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Group Chat
Not yet published
Expected 29 Sep 26Part Bridesmaids, part White Lotus, and part Mamma Mia, Group Chat is a love letter to female friendship and a powerful reminder that life is short, and it goes real fast, so book the damn girls' trip.
When Farah's husband has an affair (she f*cking knew it), her group chat doesn't offer platitudes. They offer Mykonos. A free luxury villa, thanks to Vivian's DJ toy-boy. Clubs, beaches, boats, cocktails, and a week free from school lunches, perimenopausal insomnia, and husbands waking them at 5am for run club.
But the five friends arrive with more than just new sunglasses and linen sets. There are sick parents, secret illnesses, sullen teenagers, and marriages that have lost their spark, and possibly their relevance. What follows is late nights and bad decisions, savage honesty, too many cigarettes, and the kind of laughter that only comes when you're with the women who know and love you best.
For Stella — married, stable and increasingly restless — the trip stirs something she can't ignore. Watching her friends, and remembering who she was on this island twenty years ago, begs the is choosing security the same as choosing happiness?
Sharp, funny and unflinchingly honest, this is a novel about female friendship at its most powerful, and what happens when the life you've built no longer feels like the one you want.
When Farah's husband has an affair (she f*cking knew it), her group chat doesn't offer platitudes. They offer Mykonos. A free luxury villa, thanks to Vivian's DJ toy-boy. Clubs, beaches, boats, cocktails, and a week free from school lunches, perimenopausal insomnia, and husbands waking them at 5am for run club.
But the five friends arrive with more than just new sunglasses and linen sets. There are sick parents, secret illnesses, sullen teenagers, and marriages that have lost their spark, and possibly their relevance. What follows is late nights and bad decisions, savage honesty, too many cigarettes, and the kind of laughter that only comes when you're with the women who know and love you best.
For Stella — married, stable and increasingly restless — the trip stirs something she can't ignore. Watching her friends, and remembering who she was on this island twenty years ago, begs the is choosing security the same as choosing happiness?
Sharp, funny and unflinchingly honest, this is a novel about female friendship at its most powerful, and what happens when the life you've built no longer feels like the one you want.
384 pages, Paperback
Expected publication September 29, 2026
About the author
Zoë Foster Blake
26 books683 followersZoë Foster Blake is an Australian author and the founder of Go-To skin care. Yes, she is writing this in third person.
Zoë writes mostly for young women, because she thinks they're wonderful and deserve nice books.
Zoë has published five fiction titles, THINGS WILL CALM DOWN SOON, AIR KISSES, PLAYING THE FIELD, THE YOUNGER MAN and THE WRONG GIRL (made into a network TV series in Australia).
Zoë has also written four non-fiction titles: a dating and relationship guide called TEXTBOOK ROMANCE, (written with Hamish Blake), AMAZINGER FACE, a compilation of beauty tips and tricks, BREAK-UP BOSS, (also an app) and LOVE!, essays from a decade spent writing relationship advice. She published CLEAN SLATE, an Audible Original about infidelity in a seemingly perfect marriage in 2020.
She also writes picture books: NO ONE LIKES A FART, which won the ABIA Children’s Picture Book of the Year in 2018 because farts are where it’s AT, BACK TO SLEEP, FART AND BURP ARE SUPERSTINKERS (titled NO ONE LIKES A BURP in the US), SCAREDY BATH, BATTLE MUM, HAPPY FARTER’S DAY, and BEST PRESENT EVER.
When she's not updating her goodreads bio she's writing her new novel, out Oct 2026.
Zoë writes mostly for young women, because she thinks they're wonderful and deserve nice books.
Zoë has published five fiction titles, THINGS WILL CALM DOWN SOON, AIR KISSES, PLAYING THE FIELD, THE YOUNGER MAN and THE WRONG GIRL (made into a network TV series in Australia).
