A poignant novel about queer identity from National Book Award finalist Julie Anne Peters.
Mike (real name: Mary Elizabeth) is gay and likes to pump iron, play softball, and fix plumbing. In addition to her identity, Mike is struggling to come to terms with her father's suicide and her mother's detachment from the family. When a glamorous new girl, Xanadu, arrives in Mike's small Kansas town, Mike falls in love at first sight. Xanadu is everything Mike is not: cool, confident, feminine, sexy...and straight.
Originally published under the title Far From Xanadu, this heartbreaking yet ultimately hopeful novel will speak to anyone who has ever fallen in love with someone who can't love them back.
PRETEND YOU LOVE ME is the heartbreaking story of Mary Elizabeth dubbed Mike because of her interest in pumping iron, playing softball and fixing plumbing who finds herself in love with Xanadu a new girl who is Mike's complete opposite, in every way including her orientation towards men.
