Saint Anything

Once and for All

Lock and Key

What Happened to Goodbye

The Anatomical Shape of a Heart

P.S. I Like You

Instructions for Dancing

Torment: Fallen

Luke is the perfect boyfriend: handsome, kind, fun. He and Emaline have been together all through high school in Colby, the beach town where they both grew up. But now, in the summer before college, Emaline wonders if perfect is good enough.

Enter Theo, a super-ambitious outsider, a New Yorker assisting on a documentary film about a reclusive local artist. Theo's sophisticated, exciting, and, best of all, he thinks Emaline is much too smart for Colby.

Emaline's mostly-absentee father, too, thinks Emaline should have a bigger life, and he's convinced that an Ivy League education is the only route to realizing her potential. Emaline is attracted to the bright future that Theo and her father promise. But she also clings to the deep roots of her loving mother, stepfather, and sisters. Can she ignore the pull of the happily familiar world of Colby?

Emaline wants the moon and more, but how can she balance where she comes from with where she's going?

Sarah Dessen's devoted fans will welcome this story of romance, yearning, and, finally, empowerment. It could only happen in the summer.

Discover Your Child's Next Read

Saint Anything

Sarah Dessen, 2015

Once and for All

Sarah Dessen, 2017

Lock and Key

Sarah Dessen, 2008

What Happened to Goodbye

Sarah Dessen, 2011

The Anatomical Shape of a Heart

Jenn Bennett, 2015

P.S. I Like You

Kasie West, 2016

Instructions for Dancing

Nicola Yoon, 2021

Torment: Fallen

Lauren Kate, 2010