Lahore, Pakistan. Then.
Misbah is a dreamer and storyteller, newly married to Toufiq in an arranged match. After their young life is shaken by tragedy, they come to the United States and open the Clouds' Rest Inn Motel, hoping for a new start.
Juniper, California. Now.
Salahudin and Noor are more than best friends; they are family. Growing up as outcasts in the small desert town of Juniper, California, they understand each other the way no one else does. Until The Fight, which destroys their bond with the swift fury of a star exploding.
Now, Sal scrambles to run the family motel as his mother Misbahs health fails and his grieving father loses himself to alcoholism. Noor, meanwhile, walks a harrowing tightrope: working at her wrathful uncles liquor store while hiding the fact that shes applying to college so she can escape himand Juniperforever.
When Sals attempts to save the motel spiral out of control, he and Noor must ask themselves what friendship is worthand what it takes to defeat the monsters in their pasts and the ones in their midst.
From one of todays most cherished and bestselling young adult authors comes a breathtaking novel of young love, old regrets, and forgivenessone thats both tragic and poignant in its tender ferocity.