We Were Never Here: An Emotional YA Novel About Love, Illness, and Acceptance

In this exquisitely written and emotionally charged young adult debut, Jennifer Gilmore explores how sometimes the wounds you can’t see are the most painful.

Did you know your entire life can change in an instant?

For sixteen-year-old Lizzie Stoller that moment is when she collapses out of the blue. The next thing she knows, she’s in a hospital with an illness she’s never heard of.

But that isn’t the only life-changing moment for Lizzie. The other is when Connor and his dog, Verlaine, walk into her hospital room. Lizzie has never connected with anyone the way she does with the handsome teenage volunteer. However, the more time she spends with him and the deeper in love she falls, the more she realizes that Connor has secrets and a deep pain of his own . . . and that while being with him has the power to make Lizzie forget about her illness, being with her might tear Connor apart.