Years In The Making : Bird House Publishing : 9798985511383 : 18 Sep 2023 : Emille "Emi" Van der Berg is supposed to be choosing a college and deciding how to make her stepfather's family name shine like every one of her overachieving older siblings has managed to do. Instead, she is drowning under the weight of being the first in the family to struggle academically, the only one of her four mixed-race siblings who wound up with an extra helping of melanin and a 4b curl, plus the only kid left in the house under the relentless scrutiny of her perfectionist mother. It wouldn't be so bad if Jay, her person, the boy who holds her heart, hadn't graduated a year ahead of her and left her to fend for herself while he soaks up the exciting and endless social scene of university life - a fact she only knows because she is stalking him shamelessly on social media. As she struggles to get Jay out of her system, Emi finds herself buckling under her insecurities with no one to turn to. She doesn't