If you’ve taken away anything from The Everygirl’s book coverage, I would hope that by now I’ve sold you on the fact that fall is the best reading season. If I wasn’t convinced of that before last year, Hannah Bonam-Young’s 2025 fall romance, People Watching, was the story that confirmed it for me. So, when I found out that not only were we getting another Bonam-Young book this year, People Pleasing, but The Everygirl also had an exclusive excerpt of that upcoming novel, I couldn’t have been more excited.
Somehow, that’s not the end of the fabulous news. The Everygirl is also serving as a media partner for An Evening With Hannah Bonam-Young to celebrate the release! Join a virtual conversation on January 6, 2027, with Hannah Bonam-Young and fellow romance superstars Lyla Sage and B.K. Borison. You’ll get to listen in on fabulous convos about books and romance tropes, and even have a chance to submit your own question. Below, find an excerpt of People Pleasing and all the information on how and where to get tickets to the event.
A sweet and soulful romance from the New York Times bestselling author of Out on a Limb and People Watching about two childhood friends reconnecting, healing from their past, and falling for the people they’ve become.
What is People Pleasing about?
Nadia Kablukov never planned to return home, but when her brother Nik calls her asking for help opening his new brewery, she can’t say no. But going home means she’ll be forced to face her first love, ex-best friend, and former next-door neighbor, Aleks Truss, who also happens to be her brother’s business partner. Now, working together at the brewery, Nadia and Aleks find themselves falling back into old routines, despite the time and distance between them. Nadia quickly realizes that she might not be able to bury her feelings forever.
Get tickets to An Evening with Hannah Bonam-Young
To join the event, simply buy a ticket here. Your purchase will go toward one of the independent bookstore partners. Each ticket includes a copy of People Pleasing and access to the virtual event.
Purchase tickets to An Evening with Hannah Bonam-Young
Exclusive excerpt from People Pleasing by Hannah Bonam-Young
I toss my sunglasses onto the dash and begin rolling down my window, ready to greet Nik and his family, when I spot a familiar, entirely unexpected face. Among the chaotic waving and jumping of kids strung across my brother’s front porch is Aleks.
I toss my sunglasses onto the dash and begin rolling down my window, ready to greet Nik and his family, when I spot a familiar, entirely unexpected face. Among the chaotic waving and jumping of kids strung across my brother’s front porch is Aleks.
He’s holding my youngest niece, Quinn, and speaking to her as he points in our direction. Quinn earns a broad, proud smile from him when she begins waving at us. I watch as he turns to do the same, his eyes scanning over his grandmother’s van with a fondness that only further pokes at a long-dormant ache in my chest.
I am not ready for this. For him. Not yet. I thought I’d have more time.
“Fuck, shit, fuck,” I mumble, pressing myself into the passenger seat as Milo honks his horn, coincidentally, in unison. “He wasn’t supposed to be here,” I whisper, shrinking even smaller. “Not now.” I’m not even sure if I spoke out loud that time. If I did, it was most likely in tiny, whimpering, mouselike noises inaudible to humans.
Milo looks at me like I’ve grown an extra set of eyebrows, then back to the windshield as we pass the house and head toward the far end of the driveway where Nik’s truck and Sef’s van are parked. “What’s wrong?” My brother lets out a laugh, the short, breathy kind that’s equal parts confused and intrigued.
Ignoring him, I reach for his van’s overhead visor and flip open its mirror. I get to work quickly, zhuzhing my hair that I would have definitely washed before my six A.M. departure from Union Station if I’d known Aleks Truss was going to be here awaiting our arrival.
And because life is typically cruel whenever given the opportunity, Aleks looks good. Extremely good. Though I can’t help but be disappointed by his hair. His chestnut curls are tidier than I’ve ever seen them before, cut tragically short. He used to let them grow long and floppy. I allowed myself to think that was for my benefit. I wasn’t shy about telling him that I liked it better that way.
