Stars and Swipes

The Dicktionary Club girls are back...and seeking American members.

Ella, Katy, and Zola are beside themselves when they are offered the opportunity to launch their now infamous dating website, The Dicktionary Club, stateside. The headlines covering their technological (mis)adventures have caught the eye of a Manhattan entrepreneur - and he wants the three besties to collaborate with him on a similar app for the American market.

With their love lives imploding back home, the girls are ready to escape the Glasgow dating scene and live their Gossip Girl fantasies in New York, but their romantic problems are not so easy to run away from.
A bigger city, bigger apartments, a bigger dating pool - but it turns out, not everything is bigger in America... Secrets spill. Lines blur. And in a city built on ambition and attraction, someone is always watching.

Because in New York, love is a game.
And everyone is playing.

Stars and Swipes is a glamorous, laugh-out-loud romantic comedy packed with friendship, flirtation, and scandal, from the Queen of Holiday Reads, Sophie Gravia.

Sophie Gravia is a bestselling Scottish author, former nurse and BBC podcast host. The cult success of her debut novel, A Glasgow Kiss, led to mainstream recognition, promptly followed by a string of bestselling books, including What Happens in Dubai, Meet Me in Milan, Hot Girl Summer, The Dicktionary Club and her latest novel, Stars and Swipes. Meet Me in Milan was a Sunday Times bestseller, while The Dicktionary Club became a number one Scottish bestseller. Sophie's books are known for their Glaswegian humour, romance and honest take on modern relationships.

In Sophie Gravia's sparkling romantic comedy Stars and Swipes, readers are once again invited into the chaotic, hilarious, and deeply relatable world of Ella, Katy, and Zola. Serving as the highly anticipated sequel to her bestselling novel The Dicktionary Club, this new installment takes the beloved trio out of their familiar Scottish stomping grounds and drops them squarely into the glittering, high-stakes environment of Manhattan. Gravia, known for her sharp wit and unflinching look at the modern dating scene, dials up the glamour and the drama as her protagonists attempt to navigate love, tech entrepreneurship, and their own unbreakable bond in the city that never sleeps.

The narrative picks up with the three best friends facing a distinctly modern dilemma: their professional lives are experiencing an unprecedented, meteoric rise, while their personal lives are simultaneously crumbling around them. Back in Glasgow, the women had successfully launched an infamous, highly controversial dating website dubbed The Dicktionary Club. What started as a wild, perhaps misguided idea among friends quickly morphed into a technological misadventure that grabbed headlines and captured the public's imagination. However, while their app thrives and dominates the conversation, their own romantic endeavors back home are spectacularly imploding. Faced with messy breakups, complicated situationships, and the suffocating feeling of a stagnant local dating pool, Ella, Katy, and Zola are desperate for a fresh start.

Salvation arrives in the form of a lucrative, life-changing business proposition. The widespread media attention surrounding their Glasgow-based platform manages to catch the eye of a wealthy, ambitious Manhattan tech entrepreneur. Impressed by their bold vision and undeniable market appeal, he offers the girls the opportunity of a lifetime: pack up their lives, cross the Atlantic, and collaborate with him to launch a similar, highly anticipated app specifically tailored for the massive American market. For Ella, Katy, and Zola, the decision is an absolute no-brainer. Ready to completely escape their romantic woes and live out their ultimate Gossip Girl fantasies, the trio eagerly trades the rainy streets of Scotland for the towering skyscrapers and bustling avenues of New York City.

Upon their arrival in the Big Apple, the women are immediately swept up in a whirlwind of upgraded lifestyles and seemingly endless possibilities. They are met with a far bigger city, infinitely more spacious apartments, and, perhaps most importantly, a massive, entirely new dating pool. New York initially seems like the perfect playground for three single, successful women looking to reinvent themselves, embrace their newfound independence, and finally find the epic romance they deserve. However, the novel quickly and humorously dismantles the illusion that changing zip codes magically erases personal baggage. As they dive headfirst into the cutthroat world of Manhattan tech startups and elite social circles, Ella, Katy, and Zola quickly discover that their romantic problems have simply followed them across the ocean, taking on new, unexpected, and far more complicated forms.

As the girls attempt to officially launch their brand stateside, the pressures of their new environment begin to test their limits. They learn the hard way that despite the sheer scale and glittering facade of America, not everything is necessarily bigger or better. The New York dating scene proves to be a vastly different beast than what they were used to in Glasgow, operating heavily on ambition, status, and surface-level attraction. In a city where everyone is constantly hustling for the next best thing, love is treated less like a fairy tale and more like a high-stakes, competitive game where everyone is actively playing. The Manhattan entrepreneur who brought them over introduces new professional and personal dynamics, continuously blurring the strict, necessary lines between business and pleasure. Secrets begin to spill as the pressure of the app launch mounts, and the women slowly realize that in this particular social stratosphere, someone is always watching their every move.

Throughout the escalating chaos, the core of Stars and Swipes remains firmly rooted in the enduring, life-saving power of female friendship. Gravia expertly balances the laugh-out-loud, outrageous dating misadventures with moments of genuine vulnerability and emotional depth. As Ella, Katy, and Zola face intense flirtations, public scandals, and the very real possibility of professional failure, they are forced to rely on each other more heavily than ever before. The challenges of living in a foreign city and dealing with manipulative, complicated love interests only serve to strengthen their bond, proving that while romantic love is deeply unpredictable, the loyalty of true friends is a constant, unwavering anchor.

By seamlessly blending the infectious, high-stress energy of a tech-world startup with the heartfelt, messy realities of modern romance, Gravia delivers a story that feels both highly aspirational and deeply grounded. The drastic transition from the familiar, localized charm of Glasgow to the sprawling, intimidating landscape of New York allows the characters to undergo significant personal growth, forcing them to confront the self-sabotaging patterns that held them back at home. Ultimately, Stars and Swipes is a vibrant, scandalous, and emotionally satisfying romantic comedy that captures the exhilarating yet terrifying experience of starting over in a new city. It serves as a hilarious reminder to readers that while you can pack your bags and run away from your hometown, your heart—and all of its messy complications—will always travel with you.