I've Always Liked You

Two years of unsent messages. One chance to say it.

A novel about first love, a family that refuses to give up, and the high school friends who tell you the truth whether you want to hear it or not.

Val Reyes has a plan for everything: graduate first in her class, get into law school, and make every sacrifice her parents made leaving Mexico worth it. What she never planned for was Alex Walker, the quiet boy from the library who always looks like he's about to say something and never does.

Alex can talk to thousands of strangers through a camera. Around Val, his brain shuts off. On the second-to-last page of his blue notebook, he keeps count: one tally mark for every message he's typed to her and deleted.

Then Val's dad climbs up to fix the kitchen leak, the one her family calls the Tenant, and the roof gives way beneath him. No job, no insurance, and a $40,000 surgery they can't pay for. Until someone pays it in secret.

"Was it you?"

Because a kiss can last three seconds and hurt for months. And the things you don't say in time stay in a blue notebook forever.

Is a love that was never said out loud still worth fighting for?