Return to Lilusa on November 1st!

On August 1st, I introduced readers to a little girl named Amber Hayes, a little boy named Jeremy Bennett, and the beginning of a friendship neither of them could have known would follow them into adulthood.

Now, on November 1st, we’re going back to Lilusa.

And this time, we’re going home for the holidays.

But before we get there, maybe we should talk about where we left off.

If you haven’t read Snot Rag & Cheese Whiz yet, don’t worry. I’m going to try very hard not to ruin it for you.

Snot Rag & Cheese Whiz begins when six-year-old Amber moves to the small town of Lilusa, Michigan.

As the only girl among a neighborhood full of boys, she has to find her place—and Jeremy is the boy who becomes her safe space.

Their childhood friendship is the kind that becomes woven into who you are. There are scraped knees, neighborhood adventures, a treehouse, silly nicknames, and all those little moments that seem insignificant when you're a kid but somehow become some of the most important memories you carry into adulthood.

But kids grow up.

Life happens.

Jeremy leaves Lilusa for college, and eventually Amber and Jeremy spend eleven years apart, building separate adult lives.

By the time we meet them again, Amber has a degree, a law internship, and a fiancé.

Jeremy has built a successful career in Minneapolis.

They aren't the children they once were.

Then life brings them both back to Lilusa.

And suddenly, eleven years doesn't seem quite as long as it did before.

Snot Rag & Cheese Whiz is ultimately a story about friendship, timing, home, and what happens when the person who knew you before you became who you are walks back into your life.

I won't tell you everything that happens from there.

I will tell you that plans change.

Relationships change.

People change.

And by the end of the book, neither Amber nor Jeremy are headed toward the future they expected when they first returned to Lilusa.

That's where Snot Rag & Cheese Whiz: Home for the Holidays comes in.

The original book asks what happens when two childhood best friends find each other again.

The companion novella gets to ask something different:

What happens next?

Because falling in love is one thing.

Figuring out how that love fits into the lives you've already built is something else entirely.

Home for the Holidays follows Amber and Jeremy through their first holiday season as they begin exploring this new side of a relationship that has existed, in one form or another, for most of their lives.

We get Thanksgiving.

Christmas.

New Year's.

We get family dinners, holiday traditions, snowy adventures, quiet moments, and—of course—a certain treehouse that has already witnessed quite a bit of Amber and Jeremy's history.

But underneath all the holiday coziness is a very real question.

Amber and Jeremy may have found their way back to each other, but their adult lives don't magically rearrange themselves simply because they've realized how they feel.

There are careers.

There is distance.

There are relationships and decisions from the past that still have consequences.

That's the heart of Home for the Holidays.

And perhaps that's why I'm especially excited to return to these characters.

When Snot Rag & Cheese Whiz released, I hoped readers would feel some of the nostalgia I felt while writing it.

Then the reviews started coming in.

One reader described the story with three words:

“Friendship, Home, and Nostalgia.”

Another called it a “refreshingly sweet romance” and talked about being able to settle in, relax, and simply enjoy the sweetness of the story.

And then one Goodreads reviewer gave me a description I don't think I'll ever forget:

“This book hugs my brain.”

I absolutely loved that.

Because that's exactly what I wanted Snot Rag & Cheese Whiz to feel like.

And it's exactly the world I wanted to return to for Home for the Holidays.

Not because Amber and Jeremy's story needed another dramatic adventure, but because after everything it took to bring them back into each other's lives, I wanted to give them—and you—a little more time together.

Time to settle in.

Time to celebrate.

Time to figure out what comes next.

And really, isn't that what the holidays are so often about?

Coming home to the people who know us best, carrying all the history that came before, and wondering what the next year might bring.

On November 1st, Amber and Jeremy are coming home for the holidays.

I hope you'll come home to Lilusa with them.

And happy holidays!