The Truth Project

“A heart-wrenching quest for identity every YA reader will relate to, and a deep dive into the meaning of family." —Ellen Hopkins, #1 New York Times bestselling author

Debut author Dante Medema explores the emotional fallout after a teenage girl discovers she is the product of an affair. Told through a series of poems, text messages, and emails, this emotional contemporary YA novel in verse is perfect for fans of Gaby Dunn and Allison Raskin.

Seventeen-year-old Cordelia Koenig intended to breeze through her senior project. While her peers stressed, Cordelia planned to use the same trace-your-roots genealogy idea her older sister used years prior. And getting partnered with her longtime crush, Kodiak Jones, is icing on the cake. All she needs to do is mail in her DNA sample, write about her ancestry results, and get that easy A.

But when Cordelia’s GeneQuest results reveal a shocking family secret—that her father is not the person she thought he was, but a stranger who lives thousands of miles away—her entire world shatters. Now she isn’t sure of anything—not the mother who lied, the man she calls Dad, or the girl staring back at her in the mirror.

If your life began with a lie, how can you ever be sure of what's true?

• A Life-Altering DNA Test: Cordelia thought her genealogy project would be easy, until a GeneQuest result reveals the man who raised her isn’t her biological father.
• Friends to Lovers Romance: Partnered with her longtime crush, Kodiak Jones, Cordelia must navigate her shattered identity while her heart is on the line.
• A Gripping Identity Crisis: Faced with a mother who lied and a biological father she’s never met, Cordelia questions everything she knows about herself and what makes a family.
• An Alaskan Small Town Setting: In a close-knit community like Tundra Cove, keeping a secret this big is impossible, forcing Cordelia to confront the truth head-on.

Dante Medema is an author of books for young readers. Her debut novel, The Truth Project, was an Indies Introduce title and an Indies Next List Pick. She lives in Anchorage, Alaska, with her husband, four daughters, and a room full of alien memorabilia—and books, of course. When she’s not writing, she dabbles in baking, decorating, painting, sewing, and reading up on Enneagram personality types. To learn more about Dante, visit her online at dantemedema.com.