Dandelion Is Dead
A Novel About Life
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- Pre-Order
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- Expected Jan 13, 2026
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
“Dandelion is Dead is breathtakingly original. A brilliant premise, smart, funny and heartbreaking in equal measure. I adored it.”
—Clare Leslie Hall, New York Times bestselling author of Broken Country
Jake has fallen head over heels for Dandelion. The only problem? Dandelion is dead.
When Poppy discovers unanswered messages from a charming stranger in her late sister's dating app, she makes an impulsive choice: She'll meet him, just once, on what would have been Dandelion's fortieth birthday. It's exactly the kind of wild adventure her vivacious sister would have pushed her toward.
Jake is ready to find something real—and not least because his ex-wife's twentysomething boyfriend has moved into their old family home. When he meets the intriguing woman who calls herself Dandelion, their connection is undeniable, and he can think of little else.
As their relationship deepens, Poppy finds herself trapped in a double life she never meant to create. Every moment with Jake feels genuine, electric, and totally right—despite the fact they're tangled in deceit. As the lines between grief and love blur, Poppy faces a choice: keep her sister's memory alive through her lies, or risk everything for a chance at her own happiness?
With sparkling wit and aching tenderness, debut author Rosie Storey gives us a modern love story about the courage it takes to live again after loss and finding hope in the most unexpected places.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this charming debut, a London woman catfishes her dead sister's Hinge match. Photographer Poppy Greene, 37, finds an intriguing message on the phone left behind by her sister, Dandelion, who died several months earlier, from a man named Jake. Despite having a live-in boyfriend, Sam, Poppy replies to Jake and sets up a date. When they meet, their attraction is instant, but Poppy isn't sure if Jake likes her or her persona, which is part spontaneous Dandelion and part her more boring self, who always lived in Dandelion's shadow. While Jake is smitten, he's dealing with demons of his own, such as guilt over his past infidelity and abandonment issues from childhood. It turns out a colleague at Jake's advertising agency used to date Dandelion, and when he tells Jake about Dandelion's wild past, Jake figures out he's dating Poppy, not Dandelion, breaks it off, and blocks her, prompting Poppy to try to patch things up with Sam. But as Poppy continues to flip-flop from Sam to Jake, the lies stack up on both sides, and both must figure out how to be honest with each other and with themselves. Storey handily balances the heavy themes of grief and trauma with snappy wit and intriguing character development. It adds up to a moving and wildly entertaining tale of self-discovery.
