Zyla & Kai

A fresh new YA romance novel by Kristina Forest, Zyla & Kai is an epic star-crossed love story about first love and not just the will they, won't they- but why can't they?



While on a school trip to the Poconos Mountains (in the middle of a snowstorm) high school seniors, Zyla Matthews and Kai Johnson, run away together leaving their friends and family confused. As far as everyone knows, Zyla and Kai have been broken up for months.

And real talk? No one believed Zyla and Kai would last that long anyway. Everyone had their own reasons why these two would never make it.

Zyla and Kai met while working together at an amusement park the previous summer.

Zyla was a cynic about love. She'd witnessed the dissolution of her parents' marriage early in life, and it left an indelible impression. Her only focus was graduating and going to fashion school abroad. Until she met Kai.

Kai was a serial monogamist since middle school, and a hopeless romantic. He had put a temporary pause on his dating life during Senior Year to focus on school and getting into his dream HBCU. Until he met Zyla.

Alternating between the past and present, we see the love story unfold from Zyla and Kai's perspectives: how they first became the unlikeliest of friends over the summer, how they fell in love during the school year, and why they ultimately broke up.

Or did they? As we hear the perspectives of their family and friends, we see how perceptions of their relationship started to shape how Zyla and Kai saw each other, and how they ultimately filtered out the noise to focus on their feelings. The story unfolds as a mystery that will keep readers guessing until the last chapter.