Two Across

TWO ACROSS is a funny and poignant debut novel about trust, forgiveness, and the wisdom of listening to your heart. Stanley and Vera, academically precocious but awkward teenagers, form a bond when they tie for first place in the National Spelling Bee. Though their mothers have big plans for them—Stanley will become a senator, Vera a mathematics professor—neither wants to follow these pre-determined paths. So Stanley hatches a plan to marry Vera in a sham wedding for the financial freedom to pursue his one true crossword puzzle construction. In enlisting Vera to marry him, he neglects one she's secretly in love with him, a fact that dooms his plan to disaster. Once he's lost her, Stanley tries to atone for his mistakes and win her back using coded messages in crossword puzzles—but can he find her again before it's too late?