Chanel Cao seems to have a picture-perfect life, with beauty, fame and wealth. Everyone wants to be her friend. Little do they know of the troubles she has at home with her parents’ crumbling marriage. She just wants to actually have the happy life she pretends she is living. One night, when she encounters Ares Yin at the park, the two of them stare into a lake shining in the moonlight and magically glimpse a vision of the future. Chanel sees her house on fire, while Ares sees his missing brother, Luke. Chanel immediately mistrusts Ares, believing he will be the one to burn her house to the ground. But as they spend more time together, they slowly let their walls down, even as the revealing of the truth threatens to break their hearts.

Set in the same elite Beijing school as The Readings Prize-winning If You Could See the Sun (with guest appearances from Alice and Henry!), Ann Liang’s I Could Give You the Moon combines her signature swoon-worthy romance with a hint of the magical realism explored in her debut. Liang delves deeper into the world of the fuerdai, a Chinese term for the wealthy second generation born into families of high socio-economic status. Through Chanel and Ares, Liang explores how difficult it can be to express genuine feelings of sorrow or stress in an environment characterised by excessive materialism and where there is a sense that happiness can be bought. But the true magic of this book is the beauty of finding that one person who understands you, is empathetic, and makes you feel loved and seen. For ages 14+.