Lotus

In 1998, five-year-old Sydney and six-year-old Oliver became inseparable next-door neighbors, sealing their bond on a Fourth of July hillside with a secret code — "sn + ol" — that Oliver read upside down as "lotus." That same summer, Oliver vanished, taken by a kidnapper who kept him hidden in captivity for the next twenty-two years. When Oliver finally returns, Sydney has spent over two decades haunted by his disappearance, and their rekindled friendship starts to feel like something more — even as painful, jagged truths still stand between them.

Jennifer Hartmann delivers an emotional second-chance romance about reclaiming a childhood bond broken by unimaginable trauma.