My Heart Underwater

Fans of Adib Khorram and Randy Ribay will love this coming-of-age debut about a Filipina American teen drowning under pressure and learning to trust her heart. 

Corazon Tagubio is an outcast at the Catholic school she attends on scholarship. Her crush on her teacher, Ms. Holden, doesn’t help. At home, Cory worries that less-than-perfect grades aren’t good enough for her parents, who already work overtime to support her distant half-brother in the Philippines.

After an accident leaves her dad comatose, Cory feels like Ms. Holden is the only person who really understands her. But when a crush turns into something more and the secret gets out, Cory is sent to her relatives in Manila. She’s not prepared to face strangers in an unfamiliar place, but she discovers how the country that shaped her past might also redefine her future.

This novel takes readers on a journey across the world as Cory comes to understand her family, her relationships, and ultimately, herself.

“My Heart Underwater is a lovely, magnificent wonder of a novel that will leave you with the rarest of tender heartaches: life-affirming, life-inspiring, life-loving; a heartache of joy and becoming. You won’t walk freely, or willingly, from these pages.” —New York Times bestselling author Marjorie Liu

* A Kirkus Reviews Best Book of 2020 * A 2022 ALA Rainbow Booklist Selection *

What happens when the only person who understands you is the one you can’t be with?

• A Secret First Love: Cory is falling for her history teacher, Ms. Holden, the one person who sees her for who she is. But in the halls of her Catholic high school, this forbidden crush could cost her everything.
• Fish Out of Water: Exiled to the Philippines after her secret is exposed, Cory must navigate the bustling streets of Manila and a family of strangers, including a half-brother she’s only ever seen on a screen.
• Deep Family Secrets: In a country she barely knows, Cory unearths the painful history that separated her mother from her family and begins to understand the sacrifices her parents made.
• A Journey of Identity: Torn between her American upbringing and her Filipino roots, Cory must find her own voice and learn to trust her own heart, even when it’s breaking.

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