If you loved Sex and the City, Gossip Girl or Bridget Jones
— this is your next obsession
About The Book
They survived Melbourne’s most prestigious private schools. The blazers, the politics, the parents who lunched like it was a competitive sport.
Surely adult life would be easier.
Spoiler: it is not.
Andie and her three best friends — James, GG and Sophia — are now in their thirties, living in Melbourne’s leafy, moneyed south, and navigating the beautiful mess of real life. Romance is messy. Careers are complicated.
And fitting in with Melbourne’s elite?
Still completely, exhaustingly impossible.
But they have each other.
Mostly.
Kind of.
It’s complicated.
1 Lovelock Drive is the chick-lit novel your group chat has been waiting for — witty, warm, and just a little bit scandalous. It’s part fiction, part memoir, and entirely based on real life, this debut novel from blogger-turned-author Ellen Frances began as a tell-all blog ripped straight from the streets of Melbourne.
Names may have been changed.
Details have not.
Emily Henry's novels
The ensemble friendship dynamics, without the glossy American sheen
Bridget Jones's Diary
The messy romance, the sharp humour, the wine
Gossip Girl
The private school politics, the social hierarchy, and everyone knowing everyone's business
Sex and the City
(The book, not just the show) The dating disasters, the female friendships, the city as backdrop
If You Loved These, You'll Love This
1 Lovelock Drive is for you if you've ever devoured:
Wait — Is This Actually A Novel?
Honestly? Kind of.
1 Lovelock Drive started as an online blog where Ellen wrote about her real life in Melbourne — the relationships, the friendships, the social politics of a city that takes itself very seriously. Those stories are now collected here, shaped into a narrative, with names changed just enough to keep the lawyers happy.
So yes, it's shelved as fiction.
But if you're looking for something that reads like a memoir, moves like a novel, and feels like eavesdropping on someone's actual life — this is exactly that.
Think of it less as "is this real?" and more as "does it matter?"
Download The First Chapter
I get you want to flick through the book first. Even better, read the first chapter for free, below!
Meet Ellen Frances
Ellen Frances is a Melbourne-based online fiction writer who shares stories and experiences from her private school life.
Making a name for herself on Medium, Ellen also writes about her relationships, her life in business, and cautionary advice about success and inevitable failure.
When not at the keyboard, Ellen watches wrestling, collects Garfield books and merchandise, travels to Formula 1 races across, and listens to the Spice Girls (on repeat!).