A new voice in literary fiction, C.D. Smart walks the line of Women's Fiction and Contemporary Romance with a flair for the unconventional. Life has been a steady stream of let downs, rejection, and torment for twenty-eight-year-old Camellia “Cam” Lyon. But she doesn’t let the afflictions of her past and strained relationship with her mother keep her from making the same birthday wish every year–to be loved. An exhausted newswriter, Cam leaves journalism for teaching in Blackthorn, a farm town on the windy plains of Oklahoma, in hopes of finally writing her overdue debut novel. And maybe the needed change will bring about her lifelong wish. But Cam quickly learns Blackthorn High is not a place of nurturing guidance, or even learning. Met by an oblivious principal and apathetic teachers who bully and disregard her, the pain of her past feels more present than ever. Left to struggle in the dark, Cam is all but forgotten and invisible. That is until eighteen-year-old Tobey Castle decides to eat lunch with her one day, since he too has no one to talk to. Insightful and intelligent, Tobey quickly proves to not only be unlike any of the other students, but unlike anyone she has ever met. As their friendship grows, so too does a strength and courage in Cam she has never known, as well as inspiration for her novel. But something else grows too. Something that changes everything. The thing about wishes is that you never know how they’ll come true. Unashamedly honest, emotionally raw, and thought provoking, C.D. Smart’s debut novel, and first book of a duology, reveals the other side of a socially controversial relationship in a tale about accepting the love we are given, and allowing it to heal the broken pieces of our lives. ~~~~ Check out reader reviews on The Other Side's page at Goodreads and BookBub.