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CARRIE JONES is an award-winning author who recently graduated from Vermont College’s MFA program. She is the author of the YA novels Girl, Hero; Love (and Other Uses for Duct Tape); and Tips on Having a Gay (ex)Boyfriend, which was nominated for a YALSA Quick Pick and won the Maine Literary Award. Carrie lives in Ellsworth, Maine. carriejonesbooks.com

Winner of the 2008 Maine Literary Award

It isn’t every day that my high school boyfriend, Eastbrook High School’s Harvest King, tells me he’s gay. It’s not every day that the Harvest Queen is dumped in the middle of a road with the stars watching the humiliation and the dogs barking because they want to come help tear my heart out and leave it on the cold gray ground. It isn’t every day that my entire world falls apart.

Belle believes that Dylan is her true love—maybe even her soulmate. Until one cold night when Dylan drops the ultimate bomb: he’s gay. Where, Belle wonders, does that leave her? Should she have somehow been able to tell? Is every guy that she loves going to turn out to be gay?

This beautifully-written debut explores what happens when you are suddenly forced to see someone in a different light, and what that can teach you about yourself.

Publishers Weekly

Jones's debut novel has a provocative premise: Belle is stunned when her longtime boyfriend Dylan-the Eastbrook High School "Harvest King" to her "Harvest Queen"-reveals that he is gay. She questions her ability to know who anyone truly is ("How long did he know? How many times did he kiss me and wish I were a boy?.... How could I not notice?"), but also worries about how Dylan will be treated in their small Maine town. Belle is surprised to find out that, days after their breakup, Dylan already has a boyfriend; she cautiously begins her own romance with Tom, who has long carried a torch for her. Jones offers a convincing small-town environment ("There are no secrets in Eastbrook," Belle jokes with "a hideous movie ghoul laugh") and the author's poetic prose ably captures her heroine's emotional upheavals ("Each want stomps itself into my heart.... I want a life where there are four stable walls and the people I love are who I expect them to be"). An array of major plotlines-Belle's heartbreak, her and Dylan's new relationships, a thug that threatens both Dylan and Belle and the former couple's attempt to salvage their friendship, among others-can make it difficult to know where to focus. Additionally, some character quirks, such as a German teacher's proclivity for dressing in costume, seem a bit scripted. Still, even those who can't identify with Belle's exact situation should readily empathize with her and gladly accompany her as she gradually rallies and finds new love. Ages 12-up. (May)