Then Emory and her 17-year-old brother, Joey, are in a car accident in which a girl dies. Everyone in the town of Mill Haven knows her as the rich girl her workaholic parents see her as their good child. There’s not much plot here, but readers will relish the opportunity to climb inside Autumn’s head.Ī gut-wrenching look at how addiction affects a family and a town.Įmory Ward, 16, has long been invisible. Even secondary characters are well-rounded, with their own histories and motivations. Autumn’s coming-of-age is sensitively chronicled, with a wide range of experiences and events shaping her character.

But on August 8, everything changes, and Autumn has to rely on all her strength to move on. In the summer after graduation, Autumn and Finny reconnect and are finally ready to be more than friends. Growing up, Autumn and Finny were like peas in a pod despite their differences: Autumn is “quirky and odd,” while Finny is “sweet and shy and everyone like him.” But in eighth grade, Autumn and Finny stop being friends due to an unexpected kiss. They drift apart and find new friends, but their friendship keeps asserting itself at parties, shared holiday gatherings and random encounters. The finely drawn characters capture readers’ attention in this debut.Īutumn and Phineas, nicknamed Finny, were born a week apart their mothers are still best friends. Ollie is white Will is Venezuelan American. Sweet and tart in equal measure, this novel reminds us that legalizing gay marriage didn’t necessarily make coming out in America any easier. Scenes between Ollie and Will are tender and tense, complicating both boys’ emotional journeys authentically. The diverse supporting cast-particularly Ollie’s new trio of female friends-is so richly characterized that readers will swear they bump into these girls in the halls every day. Watching the central lovers struggle to grow toward one another is just one of the many pleasures offered by Gonzales’ ( The Law of Inertia, 2018) second novel. Ollie just wants a fresh start, but Will makes that impossible, doing everything from sitting at his table at lunch to transferring into his music class. Suddenly Ollie finds himself starting senior year at a new school without friends, without his beloved band, but with Will, a varsity basketball captain who not only isn’t out, but initially refuses to be seen with him. Then his aunt’s cancer advances to such a critical stage that his parents decide to relocate the family from San Jose to Collinswood, North Carolina, to take care of her. First, his summer crush, Will, ghosts him and stops answering his texts.

Ollie’s year is not turning out the way he planned.

Summer lovin’ gets a Southern twist in this addicting coming-of-age gay romance.

Only mostly devastated a novel