Nothing Serious

A Novel

De: Emily J. Smith

Narrado por: Anna Caputo

A scintillating debut about a disillusioned tech executive who goes into an obsessive spiral when her best friend—and longtime crush—is implicated in a woman’s death.

Edie Walker’s life is not going as planned. At thirty-five, she feels stuck: in her career, in her love life, and in her tiny San Francisco studio apartment. It doesn’t help that her best friend, Peter Masterson, is basically the über successful male version of her—and she’s hopelessly, unrequitedly in love with him. But when Peter breaks up with his girlfriend of seven years, Edie thinks her life might finally be turning around. He’ll discover how toxic dating app culture is and realize that Edie has been right for him all along.

Except Peter almost immediately lands a date with Anaya Thomas, a gorgeous, whip-smart professor and writer of feminist literature who even Edie—reared in the culture of tech bros—is smitten by. Unlike the women Peter has dated before, Anaya is like an alternate reality version of Edie—one with shampoo commercial hair and a meaningful career, who definitely doesn’t spend her weekends scrolling social media alone in her apartment. It’s only a matter of time before Peter falls head over heels for this woman; Edie herself is infatuated after one meeting.

Then, Anaya is found dead in her apartment. Right after a date with Peter.

Driven by her near-fanatic love of Anaya’s work and a desperate need to prove Peter’s innocence, Edie begins searching for clues to what really happened that night. As her obsession with the investigation grows, so do her doubts in Peter. When the truth finally comes to light, Edie must decide where her loyalties lie, who deserves justice—and who deserves to be punished.

Provocative, tense, and thoroughly enjoyable, Nothing Serious is a shrewdly observed, astonishingly heartfelt debut combining a darkly funny takedown of online dating with an honest examination of the challenges women face every day—but don’t dare discuss—from a brilliant new voice in contemporary fiction.

©2025 Emily J. Smith (P)2025 HarperCollins Publishers

Loved

I've been in a bit of a book slump lately and this book finally broke my bad streak! Loved it, super relatable.

Character development

The main character has such fantastic character development throughout the book. It was done in a very authentic way and felt inspiring to watch her grow into her own confidence and voice. The storyline had many twists and turns which were very fun to follow as well.

Mysterious until the end

I can usually see the ending in an intellectual thriller from a mile away, but the story’s outcome was a mystery to me until it played out before me. The characters felt very true to the SF backdrop and the tech scene there. I loved the author’s writing style and how she described how body language played out in each scene.
The main character’s naivety was a little unwitting to me for someone who had reached relative success. So if I could change anything it would be how completely unaware she was while being so smart. It made me dislike her a little and find her hard to respect. It was also just a very sad story, which I don’t always run to books for — since that’s all around in the world we live in.
But overall, it was well-written, held my attention and such a very accurate social commentary. I would definitely read another book by this author.

Soooo much talking.

There was too much filler conversations and it dragged on to much for me.