Suffer Love

Gr 9 Up—A classic romance for modern readers. Hadley St. Clair has been in Woodmont, TN, for less than a year but already has a reputation for fast hookups. She is an expert at pushing people away, especially her father, who was busted back in Nashville for having an affair. Her spontaneous make-out sessions are her attempt to bury the pain. When a handsome new student becomes her partner in English class, Hadley finds herself unable to stay emotionally distant. Sam also falls hard for Hadley. The problem? Sam's mother had the affair with Hadley's father. He and his younger sister, Livy, know who Hadley is, but Hadley doesn't know Sam's true identity. His struggle is complicated because his sister was the one who outed the affair to Hadley's family. Just when Hadley felt she had someone she could rely on, the truth comes out, threatening her relationship with Sam. Echoes of Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing are featured throughout this novel about a relationship that's full of secrets, half-truths, and hidden identities. Flawed adults are juxtaposed against seemingly more mature teenagers. Blake forces the question—what do we do when the people we are meant to trust the most, our parents, let us down the hardest?