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Cherry Baby
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Cherry Baby

By: Rainbow Rowell
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About this listen

Brought to you by Penguin.

The big-hearted, grown-up new novel about love and second chances from million-copy international bestselling author Rainbow Rowell

Cherry and Tom had built a quiet, contented life together in Omaha, until Tom’s semi-autobiographical webcomic went viral and turned their marriage into public property.

Now the world knows Baby, the character based on Cherry, better than Cherry knows herself – and Tom and Cherry have been separated for months.

That’s when Russ Sutton shows up. Floppy-haired, blue-eyed Russ Sutton, who Cherry had a crush on in college, and who now seems to have a crush on her.

All that’s left is for Cherry to rewrite her own story. Because if she isn’t Baby, and she isn’t Tom’s wife, then who can she be?

Told with deep tenderness and abundant wit, Cherry Baby is Rainbow Rowell's most affecting, most surprising, sexiest novel yet.

'Extraordinary humour and tenderness'
Curtis Sittenfeld

'Sweet, sexy, wise and nostalgic'
Gabrielle Zevin

‘So hot and delicious, so funny and smart and real. What a gift!’
Catherine Newman

'Rainbow Rowell is a damn genius'
Rufi Thorpe

'As funny and smart as its wonderful characters'
Emma Straub

'Gorgeous . . . I read it in one sitting’
Ella Risbridger

© Rainbow Rowell 2026 (P) Penguin Audio 2026

 Contemporary Family Life Genre Fiction

Critic reviews

Anything by Rainbow Rowell goes straight to the top of my TBR - and I adored this one. She writes real, complex, messy love like nobody else. Tender and insightful, this love story will stay with me for a long time. (Beth O'Leary)
All the pleasure and kicky-feet excitement of a romance, with all the psychological depth and insight of great literature, Cherry is a heroine for the ages, and Rainbow Rowell is a damn genius. (Rufi Thorpe)
Cherry Baby is about love, and there are a lot of excellent sex scenes, but it’s also about women’s bodies in a way I’ve never read before. Rainbow Rowell, as ever, has written a book that only she could write. (Emma Straub)
Rainbow Rowell has done it again: another gorgeous, satisfying, and not-so-secretly subversive novel about first looks, second chances, great sex, and perfect little details. I read it in one sitting (Ella Risbridger)
Laugh out loud dialogue (Jodi Picoult)
If you, like me, think thirty-somethings methodically working through their issues is very hot, Slow Dance is the book for you. The people in it feel like people you know or maybe even people you’ve been. Slow Dance is sexy, sweet, wise, and nostalgic – Jane Austen’s Persuasion for our times. (Gabrielle Zevin on SLOW DANCE)
Deeply human, profoundly romantic. Rowell tackles the challenges of love lost and rediscovered with nuance and candor. She will break your heart and you’ll thank her for it. (Leigh Bardugo on SLOW DANCE)
A gorgeous book . . . a beautiful, believable love story between two slightly broken people. So sweet, but never sentimental. I yearned for them to be happy and I miss it now it's over (Marian Keyes on SLOW DANCE)
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