First Love

It was the summer of 1988. The Summer I Met Him is a short memoir and the opening book in the First Love: A Memoir series—a true story of first love spanning more than thirty-eight years. Hannah Kensington was nearly fifteen when she met Ryan Matthews, someone she would never quite forget. There were Ocean City bike rides, The Cure playing through the speakers of his red Honda CRX, and stolen kisses that made her believe summer could last forever. But Ryan never said the words she longed to hear. What did she really mean to him?

She survived the night that changed everything. But survival was only the beginning. At eighteen, Hannah believed her life was finally beginning. She had an apartment, a job, college classes, and plans for a future that belonged entirely to her. Then one ordinary night divided her life into two parts: before the accident—and after. Following a devastating brain injury, Hannah awakens to a world she no longer recognizes. Surrounded by hospital walls and unfamiliar faces, she must learn to walk, talk, remember, and trust her body again.

She had built a life she loved. But she still loved him.In Bad Aibling, Germany, Hannah Kensington is happy. She attends college, travels through Europe, and looks out her window toward the Bavarian Alps. After everything she has survived, she is living a life filled with possibility.Then a...