How to Love You When You're Gone

For fans of Ann Liang and Lynn Painter, this humorous, relatable novel gives an honest look at what it's like to fall in love for the first time-while simultaneously healing from loss. High school senior Mayte has never been kissed, but it hardly matters. Her abuelita has cancer, her half sister with special needs has moved in, and college is off the table-family comes first. She keeps her problems to herself. Why burden everyone she loves with more? Meanwhile, fellow senior Auggie is set on attending an elite creative writing program. But as the self-proclaimed most boring person alive, he can't exactly write the next great American novel when he's struggling to write a short story for college applications. After an awful blind date ("disaster" doesn't even begin to describe it), Mayte and Auggie never want to see each other again. When forced together by their merging social circles, the pair must at least pretend to get along...but soon they develop actual feelings. Then tragedy strikes Mayte's family. Auggie feels compelled to write her story to help her process and heal-but are his intentions truly selfless? The best story he's ever written could impact the best friendships he's ever had. How to Love You When You're Gone is equal parts heartbreaking, soul-healing, and absolutely hilarious from the very first page.

Gabriela Gonzales holds a BA in creative writing from Belmont University. A former literary nonprofit program coordinator, she has had her poetry and fiction featured in Wigleaf, Lost Balloon, Chestnut Review, The Lumiere Review, and elsewhere. She has been nominated for Best of the Net, Best New Poets, and the Pushcart Prize. She has also performed at TEDxNashville. Gabriela lives in Pennsylvania. How to Love You When You're Gone is her debut novel.