Books I Wrote
Latest Release
American Dreamy
It’s so easy for adults to hate summer. They have to deal with yard work, bugs, traffic, crowded supermarkets, and cicadas. Summer is stifling. It’s so easy for kids to love summer. No school, no homework, no getting up early, no doing all the things they don’t want to do. Summer is freedom. For Ryan Denning, summer is the beginning of a decades-long love story. One that has inspired four New York Times best-selling novels. At the encouragement of her editor, Kara Hannigan, Ryan sets out to find the girl who stole her heart all those years ago at summer camp. Along the way, Ryan is forced to reconsider her beliefs on love, relationships, and what it means to be a romantic.
The Carly Allen Trilogy
The Carly Allen trilogy was born out of a cornerstone of my childhood: teen romantic comedies. As I grew up and started to realize I was gay, I was bummed that none of these really great movies I watched had an LGBT teen as the lead. If they did, it tended to be a heavy tearjerker where someone was bound to die at the end. I didn't want that. So I decided to write the story I searched high and low for as a teen. The story of a high school lesbian not coming out, but coming of age.
This is Carly Allen's story.
Burn Before Reading
Carly Allen is finishing up her senior year of high school. After a rough break-up at the beginning of the year, she’s ready to move on and leave her hometown in the dust. The only problem? She still hasn’t heard back from any of the colleges she applied to. As the end of the year approaches, will Carly be able to figure out her future in time? Throw in a new crush, a moderately successful high school jam band, and a sarcastic freshman to tutor, and it’ll be a miracle if she makes it to graduation alive.
I Didn’t Start the Fire
It’s the beginning of the rest of her life…or at least the next four years. Carly Allen has graduated from high school and is poised to begin her freshman year at Oberlin College. She’s leaving everything behind for the promised land of Ohio. While dealing with new friends, classes, a mysterious roommate, and a long-distance relationship, Carly’s trying to find a voice of her own. Packed with more ’80s music than anyone has ever asked for, I Didn’t Start the Fire is the latest installment of the Carly Allen trilogy.
Burn After Reading
Carly Allen has finally made it into the real world…and it absolutely blows. She hasn’t seen or heard from Mollie Fae in years, and her dreams of writing have long been forgotten. Carly’s lost and alone, and her last-ditch effort to find herself again is to go on a 2,500-mile road trip across the country. Buckle up, throw some Springsteen on the record player, and join Carly one last time on her quest to find true love and the person she knows she can be.
You Like Me!
You Really Like Me!
The coolest thing in the world is getting to read what you write about what I write.
Thank you, thank you, thank you.
“This book series is the lesbian rom com we have all been waiting for. I want a movie. I want a comic. I want an audiobook so I can hear that song out loud!
It’s funny and cute, and if you read “Simon vs the Homosapien Agenda” and/or “To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before,” and thought, “Mm, nice, but where are my wlw?” This. Is. The Book.”
“This book was so much fun to read and I really enjoyed the story and its themes. I liked the main character’s quirky sense of humor and voice, and this book had me laughing out loud many times. It’s a quintessential coming of age story”
“Oh my god- this book is sooooo good. I fell in love with Carly Allen completely by page 2, and didn’t want the book to end! So sweet! So smart! So true!”
“I’m very glad I stumbled along this book. It’s exactly what I needed at this time. It’s a book about life and love and everything in between and is exactly the type of book I wish I wrote”
“This novel is predictable in nature, like a pop song, but makes you feel warm and nostalgic as the latter intends. A pop song is meant to make you feel - whether it is the party gungho feel-goods, or the tear out your heart, cry in your pillow melancholy - and this novel gives you that wholeheartedly”
“This book is sooooo fun, I loved every minute of it! ”
“These books are wonderfully light hearted and warm and delicious! I could have used these books growing up here to see happy endings for lesbians :) ”