When your namesake is Pablo Neruda - the greatest love poet of all time - finding "the one" should be easy. But for sixteen-year-old Neruda Diaz, it's anything but. He's fallen in love many times - seven to be exact. So, he figures, it's only a matter of time before someone loves him back. Callie could be that someone! She's nothing like the girls Neruda typically falls for, which he considers a good sign. He's thrilled when they become partners on a school assignment. But as they work together and develop an appreciation for the other's artistic abilities and each other - Neruda realises there's one kind of romance he's never considered: a love born from friendship. With his better half in reach and artistic ambitions on track, everything is finally coming together, until Neruda is blindsided by the messy, complicated nature of love - and art - in more ways than one. And when the relationships he's looked to for guidance threaten to implode, Neruda must confront the reality that real love and art is crazy, messy, beautiful, and riskier than just saying the words.
A refreshing perspective on love that is anything but a love story, with highs and lows that reflect the tumultuous nature of teen romance, this is a novel for anyone who's ever fought for that hard-won happily ever after.
We are all the same in the middle of the night, fighting against the great tide of loneliness that threatens to drown us. All longing for someone to hear, to truly know us as we are.
