Brooke Averick is known to not hide much from the internet thanks to her podcast, Brooke and Connor Make a Podcast, but there’s actually something that she has been hiding for a while…
Okay, well, there’s *a lot* she’s actually hiding about her debut novel! But she’s actually finally getting the chance to reveal one of them that will absolutely get you excited for what she’s been working on!
Cosmopolitan is exclusively sharing a first-look at Brooke Averick’s Phoebe Berman’s Gonna Lose It, which is set to be released on May 26, 2026. Phoebe Berman is almost 30-years-old and she’s set to ring in the new decade with one less thing to worry about: her virginity. With the help of her friends, she sets off a mission to finally lose it before she blows the candles out on her twenties. Here’s some more info from our friends at Crown:
Meet Phoebe Berman: despite being a hopeless romantic, she’s about to be a thirty-year-old virgin. With one month before her milestone birthday, she’s determined to finally lose it . . . if her own anxiety doesn’t slow her down. The can’t-miss debut novel from podcaster and comedian Brooke Averick.Because is it possible to find true love when going on a date makes you want to throw up?Phoebe Berman fears the one thing she wants the most: love. Thanks to an extremely unfortunate first kiss attempt, crippling intimacy anxiety has plagued her since she was a teen.
Phoebe has so much going for her: a dream teaching job, a supportive and hilarious group of best friends, and all the romance novels a girl could want at her fingertips—but she can’t help but beat herself up over the one thing she can’t quite seem to figure out. Determined to change this, she drafts up the ultimate “Guide to Losing My Virginity” checklist with the hope of finally getting laid.
Suddenly, she goes from a relatively boring (basically non-existent) dating life to juggling three romantic prospects at once. There’s the gorgeous new fourth grade teacher at her school, a former high school classmate that resurfaces through Words with Friends, and there will always be her roommate, who might just be the best friends-to-lovers situation of her dreams.
Phoebe Berman’s Gonna Lose It is a brutally honest and completely relatable story for anyone who’s ever felt stuck between coming of age and coming apart.
For a character that carries her own set of art supplies, we expected no less than crafting perfection when it came to this book cover and let me tell you, they absolutely delivered. You can check out the fun cover below:
Crown
We also chatted with Brooke to catch up on writing her first novel and what we can expect next from Phoebe’s journey! Check out the exclusive interview below and make sure to pre-order Phoebe Berman’s Gonna Lose It!
You’ve mentioned online how hard it’s been to keep the secret that you book had sold. How much harder is it to keep hiding things like the cover?
I am, like, genuinely about to explode. Until the book comes out there will be things that I’m sitting on. I want to talk about the end of the book with people, so I’m waiting for other people to read it. Let alone see the cover, which people haven’t seen yet. It’s a test of my patience and this is a definite opportunity for growth. Every morning, I wake up and I’m just like, You have to stop, because I’m just wanting to leak everything myself, but I’m not going to do that.
Every time someone comes up to me and is like, I’m so excited for the book. I’m like, Thanks! Let me show you the cover!
We’re all about manifesting at Cosmo and you’ve talked on your podcast how you truly did manifest this. How is it seeing it all unfold?
I kind of never really let myself dream. Growing up, I would daydream, but thinking so far into the future always really freaked me out. So I would want these things very deeply, like writing a book, but I never thought that any of them would actually happen. So, I’m still kind of like, There’s no way this is actually happening. Something’s gotta give. When the book comes out, that’s when I’ll finally be like, Okay, this happened. But even now, I’m just like, There’s no way. This is too good to be true.
What was scarier: starting the writing process or sharing with the world that you were working on this?
I think sharing, for sure! Especially this book, it’s a very personal and vulnerable story. I’m definitely anxious for people to read that.
You have some good friends who have written their own books, like Eli Rallo. What piece of advice have they given you about this process?
The biggest advice that I’ve gotten is that I need to delete Goodread and not look at what other people have to say. I’m such a reader and consumer of that kind of stuff that I don’t think I can do that. We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. I love the book and that is all that matters.
Has it felt different promoting your own book versus anything else you’ve done?
It is so different! I have a really bad habit of not being able to speak positively of things that I create. I’m just so self deprecating by nature. But, this is something that I am so proud of and I truly think is so valuable and that is very different for me to say. I’m so excited for people to read it and I’m just truly in love with something that I created, which is different for me.
