CAN'T WAIT TO READ: Dream Things True by Marie Marquardt

Release date: September 1st 2015
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Pre-order: Amazon

Synopsis via Goodreads:
A modern-day Romeo and Juliet story in which a wealthy Southern boy falls in love with an undocumented Mexican girl and together they face perils in their hostile Georgia town.

Evan, a soccer star and the nephew of a conservative Southern Senator, has never wanted for much -- except a functional family. Alma has lived in Georgia since she was two-years-old, excels in school, and has a large, warm Mexican family. Never mind their differences, the two fall in love, and they fall hard. But when ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) begins raids on their town, Alma knows that she needs to tell Evan her secret. There's too much at stake. But how to tell her country-club boyfriend that she’s an undocumented immigrant? That her whole family and most of her friends live in the country without permission. What follows is a beautiful, nuanced, well-paced exploration of the complications of immigration, young love, defying one’s family, and facing a tangled bureaucracy that threatens to completely upend two young lives.

About the Author

Marie Marquardt is a college professor who lives with her husband, four kids, a dog, and a bearded dragon in a very busy household in Decatur, Georgia. Dream Things True is her first book of Young Adult fiction, and it was inspired by her work with Mexican immigrants in Georgia. 

Since the late 1990s, she has been doing research and advocacy with immigrants from Mexico, and has witnessed – on both sides of the border – the effects of a broken immigration system. Currently, she has the honor of working with an amazing group of volunteers to run El Refugio, a non-profit that offers temporary lodging and support to the loved ones of detained immigrants. As a part of this work, she regularly visits with detained immigrants at one of the largest detention centers in the United States (which happens to be in Southwest Georgia). They assist them as they prepare for deportation. This work is heartbreaking, but it also reminds her every day that love is more powerful than fear. 

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*Aside from the GORGEOUS cover, I'm really intrigued after reading the blurb because I've never read a story with a character like Alma's before. And this is a debut novel so I'm curious as to how the author will deliver when the plot surrounds the topic of immigration.