First published 2023
Sloane Hart has her senior year mapped out. She drinks cheap vodka with friends, belts out Chainsmokers lyrics, and writes while planning her move to New York City after graduation. She needs to focus on landing a job and savoring these final months with her best friends living together. Then Ethan Brady moves in upstairs. Tall and mysterious, Ethan makes the world stop when Sloane is near him. Their chemistry builds as they spend more time together, but Ethan carries emotional baggage he refuses to unpack. He has built walls around his heart, and letting Sloane in means risking everything he has protected himself from. Sloane falls harder as their connection deepens, but Ethan may never be ready to meet her halfway. Set in 2016, this story captures the messy territory between friendship and love, where nothing has labels and everything feels uncertain.
Genres: fiction, coming-of-age, contemporary, young-adult, 21st-century, contemporary-romance
Vibes: bittersweet, emotionally-charged, intimate, introspective, uncertain
Tropes: emotional-walls, forced-proximity, friends-to-lovers, slow-burn
Setting: New York City
Period: 2016
288 pages · Paperback · Sourcebooks Landmark