When seventeen-year-old Thea Allen's small-town private school is destroyed by a tornado, her mother seizes the opportunity to expose her to new experiences and new people. Translation: Mom wants to put hundreds of miles between Thea and her forever boyfriend, Glenn. Thea's inner math geek is tempted by the college level courses offered at the Upper East Side prep school. So, she's almost relieved when Glenn encourages the temporary move to New York City--until he breaks up with her, convinced she needs to date at least one other guy before she can be sure he's The One. Frustrated and reluctantly single, Thea begins her last year of high school at Oscar Zachary, where she discovers her life has developed some disturbing similarities to a certain children's novel. But Thea's "Oz" isn't entirely wonderful. Her Auntie Em is the Wicked Witch. The "heartless" boy next door keeps trying to hook up with her. And Thea is having a hard time ignoring an intense attraction to Conner, AKA The Scarecrow--a haphazardly hot boy, who may or may not even be available. Now the girl with the plan--the one who's always known what she wanted--is losing faith in her carefully plotted future. |Cover images from a photo by Michael Brodzik from Unsplash|

|| WATTYS 2021 SHORTLIST || Hindsight isn't always twenty-twenty. A head injury has left a critical gap in seventeen-year-old Allyson's memory, so she barely recognizes her little sister, Lindsay, who's grown sullen and antisocial. What happened to the silly and fun girl who used to call Allyson her best friend? The answer starts to take shape when Allyson unlocks an instant messaging app and delves into the archived conversations. The more she learns about the person she was before her accident, the more she wants to stop reading. She's ashamed of the way she treated Lindsay, but despite her efforts to reconcile, Lindsay remains distant. She seems to be harboring some terrible secret herself. Allyson needs help to solve the mystery, but she's afraid to challenge her parents' fragile pretense of normality. And Noah, the boy Allyson doesn't remember falling for the first time, is reluctant to dig up the past. Her only choice is to find the courage to meet her former BFF-a stranger who knows all the unsavory details. Allyson will have to own her lies and accept one heartbreaking truth if she's going to keep her family from falling apart. |Cover design by Phillip Hilliker: www.philhilliker.com. Illustration from postermywall.|