook shifts as she grapples with the notion that the man she built a life with may have dangerous secrets. Her empathy is tested too; can she still sympathize with her client’s pain when she’s drowning in her own?
Lucinda Berry’s background as a psychologist shines through in these moments. The story doesn’t lecture about trauma; it shows it unfolding in real time, from Kaitlyn’s anxiety spirals to Jenna’s simmering panic behind her professional poise. The characters’ reactions feel authentic, messy, and human. This Is A Safe Space isn’t just another page turner; it’s a thriller that truly understands the psychology of broken trust!
The scariest part of This Is A Safe Space isn’t what people confess; it’s what they keep to themselves.
A new season calls for a change of pace in our monthly Sweet Listens column! We’re so ready for the weather to cool and for us to be able to cozy up with a new book or audiobook.
This month’s book releases have given us both contemporary fiction and dark fantasies, so be sure to check out THP’s new book reviews. In the meantime, we’ll give you our top three September audiobook recommendations!
Content warning: The Honey POP encourages mindful listening and checking the author’s website for any additional content warnings.
Gita Desai Is Not Here To Shut Up By Sonia Patel
Image Source: Penguin Random House
For our first September audiobook, we recommend Sonia Patel’s Gita Desai is Not Here to Shut Up! This contemporary YA novel tells the story of Gita Desai, a South Asian first-year college student who plans to ace her way through undergrad and later med school. But the more Gita branches out, meeting new people and hooking up with strangers, the more she’s reminded of dark secrets from her childhood. Touching on topics of sexual assault and complex PTSD from childhood sexual abuse, this audiobook is a powerful and necessary addition to the YA space.
If you’re anything like us, then you like to celebrate the spooky season as early as possible. And we don’t know a better way to start the fall festivities than with a spooky September audiobook like The Thirteenth Child! Erin A. Craig‘s latest fantasy novel follows Hazel Trépas, a healer with the gift of finding the exact cure her patients need. But she’s also cursed with the responsibility to end the lives of the people who can’t be cured of an illness, even if it’s the king. Inspired by the Grimm Brothers’ “Godfather Death,” The Thirteenth Childis a wonderfully Gothic audiobook that’ll have you racing to the end.
Our last September audiobook recommendation is Alicia Jasinska’s new novel, This Fatal Kiss! Inspired by Slavic folklore, this YA fantasy features a queer, polyamorous relationship between a water nymph named Gisela, a grumpy exorcist named Kazik, and a handsome young man named Aleksey. Gisela has her sights set on Aleksey and needs Kazik’s help to set them up. She wants to return to her human life and needs a kiss from a mortal to do that. But things get complicated when Kazik falls for Aleksey (and Gisela too). Not to mention Aleksey’s possible connection to Gisela’s past.
What do you think of this month’s Sweet Listens? Which of these September audiobooks are you most interested in? Let us know on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram!
Welcome back to a new Sweet Listens column! Summer’s starting to wind down, and we at THP aren’t ready to let it go yet! But on the bright side, at least we have a few new audiobooks to share with you.
The book releases this month have given us mysteries and summer romances, any of which could be your next read. Here are three of our top August audiobook recommendations!
Content warning: The Honey POP encourages mindful listening and checking the author’s website for any additional content warnings.
Love Requires Chocolate By Ravynn K. Stringfield
Image Source: Penguin Random House
Our first August audiobook recommendation is a short and sweet debut by Ravynn K. Stringfield called Love Requires Chocolate! This novel follows Whitney Curry, an enthusiastic theater nerd who studies abroad in Paris for a semester. She has a bucket list of things to do in Paris. But most importantly, she needs to research the life of Josephine Baker and write a one-woman show for her senior thesis. What she doesn’t plan for is her budding romance with her handsome, grumpy French tutor Thierry Magnon.
The next August audiobook you should read is Julian Winter’s Prince of the Palisades. Think Red, White, and Royal Blue plus Young Royals! This new queer romance follows Prince Jadon of Îles de la Rêverie and his attempts to clean up his image after his public break-up goes viral. Jadon needs to prove to his parents and his country that he is more than his mistakes. But as he falls in love with a nonroyal American classmate and figures out his identity, he realizes there’s more than one way to lead.
Now, let’s switch gears from romance to thrillers as we prepare for the imminent fall weather and spooky season. Even though The Champions by Kara Thomas is the follow-up to The Cheerleaders, it’s also a standalone novel/audiobook. Eleven years after the deaths of five cheerleaders in Sunnybrook, the town may see history repeat itself when the all-star football players become the next target. And Hadley, the new girl in town, is determined to dig up the past and find the suspect before anyone else gets hurt or killed.
What do you think of this month’s Sweet Listens? Which of these August audiobooks are you most interested in? Let us know on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram!
Williams will narrate Spears’ highly anticipated upcoming book The Woman In Me, which is set to be released October 24. Spears will record an introduction to the book, with Williams taking over for the rest.
“This book has been a labor of love and all the emotions that come with it,” Spears said in a statement to People. “Reliving everything has been exciting, heart-wrenching, and emotional, to say the least. For those reasons, I will only be reading a small part of my audiobook.”
“I am so grateful to the amazing Michelle Williams for reading the rest of it.”
Williams, who is performing first-time duties as an audiobook narrator, kept her own statement short and sweet: “I stand with Britney,” she said.
Vanity Fair has reached out to Williams’ representatives for comment.
News of Spears’ memoir broke in February 2022 with a reported $15 million contract from publisher Simon & Schuster after a hot auction for the rights. It’s been a long time coming, first delayed by a paper shortage, before finally getting a release date in July. From The Mickey Mouse Club to her widely publicized legal conservatorship and her fight to be freed from it, Spears has lived plenty of her life in the spotlight. As recently as two weeks ago, barely a month prior to release, Spears posted on Instagram that she was “putting the finishing touches on my book.”
When the memoir was announced, Gallery Books (the Simon & Schuster imprint responsible for the memoir) senior vice president and publisher Jennifer Bergstrom released a statement hyping up Spears’ story and its impact.
“Britney’s compelling testimony in open court shook the world, changed laws, and showed her inspiring strength and bravery,” she said. “I have no doubt her memoir will have a similar impact — and will be the publishing event of the year. We couldn’t be more proud to help her share her story at last.”
Of course, it’s not necessarily a tell-all: Spears has already teased a Woman In Me Volume 2, writing in a since-deleted early October Instagram post, “Riding ‘n writing!!! All I’m doing at the moment … volume 2 coming after 1.”