Zoë has also written four non-fiction titles: a dating and relationship guide called TEXTBOOK ROMANCE, (written with Hamish Blake), AMAZINGER FACE, a compilation of beauty tips and tricks, BREAK-UP BOSS, (also an app) and LOVE!, essays from a decade spent writing relationship advice. She published CLEAN SLATE, an Audible Original about infidelity in a seemingly perfect marriage in 2020.
She also writes picture books: NO ONE LIKES A FART, which won the ABIA Children’s Picture Book of the Year in 2018 because farts are where it’s AT, BACK TO SLEEP, FART AND BURP ARE SUPERSTINKERS (titled NO ONE LIKES A BURP in the US), SCAREDY BATH, BATTLE MUM, HAPPY FARTER’S DAY, and BEST PRESENT EVER.
When she's not updating her goodreads bio she's writing her new novel, out Oct 2026.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
Best friends Farah, Stella, Molly, Vivian and Gab have always been there for each other through thick and thin. Now in their early forties, distance has come between them and they keep in contact via group chat.
When Farah's husband has an affair, they want to help and support her through it. Vivian has a hot DJ toy-boyfriend and is in Mykonos, Greece and staying in a free luxury villa. The besties decide it’s time for a much needed holiday together, a week of fun, the husbands and kids will have to survive without them.
The five friends discover Gab hasn’t changed a bit, she’s still as unorganized and impulsive as ever, and lives like a nomad and jetlag is real.
Once they recover, the ladies are determined to have a great time, reminisce, swim, party, dance, drink and maybe have a ciggie or two. Everyone is older, has their own opinions, adding in late nights, alcohol, hangovers, perimenopause and what follows is chaos.
Stella especially feels like she’s lost herself, she traded her plans of traveling and writing a novel, to copy editing others work, she loves her kids but her husband is clueless, has she chosen security over happiness and does she want to upend her children’s lives and would it be selfish?
I received a copy of Group Chat by Zoë Foster Blake from Allen & Unwin and NetGalley in exchange for an unbiased review. A raw, emotional, honest, funny, look at female friendships and how they start, evolve and change over time.
Many women could relate to topics raised in this narrative, such as aging, body image, juggling too many things and being the problem solver, stress, putting yourself last, illness and your own mortality, rejection, cheating, and starting over.
Five stars, I highly recommend Group Chat, it made me snigger, laugh out loud, cross my fingers my pelvic floor held up, cry and sing I am woman.
When Farah's husband has an affair, they want to help and support her through it. Vivian has a hot DJ toy-boyfriend and is in Mykonos, Greece and staying in a free luxury villa. The besties decide it’s time for a much needed holiday together, a week of fun, the husbands and kids will have to survive without them.
The five friends discover Gab hasn’t changed a bit, she’s still as unorganized and impulsive as ever, and lives like a nomad and jetlag is real.
Once they recover, the ladies are determined to have a great time, reminisce, swim, party, dance, drink and maybe have a ciggie or two. Everyone is older, has their own opinions, adding in late nights, alcohol, hangovers, perimenopause and what follows is chaos.
Stella especially feels like she’s lost herself, she traded her plans of traveling and writing a novel, to copy editing others work, she loves her kids but her husband is clueless, has she chosen security over happiness and does she want to upend her children’s lives and would it be selfish?
I received a copy of Group Chat by Zoë Foster Blake from Allen & Unwin and NetGalley in exchange for an unbiased review. A raw, emotional, honest, funny, look at female friendships and how they start, evolve and change over time.
Many women could relate to topics raised in this narrative, such as aging, body image, juggling too many things and being the problem solver, stress, putting yourself last, illness and your own mortality, rejection, cheating, and starting over.
Five stars, I highly recommend Group Chat, it made me snigger, laugh out loud, cross my fingers my pelvic floor held up, cry and sing I am woman.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
This is easily my least favourite book by ZFB. The first 40% of the book seemed a waste, then when stuff finally happens it has an open ending? The whole story felt rushed and inconsistent. The characters were fairly unlikeable and it all felt very try hard unfortunately it just didn’t land for me, perhaps this is exclusively for women in their 40’s / mums. I really struggled to finish it.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews