At White Ravens University, where athletes train to become professional sportspeople, Alex is on the swimming team with her best friend, Xiuying. Having grown up mostly alone, parents absent and brother often busy with his own life, Alex tends not to meet new people unless she and Xiuying are together.
After an embarrassing encounter with a boy from the volleyball team Alex soon discovers that the world isn’t so big after all and the universe has a funny way of setting people up, especially when and with whom they’re least expecting.
Despite her reserved character, Alex becomes part of a newly formed friend group consisting of four amazing people with different identities and personalities. As she tries to overcome her anxiety and negative past events, Alex finds herself both struggling with romantic feelings for a new acquaintance and a full blown gender crisis.
The book has been published on January 17th 2023. In almost two months (currently March 16th) I have sold over 550 copies, and some of those have been featured as ebook "freebies" for the readers who have ordered the February Dazzling Bookish Box.
The book has ranked #28 in Teen and Young Adult LGBTQ+ on Amazon during the first few days of release, and then #19 in the same category on March 14th.
ONE
I’ve always thought that swimming felt a lot like dreaming about moving. I physically moved my body and strained myself to go as fast and precisely as I could, but it always felt like the water pushed me forward, as if it were doing all the work for me. When my head was underwater, nothing mattered. No thoughts plagued my mind and nothing around me really registered. I just went forward, and turned, and then went forward again until my muscles burned and my body screamed at me to stop.
Back when I had just started, the thought of being so numb and out of it while swimming used to disturb me. I never talked to anyone about it, so I never got to figure out if this were normal or not, but it didn’t really matter anymore. The nothingness comforted me now and made the water feel as if it were a friend.
My hand touched the side of the pool and I stopped, head coming up to the surface to take a deep breath. I pulled myself out of the water to sit on the pool side, taking my swim cap and goggles off as I slowly caught my breath. Only two other lanes were occupied and neither swimmer seemed intent on stopping soon. Picking up my towel, I headed to the changing room. The hot water of a long shower helped me get the chlorine off my skin. I then dressed, choosing to towel dry my hair rather than use one of the hairdryers. My black hair ended right under my chin, so it was short enough to dry off quickly and easily on its own, especially considering it was still warm outside.
The city of Corvol wasn’t big or busy, but it was widely renowned for White Ravens University, a sports university that currently offered training in numerous different sports, where athletes didn’t have to worry about studying but focused solely on training.
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Italian
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Translation in progress.
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Spanish
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Translation in progress.
Translated by Juan Danza and Evangelina Hernández
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