At the fifth grade honors program, three eleven-year-old boys are captivated by a brilliant little red-haired girl named Jeana Russell as she recites the poem she wrote, and each boy vows to win her heart. True Blue Forever is the story of how these four unconventional teenagers grow up together on the Alabama Gulf Coast in the late seventies.
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Jeana is an unpretentious heroine who refuses to be anyone but herself--a smart girl who thinks she'll never find a boy like the men in the books she loves so much. But then Mickey Royal moves back to Alabama from Washington after the death of his father, and Jeana is baffled by her instant attraction to this three-sport athlete with the bluest eyes she's ever seen. When she discovers he is also honest, dedicated, and a whiz at math, she knows she has finally found the hero she's been waiting for.
The other two boys who love her are Wade Strickland and Billy Joe DuBose, Jeana's childhood friends. Wade is the reigning football phenom until Mickey arrives, and he and Mickey are set on a path to violence from their first meeting. Wade is also the first boy Jeana ever kissed, and the one who broke her heart when he moved away to a nicer neighborhood and new friends and became an arrogant, Corvette-driving jerk. But Jeana can't seem to forget how sweet he used to be and suspects that there's something haunting him that he hides from everyone.
Jeana struggles to deal with the volatile relationships the boys have with her and with each other, and things are further complicated by Jeana's awakening sexuality as she and Mickey get closer. The road she travels to adulthood is paved with heartbreak, tough choices, and the
resulting consequences, but through it all Jeana holds on to the one thing she never questions--a love that's True Blue.
This coming-of-age story is about sticking to your beliefs, friendships that last a lifetime, never letting anyone take away your dreams, and taking responsibility for the choices you make. It's filled with lots of sports, macho posturing, raging hormones, super-cool muscle cars, seventies music and culture, and a love story that will warm even the coldest heart.
