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Book Summary and Reviews of The Three Lives of Cate Kay by Kate Fagan

The Three Lives of Cate Kay by Kate Fagan

The Three Lives of Cate Kay

A Novel

by Kate Fagan

  • Critics' Consensus (5):
  • Published:
  • Jan 2025, 304 pages
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About this book

Book Summary

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo meets First Lie Wins in this electric, voice-driven debut novel about an elusive bestselling author who decides to finally confess her true identity after years of hiding from her past.

Cate Kay knows how to craft a story. As the creator of a bestselling book trilogy that struck box office gold as a film series, she's one of the most successful authors of her generation. The thing is, Cate Kay doesn't really exist. She's never attended author events or granted any interviews. Her real identity had been a closely guarded secret, until now.

As a young adult, she and her best friend Amanda dreamed of escaping their difficult homes and moving to California to become movie stars. But the day before their grand adventure, a tragedy shattered their dreams and Cate has been on the run ever since, taking on different names and charting a new future. But after a shocking revelation, Cate understands that returning home is the only way she'll be a whole person again.

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Reviews

Media Reviews

"An electrifying story of a bestselling author's secrets. Fagan fascinates with her enigmatic and shape-shifting protagonist, and the tightly woven plot will keep readers on the edge of their seats. It's a blast." —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"Centering on the experience of this small-town girl with burning ambitions, the book is exquisitely plotted with its inventive story structure, placing nuggets of information throughout to reel the reader in. Though the pace is leisurely, the tension of the story is taut and explores how ambitions clash with genuine connection and test the humanity of compassionate relationships. Fagan's journalism-honed observational skills make her fiction debut shine." —Booklist (starred review)

"The Three Lives of Cate Kay peels back the provocative pretense of superstardom to tell a tale about friendship, love, ambition, and the burden of selves we bury but carry with us through time. Readers who crave a thriller's pulse and a literary novel's perception will be rapt and delighted by Fagan's gripping and heartfelt debut." —Emily Habeck, USA Today bestselling author of Shark Heart

"The Three Lives of Cate Kay is a captivating novel of deep friendship and dark secrets. Come for the twisty turns and celebrity glamor, stay for Kate Fagan's bighearted writing and all-too-human characters. I can't stop thinking about it." —Laura Hankin, author of A Special Place for Women

"An emotionally driven thriller that explores friendship, love, and the pitfalls of fame. I couldn't stop reading this twisty, big-hearted novel. The Three Lives of Cate Kay is simply unputdownable! Kate Fagan is a masterful storyteller." —Emiko Jean, New York Times bestselling author of The Return of Ellie Black

This information about The Three Lives of Cate Kay was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.

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Author Information

Kate Fagan

Kate Fagan is an Emmy Award–winning journalist and the #1 New York Times bestselling author of What Made Maddy Run, which was a semi-finalist for the PEN/ESPN Award for literary sports writing. She is also the author of three additional nonfiction titles, a former professional basketball player, and spent seven years as a journalist at ESPN. Kate currently lives in Charleston with her wife, Kathryn Budig, and their dog, Ragnar.

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