That's What Friends Are For

By: Wade Rouse

Narrated by: Daniel Henning, Joel Leslie, Art Brown, George Newbern

A NATIONAL BESTSELLER!
USA TODAY bestseller • Today Show Best Feel Good Read • Bookbub Best New Fiction • A Most Anticipated Book of 2026 by Zibby Media • US Weekly Best Romance • Featured on People.com, Newsweek.com and CBS-NY/Club Calvi Book Club


"By turns hilarious, tender, and devastating, Rouse’s novel explores what it means to be the sandwich generation of gays today — caught between those who paved the way for equality, those who are too young to credit them, and a world that seems increasingly hostile." —Jodi Picoult, #1 New York Times bestselling author

In this poignant and hilarious story inspired by TV’s beloved The Golden Girls, bestselling author Wade Rouse celebrates love, aging, finding your people, and the art of impeccably timed one-liners.

Theodore Copeland has created a fabulous life in the desert oasis of Palm Springs, where he shares a fabulous pink mid-century home with three fabulous friends: Barry, a former actor still clinging to his youth, his hair, and the memory of the dream role that killed his career; Ron, an uprooted Christian from the Midwest with a big heart but no one to give it to; Sid, who, after coming out late in life, has never found love. Teddy is the caustic, unspoken leader of “The Golden Gays”—the foursome’s monthly drag tribute to The Golden Girls. Despite their foibles and bickering, they have turned their golden years into a golden era.

But the harmony of their desert enclave becomes a carousel of emotional baggage when Teddy’s estranged sister, Trudy, shows up on their doorstep, her dramatic teenage granddaughter in tow. While Teddy tries to keep Trudy at arm’s length, she manages to wheedle her way into the lives of the Golden Gays, until the real reason for her visit is revealed and the secrets they’ve all been keeping from each other unravel faster than a hastily stitched hemline.

A novel that gives thanks to “old” friends, That's What Friends Are For proves that while family may be the tie that binds, it’s the chosen family that truly keeps us together.

The Golden Gays

So much more than a reimagining of the Golden Girls….touching and humorous story of how the Golden Girls was a light in the darkness, for four friends with different coming out experiences.

Community is Key

This was a really fun read, one that I wasn’t expecting to hit as close to home as it did. It reminds me that community is so important. And that it’s truly the emotional connections you make with someone more than the physical. I am so grateful for the reminders of community in my life that this book brought to memory.

Fantastic!

Funny and warm and intelligent. Love all the different characters and their experiences and that it’s not all pretty and simple and fluffy and superficial.