Before Anyone Else

As a designer of upscale restaurants, 30-year-old Bailey Ann Edgeworth can go into an empty space and immediately see what it would take to transform it into a beautiful and memorable spot. She learns transforming her own life is another proposition entirely. It can get messy and it doesn’t always go according to a neat blue- print. Bailey’s brother, Henry and his best friend Griffin are stars in the restaurant field. They are known as the “Color Wheel Boys” because of their renowned Buckhead restaurants Vert, Blanc and Noir.  Bailey is determined to chart her own course; to not be forever known as Hank’s daughter, Henry’s sister, or “whatever” she is to Griffin.

Bailey’s dreams propel her to New York where her vision garners accolades and fame. After a perceived rejection by Griffin, she rushes into an impetuous marriage with an enigmatic English chef. Their combined charisma and desire lift them to the top of the culinary world. Just when she seems on the verge of having it all, a shocking betrayal throws Bailey's world into chaos. She begins a spectacular downfall complete with secretive drug use, shady associates, and her career in turmoil. Just what are the secret ingredients to transforming food, a dilapidated building and one’s own life into something extraordinary?

Before Anyone Else examines the complicated relationship between love and ambition and explores how our earliest relationships and experience, shape us into who we ultimately become.


Genre: Literary Fiction

"Romantic and deeply moving, Before Anyone Else by Leslie Hooton, is a curl-up-on-the-couch debut novel that keeps the fire burning and the pages turning." - Lisa Barr

"Before Anyone Else is a wonder of a debut novel, a coming-of-age love story set in the fast-paced and often cut-throat Southern restaurant world, with flesh-and-blood characters that live and breathe. Bailey Ann Edgeworth is an unforgettable heroine, and Leslie Hooten is an immensely gifted writer. I can’t wait to read the next one." - Amy Greene

"Before Anyone Else is the romantic debut we have been waiting for, a coming of age novel that is both deeply moving and creatively beautiful. With wit and dazzle, Leslie Hooton takes us through both a love story and also the cut throat restaurant business. With charm to spare, this novel is a powerful story with a dose of hostess gold woven in for good measure." - Patti Callahan Henry

"Like a good tasting menu Leslie Hooten’s Before Anyone Else is full of delicious contrasts and dazzling surprises. It is also wonderfully suspenseful as we watch the fragile and intrepid Bailey make her way in the complicated world of restaurant design. Hooten understands so well how love and work are often intertwined. A splendid debut." - Margot Livesey

"With Before Anyone Else, Leslie Hooton announces herself as a natural-born storyteller, a writer who can evoke character and place with such finely-tuned details that you find yourself pulled completely into the world that she has created. It's a sharp examination of work, how it defines us, how it consumes us, and how much it takes to find meaning beyond it. It's a beautiful book." - Kevin Wilson