Someone I Wanted to Be

When an insecure teen starts impersonating someone else, her life spirals dangerously out of control in a realistic, relatable novel about finding yourself--and discovering your true friends.
Leah Lobermier dreams of becoming a doctor, but it's hard to stay focused on getting good grades when boys make oinking sounds at her in school and her mother spends every night on the couch with a bottle of wine. Leah's skinny and popular "friends," Kristy and Corinne, aren't much better and can hardly be counted on for support. When the girls convince a handsome older man to buy them beer, Leah takes his phone number and calls him, pretending to be Kristy--coy and confident--and they develop a relationship, talking and texting day after day. But as the lie she created grows beyond her control, can Leah put a stop to things before she--or Kristy--is seriously hurt?

Aurelia Wills is the author of two Pushcart Prize-nominated stories. Her work has been published in the Kenyon Review, The Common, CALYX, Hayden's Ferry Review, and other journals and in the anthology American Fiction, Volume 12. She has taught ESL to immigrants and creative writing through the Loft Literary Center. About this book, she says, "I wanted to write an honest story about adolescence, particularly about a kid who has to find her own way without much guidance." Someone I Wanted to Be is her first novel. She spent her childhood summers at camp in the Colorado mountains, but now lives in the flat, gorgeous Upper Midwest.