Fake Love

Clear, concise and empowering self-help about navigating and healing from narcissistic abuse by Australia's go-to specialist counsellor


The love of a narcissist is fake. It's a soul-destroying realisation for every victim of narcissistic abuse, but even more damaging is finding yourself trapped and abused by the person who claims they love you.

Nova Gibson has helped thousands of people in their struggle to understand, extricate themselves and heal from toxic relationships and narcissistic abuse. Drawing on the expertise gained from a decade of working with clients and her global online community, Nova offers comfort, knowledge and powerful strategies to help you identify, navigate and survive this extremely covert, confusing - and dangerous - form of abuse.

In this life-changing book, Nova brings unparalleled insight into the lived experience of victims and helps identify the behaviours of narcissistic abusers, such as coercive control and gaslighting, pathological lying, the love bomb-devalue-discard cycle, hoovering, smear campaigns and many, many more. She also helps you understand covert and overt narcissism, and explores in depth the concept of trauma bonding, which creates a powerful connection with your abuser and explains why and how you're compelled to stay, even when the abuse is impossible to ignore.

In this deeply compassionate book, Nova offers hope, support and concise, practical strategies to break the toxic cycle, extricate and protect yourself ... and most importantly, heal.