Named a most-anticipated book of 2026 by Debutiful, LGBTQ+ Reads, and Bookshop.org

A bighearted debut novel about queer yearning, indie musicians, and the gut-punch of first love and heartbreak

Jamie is bad at endings. She's stuck at a dead-end Baltimore newspaper job, continuing to have break-up sex with her first-ever hetero partner, and haunted by the what-ifs of her ex-girlfriend Mari, a complex and brilliant musician. She and Mari formed a band together called the Maidenheads, but since they (and the band) broke up a decade ago, Jamie hasn't been able to sing.

Then an unexpected opportunity to perform in DC with Mari's successful new band arises, and Jamie jumps at it. What begins as a return to music becomes a reckoning—with the weight of unfinished love, the voice she long buried, and her own complicated past. But as Jamie channels more of her energy into the band, other threads in her life begin to fray, and she must make some urgent choices about what she's willing to risk––and what she needs to release.

“I never wanted to stop reading this thrilling, lively, and moving book! Jamie and Mari felt so real that I expect their story to go on, expect to see them at a show, or walking down the street, holding hands, eating gummy bears, or fighting. A book about finding out who you are in art, gender and sexuality, family and love, and in every way that matters. This novel is as scrappy and full of heart as the Maidenhead’s music, and I flew through it with joy and plenty of tears.”
—Lydi Conklin, author of Songs of No Provenance