Emma Blair

Emma Blair is the main character and first person narrator of the novel. Emma grows up in Acton, Massachusetts with her parents, Colin and Ashley, and her older sister, Marie. Unlike Marie, Emma has no interest in books or writing. She also has little interest in inheriting the family business, a bookstore called Blair Books. Indeed, as a teenager, she shapes her identity around being different than Marie. It is not until she meets and forms a crush on her classmate, Jesse Lerner, that she feels her identity is validated. Like Emma, Jesse does not want to be the person his family expects him to be. He too wants to leave Acton and travel the world.

After Emma and Jesse fall in love in high school, they begin to shape a life and future together. Jesse gives Emma the courage to attend school and move to California...