George Warren (real name: Frances, but nobody calls her that) is well aware that she's sometimes too tough for her own good. She didn't mean to make the hot new guy cry—twice. And maybe she shouldn't have hit the school's mean girl in the face. George's loyalty and impulsiveness are what her friends love about her—they know she's got their backs.

On the cusp of her senior year, though, everything starts to change: a fight with her best friend puts an irreparable rift in George's social circle, George's father can no longer work as a police officer, and the family's financial problems threaten her dream of going away for college. The year is turning out nothing like what George envisioned, but unfortunately, life's a bad writer.

Then George meets Francis, an older guy who shares her name and her talent for sarcastic banter. In him, she—the queen of catch-and-release—has finally found someone she wants to hold on to, when lately it seems like she's only been pushing people away. And with him, she falls hard and recklessly in love in ways she never thought herself capable. In short, it's the year George nearly loses everything, including herself, in secret and utterly alone.

With brilliant humor and heartbreaking truth, award-winning author Hadley Dyer tells a story of finding love—and the road back from unthinkable loss.