Laurel Flores Fantauzzo grew up in Thousand Oaks, CA, and graduated from a private Catholic high school. She lived in Teachers Village in the Philippines for many years and is the author of The First Impulse (2017), a nonfiction love story and mystery set in Metro Manila. She lives between Honolulu and Metro Manila with her wife. My Heart Underwater is her debut YA novel.
<p>"Fans of Adib Khorram and Randy Ribay will love this coming-of-age debut about a Filipina American teen drowning under pressure and learning to trust her heart. </p><p>Corazon Tagubio is an outcast at the Catholic school she attends on scholarship. Her crush on her teacher, Ms. Holden, doesn’t help. At home, Cory worries that less-than-perfect grades aren’t good enough for her parents, who already work overtime to support her distant half-brother in the Philippines.</p><p>After an accident leaves her dad comatose, Cory feels like Ms. Holden is the only person who really understands her. But when a crush turns into something more and the secret gets out, Cory is sent to her relatives in Manila. She’s not prepared to face strangers in an unfamiliar place, but she discovers how the country that shaped her past might also redefine her future.</p><p>This novel takes readers on a journey across the world as Cory comes to understand her family, her relationships, and ultimately, herself.</p><p>“My Heart Underwater is a lovely, magnificent wonder of a novel that will leave you with the rarest of tender heartaches: life-affirming, life-inspiring, life-loving; a heartache of joy and becoming. You won’t walk freely, or willingly, from these pages.” —New York Times bestselling author Marjorie Liu</p><p>* A Kirkus Reviews Best Book of 2020 * A 2022 ALA Rainbow Booklist Selection *"</p>
