The golden season

In the small West Texas town where her dad coaches football, Emmy has always been close with her parents, even through their divorce. Emmy knows that, in Texas, you love a boy and smile through any judgment. In her debut, Texan novelist Sneed takes themes of football and religion to flip readers' expectations on their heads and show what love can do to change--or solidify--a person and even a place. Emmy's getting ready to graduate from Walker University, which her mother also attended, and begin a corporate job when she decides to share the truth about her sexuality. Emmy's parents and community, and to a degree Emmy herself, must come to terms with Emmy's queerness. Will the school board president and the church gossip discover that love is love, or do judgmental, small-town roots run too deep? Ultimately, those Emmy least expects to show love are the ones who give her the most comfort. The changing seasons make a perfect backdrop for this timeless story of family, acceptance, and love.

Emilia "Emmy" Quinn loves all things West Texas, including football. She has also just come out to her separated parents, which could create problems in her Southern Baptist community and especially for her father, who has been offered a plum coaching job but is told he must reveal anything in his life that could be deemed problematic. Complicating matters, Emmy has just met the cutest, smartest grad student, but Cameron is from Massachusetts--and she hates Texas! With a 50,000-copy first printing.