Zyla & Kai
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- £3.99
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- £3.99
Publisher Description
'Zyla and Kai's journey is exciting, romantic, and completely transporting. It reminds me of Jenny Han, Stephanie Perkins, and the novels that made me first fall in love with YA romance' Book Riot's Best Books of 2022
A fresh new YA romance novel by Kristina Forest, Zyla & Kai is an epic star-crossed love story about first love and not just the will they, won't they - but why can't they?
While on a school trip to the Poconos Mountains, Zyla and Kai run away together, leaving their friends and family confused. As far as everyone knows, they've been broken up for months.
And honestly? Their break-up hadn't surprised anyone. Zyla, a cynic about love, met Kai, a hopeless romantic, while working together at an amusement park the previous summer, and they couldn't have been more different.
Alternating between the past and present, we see the love story unfold from Zyla and Kai's perspectives: how they first became the unlikeliest of friends over the summer, how they fell in love during the school year, and why they ultimately broke up. Or did they?
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Black 17-year-olds and southern New Jerseyans Zyla Matthews and Kai Jones are polar opposites. Zyla, who doesn't date to avoid repeating her now-divorced parents' mistakes, is singularly focused on her dream of studying fashion abroad; hopeless romantic Kai plans on attending Morehouse College while steering clear of his capricious ex-girlfriend. After getting paired up at their amusement park jobs, Zyla initially rejects Kai's advances—and though Kai himself is forbidden to date until graduation after an incident with his ex, the teens easily shift from friends to lovers, embarking on a whirlwind romance before mysteriously breaking up a few months later. Their classmates and families are soon shocked to learn that, while on their senior trip to the Poconos, the two have supposedly run away together. Using alternating past and present narratives, Forest (Now That I've Found You) artfully blends Zyla and Kai's story of star-crossed lovers with the slowly unfurling mystery of their departure. Populated by a compassionate, fully fleshed-out cast, variously queer characters, and depictions of loving blended Black families, this joyous novel excels in its heartfelt portrayals of open communication, mental health prioritization, devastating heartbreak, and tender first love. Ages 12–up.
