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A Novel
by Casey McQuiston
From the New York Times bestselling author of One Last Stop and Red, White & Royal Blue comes a romantic comedy about chasing down what you want, only to find what you need...
Chloe Green is so close to winning. After her moms moved her from SoCal to Alabama for high school, she's spent the past four years dodging gossipy classmates and the puritanical administration of Willowgrove Christian Academy. The thing that's kept her going: winning valedictorian. Her only rival: prom queen Shara Wheeler, the principal's perfect progeny.
But a month before graduation, Shara kisses Chloe and vanishes.
On a furious hunt for answers, Chloe discovers she's not the only one Shara kissed. There's also Smith, Shara's longtime quarterback sweetheart, and Rory, Shara's bad boy neighbor with a crush. The three have nothing in common except Shara and the annoyingly cryptic notes she left behind, but together they must untangle Shara's trail of clues and find her. It'll be worth it, if Chloe can drag Shara back before graduation to beat her fair and square.
Thrown into an unlikely alliance, chasing a ghost through parties, break-ins, puzzles, and secrets revealed on monogrammed stationery, Chloe starts to suspect there might be more to this small town than she thought. And maybe―probably not, but maybe―more to Shara, too.
Fierce, funny, and frank, Casey McQuiston's I Kissed Shara Wheeler is about breaking the rules, getting messy, and finding love in unexpected places.
"Brimming with classic YA plotlines, crisp writing, humorous asides, and fully fleshed characters and relationships―many queer―keep things fresh, leading to a genuinely hopeful ending that centers themes of authenticity and autonomy. " —Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"Chosen family and LGBTQIA+ elders are given weight to the central romantic story lines in this thoughtful meditation on LGBTQIA+ identity, pride, popularity, academic success, jealousy, and idolization." —Booklist (starred review)
"I Kissed Shara Wheeler assures readers that although hurt is real, love is complicated and friends can let you down, the world is wide and nothing is impossible." —BookPage (starred review)
"Raise your hand if you've been personally victimized by this funny, weird, razor-sharp, intensely compassionate, subversive, sweet, electrifyingly romantic knockout of a book. Casey freaking McQuiston, you've done it again." —Becky Albertalli, New York Times bestselling author of Kate in Waiting and Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda
"The master of meet-cute yet empowered romance novels that delve deep into the LGBTQ+ experience, McQuiston creates swoon-worthy, funny stories that should appeal to every reader. I am a sucker for coming-of-age novels, and this book ― McQuiston's first young adult novel ― feels like The Breakfast Club meets Election." —Emily Giffin, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Something Borrowed and Where We Belong
This information about I Kissed Shara Wheeler was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Casey McQuiston is a #1 New York Times bestselling author of romantic comedies, including One Last Stop, Red, White & Royal Blue, and I Kissed Shara Wheeler, whose writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, and Bon Appetit. Born and raised in southern Louisiana, Casey now lives in New York City with a poodle mix named Pepper.
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