The Sweetest Lie

Daisy Marie "Dee" Del Buono and Luca "Kai" Romano have lived next door to each other their whole lives-but they've never lived in the same world.

At school, Kai is untouchable: the star of the track, the golden boy everyone talks about, the name everyone knows by heart. He is the center of the stadium lights, loud and inevitable.

Dee is a different kind of sound-the first-chair oboe who everyone hears but no one truly sees. She's the girl who lives in the static between band practice and her two best friends, hiding her 88-key heart behind a music stand and a wall of hoodies.

And between them sits a lie they've both agreed to believe:
They're not friends.

Until one summer night, they cross a line they swore they'd never touch.

When Dee's older brother, Arlo-Kai's best friend-leaves for college, everything shifts.
The fence between their houses becomes a bridge.
Late-night talks replace old arguments.
They learn each other's secrets.
They learn each other's smiles.

Now it's senior year, and they're trying to pretend it didn't happen.
Pretending they're fine.
Pretending they can go back.
Pretending the truth isn't pulsing every time they lock eyes across the hallway and across their bedroom windows.

But the sweetest lies are the ones you tell to protect your heart-
until the night they finally destroy it.

"The Sweetest Lie" is a story about first love, quiet longing, and the moment when pretending isn't enough anymore.

For readers who crave the chaos of Never Have I Ever, the longing of The Summer I Turned Pretty, and the quiet devastation of Normal People, The Sweetest Lie will absolutely wreck you (in the best way).