I noticed in the manuscript that in your author’s note at the beginning of the book, you mention a bit about how sex and dating causes you the most stress in real life. Did you find it therapeutic to write through Phoebe’s experiences?
This is fiction, but the part of it that is really real is I wrote my anxieties into Phoebe. And I think that something that both me and Phoebe feel is there’s something wrong with us. And that’s kind of a theme in the book.
As I was writing Phoebe, I fell so deeply in love with her, and really, truly feel like there’s nothing wrong with this girl. This girl is amazing. She’s perfect. And if what she hates herself for is this anxiety, and that’s what I hate myself for too, and she’s great, then I must be great too. So, kind of in falling in love with Phoebe, I kind of learned to love myself a bit more. It’s been a very healing and therapeutic journey. And so finishing the book has been really hard and saying goodbye to that.
‘Phoebe Berman’s Gonna Lose It’ by Brooke Averick
What was the initial spark for you in writing this book?
There’s two things. One is just the character of Phoebe—someone that’s very anxious in regards to intimacy and is someone that has always been inside me. She’s a character that I’ve always wanted to write and that I’ve kind of had on the back burner for a really long time. And then there’s something that happened to me that happens in the book, which I can’t talk about now—it’s a spoiler!—but when this happened to me, I was like, Oh, if I ever write a book, it will be about this specific thing.
You also note to the audience that this is a different kind of romance novel. Why do you want to warn them?
I think it is a romance, but I would even call it a love story more than a romance, because there’s so many different types of love that this book is about. Like Phoebe and her friends are a really big part of the book. Phoebe learning to love herself. Phoebe and her family, her job. It was super important to me that she have a very rich, love filled life, apart from the romance. I think there’s a lot of different love stories happening in the book.
I don’t think there are a lot of books that really portray this anxiety that can be this crippling. And, the ones that do, the character’s alone and really struggling in most other aspects of their life. I really wanted to write a character who has a huge support system and has so many things in their life figured out. She has a great job, but also has this anxiety that is really challenging for them and it’s just that piece that they’re trying to figure out.
The cover is absolutely adorable! How involved in the process were you and what do you hope people take away from it?
I was super involved, which I’m so grateful for! I really wanted the cover to capture the essence of the book. I always really wanted some sort of arts and craftsy type of vibe— which I think the cover does really well—because Phoebe is a teacher and the catalyst of the book is kind of this letter that she gets from herself.
I literally couldn’t explain what else I wanted besides that. I have no ability to communicate an artistic vision whatsoever. Sarah, who designed the cover, is so brilliant, and thank god that she understood what I was saying, because I was not saying anything that made any sense. She’s amazing! I love the way it turned out! It’s this mix of cutesy and flirty that I love, and it’s very Phoebe.
I know we’re still a few months away, so I’m curious what’s something you can share with readers to get them excited?
Something that I’m having a really hard time keeping in is the characters names, which will mean nothing to someone who doesn’t know me. But, to someone that does, they’re going to be like, Are you serious? I named every single character after a celebrity crush, originally as a placeholder, and then got really attached to the name, so I just kept them. Originally, all the characters were accidentally named after characters from Glee, but then I kept one. A lot of the characters are kind of like Easter eggs to my real life, which is will mean absolutely nothing to most people.
Oh my gosh, as a Gleek, I absolutely need to figure that one out!
One of the love interests was Finn and then the friends were like, Rachel, Blaine, while another love interest was Jesse. And then I changed those. I was like, I need to make it a name that has nothing to do with my life. You can’t keep doing this. So, then I was like, Okay, the friends can be Alex and Meg. I don’t know anyone named Alex and Meg. And then I started writing, and I was like, Oh my God. Like, two of my best friends are Alexa and Megan. I definitely struggled to be creative with the names, but I think it turned out fun!
Has this process changed what you view your future endeavors to be like?
I definitely would love to be a career author. The second I wrote the first line of this book, I was like, Oh, okay, this is what I’m supposed to be doing. And I really feel that way. Luckily, I have another book that’s built into this deal with Phoebe, so I definitely am at least writing one more. But the dream would just to keep writing forever!
Phoebe Berman’s Gonna Lose It, by Brooke Averick will be released on May 26, 2026 by Crown. To preorder the book, click on the retailer of your choice:
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