Hearts and Bones, by Lawrence D. Bub

First love. Lasting loss. A lifetime shaped in between.

Maya is a freshman in 1989 when she meets Peter, a vulnerable boy with a secret behind his smile. Their romance begins in the thrill of independence but soon collides with the realities of mental illness, betrayal, and the fragility of youth. Years later, as a third-year medical student, Maya is haunted by memories of that love—and the choices she made along the way.

Navigating the weight of her mother’s decline, the demands of medicine, and the lingering echoes of Peter’s unraveling, Maya faces a reckoning with her own complicated past. But amid the heartbreak are glimmers of connection, forgiveness, and the quiet hope of a new beginning.

Spanning nearly a decade, Hearts and Bones is a poignant tale of love, loss, and becoming. It’s a story about how the people we love never really leave us and how the choices we make in our formative years reverberate throughout our lives.