Mabel and Joseph, Joseph and Mabel.
When the 'and' gets switched to 'likes', Mabel finds that dating your best friend of seventeen years on the islands isn't as smooth sailing as she hoped. When Kai comes, a city boy whose mom knows about the truth behind Mabel's mother's death, he reveals the flaws in the way she sees people and in the way being Chinese defines her.
Grappling with past, new, and returning people in her life, Mabel learns that love may change, but that some things never will. Snapshots in time, memories she'll choose to remember, and boys that help guide her through the past and future, each with their own flaws and promises.
At the end of the summer, she'll have to learn to embrace her mother's past all the while convincing her dad that NYC is where her future lies.
Only, convincing Joseph this just might turn out to be their fatal flaw between friends.
Ella is falling apart trying to live a "perfect" high school life. Then she meets Ren, who can see past her scars. Suddenly perfection isn't her only option.
*****
Ella Volkov is a gifted music student, but she's depressed and starting to crack under the pressure of high school. Her overbearing father won't even let her choose what instrument she plays. Then she finds herself alone at a party with Ren, her best friend's crush. She'd always thought he was rude, but after that night he's all Ella can think about. Now she's trapped. If Ella dates Ren, it will ruin her friendship with Jenny. But if she stays true to Jenny, she's losing the one person who can see past her scars. It's up to Ella to decide if she will forge her own path, or stay in the "perfect" box designed for her...
Content and/or Trigger Warning: depression, anxiety, self-harm, violence, sexual assault.
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