Blue has learned not to expect much from new starts. Adopted into a family that never quite feels like his own, caught between a stepfather who resents him and an adoptive mother trying desperately to earn his trust, Blue arrives in a new town with his guard fully up, his headphones in, and a stammer that gets worse every time someone pushes too hard for an answer he's not ready to give.
He doesn't expect the boy from the coffee shop. Or the butterflies. Or the way one open mic night, one impulsive road trip, and one persistent, warm-hearted neighbour named Harry slowly start pulling him out from behind the wall he's spent years building.
As Blue lets himself fall — for a new town, a found circle of friends, a little brother who adores him, and a boy who makes him feel like maybe he doesn't have to brace for the worst all the time — old wounds and a volatile home life threaten to pull it all apart just as it starts to feel real. Where We Belong is a warm, achingly hopeful coming-of-age romance about the long, difficult work of learning to trust a happiness you never thought you'd get to keep — and about finding, against every odd, a place, and people, to finally belong to.
Step One in a series that follows Blue's journey toward the family, love, and sense of self he never thought he deserved.
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Where We Belong: Step One | LGBTQ YA Romance | Paper Moon Bay
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Meet The Characters
Blue Delaney
Guarded from the very first page, Blue arrives in a new town carrying more than a moving box full of belongings. He was adopted years ago and has never fully let himself believe the home he's in now is permanent, bracing instead for the day it all falls apart, the way it has before.
His stammer thickens whenever he's anxious, frightened, or caught off guard, a quiet, visible sign of how much he's holding together beneath the surface. He rarely lets it stop him from saying what matters most, especially to Mack, his younger adoptive brother. Though they aren't connected by blood, their bond is unshakeable, and Blue is fiercely protective of him, gently reassuring Mack through the upheaval of the move even while he's struggling with the exact same fear himself.
With almost everyone else, Blue keeps his guard up. He assumes the worst, expects people to leave, and finds it far easier to withdraw than to risk being let down again. Katherine's patient, unconditional love slowly starts to soften that instinct, even as Steve's cruelty threatens to undo it. It's Harry, though, who finally gets past the walls entirely: meeting Blue's guardedness with steadiness rather than retreat, and never once treating his stammer, his temper, or his fear as something to be fixed rather than simply understood.
By the end of the book, Blue's journey is less about arriving somewhere new and more about finally believing he's allowed to stay.
Harry Osweiler
Warm, quick-witted, and impossible not to like, Harry works at the coffee shop where Blue first lays eyes on him, trading playful sarcasm and extra marshmallows with an ease that immediately sets Blue at odds with his own carefully guarded instincts.
Harry is a natural performer: he plays guitar, dreams up spontaneous plans like open-mic nights and a summer road trip, and uses charm and humour as his default way of connecting with people. But underneath the teasing, he's fiercely loyal.
When Steve's temper turns dangerous, Harry doesn't hesitate to put himself physically between Blue and harm, even when it costs him. He's the first person in Blue's life who meets his anxiety, his stammer, and his flashes of temper with patience instead of judgement, gently correcting the cruel things Steve has told Blue about himself ("You're not dangerous, Blue. You're just someone who's been through it.").
Harry's steady, unshakeable belief in Blue, offered without ever asking for anything in return, is what finally makes Blue believe he might be safe to fall for someone.