What Nobody Tells You About Growing Up - An achingly real, tender coming-of-age YA novel about a forbidden crush, a best friend's betrayal, a long-kept family secret, first love, and the bittersweet summer that changes a girl forever

Hannah was nine the day her father's broken taillight disappeared down Maple Street for the last time. She stood on the porch until her legs shook, waiting for the car to turn around. Waiting for him to remember his coffee mug, his jacket, her. It never came back. "I told him the truth," her mother said. "That's all." Years later, Hannah Kessler still wears that morning like a scar. She has learned to be hard and sharp and made of something that can't break. She has learned not to ask her mother, Evelyn, the questions that matter. She has learned that 'a while' is what grown-ups say when they mean 'never.' Then comes the summer that takes everything apart. A boy on the docks who looks at her like she's worth staying for. A best friend who's been keeping a secret of her own. And a box in the garage that holds the truth about why her father really left. The closer Hannah gets to that truth, the more the people she loves start to feel like strangers. A first love that leaves a mark. A betrayal she never saw coming. A mother whose lie may turn out to have been a kind of mercy. There is a midnight on the pier. A reckoning she can't take back. A long drive home with everything she thought she knew rearranged. By the last night of summer, Hannah will have to decide what to forgive, what to carry, and who she wants to become. She will have to choose between the armor that kept her safe and the people willing to see her without it. Because growing up isn't the thing nobody warns you about. It's everything you have to lose to get there. What Nobody Tells You About Growing Up is an achingly real, tender coming-of-age YA novel about a forbidden crush, a best friend's betrayal, a long-kept family secret, first love, and the bittersweet summer that changes a girl forever. Perfect for readers who love emotional coming-of-age stories, small-town summers, slow-burn first love, complicated mother-daughter bonds, and books like The Fault in Our Stars and Normal People. A heartfelt standalone YA novel.