---
title: The Favorite Girl, Monica Arya's Self-Published Dark Thriller, Arrives in a Sprayed-Edge Simon & Schuster Edition
description: The Favorite Girl, Monica Arya's dark psychological thriller, is out now from Simon Maverick with sprayed edges. Plot, the series and where to buy it.
author: Dr Marina Nani (Editor-in-Chief)
date: 2026-11-13T06:43:33.397Z
updated: 2026-11-13T06:44:38.679Z
canonical: https://richbooksmagazine.com/article/the-favorite-girl-monica-arya-s-self-published-dark-thriller-arrives-in-a-sprayed-edge-simon-schuste
image: https://cdn.nanimediahouse.com/rich-books-the-favorite-girl-card-16x9.webp
categories: Thrillers
content_type: News
publication: Rich Books
schema_type: Article
about:
  - type: Person
    name: Monica Arya
    description: Bestselling author of dark psychological thrillers, including The Favorite Girl series, based in Charlotte, North Carolina.
    url: https://www.monicaarya.com
    jobTitle: Thriller novelist
---

### Book: The Favorite Girl
By Monica Arya

Demi Rao has spent years trying to outrun her past. When the wealthy Ivory family advertises for someone to help maintain their gated estate, she takes the job, despite the strange rules: wear only white, wear no makeup and speak only in a low voice. She soon learns she was not hired to clean. The Ivorys chose her, and they have known her all along. This Simon Maverick edition has sprayed edges in its first printing only.

[Waterstones](https://www.waterstones.com/books/search/term/the+favorite+girl+monica+arya)

The job advert looks like a way out. The wealthy Ivory family needs someone to help keep their gated estate in order, and the work could give Demi Rao the fresh start she has chased for years. Then she reads the rules: wear only white, wear no makeup and keep your voice low at all times. *The Favorite Girl*, Monica Arya's dark psychological thriller, reached bookshops on 10th November in a new Simon Maverick edition, with sprayed edges on the first printing only.

## A Self-Published Thriller Finds a Bigger Stage

Arya first published *The Favorite Girl* herself in 2024, and it became a bestseller in several categories on Amazon. Readers took to Demi so strongly that Arya turned a standalone novel into a three-book series. Simon Maverick, the Simon & Schuster imprint launched in the US in January 2025 to [publish independent authors](https://richbooksmagazine.com/article/hat-trick-the-hockey-romance-with-an-amputee-hero-returns-in-a-collectible-edition-with-a-bonus-chap), now brings the book to bookshops as a 320-page paperback.

## Inside the Ivory Estate

Demi takes the job, sure her life is about to get better. It does not. She soon realises she has not been hired to clean. The Ivorys picked her on purpose, they have known her all along, and their picture-perfect home hides secrets that could cost her her life.

Arya sums up the novel in five words: dark, disturbing, twisted, unsettling and unforgettable. The publisher recommends it to fans of Freida McFadden, Jeneva Rose, Ruth Ware and Mary Kubica, and Arya counts Karin Slaughter's *Pretty Girls* and Gillian Flynn's *Sharp Objects* among her own favourite books. The content is very dark and meant for adult readers, so check the content notes before you start.

## Demi Rao, the Heroine at the Centre

Arya, who lives in Charlotte, North Carolina, with her husband and two children, drew on her own experience of growing up in the American South as a minority woman. Demi, a heroine of colour, carries that longing to fit in and belong into a house of horrors. Arya chose not to soften Demi's identity or the darkness of the story to make the book easier to sell, and that choice gives the thriller its sting.

## The Favorite Girl Series

The story continues in *The Caged Girl*, which follows in paperback in July 2027, and ends with *The Favorite Daughter*, set inside the Gilded Hive Asylum, in October 2027. Arya's standalone thriller *Let Me Show You* is due in April 2027.

The Ivorys picked their favourite girl long before Demi answered the advert. Open the book, and you will keep turning pages until you find out why.

## Buy The Favorite Girl

[The Favorite Girl on Waterstones](https://www.waterstones.com/books/search/term/the+favorite+girl+monica+arya) / [Barnes & Noble](https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-favorite-girl-monica-arya/1145025907)