Debut Novel — Coming Soon

Before She Knew

by B.G. Topping

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Women's Fiction

Before She Knew

Bria Dean has spent her entire life believing her father was dead. She grieved him without ever knowing his face.

When her mother dies suddenly — no warning, no goodbye, no last conversation — Bria is left to sort through the wreckage of a life she thought she understood. What she finds instead is a DNA test, a half-brother she never knew existed, and the truth her mother carried to her grave.

Her father wasn't dead.
He just didn't know she existed.

Set in the heat and heartbreak of New Orleans' French Quarter, Before She Knew is a novel about the lies we inherit, the people who anchor us anyway, and what it means to finally know where you come from.

Coming Soon

This is a work of fiction. While certain events and emotions in this novel are drawn from personal experience, the characters, names, incidents, and dialogue are either products of the author's imagination or have been used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is coincidental. The truth this book carries belongs to the author. The people in it belong to the story.

From the Prologue

The summer Bria was sixteen, she learned that magic was real.

Not the kind from books — not the kind you had to believe in, or seek out, or earn. The kind that just happened to you on an ordinary Thursday in August when you weren’t looking for anything except maybe another glass of wine.

Before She Knew — B.G. Topping

About the Author

B.G. Topping

B.G. Topping is a graphic designer, brand strategist, and debut novelist based in Columbus, Georgia. She is the founder of BGTdesignservices LLC — a creative studio built on bold visual identity, brand storytelling, and the conviction that great design changes how a business is seen.

She writes the kind of stories that live at the intersection of grief, identity, and the quiet courage it takes to keep going. Before She Knew is her debut novel — drawn from the landscape of real loss, real discovery, and a lifetime of learning what it means to finally know where you come from.

The Other Side of the Work

BGTdesignservices

Bold. Feminine. Unapologetically Creative. B.G. Topping's design studio builds brands that refuse to be ignored — from logo identity to full brand systems, social strategy, and web presence.

01 / 04

Brand Identity

Logo design, color systems, typography, and the visual language that makes a brand instantly recognizable. Every element built to last.

02 / 04

Social Media Management

Content strategy, caption writing, scheduling, and audience growth for small businesses ready to show up consistently and confidently online.

03 / 04

Web Design

Custom websites that reflect your brand's personality and convert visitors into clients. Clean, strategic, and built to represent you well.

04 / 04

Print & Illustration

From business cards to event materials, custom illustration to packaging — design that carries the brand off-screen and into the world.

Visit BGTdesignservices

Columbus, Georgia · Est. 2026

Step Inside

Bria's World

French Quarter, New Orleans. Second floor. The kind of apartment that holds you together when everything else is falling apart.

The Living Room

Where she designs at midnight and cries at noon. The couch holds more than the bookshelf.

The Kitchen

Coffee before anything. The notebook on the counter is always open. Half the chapters started here.

The Bedroom

The ring is in the nightstand drawer. She doesn't look at it. She doesn't throw it away.

The Balcony

She stood out here the morning after everything changed. The city didn't notice. That was somehow the most comforting thing.

"She opened all four windows first thing. Before coffee. Before anything."

— Before She Knew

From the Novel

She was twenty-seven years old and she looked exactly like herself, which had taken longer to achieve than it should have.

The light arrived sideways, warm and unhurried, and it made the whole apartment feel like a painting. She opened all four windows first thing. Before coffee. Before anything.

She was happy. She didn't examine it. That was the thing about happiness when it was real and quiet and ordinary — you didn't poke at it. You just stood at a window and listened to the city wake up and let it be enough.

— Before She Knew, Chapter One

The Series

A Story in Six Parts

Some discoveries change everything. Some take a lifetime to understand.
This is both.

2026

Book One

Before She Knew

The secret her mother kept for twenty-seven years. The DNA test that changed everything. The woman Bria was before she found out who she really was.

Querying — Coming Soon

TBD

Book Two

After She Knew

Learning to live with the truth. A new name, a new brother, and the slow, difficult work of rebuilding who you are.

Coming

TBD

Book Three

While She Knew

The caregiver years. Jim moves next door. The 42 boxes in the attic. Loving someone while you're losing them.

Coming

TBD

Book Four

What She Knows

Scotland. The Highlands. A proposal on the land that was always in her blood. And a door she comes home to that tells her everything has changed.

Coming

TBD

Book Five

Because She Knew

The engagement party. The wedding. An empty seat for everyone who couldn't be there. Joy and grief, refusing to separate.

Coming

TBD

Book Six

She Goes

A family. A move halfway around the world. Not running from anything — arriving, finally, at the place that was always home.

Written when it's lived

From the Readers

What People Are Saying

Real words from real readers. 🖤

“This website and the storyline are simply bedazzling!! Looking forward to celebrating your success with you!!!”

— Marie

Before She Knew

Before She Knew

B.G. Topping