Us in the Bright Lights by Zanni L Arnot

Title: Us in the Bright Lights

Author: Zanni L Arnot

Genre: Contemporary

Publisher: Hachette Australia

Published: 28^th July 2026

Format: Paperback

Pages: 340

Price: $19.99

Synopsis: Sometimes, you have to lose everything to find yourself. A swoony and moving novel about ending up in the most unexpected places, with the most unlikely people, and discovering it’s exactly where you’re meant to be.

Stevie Jones has always lived in the comfort of her best friend Bella‘s glorious shadow. But when Bella’s suddenly gone, her absence casts a harsh light on everything Stevie’s not. Who even is she without her best friend?

Unmoored, Stevie moves to Europe for a year in a desperate attempt to fulfill Bella’s bucket list. As she checks off Bella’s list, she begins to figure out who she is: the things she doesn’t like, and the things she does . . . which would all be terrific, if one of those things wasn’t way-off-limits Theodore, Bella’s long-time crush.

As her time overseas draws painfully to a close, Stevie must decide whether she wants to go back to her old life or stay in the big, bright light of the new world she’s building.

Us in the Bright Lights is a deeply romantic novel about a girl who loses everything, but finds herself in the process. Perfect for fans of Nina Kenwood and Biffy James.

~*~

Stevie is eighteen, and has just finished school, and for her whole life has lived in the shadow of her best friend Bella. Bella, who is artistic and outgoing, and has big dreams about travelling, living big and creating. Whilst Stevie isn’t really sure what she wants, or who she is. She’s been Bella’s shadow for so long, she doesn’t know herself really. Bella’s the bright light in everyone’s life. Yet in a single instant, that bright light is gone. Leaving behind a bucket list and small creative business that her family has bequeathed to Stevie.

Stevie sets off on a year’s trip around Europe, to complete Bella’s bucket list, or as she is calling each thing, a Bella Memorial Experience. Seeing the museums, seeing Van Gogh’s Sunflowers and Monet’s Water-lilies. Seeing live music, doing baking courses, or going hot air ballooning and having afternoon tea in fancy places. Meeting Theodor, the boy Bella had a crush on.

Stevie’s really stepping out of her comfort zone as she travels, which reflects how many people feel like a fish out of water at huge transitions in their lives, like finishing school or university. Moving out, getting your first job…anything that has us floundering or feeling lost at any age. Couple that with losing her best friend, and Stevie’s journey is going to be emotional and physical. She’s adrift in so many ways, and she needs to find herself.

Zanni’s new book explores grief, love, adventure, friendship and creativity through the eyes of someone grappling with what all of these mean to her. Who needs to find a way to cope with losing her best friend. I love that she found it in London, with a fabulously diverse cast of characters who really came to life and showed Stevie what a big adventure life could be. It reminded me a little bit of the final line of Hook: “To live…to live would be an awfully big adventure.” And that’s what Stevie is doing. Living, finding out what she likes and who she likes. What she is good at, like her work at the markets with Winnie, or her work at the gallery Theodore works at.

It’s a book about feeling unmoored in life and trying to find your place, trying to work out where you belong after tragedy and after the predictability of life has changed. Whether it is school, university or something else that has kept us going, or that have always been there, there will be moments throughout our lives at any age where we will all feel unmoored, and Zanni has captured that end of school unmooring well. Not knowing what comes next is hard, not knowing how to go on is rough. I think this is the perfect book for anyone finishing school or facing a huge change in their lives because it reminds us that we are not alone and that yes, things will work out. Just not always as we expect them too.

I loved all the friendship and experience aspects of it, which I felt were the strongest bits, and the romance happened along the way. Doing things for Bella, the things that Bella could never experience, was the main plot driving the novel for me. And I think this was beautiful because it also showed that love can happen in so many different ways. Family, friends and romantic love. And it was Stevie finding her place in the world that was perhaps the most powerful aspect of the novel. It was her story, with Bella ever present, and it really came together well. It was evocative and meaningful, giving grief a voice. Because nobody responds to grief in the same way, nobody is able to live up to everyone else’s expectations and assumptions of how we should live our lives, and Stevie does all of this very well.

I also loved how it all came together in the end, carrying the humour, sensitivity and feelings all the way through so well, so empathetically. And it is about finding yourself when you feel like you have lost absolutely everything. A beautiful novel that will have great meaning for some readers, and be a jolly jaunt and romp for others. For me, it fell somewhere in between, and I think young adult readers will love this joyous story. xs