Kirjahaku

When high school senior Tally and her twin brother Max head off on a weeklong exchange trip to Israel over their winter break, Tally thinks it will be a good distraction for Max; he might be trying to hide it, but Tally knows he’s still struggling in the wake of a car crash that injured him and killed the driver, who was driving drunk on the way home from a party. Maybe this will help him get back on track and apply to college the way he and Tally always planned. But as the group travels across the country, Tally realizes her plan might not be working, and that her brother might not be the only one struggling with a major life turning point. And when a new relationship gets complicated in the face of her own anxiety spirals and questions about her sexual identity, and she faces complex questions about the country’s history and her place in the Jewish diaspora, she finds herself grappling with even bigger thoughts about what’s next once they get home. Debut author Haley Neil offers a relatable and deeply felt story about identity on the cusp of adulthood.

Sixteen-year-old Felicity Becker is always a girl with a plan. Next up: winning the social committee chair position at school so she can put her many ideas into action. But when she unexpectedly loses, she’s thrown for a loop – and then another, that evening, when her mom’s boyfriend proposes. She and her mom may be very different, but it’s always been them against the world. Now, everything is going to change. Still, Felicity can’t help but be excited by the wedding planning that’s suddenly before her. Even more so when her mom agrees to travel to Vermont for the summer – to a cabin that just so happens to be on the grounds of Felicity’s crush Nancy’s family vineyard. She framed it as the perfect scenic wedding locale, but she’s hoping this will be her chance to get to know Nancy better, too.There’s just one potential hiccup – Felicity knows she falls somewhere on the asexuality grayscale, but she hasn’t quite figured it out yet. As her plans for Mom get more and more intricate and distracting (to the chagrin of the not-so-plan-oriented bride), she’s consumed with gnawing worry about whether it’s okay to explore things with this girl... she likes Nancy a lot, but she isn’t sure she’d ever want them to get physical. What will happen if Nancy has a different idea of what it means to be more than friends? Haley Neil offers another poignant and layered story about identity, family, and finding where you belong.