18 Candles

The night Ian Mitchell finally told the truth about himself, his family forgot his birthday.

So when his friends drag him to Menjo's to celebrate - his first night out, his first taste of a world that finally fits - he isn't expecting much. He definitely isn't expecting Derek Lawson.

The collision is an accident. Everything after isn't.

Derek is older, easy in his own skin, and everything Ian doesn't know how to want yet. He's also his brother Gavin's best friend, the best man at Gavin's wedding in six days, and a fixture at the Mitchell family table for as long as Ian can remember. He is, in every possible way, the wrong person.

Ian is blond and bright-eyed and trying very hard not to fall apart. Between them, something ignites - sweet and sharp and dangerous, like the candy it's named for.

But this is Grosse Pointe, Michigan, 1995 - where appearances are everything, the neighbors are watching, and nobody talks about the things that matter most. The wedding is almost here, Derek is standing at the altar beside Gavin, and the lies are already stacking up faster than Ian can count them. His parents still don't know who he really is. The whole family is watching. And the boy who just found himself is already in danger of losing everything.

Some secrets, he's learning, are worth everything they cost.

18 Candles is a queer coming-of-age romance about first love, hidden lives, and the electric, terrifying moment you stop pretending - even if only to yourself.

Blue Raspberry is Book One of the 18 Candles Trilogy.