I Hold Your Heart

Description

The tense, tender must-read book of the summer - perfect for fans of Louise O'Neill and Sara Barnard 'You make me feel like there's something good in the world I can hold on to,' Aaron says. He kisses me again, draws me so close it's almost hard to breathe. 'I love you, Gem. And I promise I'll hold your heart forever.' When Gemma meets Aaron, she feels truly seen for the first time. Their love story is the intense kind. The written-in-the-stars, excluding-all-others kind. The kind you write songs about. But little by little their relationship takes over Gemma's life. What happens when being seen becomes being watched, and care becomes control? Told in both Gemma's and Aaron's words, this is a raw, moving exploration of gaslighting in teenage relationships that skewers our ideas of what love looks like.

Karen Gregory has been a confirmed bookworm since early childhood. She wrote her first story about Bantra the mouse aged twelve, then put away the word processor until her first child was born, when she was overtaken by the urge to write. Her first novel, Countless, published in 2017, was shortlisted for the Leeds Book Award and longlisted for the Branford Boase. Her second novel, Skylarks, was published in 2018. Karen lives in Wiltshire with her family.

This moving romance, with its well-drawn working-class heroine, its examination of power, politics and protest, and its clarion call to make courageous choices, represents all that's best in British YA * Guardian on SKYLARKS * A heartbreaking, hopeful and highly unusual debut * Imogen Russell Williams, Metro, on COUNTLESS * Insightful, authentic and profoundly moving ... This is an important, impactful, mightily impressive debut about love, reaching out and taking one step at a time * Lovereading4kids on COUNTLESS * An authentic, hopeful-but-not-saccharine account of contemporary life * Irish Times on SKYLARKS * The strength of this book lies in the way the author makes the reader aware, slowly but inexorably, of the coercive control Aaron seeks to exert over Gemma. * Books for Keeps *