"Beautifully messy and real." --Amy Spalding, bestselling author of We Used to Be Friends Perfect for fans of What If It's Us and Mary H....

"Beautifully messy and real." --Amy Spalding, bestselling author of We Used to Be Friends

Perfect for fans of What If It's Us and Mary H. K. Choi, this stunning coming-of-age novel from Printz Honor author Mary McCoy follows a Memphis teen whose quest to uncover the secrets of love reveals new truths about herself.

For the past two years, Lee has been laser-focused on two things: her job as a sound tech at a local coffee shop and her podcast Artists in Love, which she cohosts with her boyfriend Vincent.

Until he breaks up with her on the air right after graduation.

When their unexpected split, the loss of her job, and her parent's announcement that they're separating coincide, Lee's plans, her art, and her life are thrown into turmoil. Searching for a new purpose, Lee recruits her old friend Max and new friend Risa to produce a podcast called Objects of Destruction, where they investigate whether love actually exists at all.

But the deeper they get into the love stories around them, the more Lee realizes that she's the one who's been holding love at arm's length. And when she starts to fall for Risa, she finds she'll have to be more honest with herself and the people in her life to create a new love story of her own.

Funny, romantic, and heartfelt, this is a story about secrets, lies, friendship, found family, an expired passport, a hidden VHS tape, fried pickles, the weird and wild city of Memphis, and, most of all, love.

Author: Mary McCoy
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
Published: 06/15/2021
Pages: 336
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 0.95lbs
Size: 8.40h x 5.60w x 1.30d
ISBN: 9781534485051
Audience: Young Adult


Review Citation(s):
Kirkus Reviews 05/01/2021
Publishers Weekly 05/24/2021
Booklist 07/01/2021 pg. 72

About the Author
Mary McCoy is a writer and a librarian at the Los Angeles Public Library. She has also been a contributor to On Bunker Hill and the 1947project, where she wrote stories about Los Angeles's notorious past. Mary is the author of Dead to Me, Camp So-and-So, the Printz Honor Book I, Claudia, and Indestructible Object. She grew up in western Pennsylvania and studied at Rhodes College and the University of Wisconsin.