Love & Other Curses by Michael Thomas Ford

'Michael Thomas Ford has created an intense, complex exploration of family, love, and gender & sexual identity. A mysterious girl Sam talks to on the phone late at night and a woman he's only seen in a dream might have the answers he's been looking for-but time is running out to save the people he cares about.

As Sam's birthday approaches and he still hasn't quite fallen in love, the curse seems to get more powerful and less specific about who it targets. But when a new guy comes to town, Sam finds himself in trouble when they strike up a friendship that might be way more than that. He'll spend his time working at the Eezy-Freeze with his dad cooking up some midsummer magic with his grandmother, great-grandmother, and great-great-grandmother (the Grands) and experimenting with drag with the help of the queens at the Shangri-La, the local gay club.

Sam doesn't plan to fall for anyone in the weeks before his birthday. 'I'm pretty sure I'm the only guy in my school who can replace a faulty kick-down switch and also create the perfect smoky eye.' The Weyward family has been haunted by a curse for generations-if a Weyward falls in love before their seventeenth birthday, the person they love dies.

Love & Other Curses by Michael Thomas Ford