When twenty-two-year-old Rupali Shah walks into an expressive arts grief group, she isn’t looking for transformation, only a quiet corner to breathe. But when she meets Charlie Moore, a gentle, middle-aged teacher rebuilding his life after addiction, their connection defies every boundary of age, race, gender, and role.

Under the light of poetry, music, and shared silence, a fragile intimacy blooms. Charlie sees in Rupali the courage he’s long forgotten; Rupali sees in him the safety she’s never known. But as trust deepens into something unspoken, the lines between mentorship and emotional dependence blur, revealing the quiet cost of care.

Told through alternating lyrical vignettes, this coming-of-age novel explores what it means to be seen and the power, pain, and beauty of that recognition.

Tender, haunting, and defiantly hopeful, If You Felt It Too, asks what it means to love, to lose, and to finally write your own ending.

A special thank you to my friends Audrey, Lyn, and Sky for holding me as I cried and desperately dissected every nuance of the complicated and ambiguous heartbreak that inspired this novel.

Edited by Kaylie Reyes, Catherine Stewart, and Kaley Robinson