This Could Be Forever
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- 12,99 €
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This “endearing and honest” (School Library Journal) romance about love across cultures follows a Black girl and Brown boy who find themselves—and each other—while pursuing their passions the summer before college.
Deja’s got a plan. The first in her large family to go to college, she wants to study chemistry and sell natural skin care products, like the ones she already creates from plants grown on her family’s North Carolina farm. It all starts with the Onward Bound summer program at the University of Maryland, the summer before school officially starts.
Raja’s got a dream. His traditional Nepali parents want him to study engineering and settle down in an arranged marriage, but his passion is art, and he wants to open his own tattoo parlor one day. In the meantime, he’s apprenticing at a tattoo shop in College Park, Maryland.
When Deja walks into the shop where Raja’s working, they both start crushing hard—over the course of the summer, they fall more and more deeply for one another. But the closer they get and the more their lives entwine, the more they find that dating someone who doesn’t match your parents’ expectations is harder than they ever imagined.
Can they bridge the divide between the vision their families have for their futures and the lives—and love—that are starting to feel like destiny?
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
This timely, touching novel by LaDelle (Love Radio) is a moving exploration of love's potential to bridge cultural divides. Sparks fly when Black teen Deja Martin and Nepali American teen Raja Sharma meet at a tattoo shop in D.C. The pair's budding romance goes into full bloom over the course of the summer upon discovering that they will both be attending the University of Maryland in the fall. But their seemingly picturesque love story isn't without hurdles. Both Deja and Raja worry that neither of their families will be accepting of the other's partner. Raja feels that his family won't see beyond the "ancient-ass caste system" and cultural expectations surrounding arranged marriage that have plagued him since birth. Deja, meanwhile, fears her family's assumptions about courting someone who isn't Black because, "when it comes to interracial dating, it seems like Black girls always get it the worst." The protagonists' distinct alternating first-person POVs seamlessly balance youthful revelations on love and life with sophisticated musings on finding common ground and celebrating each other's differences as they strive to make their relationship work. Sparkling character personalities make cast interactions leap off the page in a richly rendered romance that probes themes of self-reflection, cultural identity, and the connective and healing power of love. Ages 12–up.
