Synopses & Reviews
A smart, unexpected romance from an award-winning author.
Salvador Resendez — Salva to his friends — appears to have it all. His Mexican immigrant family has high expectations, and Salva intends to fulfill them. He's student body president, quarterback of the football team, and has a near-perfect GPA. Everyone loves him.
Especially Beth Courant, AKA the walking disaster area. Dreamy and shy, Beth is used to blending into the background. But she's also smart, and she has serious plans for her future.
Popular guy and bookish girl — the two have almost nothing in common. Until fate throws them together and the attraction is irresistible. Soon Beth is pushing Salva to set his sights higher than ever — because she knows he has more to offer, more than even he realizes.
Then tragedy strikes — and threatens to destroy everything that Salva has worked for. Will Beth's love be enough to save him?
Thoughtful and romantic, this is a beautifully written story about following your heart and fulfilling your potential.
Review
"Osterlund offers a believable and touching relationship between two protagonists readers will come to believe belong together.
Despite the hardship of immigrating to the United States from Mexico in elementary school, Salvador "Salva" Resendez, now a senior, is a straight-A student and the star quarterback of his football team. Having taken freshman English in middle school, he's not happy when he's saddled with the additional responsibility of AP English with a teacher known as "the Mercenary" instead of phys ed. Beth Courant, aka the "walking disaster area," is also an A student — though a hopelessly disorganized one — and a gifted writer. Her pitch-perfect, third-person internal dialogue, which fluidly alternates with Salva's, reveals grief over the loss of her grandmother and her mother's neglect. When Salva receives a D from the Mercenary, he turns to Beth. Predictably, Salva begins to return Beth's hitherto-unrequited crush, but what is unpredictably refreshing is the manner in which their romance unfolds....[A] story of friendship, love and determination that will satisfy readers." Kirkus Reviews
About the Author
Anne Osterlund is the author of four young adult books, including Aurelia and its sequel, Exile. Her second novel, Academy 7, won the OCTE Spirit of Oregon Award and was an ALA/YALSA Popular Paperback nominee. Anne works as a full-time author and presents for schools, conferences, and writing events. She grew up in the sunshine of eastern Oregon and earned a BA from Whitworth College, where she majored in elementary education with Spanish and English teaching fields. Anne lives in a cute little yellow house with her new feline friend, Simba, and her own library of young adult books. She and her characters can be found on her website at www.anneosterlund.com. Salvation is her fourth novel, and she has dreams of many more in the future.