Laura and Marlena, both sixteen, have kept their love a secret for two years out of necessity. They have both witnessed a lot of homophobia in the Miami Latino community where lesbians are derisively referred to as tortilleras . Laura fears rejection from her traditional Cuban American mother, and Marlena, from her extended Puerto Rican family, should anyone learn about the joy they feel both physically and emotionally in being together. Their fears turn out to be to be well founded when Sister Asunción intercepts a love letter from Marlena to Laura in her Catholic school classroom; Laura is kicked out of school and home, and Marlena is sent back to Puerto Rico to be married off to a man. Luckily Laura is taken in by her best friend, Soli, and her mother, Viva, and they become her new family as she struggles to put her life back together. Through all her adversity, Laura maintains her sense of humor and an optimistic outlook on life. She’s a survivor who is determined to be happy, even if it means making those she cares about unhappy. Mayra Lazara Dole’s breezy style and wry dialog offer a fresh new voice in both GLBTQ and Latino literature for teens. (Age 14 and older)

Here's what it means to be a tortillera.

It means you're a girl who loves girls.

Which means you get kicked out of Catholic school faster than Mother Superior Sicko can say "immoral."

Which means your wacko Mami finds out.

Which means you're kicked to the curb with nowhere to go, and the love of your life is shipped off to Puerto Rico to marry a guy.

But this is Miami, and if you have a bighearted best friend and a loyal puppy at your side, and if your broken heart is still full of love, you just might land on your feet.

In a first novel as crazy, joyful, hilarious, and painful as your first love, Mayra Lazara Dole goes beyond the many meanings of tortillera to paint a vivid picture of a girl who gets kicked out of home only to find a new kind of family.