First Love Language - by Stefany Valentine (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

A WILLIAM C. MORRIS AWARD FINALIST

Taiwanese American Catie Carlson has never fit in with her white family. As much as she loves her stepmom and stepsister, she yearns to understand more about her culture and find her biological mother.

So Catie is shocked when an opportunity comes knocking on her door: Her summer spa coworker, Toby, says he'll teach her Mandarin. In exchange, she needs to teach him how to date so he can finally work up the courage to ask out his crush. The only problem is that Catie doesn't actually have any dating experience. But she can fake it.

With her late father's copy of The Five Love Languages and all his annotated notes, Catie becomes the perfect dating coach. Or so she thinks. As she gets dangerously close to Toby and to finding out what really happened to her biological mom, she realizes that learning the language of love might be tougher than she thought.

Stefany Valentine's debut novel is both a fresh, fun romance as well as a profound, luminous story about grief, family, transracial adoption, and what it means to truly follow your heart.

Review Quotes

"A poignant and emotional story of immigration, adoption, and family, and was the Amazon Editors' top YA pick for January 2025." --Ben Grange, Amazon Editor

"A funny and deeply moving exploration of family, love, grief, and self-discovery. As a fellow adoptee, I'm grateful to Valentine for illuminating an experience seen too rarely in young adult literature." --Nicole Chung, best-selling author of All You Can Ever Know and A Living Remedy

"A masterfully written story [and] a must-read for anyone searching for hope and home." --Mariama J. Lockington, Stonewall Honor and Schneider Family Book Award-winning author of In the Key of Us, Forever is Now, and For Black Girls Like Me

"The yearning for a language lost or never known tugs at an unspoken sadness familiar to many in the diaspora, but Valentine handles the added complications of religion, grief, and love with a lightness and relatability that will have readers flying through its pages." --Anna Gracia, author of Boys I Know and The Misdirection of Fault Lines

"An engaging plot and details of daily life provide glimpses into the diversity within LDS and adoptive family cultures. A sweet, thoughtfully developed romance with some unusual twists and layers." --Kirkus Reviews

"A white and Taiwanese American adoptee reconnects with her roots and experiences first love in Valentine's romantic and profound debut. Humorous moments of joy and connection--facilitated by the love interests' shared cultural appreciation and deepening attraction, as well as Catie's desire to broaden her understanding of her personal history--deftly buoy sensitively rendered depictions of heavy topics surrounding grief and transracial adoption." --Publishers Weekly

"Brave, curious, and determined Catie is a protagonist to root for throughout her experience of love and heartbreak in this stirring, beautifully written story." --Booklist

About the Author