First published 2019
Senior year was supposed to be simple. Go to practice, stay out of trouble, graduate with his teammates. But trouble has a way of finding him, and now one more screw-up puts his spot on the roster at risk. That is where things stand when Chloe walks in. She is not part of any plan. She shows up at exactly the wrong moment and somehow becomes the only thing that feels right. He starts showing up differently, not because anyone is watching, but because she makes him want to. For the first time, the future looks like something worth reaching toward instead of something to survive. He keeps his past at arm's length. He tells himself it is behind him, that he has put enough distance between who he was and who he is becoming. For a while, he almost believes it. Then the past catches up. It always does. The question is whether what he has built with Chloe is strong enough to hold when everything he tried to leave behind comes back to the surface. This is a story about a guy who made a lot of bad calls, fell for a girl who deserved better, and had to decide whether change is real or just something you tell yourself when you are scared of losing someone.
Genres: drama, romance, coming-of-age, contemporary, young-adult
Vibes: character-driven, emotional, intimate, introspective, redemptive
Tropes: redemption-arc, second-chance-romance, transformative-love, troubled-hero
386 pages · Paperback · Rebecca Jenshak
Content warnings: substance-abuse