Queen Books will be the bookseller for Leanne Toshiko Simpson’s debut novel NEVER BEEN BETTER at Paradise Theatre on March 5th from 6-8pm.

Leanne will be hosted by Britta Badour (author of WIRES THAT SPUTTER) in conversation with Uzma Jalaluddin (author of AYESHA AT LAST, HANA KHAN CARRIES ON, and MUCH ADO ABOUT NADA). 

The launch is a ticketed event that will also double as a fundraiser for local mental health organization Gifts of Light and will be followed by a movie screening. 

My Best Friend’s Wedding meets The Silver Linings Playbook in this offbeat, heartfelt comedy about a seaside wedding reunion where no one can stay afloat.

Dee, Misa, and Matt were the “three musketeers” of the psych ward. Matt is a teddy bear musician with no discernable coping mechanisms. Wildly efficient Misa is quick to take care of others while neglecting herself. And Dee is a puddle with a heart of gold, eager to convince everyone that she’s finally turning things around. A year after discharge, Matt and Misa are tying the knot in Turks and Caicos, surrounded by guests who have no idea where they met. But the secrecy isn’t sitting well with Dee, who has been hopelessly in love with Matt since before she got kicked out of the hospital.

When Dee arrives at the swanky resort with her high-voltage sister Tilley, it’s now or never to confess how she feels about Matt. But disrupting her best friends’ nuptials would jeopardize the entire support system that holds them all together. When it comes to happily ever afters, how is a girl supposed to choose between love and recovery? Introducing a sparkling new voice in commercial fiction, Never Been Better revels in the heartache and hilarity of falling in love when you haven’t quite figured out how to live with yourself.