Recommendations based on "Summer's Child"

From the award-winning and New York Times bestselling author of Once and for AllShe’s got it all figured out.Or does she? When it comes to relationships, Remy’s got a whole set of rules.Never get too serious. Never let him break your heart. And never, ever date a musician.But then Remy meets Dexter, and the rules don’t seem to apply anymore.Could it be that she’s starting to understand what all those love songs are about?“Remy and Dexter jump off the pages into the hearts of readers, who will wish for a romance like this of their own.” —BooklistSarah Dessen is the winner of the Margaret A. Edwards Award for her contributions to YA literature, as well as the Romantic Times Career Achievement Award.Books by Sarah Dessen:That SummerSomeone Like YouKeeping the MoonDreamlandThis LullabyThe Truth About ForeverJust ListenLock and KeyAlong for the RideWhat Happened to GoodbyeThe Moon and MoreSaint AnythingOnce and for All

The Dream Harbor box set includes the first four titles in Laurie Gilmore's internationally bestselling series.

From the New York Times bestselling author of On Mystic Lake comes a powerful novel of love, loss, and the magic of friendship. . . .In the turbulent summer of 1974, Kate Mularkey has accepted her place at the bottom of the eighth-grade social food chain. Then, to her amazement, the “coolest girl in the world” moves in across the street and wants to be her friend. Tully Hart seems to have it all---beauty, brains, ambition. On the surface they are as opposite as two people can be: Kate, doomed to be forever uncool, with a loving family who mortifies her at every turn. Tully, steeped in glamour and mystery, but with a secret that is destroying her. They make a pact to be best friends forever; by summer’s end they’ve become TullyandKate. Inseparable.So begins Kristin Hannah’s magnificent new novel. Spanning more than three decades and playing out across the ever-changing face of the Pacific Northwest, Firefly Lane is the poignant, powerful story of two women and the friendship that becomes the bulkhead of their lives.From the beginning, Tully is desperate to prove her worth to the world. Abandoned by her mother at an early age, she longs to be loved unconditionally. In the glittering, big-hair era of the eighties, she looks to men to fill the void in her soul. But in the buttoned-down nineties, it is television news that captivates her. She will follow her own blind ambition to New York and around the globe, finding fame and success . . . and loneliness.Kate knows early on that her life will be nothing special. Throughout college, she pretends to be driven by a need for success, but all she really wants is to fall in love and have children and live an ordinary life. In her own quiet way, Kate is as driven as Tully. What she doesn’t know is how being a wife and mother will change her . . . how she’ll lose sight of who she once was, and what she once wanted. And how much she’ll envy her famous best friend. . . .For thirty years, Tully and Kate buoy each other through life, weathering the storms of friendship---jealousy, anger, hurt, resentment. They think they’ve survived it all until a single act of betrayal tears them apart . . . and puts their courage and friendship to the ultimate test.Firefly Lane is for anyone who ever drank Boone’s Farm apple wine while listening to Abba or Fleetwood Mac. More than a coming-of-age novel, it’s the story of a generation of women who were both blessed and cursed by choices. It’s about promises and secrets and betrayals. And ultimately, about the one person who really, truly knows you---and knows what has the power to hurt you . . . and heal you. Firefly Lane is a story you’ll never forget . . . one you’ll want to pass on to your best friend.

Something terrible has happened. Eleven-year-old Aubrey is on her own. 'It was fun at first, playing house. Nothing to think about but TV and cheese. A perfect world'. She's determined to hide away and take care of herself, because facing the truth is too much to bear. 'I couldn't let anyone know that I was alone. I was staying right here'. But with the love of her grandmother and the letters she writes, can Aubrey begin to see that even though she's lost everything - all is not lost?

