Learning To Live

Lenora Schmidt's life changed the summer before her junior year. One fight, one phone call, one choice-and everything that came after.
After a heated argument with her aunt, Lenora calls the only person she thinks will understand: her boyfriend, Max Myers. But running to him sets off a chain reaction she can't escape. What begins as a desperate attempt to find safety becomes two years of heartbreak, survival, and the slow unravelling of everything she thought she knew about love and trust.
When things with Max fall apart, Lenora finds herself trapped in a cycle she never wanted to repeat, mirroring the same mistakes that destroyed her mother. From the walls of a mental hospital to the tense silence of her father's house and the fear of a stepmother she barely knows, every move seems to push her further away from who she used to be.
Kicked out at eighteen, Lenora is forced to navigate adulthood alone. But months after staying with her roommate, she quits her toxic job, moves in with a coworker, and begins to rebuild, but stability never lasts. When that temporary home disappears, she finds herself homeless, shuffled through shelters and youth programs, trying to hold on to what little hope she has left.
Learning to Live is a raw, emotional coming-of-age story about love, loss, and rediscovering yourself when life has taken everything away.