The Sum of These Things

A Summer of First Loves, New Friendships, and Learning to Trust – Claire's Journey Continues in This Heartfelt Sequel.
Like falling for a girl is easy. Well, it is if that girl is Mia. What Claire hasn't learned yet is that now comes the hard part: learning to trust in this new relationship. And that isn't easy when no one has ever given you a reason to trust before. Then there's the pressing question of what to do with her life. Claire's new volunteer job working with kids offers a glimpse of a potential future, but it definitely isn't something her pushy mother is going to like.
Still, everything feels hopeful as she embarks on the next chapter of her life, armed with new friends and the warm and funny Mia. But Claire quickly discovers that negotiating this new terrain of adulthood isn't easy. Over the rest of this momentous summer, the biggest lesson Claire must learn is how not to let anything get in the way of her happiness. Especially herself.

From Melbourne, Australia, Emily was recently granted her PhD. She works part-time in academia, where she hates marking papers but loves working with her students. She also loves where she lives but travels as much as possible and tends to harbour crushes on cities more than on people. She spends a lot of her time staring over the screen of her laptop and out the window at the somewhat less pretty (but highly entertaining) combined kebab stand/carwash across the road.