When Julia was killed in a car crash on Labor Day weekend, her popular friends were devastated, along with her family and longtime boyfriend Austin Chadwick. But one person had to suffer in silence: her secret love, Colt. He is from the less wealthy part of town, and they had met for a year in her car at the bridge on Friday nights. They were in love, and now he is the only one who knows about it.

Colt watches as classmates and Austin openly show their grief while he struggles to hide his. The night before she was killed, they had fought, and Julia promised that this time she was going to break up with Austin and be with him openly. He keeps replaying that conversation, wondering what happened to her at the party before she got in the car and rode to her death.

Then Julia’s brother gives him a journal that Julia kept about Colt and her feelings for him. Colt wants to lock himself in his room and read the diary forever, but a new job and his longtime friends keep pulling him back to his new reality. Among them is Syd, and Colt knows she has feelings for him. He wants to like her but is still fighting feelings for Julia. He makes several missteps on his path out of his grief and soon realizes his secret will eventually come out.

Colt’s pain is palpable off the pages, and readers will cringe for him as he chooses the wrong girl and then messes up with the right one as he tries to move on from his short but powerful relationship with Julia. His journal is realistic and sympathetic. The subplots about Colt’s brother’s sexuality and his parents’ reaction add to the picture of Colt, who is stuck in this secret relationship while the rest of the world moves on.

At times readers will realize that THE SECRET YEAR is not written by a male author, but mostly the voice rings true. The relationships here are physical but not explicit and are intended for mature audiences. The right and wrong side of the tracks theme has been done in other books, and serves here only to heighten the feeling that Colt and Julia will be seen as wrong by everyone around them. It’s a bit of a stretch, but readers will enjoy the secret love and the journal stories.