P.S. I Like You

Lily Abbott is a junior at Morris High School in Arizona who writes song lyrics in her notebook during Chemistry instead of paying attention. When her teacher, Mr. Ortega, catches her, he bans the notebook from class. Lily is a self-taught guitarist and aspiring songwriter who has never finished a complete song or shared her lyrics with anyone. She is also haunted by a nickname, "Magnet," given to her during freshman-year P.E. by Cade Jennings, a popular boy who mocked her lack of coordination in front of the whole gym class. Two years later, students still use it.

Lily's best friend, Isabel Gonzales, encourages her to talk to Lucas Dunham, a music-loving senior Lily has admired from a distance, but Lily freezes every time she gets close. At home, she shares a bedroom with her older sister, Ashley, and contends with her younger brothers, Wyatt and Jonah, a pet rabbit, and parents whose unpredictable freelance income keeps the household tight. When Lily spots a newspaper ad for a songwriting competition through the prestigious Herberger Institute offering a five-thousand-dollar prize, she clips the ad, determined to enter.

Bored in Chemistry one day, Lily scribbles a lyric from her favorite indie band, Blackout, on her desktop. The next day, someone has written the next line beneath hers. Thrilled, Lily writes back, and an anonymous exchange develops through folded notes tucked under the desk. The letters grow longer and more personal. Lily initially assumes the writer is a girl but later learns he is a guy. She tells Isabel about the exchange but insists she does not want to know his identity, valuing the anonymity that allows her to be vulnerable.

Over the following weeks, her pen pal reveals that his biological father moved five states away after a divorce, calls only around his birthday, and often misses the actual date. His mother remarried a demanding stepfather. Lily shares her own frustrations about having no private time or space. They bond over recommending bands, joke about forming one together, and begin measuring their weeks by the letters. When her pen pal suggests they could "balance each other out," Lily considers meeting him and starts a "Suspects" list in her notebook.

Meanwhile, Isabel tries to set Lily up with David Feldman, a shy clarinetist, but Lily feels no spark. At a football game, she nearly speaks to Lucas, but Cade appears and leads him away. Inspired by her pen pal's letters about his absent father, Lily begins writing a song called "Left Behind" and produces a strong first verse and chorus.

Everything changes when Lily, working as a fourth-period office aide, delivers packets to Mr. Ortega's classroom and sees a boy in her seat, writing a note and tucking it under the desk. The boy is Cade. Lily rushes out before he sees her, devastated and unable to reconcile the thoughtful, vulnerable person in the letters with the boy who humiliated her. She resolves never to write back. That same day, Mr. Ortega informs Lily that a substitute teacher confused her with Sasha, a classmate who had taken Lily's seat, and reported Lily for Sasha's misbehavior. Lily receives two weeks of detention for offenses she did not commit.

That week, Lily comes home to find her guitar broken, the neck splintered from the body. The guitar represents six months of savings and her only creative outlet. She goes to Isabel's house to reveal that Cade is her pen pal. Isabel is unsurprised: She already knew, having observed Cade writing during their shared Chemistry period, but withheld the information partly out of lingering possessiveness over her ex-boyfriend. The two friends fight, and Lily storms out.

Despite her vow, Lily cannot stop writing to Cade. She and Isabel reconcile when Isabel brings Craigslist ads for affordable used guitars. After Cade insults Lily in front of Sasha, Lily impulsively asks Lucas to a concert. They attend with Isabel and Isabel's boyfriend, Gabriel, but the evening lacks depth. Lily realizes she feels no genuine connection with Lucas.

Complications mount when Wyatt invites his club baseball coach, Cade, to Thanksgiving dinner. Cade stays for hours, charming Lily's family and diving across the yard to catch the escaped rabbit. Lily panics when the family is about to perform their pie taste-test tradition, which she described in a letter, and rudely insists Cade leave. Her mother makes her deliver an apology bracelet to Cade's house. As she clasps it on his wrist, they argue about their history: Cade claims the "Magnet" nickname was meant to deflect bullying, while Lily counters that he ignored Isabel and never opened up. She flees, shaken by her growing feelings.

During detention, Sasha snatches Lily's notebook and reads her lyrics aloud, discovering a song mentioning Cade by name. She pieces together that Lily is the pen pal and demands she stop writing, promising not to tell Cade. Sasha then begins dating Cade, and Lily suspects he believes Sasha is the letter writer since Sasha was sitting in Lily's seat the day he tried to identify his pen pal.

Cade abruptly stops leaving letters. Lily tells Lucas she asked him out for the wrong reasons and ends things. In a parking lot, Lily breaks down over her guitar repair being unaffordable, and Cade wraps his arms around her. He takes her to a secluded hotel patio where they talk openly for the first time. Cade apologizes for years of insensitivity, and Lily acknowledges her unfair grudges.

At a school rally, Sasha commandeers the microphone and reads Lily's "Left Behind" lyrics to the entire gym, publicly revealing details about Cade's absent father. Cade disappears. Lily searches everywhere and finally finds him at the hotel patio behind a locked gate. Cade tells her he has known she was the letter writer for weeks, since he heard her playing a Blackout song when picking up Wyatt for practice. He explains he stopped writing because he developed feelings for Lily herself and continuing anonymously felt dishonest. He recites his final unsent letter from memory, ending with: "P.S. I like you. A lot" (289). Lily kisses him.

Cade reveals he has received a letter from his biological father, a brief note that fails to take responsibility. Lily encourages him to confront his father, and he decides to do so. At home, Wyatt confesses that he, not Jonah, broke the guitar while trying to learn to play it. Lily forgives him. Ashley, Wyatt, and Jonah present Lily with pooled money and the smoothed-out competition clipping, urging her not to give up.

Lily buys a used guitar and works on finishing her songs. Cade reads through her notebook for the first time, a major act of trust, and his presence sparks the inspiration she needs to complete "Left Behind." She plays and sings the finished song for him, her first live performance for anyone. He tells her he thinks he loves her, and she mouths the words back. The novel closes with Lily entering the Herberger competition, openly dating Cade, and writing new lyrics surrounded by her chaotic family, having found both her creative voice and someone who truly sees her.