My Life After Now

Lucy just had the worst week ever. Seriously, mega bad. And suddenly, it’s all too much—she wants out. Out of her house, out of her head, out of her life. She wants to be a whole new Lucy. So she does something the old Lucy would never dream of.

And now her life will never be the same. Now, how will she be able to have a boyfriend? What will she tell her friends?  How will she face her family?  Now, every moment is a precious gift.  She never thought being positive could be so negative. But now, everything’s different…because now she’s living with HIV.

Debut author Verdi paints Lucy’s devastation and her tangled emotions with honesty and compassion…Verdi’s novel never preaches, instead telling Lucy’s story with realism and hope.     – Publishers Weekly

Verdi forces her readers to face Lucy’s dilemma with unflinching honesty and unfaltering compassion… A gem of a novel.    – RT Book Reviews (Top Pick, 4.5 stars)

Lucy’s journey toward accepting her diagnosis is realistically handled, complete with highs and lows.     – Kirkus

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The Summer I Wasn’t Me (Coming April 2014)

After her father’s death, seventeen-year-old Lexi Hamilton’s home life is being held together by a thread. But then her mother finds out Lexi’s biggest secret—that she’s gay—and the thread snaps completely.

Desperate to do whatever it takes to keep what’s left of her family together, Lexi agrees to go to New Horizons—a Christian summer camp where teenagers are taught to resist their same sex attractions. Though she’s still a little unsure about the whole degayifying thing, Lexi dives into the process willingly, knowing this is her last chance to fix her relationship with her mother.

But then Lexi meets Carolyn—the gorgeous blonde athlete who has her own secretive reasons for wanting to become straight—and her determination begins to waver. As the summer goes by, Lexi finds herself caught in an impossible dilemma: If she gives up on her commitment to the degayifying, what will it mean for her family? But if she gives up her feelings for Carolyn—feelings that are beginning to feel a lot like love—what will it mean for her?