Description

Lessons in Chemistry meets Mad Men in this wildly entertaining debut novel, set in glamorous Rome in the late 1960s, which follows the free-spirited wife of an American diplomat as she desperately tries to contain a scandal of her own making.

It is the summer of 1969 and Rome is awash with glamour and intrigue: the stars of Cinecittà are drinking and dancing along the paparazzo-lined Via Veneto, where royalty, American expats, and the occasional Russian spy rub shoulders.

 Teddy Huntley Carlyle has just arrived in Italy from Dallas, Texas, eager for a fresh start with her new husband, a diplomat assigned to the American embassy. After years of “spoiling like old milk,” in the words of her controlling, politically-minded uncle, Teddy vows to turn over a new leaf. She will be the soul of discretion; she will be conservative, proper, and polite. She will be her most beautiful, luminous self, wearing the right clothes and the perfect lipstick, and she will be good. She will charm her husband’s colleagues at the embassy, and no one will have a word to say against her.

 Teddy keeps her promise, more or less—until the Fourth of July, when her new life explodes as spectacularly as the colorful fireworks lighting the Roman sky over the embassy grounds. Now, Teddy is in the middle of a mess that even her powerful connections and impeccable manners can’t contain . . .

About the Author

Born and raised in Dallas, Texas, Emily Dunlay studied English literature and creative writing at Princeton University, after which she trained and worked as a specialist librarian for antiquarian books. She currently lives in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. Teddy is her first book.

Praise For…

"Teddy is a luscious joyride of a novel, a portrait of a lady who’s a beautiful welter of lust, appetite, and longing. Teddy is Lily Bart with gusto and moxie, Isabel Archer with tenacious grit. I rooted for her gleefully until the surprise ending, which Dunlay pulls off with sly, masterful timing. Glamorous and suspenseful, this is a literary romp." — Kate Christensen, Pen/Faulkner award winning author of The Great Man and Welcome Home, Stranger

"As if Mad Men had a baby with The White Lotus, this novel has it all: atmosphere, glamour, danger, a heroine at the center of a web she doesn’t understand, so you want to protect her even as you cheer for her to escape. Teddy is the beautiful flaw, the ungovernable passion at the center of every woman that makes us perfectly imperfect, human, and real." — Jenna Blum, New York Times bestselling author of Those Who Save Us and The Lost Family

"Teddy is a glitteringly glamorous and gossipy trip to 1960s Rome with a chaotically charming protagonist and a transporting setting, all with a mystery at its heart. Dunlay’s gorgeously immersive novel will fill a Lessons in Chemistry shaped hole on your shelf (and heart)." — Ellery Lloyd, New York Times Bestselling author of The Club

"A smart page turner with an irresistible heroine—glamorous, exuberant, and propulsive, this is a story that will stay with me for a long time." — Daisy Buchanan, author of Limelight and Insatiable

"I loved the claustrophobic, glamourous world Emily Dunlay has created in Teddy, a heroine who will make your heart flutter. There is a timelessness to Teddy's feelings of constraint and guilt and trying to be all things to all to people, that too many women will still recognise all too well. A heady, steamy novel about desire for people, possessions and ultimately the self." — Araminta Hall, author of One of the Good Guys