18 CANDLES

It was supposed to be the perfect rehearsal dinner - a celebration of love, family, and the future Gavin Mitchell and Hillary Beauchamp have spent years building together. But when a ghost from the past crashes through the doors of the Grosse Pointe Yacht Club, the carefully constructed walls around Ian Mitchell and Derek Lawson come crashing down with him.

In one devastating moment, their secret is no longer theirs.

Now Ian - eighteen years old, terrified, and standing in the wreckage of the life he'd been hiding - must decide who he's willing to be when the whole world is watching. And Derek, the man who has loved Ian in ways he's only just beginning to understand, must decide how much he's willing to fight for the love he never expected to find.

But the Mitchell family has never been simple, and the night ahead will ask everything of everyone. Gavin must reckon with the best friend he thought he knew and the little brother he was too afraid to truly see. Graham and Imogen must confront the distance between the parents they believed themselves to be and the ones their son actually needed. And Ian must find the voice he's spent his whole life swallowing - and use it.

Loud as a Love Song is the conclusion to the 18 Candles trilogy - a story about the courage it takes to live honestly, the families we're given and the ones we choose, and the particular kind of love that doesn't ask you to hide anymore.

Some declarations are made in private.

This one is made for everyone to hear.