For fans of Twilight, If I Stay, and Five Feet Apart, "Rafa and the Real Boy" will change the way you think about love, life, death, and whatever comes after.
Some loves last a lifetime. Some...much longer.
Excerpt:
I close my eyes and soak up as much of him as I can, as much as I'm allowed. I angle my chin up toward him, wanting more, my body taking over once again. But I feel him slipping away, as if he's fading into the background, dissolving like watercolors while I remain acrylic. Then, just as our lips are about to meet, the sparks disappear, and so does he.
Synopsis:
After losing her brother to cancer and her father to parental separation, Rafaela Torres is dragged to a new school in the middle-of-nowhere, Minnesota. She has no friends, crippling social anxiety, and her new home might also be home to Esko's darkest secret. Then, when things can't get worse, a TBI lands Rafa in the hospital, accompanied by memory gaps and hallucinations which make it difficult for her to differentiate between reality and delusion.
Things turn around when she meets Ash-an attractive, mysterious older boy-and finally has a friend. Maybe even more than a friend. In Ash, she can confide her deepest secrets and darkest fears, including the one thing she's never talked about with anyone. The only problem? No one else seems to know he exists.
"This book has the PERFECT cocktail of romance, suspense, friendship, and family-all the things. I cried twice (maybe three times) while reading this novel." ★★★★★
"From the first page to the last, you are enveloped in Rafa's confusing and emotional world - filled with mystery, romance, and pain - you will stay up way beyond a reasonable bedtime to unravel it." ★★★★★