"This honest, authentic, thought-provoking YA page-turner tackles weighty issues around consent and co-dependency with enormous empathy."
July 2025 Book of the Month
Previously published as Can I Stray, Jenna Adams’ This is Me Trying packs an immensely thought-provoking punch as it explores big issues around consent, the age of consent, what it means to make informed sexual choices, and the emotional imbalance of age gaps. In fact, a second reading revealed exactly why this was a LoveReading Debut of the Month, and much-deserving of Star Book status — it’s powerfully authentic, honest and nuanced, inviting consideration of questions around culpability and the impact of co-dependency across a page-turning tale of first love, first sex, and coming-of-age through low self-esteem, depression and self-harm to find one’s place in the world.
Told in three acts, across three periods, the stage is set on the literal stage of a school production of Romeo and Juliet, when 14-year-old Brooke and 18-year-old Matt are cast in the lead roles. Naïve, hopelessly romantic and emotionally immature (she is, after all, only 14), Brooke falls for Matt big time, and though he initially cools things down, they wind up having a secret relationship, and sex.
While they try to maintain their relationship when Matt moves away to uni, an excruciating sequence of events spirals out of control, until — with support from good people — Brooke finds a healing way through past traumas.
Balancing hard-hitting impact with emotional sensitivity — a tightrope that’s no easy feat to tread — This is Me Trying is a tremendously powerful novel.
In this contemporary coming-of-age YA novel, a teenage girl navigates a romance with an older boy when they're cast as the leading roles in their drama group's production of Romeo and Juliet.
When Brooke and Matt are cast as romantic leads in their drama group's performance of Romeo and Juliet, they don't mean to actually fall in love. Secrets and lies seem a small price for Brooke to pay for an older boyfriend, until they take their relationship to the next level one night in an empty auditorium. After she learns of the illegality of Matt's actions, Brooke's anxiety reaches breaking point and she makes a decision that changes her life forever.
Years later, Matt is reunited with Brooke, desperately seeking redemption. But what sense can they make now of a love that never did run smoothly?
Exploring mental health, co-dependency, and the blurred lines of sexual consent, this captivating debut recounts a young woman's journey to independence as she strays beyond all she has ever known to confront her traumatic past.
Previously published as Can I Stray, this is a serious take on the age-gap romance YA trope, where a 14-year-old girl navigates her first ever relationship with an older 18-year-old boy.
The LoveReading4Kids Editorial Team have read and reviewed This Is Me Trying and determined it is suitable for children aged 15-18 years old
This Is Me Trying features in the following genres: Featured Books for Young Adults, Books of the Month, Debuts of the Month, Recommendations, Star Books, Romance / Relationship Stories, School Stories, PSHE: Sexuality, Gender and Relationships, PSHE: Sex Education, Personal Social Health Economic (PSHE), Children’s / Teenage personal and social topics: Dating, relationships, romance and love, Children’s / Teenage personal and social topics: Mental health, Children’s / Teenage personal and social topics: First / new experiences and growing up / coming of age, Children's and Young Adult Fiction, Children’s, Teenage and Educational, Children’s / Teenage personal and social topics: Body and health, Children’s / Teenage personal and social topics: Relationships (non-family / groups), Children’s / Teenage personal and social topics: Physical and mental health conditions
This Is Me Trying is available in Paperback
This Is Me Trying was written by Jenna Adams and published by Neem Tree Press
This Is Me Trying has 432 pages