With that, my mind drifts to the memory of Milo’s fifteenth birthday. Bertie was taking us home after a drive-in movie and Aleks had fallen asleep in my lap. I hadn’t thought twice about playing with his hair, twirling its curly ends around my fingertips and brushing it away from his face before I began tickling his forehead and the bridge of his nose. Things were so comfortable between us then, so inexplicably easy during a time of my life where everything else felt far from it.
“He’s not your puppy,” Nik had teased me from the middle row of seats. Bertie and Milo both laughed in response but it didn’t deter me.
I don’t know if I miss the floppy hair or the boy it belonged to more. I think it’s probably more about how I felt at the time—how I always seemed to feel with Bertie or Aleks—safe.
I turn to find Milo looking at me with bemused concern, still waiting on a response.
“I didn’t—I wasn’t—” I attempt to answer his lingering question but come up short. I wipe my finger under my bottom lashes, trying to clean up the leftover mascara I failed to take off last night. “Fuck,” I whine. I wonder if I’m better or worse off, having not cleaned my face since putting on makeup twenty hours ago. I went to a gig last night hoping to . . . I don’t know . . . feel something? Say farewell to civilization? But it turned into a rather long night that did not set me up for a win this morning.
“Ohhh.” Milo seems to finally clue in. “When’s the last time you saw him?” he asks, earning him the first of what I’m sure will be many scathing stares I grant him before he takes off again, probably before any of us expect him to.
“When’s the last time someone punched you in the teeth?” I fire back.
My brother continues to pester me, and strangely, it’s a welcome distraction from the inevitable, incoming reunion that’s about to take place while I’m wearing an oversized black hoodie and yesterday’s hair and makeup.
Milo and I have been going toe-to-toe since puberty and neither of us are the type to pull punches. I like that we’re still comfortable enough to be mean to each other, even after our time apart. It’s freeing, in a way. It’s like we’re saying: Here’s the worst of me and I know you’ll still love me anyway.
Thankfully, that dynamic will probably never change. Unlike the muscular, grown man on the porch who used to be a skinny, long-limbed kid with ears too big for his head.
“It’s Aleks. ” Milo looks past me toward the porch, putting the car into park with a grunt of effort. “He saw you after you cut yourself page-boy bangs in the eighth grade, it cannot get worse than that.”
My eyes go wide. How dare he bring that up right now. “Seriously, drop it.”
“Do you think he still doesn’t know how to ride a bike?” “Fuck off.” I throw it at him over my shoulder as I attempt to wind up the passenger window. The crank refuses to move. Bertha is decidedly not a girl’s girl.
Milo laughs under his breath, taking off his seatbelt. “Maybe you could teach him. That’d be romantic.”
I finally manage to get the window to close but the effort has created a sheen of sweat across my forehead that I absolutely did not need on top of everything else. “Lick rust,” I tell him.
“Fine, fine, whatever! Best of luck!” Milo hops out then jogs around the back of his van toward the kids already awaiting him on the front lawn. He’s lucky they’re a mostly extroverted group, starved for new faces.
“Shit,” I whisper to myself, letting my eyes shut as my heart begins to tremble against my breastbone. I give myself one last glance in the rearview mirror, tugging at the ends of my hair for a few more pointless seconds until I give up on it. “You don’t care,” I tell the woman in the mirror, pointing. “Get your shit together.”
With that boost of confidence, I get out of the van.
Excerpted from People Pleasing by Hannah Bonam-Young. Copyright © 2027 by Hannah Bonam-Young. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Pre-order People Pleasing, releasing January 5, 2027
A sweet and soulful romance from the New York Times bestselling author of Out on a Limb and People Watching about two childhood friends reconnecting, healing from their past, and falling for the people they’ve become.
Lauren Blue, Editor & Book Club Co-Host
As an Editor for The Everygirl, Lauren ideates and writes content for every facet of our readers’ lives, from must-read books and behind-the-scenes interviews to beauty products she can’t live without. When she isn’t sitting in an AMC watching the latest buzzy release, she can be found scouring Goodreads for the perfect pick for The Everygirl Book Club. There, she co-hosts discussions with members, debating plotlines, fancasting characters, and, of course, tossing in her own recommendations.
