In this brilliant debut novel from an acclaimed Chinese-American screenwriter and director a
woman must work with a man from her past and grapple with the tragedy that binds them together
even as generational loyalties keep them apart. Thirteen years after her younger sister's death
Helen Zhang is doing alright. Better than alright if you don't look too closely. She's the
bestselling author of a young adult series that's being adapted into a TV show and she's
scored a coveted spot in the writers' room. Never mind that she's used to storytelling in
solitude and is convinced she'll be revealed as an imposter any minute. Or that she only jumped
at the opportunity to move to LA to avoid her writer's block. Helen has a few months to figure
things out in a fresh-start city where she knows exactly no one. No one except... Grant
Shephard hasn't seen Helen since high school when their lives were tied together forever by
the car wreck that killed her sister. He's done everything in his power to move on and while
the panic attacks have never quite gone away he's universally well liked around town as a
screenwriter who can be counted on to deliver both on the page and in a writers room. He knows
he shouldn't have taken the job on Helen's show but working as the showrunner's right-hand man
will open doors to developing his own projects. Grant's presence comes as an unwelcome surprise
to Helen and he's exactly as she remembers him?charming funny popular and lovable in ways
that she has never been. Helen's exactly as Grant remembers too?brilliant closed off and
undeniably beautiful. The more time they spend together the more undeniable the pull between
them becomes. But working together is fraught and sometimes messy and Helen's parents who
have never forgiven him have no idea Grant is in the picture at all. When secrets come to
light they must reckon with the fact that theirs was never meant to be any kind of love story.
For these two very different writers the key to making peace with their past?and
themselves?just might lie in holding on to each other in the present.
