Be Straight with Me

During her sophomore year at Middlebury College, Emily meets Max - 'you' as she intimately refers to him in the book.

Not exactly a tomboy, but not quite a girly girl either, Emily is intent on finding a masculine boyfriend to assuage a deeply rooted fear that she may not be quite feminine enough. Max, who loves Maria Von Trapp and shot-gunning beers with his straight guy friends, is grieving his first great heartbreak, to a boy on the new season of MTV's The Real World.

Initially, Max and Emily dislike each other, but end up growing close after a make-out dare on Halloween. Then one night, Max reveals an unexpected physical attraction that catches them both by surprise. The experiment begins, in secret, and then spirals into something more. Emily fears the unknown in a relationship with someone who doesn't fit her traditional idea of a masculine partner. And although Max deeply loves Emily, he cannot change the fact that he is attracted to men.

Max and Emily's journey takes many forms - they experiment with drugs; they travel abroad; they try sleeping with other people (together), and everything in between - all in the name of 'this bizarre, beautiful thing' they call love.

About the Author

Emily Dalton grew up in rural northern Connecticut and studied writing at Middlebury College in Vermont. At the age of 25, after three years of living in New York City, she quit her job, moved home, and turned her focus back to writing. While working part-time as a blacksmith's apprentice, she slowly transformed her senior thesis into the first draft of Be Straight with Me. Emily has since returned to Brooklyn, where she works in advertising and is learning to grow bonsai trees.