The First Touch: A YA contemporary romance novella about getting the story and missing the point

by Calla Finn, Virtual Voice (Narrator)

She's spent three years sitting two rows behind him without learning his name. He's spent three years being everyone's favourite without letting anyone get close. Nadia Reeves has rules. As editor-in-chief of the Bayridge High Bulletin, she keeps things professional, her notes accurate, and her feelings off the page. So when she's assigned to write the season preview profile on Mateo Vega — star striker, scholarship dependent, and the last person she'd choose to spend time with — she treats it like any other story. Mateo has a problem. His GPA is a threat to his eligibility, his scholarship, and everything he's worked toward. He agrees to Nadia's profile for the scout optics. He doesn't expect her to pay attention. But Nadia pays attention to everything. As the soccer season unfolds and the story gets harder to write without getting involved, both of them start to wonder if the distance they've kept so carefully was protection — or just a very convincing performance.

I is a slow-burn YA contemporary romance about the journalist who finds the story underneath the story, and the boy who never expected to be found.

Clean romance. No cliffhanger. Book 1 of The Starting Line series.

Audible Audio

Published June 17, 2026