Coleen Patrick

The Art of Chasing Normal Coleen Patrick

When fifteen year old Grace Callahan starts dreaming about her best friend Zac, in a more-than-friends kind of way, life gets messy. But Grace is a pro when it comes to chaos. After years of watching her older sister rebel, Grace has learned to lay low and stick to the plan. Except she can?t seem to keep her emotions inside the lines. Her life continues to defy symmetry, and when she mistakenly kisses Zac during movie night, everything changes. Humiliated and fearing for their friendship, Grace chases normal. She goes along with her friend Chloe?s matchmaking schemes, takes on the roles of landscaper and zookeeper in order to keep the peace in her family, and helps her high school?s Ecology Club save the environment. Grace becomes an agreeable, rain garden designing insomniac with aquamarine hair (who may or may not be a bird assassin). Only, nothing is the same. Her dad is spending more time away from home. Chloe would rather be with her boyfriend than Grace. Her art teacher thinks she?s a fraud on canvas, and Grace?s big rain garden project is in jeopardy when she gets sucked into the middle of a school wide mascot debate. Worse, Grace is in love with Zac. With her family and friendships falling apart, Grace wonders if there are any rules at all when it comes to matters of the heart, or if the only way to normal is being herself.