Coming October 24, 2023. Available for pre-order!

The Last Applicant

“Sharply written and deftly plotted, THE LAST APPLICANT is the best sort of psychological suspense. It hooked me from the first page and kept me guessing until its surprising, satisfying conclusion. “
Cristina Alger, author of GIRLS LIKE US

From award-winning author Rebecca Hanover comes an emotional thrill ride about two women whose lives take a dangerous turn in the high-stakes arena of private school admissions.

Audrey Singer revels in her position as the admissions director of an exclusive Manhattan private school. Parents cater to her whims and desires, desperate to give their children an edge. Audrey’s power is undeniable; privilege comes with the territory. Her perfect marriage completes the glossy picture of her life.

Until the arrival of the neurotic, vulnerable Sarah Price. Determined to get her son into the city’s most coveted kindergarten class, Sarah inserts herself into Audrey’s world, testing boundaries at every turn. For Sarah, everything Audrey has is a potential target: her job, her friends…even her marriage.

But what seems to be another ploy by an overachieving mother takes a dark and ominous turn. Sarah seems to be hiding secrets of her own. Are her designs on Audrey’s life purely about getting what she wants for her son?

Or is there something more sinister at play in this cutthroat game?

BookExpo YA Editors’ Buzz Pick
New York Times Bestseller

The Similars

“Episodic and fast-moving, this debut novel reads like Veronica Mars set in the future” with “plenty of twists and one very big turn that will delight mystery readers.”
– BOOKLIST

Gossip Girl meets The Umbrella Academy, set in an elite boarding school, where secret societies rule, nothing is as it seems, and the genetic copies of attending students have just joined the Junior class…

This fall, six new students are joining the junior class at the elite Darkwood Academy. But they aren’t your regular over-achieving teens. They’re DNA duplicates, and these “similars” are joining the class alongside their originals.

The Similars are all anyone can talk about. Who are they? What are the odds that all of them would be Darkwood students? And who is the madman who broke the law to create them? Emmaline Chance could care less. Her best friend, Oliver, died over the summer and it’s all she can do to get through each day without him. Then she comes face-to-heartbreaking-face with Levi, Oliver’s exact DNA copy and one of the Similars.

Emma wants nothing to do with the Similars, but she keeps getting pulled deeper into their world. She can’t escape the dark truths about them or her prestigious school. No one can be trusted, not even the boy she is falling for with Oliver’s face.

Sequel to The Similars

The Pretenders

“Plenty of action… the end is a deftly handled twist on a twist that will confound readers in a good way.”
– BOOKLIST

Emma is still reeling from the events of her junior year at Darkwood. Not only is her best friend, Oliver, shockingly alive, but the boy she loves—his Similar, Levi—is still on the island where he grew up, stranded with his deranged creator.

More importantly, she is grappling with who she really is. Emma can’t accept the hard truths she learned last year and refuses to share her secrets with anyone, isolating herself from her friends and Ollie.

But when more of the Similars’ creator’s plot is revealed, Emma and her friends will have to try to stop him from putting a plan into motion that could destroy everyone she loves.

Copyright Rebecca Hanover 2021
Designed by Carolyn Schweitz for Gold Leaf Literary