Seven Little Kisses

"Don't you know boys only pick on you when they like you?"

She said it in English. She said it with confidence. She said it so that I wouldn't forget it.

Peruvian American Samaya Ximena has spent the last twenty-five years searching for love, friendship, and purpose within the confines of her coastal town. After immigrating to the United States with her mother, Rebeca Ximena, Samaya learns she must quickly come to terms with a new home, a new language, and the fact that her abusive father is no longer in their lives, opening her mother to explore the dating scene.

At first, the idea of a boy infiltrating their sisterhood sickens Samaya until she meets Isaac Haas, and one turbulent play date turns into bloodshed on the playground and a kiss that haunts her throughout every romantic pursuit. No matter who she kisses, Samaya cannot shake the memory of the owl-eyed boy and the scar he gifted her to remember him by.

As the years progress, Samaya finds herself running headfirst into a world of boys, parties, and drugs alongside her best friend, Lila Park. The girls form an unbreakable bond, leaning on each other as they explore love, dating, and the chaotic mess of being a teenage girl. That is until one drunken night out at a frat house forever changes Samaya's life, and an owl-eyed boy kneels at her feet as if the last 14 years without each other never happened.