SOURPUSS SUMMARY: I worked so hard on this guys. It’s not going on the back of the book. It’s to show everyone what the book is about <3
SYNOPSIS:
Three years after Avery’s suicide, Julian is still surviving more than living. The grief never softened. It just buried itself deeper beneath college classes, exhaustion, and pretending he was fine when he absolutely was not.
Then one random afternoon, he walks into the campus cafeteria and sees his dead best friend standing there.
Same eyes. Same smile. Same face Julian had mourned for three years.
For one horrifying second, the world stops making sense. Julian can barely breathe, barely think, barely process how Avery could somehow be alive and standing in front of him holding a stupid tray of cafeteria food like he never shattered Julian’s entire world.
Then the stranger speaks.
“You knew my brother?”
Brother.
Not Avery.
Holden.
The identical twin Julian never knew existed.
Holden is nothing like Avery and somehow that makes everything worse. He’s sarcastic, stubborn, obsessed with lemon candies to an almost concerning degree, and constantly calling Julian “Sourpuss” whenever he shuts down emotionally. Julian tries to keep his distance at first. He has to. Because falling apart over Avery was one thing. Falling for someone with the same face feels dangerous in an entirely different way.
But grief recognizes grief.
And somewhere between late night conversations, lemon lollipops shoved into Julian’s hands, and learning how to exist again instead of simply surviving, the two begin piecing themselves back together.
Because when Julian looks at Holden, he doesn’t see a ghost.
He sees Holden.
And maybe, for the first time since losing Avery, that means Julian finally sees a future too.
