John Searles’ upcoming novel, Single Girls (Mariner Books), is described as “an infectious and utterly charming fictionalization of the iconic Helen Gurley Brown’s early years at the helm of Cosmopolitan and the intrepid group of women she took under her wing to create one of the most talked about magazines of all time.”
It was named one of Oprah Daily’s “24 Best Books of Summer.”
“Single Girls is an irresistibly fun, sparkling novel that you'll want to binge in one night!” praises Kevin Kwan, author of Crazy Rich Asians. “John Searles crafts a brilliant portrait of the glamorous, visionary woman who made the culture catch up with American women's real lives — and all the blood, sweat and tears it actually took.”
Searles is a New York Times bestselling and award-winning author of four novels. His books have been published in over a dozen languages and have been voted “Best of the Year” or top picks by Boston Globe, Entertainment Weekly, Salon and the American Library Association. A frequent contributor to The New York Times and The Washington Post, John was a top editor at Cosmopolitan for two decades, first hired by Helen Gurley Brown.
In 2026, he served as a keynoter at the Erma Bombeck Writers’ Workshop.