Concrete To Coast : A Coastal Dream

"I thought the hardest part of 2001 would be surviving my first real heartbreak. I was wrong."

In April of 2001, fourteen-year-old Kenzie is a Manhattan girl through and through. She has her volleyball team, her best friends, and the rhythmic pulse of New York City in her veins. But when her mom, Kennedy, moves the family to San Diego, Kenzie's world is uprooted. She's forced to trade her skyscrapers for palm trees, and she's determined to hate every second of it.

But then came the summer. Against the backdrop of the Pacific Coast, Kenzie finds herself doing things she never thought she'd enjoy. From bonfire nights on the sand to discovering beaches so pretty they look like postcards, San Diego starts to feel like a dream. And at the center of that dream is Charlie. He's a shy freshman who seems to understand the "Drop Dead" sadness behind Kenzie's eyes, even when he's hiding a secret of his own.

Between 8th-grade graduation and the best summer of her life, Kenzie finally starts to heal. She even finds out the truth: that Charlie's "girlfriend" was just a shield because he was too intimidated by the girl from NYC to say hello.

Then school starts on August 10th. The honeymoon phase of her new life is beautiful, until exactly one month later. On September 11th, 2001, Kenzie wakes up to a world that has crashed. While the sun continues to shine in California, Kenzie's heart is five thousand miles away, buried under the ash of the city she still calls home.

In a year defined by a "before" and an "after," Kenzie must navigate a new school, a complicated first love, and a tragedy that changes the meaning of home forever. And there is more to come