Teen pianist Grace returns to the small Maine cape she grew up on from a 10-day piano camp in Boston to find that her mother Maggie has moved to the two of them in with Maggie's new boyfriend Pete. This is not the first time Grace has been relocated without notice, but this time is special because Pete's son is Grace's ex, who humiliated her by posting her sexts on Tumblr. Maggie didn't know/remember that and thinks Grace should get over it anyway. Maggie is not the best parent in the business of childrearing, perhaps because of the anguish she still seems to feel for her husband's death in Afghanistan when Grace was a toddler, but who knows. It seems like she's an alcoholic narcissist who might have been a crap mom regardless.
Luckily Grace has excellent support from her best friend Luca and Luca's mother Emmy. That doesn't stop her from being painfully conflicted over her loyalty to her own mother. Around the same time Grace returns to the cape, Emmy's good friend's daughter joins their family. Eva is newly orphaned. Her mother was a dancer like Eva aspires to be, and her father is unknown.
Spoiler: Grace doesn't end up with her sexy ex. The badly mothered ends up with the unmothered. Eva is a lesbian, and Grace is bisexual. Eva is also biracial. The sexual orientation and race issues are part of the story, but not central. It's a legit happens-to-be-gay tale where queer characters navigate something other than their sexuality. Grace and Maggie's relationship is way more harrowing than Grace and Eva's. The girls talk about how Eva's race has impacted her ballet career, but that isn't why Eva isn't dancing, it's grief.
I hope I'm not wrong about white author Blake's treatment of her characters of color being appropriately sensitive. I'm not sure if Blake is queer either, but she seems to do a good job. She depicts masturbation and lesbian sex. Please tell me what you think.