The Infinite Moment of Us by Lauren Myracle (review)

A model student and obedient daughter, Wren Gray has gotten used to putting the needs of others, particularly her parents, before her own, but as the end of high school approaches, she thinks it’s time she started making decisions for herself. Neglected as a child and subsequently bounced from foster home to foster home, Charlie Parker is simply glad to have made it through high school mostly unscathed, but he’s beginning to wonder if holding everyone at an arm’s length is worth the resulting loneliness. While they’ve been circling each other for years, the two teenagers finally act on their romantic feelings for each other at a graduation party and fall headlong into a passionate and lusty affair, one that changes both the way they see the world around them and themselves. The premise of an underprivileged, broken boy falling in love with an overindulged, broken girl isn’t terribly new, and Myracle falls back on a few too many tired tropes—the virginal heroine, the sexed-up ex of the hero, etc.—for this to stand out from the genre. The single-focus intensity of Wren and Charlie’s feelings is spot-on for the age group, however, and chapters move between both their perspectives as they grow into the relationship, offering readers of both sexes a rather compelling example of the how-to’s of intimacy. The descriptions of sex are vivid and erotic while still making room for the awkwardness and insecurities that Charlie and Wren experience as they get to know each other’s bodies. An angsty misunderstanding, a last-minute plane ticket, and a happy ending ensure that Charlie and Wren, as well as romance readers, get exactly what they came for here.