Fans of Sandhya Menon, Erika Sanchez and Jandy Nelson will identify with this award-winning novel of a young artist’s forbidden, intercultural first love, her close-knit Indian family, and her boyfriend's desperate attempts to fit into it—no matter how high the cost.

Rani Kelkar has never lied to her parents, until she meets Oliver. The same qualities that draw her in—his tattoos, his charisma, his passion for art—make him her mother's worst nightmare.

They begin a torrid, secret love affair, but when Oliver's troubled home life unravels, he starts to ask more of Rani than she knows how to give. Just when their relationship is tested by a shocking betrayal, a family tragedy draws Rani to India for a summer. There, she gains perspective on what it means to be true to herself and what that means for her and Oliver.

Winner of the national Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators Emerging Voices award, Anuradha Rajurkar takes an honest look at how cultural differences can transmute an interracial relationship into something unrecognizable as love. Rani's journey will speak to anyone who has ever had to fight to protect and preserve their personal identity amid our modern world.