Out of Step and Into You

A sapphic young adult contemporary romance following childhood friends turned cross-country team rivals who are forced to work together to win the state championship -- for fans of SHE GETS THE GIRL.

Taylor and Marianna were each other’s whole world – best friends, running partners, practically sisters – until Marianna moved away and Taylor promptly ghosted her. When the former best friends turned rivals end up on the same cross-country team three years later, everything is a competition… and a reminder of past feelings, as well as blossoming new ones.

Marianna runs because she’s angry. The oldest child of a single mother, she knows all about responsibility – for her siblings, at her part-time job. She just has to stay focused and be faster than the past nipping at her heels if she wants to secure a new, brighter future. With or without Taylor.

Taylor runs to prove herself. The only child of an almost-Olympian, she’s no stranger to high expectations. With enough effort, she knows she can immortalize herself with a state record. Then, she can figure out her own passion. She definitely doesn’t have time to untangle her emotions towards Mari.

Can the girls figure out a way to work together before their past catches up with them?

 Ciera Burch is a lifelong writer and ice cream aficionado. She has a B.A from American University and an MFA from Emerson College. Her fiction has appeared in American Literary Magazine, Underground, the art and literary journal of Georgia State University, Stork, and Blackbird. While she is originally from New Jersey, she currently resides in Washington, D.C. with her stuffed animals and far too many books. Something Kindred is her young adult debut.