about the book
Today is one of those days when nothing goes right. Devorah’s sister has gone into labor two months early; a hurricane is brewing outside; and her parents are out of town because, you know, the baby wasn’t expected for another two months.
To top everything off, Devorah is stuck caring for her sister at the hospital with her very unsupportive brother-in-law.
Then she gets stuck in an elevator with a boy. He’s cute too, but she can’t think like that—she’s not allowed to talk to boys. Her Hasidic upbringing forbids it. Devorah is allergic to rule-breaking, at least that’s the running joke in her family.
Jaxon doesn’t have much experience talking to girls who aren’t his younger sisters, especially pretty ones. But now that he’s stuck in an elevator with one, he might as well seize the opportunity.
Devorah doesn’t want to break the rules, but she doesn’t want to be rude to friendly boy who’s trying everything to get them out of the elevator either…
What does fate have in store for the Jewish girl and the non-Jewish black boy?
about the author
Una LaMarche’s parents have collected a bunch of stories and poems she wrote while growing up. As she puts it, “they’re almost all either insanely short or unfinished, and largely terrible, but they were clearly labors of love. So I like to believe that I was always a writer in my soul of souls, but was just scared to try to do it in any serious way until my late twenties.”
While trying to decide what to major in at college, Una clearly remembers choosing not to major in English. So many people majored in English that she wanted to avoid it, but now she thinks she was just afraid of the competition. She ended up majoring in film studies and got a job doing archival research for documentaries because she “was under the incredibly misguided impression that your undergraduate liberal arts major should determine what you do with your entire life.”
Eventually, in 2006, Una was fired from her job. It was then that she decided to try to become a writer.
Somehow, she became the managing editor of The New York Observer. Now she writes freelance for The New York Observer and The Huffington Post while staying at home to raise her son.
She is a karaoke enthusiast.
Una lives in Brooklyn, New York, with her husband and son, and a steady supply of chocolate-glazed mini donuts.
Sources:
Author website
Author biography: Teenreads
Author interview: The Culture Mom
Author interview: Penguin Random House
Also by Una LaMarche:
Don’t Fail Me Now. Razorbill. 2015.
Five Summers. Razorbill. 2013.
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