The Always Train

2026 GOLD QUILL IN YOUNG ADULT NOVELS WINNER

Clueless meets Back to the Futurein this heart-wrenchingly hilarious adventure about a teen perfectionist who, in the wake of a deadly accident, gets a ticket to time-traveling train. Joined by the boy of her dreams from an alternate timeline, she can spare their town from the terrible accident—if they can find the perfect moment to fix their combined pasts.

Rainbow boards the train to her soccer state championship with one goal: Write one perfect thing over the tragedy scarring her past. And when she runs into the cutest boy? Her dreams finally look possible. Then their train wrecks, and Rainbow is left with nothing except a ticket to an impossible train.

An impossible, time-traveling train carrying the cute boy—not as a ghost, but from a timeline where he lived and Rainbow died.

Every midnight, the impossible train connects their universes with a chance to make things right. This time, Rainbow is going to fix everything. The impossible train's random destinations won't hold her back. Nor will its cast of costumed kittens, absurd pop-culture riddles, or the cute boy's knee-weakening smile. The only thing that might? Rainbow's obsession with giving them both the perfect life.