YA authors share their summer reading plans
Summer is just around the corner and that means beautiful beach days, backyard barbecues and digging deep into that TBR pile. To help you get in the mood, Sourcebooks Fire Young Adult authors Janet Gurtler, Jennifer Salvato Doktorski and Juliana Stone share their favorite summer beach reads!
Janet Gurtler, author of The Truth About Us (out today)
I love summer reading, as long as I can find some shade to do it in. (With my fair complexion, don't fight the white, is my personal motto.) Anyhow, I'm a sucker for books that make me experience emotion. I'm OK doing that in public. Which may or may mortify my companions.
• Speak by Laura Halse Anderson. Books that make me cry are tops in my world, and I wept like a cranky baby when I read this book at our cabin a few years ago. It's on the shelf awaiting another read.
• Story of a Girl by Sara Zarr. Again, not light fare, but I remember reading this on a lawn chair under a tree, with a group of friends, having a "read-in." My friend looked over at me as tears streamed down my face and insisted she read it next. It's one of my all-time favorite YA novels.
About The Truth About Us:
The truth is that Jess knows she screwed up.
She's made mistakes, betrayed her best friend, and now she's paying for it. Her dad is making her spend the whole summer volunteering at the local soup kitchen.
The truth is she wishes she was the care-free party-girl everyone thinks she is.
She pretends it's all fine. That her "perfect" family is fine. But it's not. And no one notices the lie...until she meets Flynn. He's the only one who really sees her. The only one who listens.
The truth is that Jess is falling apart — and no one seems to care.
But Flynn is the definition of "the wrong side of the tracks." When Jess's parents look at him they only see the differences-not how much they need each other. They don't get that the person who shouldn't fit in your world... might just be the one to make you feel like you belong.
Jennifer Salvato Doktorski, author of The Summer After You and Me (May 5)
I'm a big fan of The Summer I Turned Pretty by Jenny Han. I love the beach house setting and can relate to the main character, Belly, a girl who lives for summer, just like me. I can't remember a summer when I haven't had a book by Janet Evanovich tucked into my beach bag. I love the Stephanie Plum series, featuring Jersey girl and bounty hunter Stephanie Plum and her hilarious grandmother, Grandma Mazur. These books never fail to make me laugh out loud.
Sarah Dessen is another one of my go-to authors for summer reads. Along for the Ride is one of my favorites. I love the main character, Auden, the setting and the cover featuring a girl on a beach cruiser. Perfect beach reads for me include romance, humor and a summer-y setting. These books all have one or more of those elements.
About The Summer After You and Me:
Will it be a summer of fresh starts or second chances?
For Lucy, the Jersey Shore isn't just the perfect summer escape, it's home. As a local girl, she knows not to get attached to the tourists. They breeze in during Memorial Day weekend, crowding her costal town and stealing moonlit kisses, only to pack up their beach umbrellas and empty promises on Labor Day. Still, she can't help but crush on charming Connor Malloy. His family spends every summer next door, and she longs for their friendship to turn into something deeper.
Then Superstorm Sandy sweeps up the coast, bringing Lucy and Connor together for a few intense hours. Except nothing is the same in the wake of the storm, and Lucy is left to pick up the pieces of her broken heart and her broken home. Time may heal all wounds, but with Memorial Day approaching and Connor returning, Lucy's summer is sure to be filled with fireworks.
Juliana Stone, author of Some Kind of Normal (May 5)
When I'm at the beach, I read romance and thrillers. I love books that give me the feels, romances with a happy ever after, or at least a suggested one. I also like thrillers, whodunits. Maybe it's the sand and the sun, but I don't enjoy heavy reads. Those I save for long winter nights.
About Some Kind of Normal:
What is normal?
For Trevor normal was fast guitar licks, catching game-winning passes and partying all night. Until a car accident leaves Trevor with no band, no teammates and no chance of graduating. It's kinda hard to ace your finals when you've been in a coma. The last thing he needs is stuck-up Everly Jenkins as his new tutor–those beautiful blue eyes catching every last flaw.
For Everly normal was a perfect family around the dinner table, playing piano at Sunday service and sunning by the pool. Until she discovers her whole life is a lie. Now the perfect pastor's daughter is hiding a life-changing secret, one that is slowly tearing her family apart. And spending the summer with notorious flirt Trevor Lewis means her darkest secret could be exposed.
This achingly beautiful story about two damaged teens struggling through pain and loss to redefine who they are--to their family, to themselves, and to each other--is sure to melt your heart.