“This bud of love, by summer's ripening breath,

May prove a beauteous flower when next we meet.”

When seventeen-year-old Sam and Lil are cast as Romeo and Juliet, their onstage romance mirrors the connection blooming between them offstage. But their love story is anything but simple. With Sam’s father’s anti-dating perspective, the fragility of his sister Annabelle’s health, plus their own struggles to keep their love pure, things seem… complicated.

Just before Christmas, they make the hardest decision of their young lives: to walk away from each other.

Each Christmas, their paths cross again, stirring old feelings and questions about what might have been. Through years of separation, rediscovery, and God’s perfect timing, Sam and Lil must find out if the love they planted in their youth has grown into something enduring.

If you’re searching for an irresistible YA/NA crossover holiday romance told in dual point-of-view, This Bud of Love is the story for you—a heartfelt redemptive tale of faith, forgiveness, and the power of love that waits.