A stray cat brings together five strangers over the course of one fateful summer in this heartwarming novel about love, found family, and the power of connection.Núria, a single-by-choice barista with a resentment for the "crazy cat lady" label, is a member of The Meow-Yorkers, a group in Brooklyn who takes care of the neighborhood’s stray cats. On one of her volunteering days, she starts finding Post-It notes from a secret admirer at the spot where her favorite stray lives—a black cat named Cat. Like most cats, he is rather curious and sly, so of course he knows who the notes are from. Núria, however, is clueless.Are the notes from Collin, a bestselling author and self-professed hermit with a weakness for good coffee? Are they from Lily, a fresh-out-of-high school Georgia native searching for her long-lost half-sister? Are they from Omar, the beloved neighborhood mailman going through an early mid-life crisis? Or are they from Bong, the grieving widower who owns Núria’s favorite bodega? When Cat suddenly falls ill, these five strangers find themselves bonded in their desire to care for him and discover that chance encounters can lead to the meaningful connections they've been searching for.

A "captivating and bittersweet" novel by the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Summer of '69: Their secret love affair has lasted for decades—but this could be the summer that changes everything (People).When Mallory Blessing's son, Link, receives deathbed instructions from his mother to call a number on a slip of paper in her desk drawer, he's not sure what to expect. But he certainly does not expect Jake McCloud to answer. It's the late spring of 2020 and Jake's wife, Ursula DeGournsey, is the frontrunner in the upcoming Presidential election.There must be a mistake, Link thinks. How do Mallory and Jake know each other?Flash back to the sweet summer of 1993: Mallory has just inherited a beachfront cottage on Nantucket from her aunt, and she agrees to host her brother's bachelor party. Cooper's friend from college, Jake McCloud, attends, and Jake and Mallory form a bond that will persevere—through marriage, children, and Ursula's stratospheric political rise—until Mallory learns she's dying.Based on the classic film Same Time Next Year (which Mallory and Jake watch every summer), 28 Summers explores the agony and romance of a one-weekend-per-year affair and the dramatic ways this relationship complicates and enriches their lives, and the lives of the people they love.

Cleo Arendse: You know how almost every movie set in Italy seems to be about a woman who travels to Tuscany and is swept off her feet by a charming, gorgeous but arrogant aristocrat? Well, that’s not this story. Luca Fioravanti: Challenge accepted. British Banker Cleo Arendse is nothing like the women lawyer Luca Fioravanti is used to – both because she’s only in Tuscany to oversee his family vineyard’s business and because she’s impervious to the charm that has never failed him before now. But Luca has never shied from a challenge, and when circumstances arise that allow him to step in as Cleo’s knight in shining armour, he leaps...right into a fake marriage! The romance may be a ruse but the passion burning between Luca and Cleo is very, very real, and as the ‘honeymoon’ glow envelops the pair, all bets are off...

Three women. One family curse. The summer of a lifetime. For generations, no second-born daughter in the Fontana family has married. Lucy desperately wants to find love, but for her cousin Emilia, their family curse is a blessing in disguise. But then their Great Aunt Poppy declares she'll reunite with her long-lost love on her eightieth birthday - and break the curse once and for all. And so the three women embark on a journey to Tuscany to fulfil Poppy's last wish. But the secrets they uncover there could change their family forever... *Published in the US as The Star-Crossed Sisters of Tuscany* A gorgeous story about love, family, and finding yourself in the unlikeliest of places, for fans of The Spanish Promise by Karen Swan and The Dressmaker's Gift by Fiona Valpy.

“With all the charm of a clever romantic comedy and peopled by appealing, memorable characters, Carter’s first novel is a winner on all fronts.” —Booklist, starred review Davie—an ugly duckling growing up in small-town Mississippi—is positive her life couldn’t be any worse. Just when she’s resigned herself to her fate, she sees a movie that will change her life—Sixteen Candles. But in her case, life doesn’t imitate art. Tormented endlessly in school and hopelessly in unrequited love with a handsome football player, James Farrell, Davie finally finds the courage to leave the only life she knows. Years later Davie has reinvented herself in LA and is living a glamorous life far from where she started—until she bumps into her former crush James Farrell. To Davie’s astonishment, James doesn’t recognize her, and she can’t bring herself to end the fantasy. She lets him fall as deeply in love with her as she once was with him. But just as they’re about to ride off into the sunset, the past comes back with a vengeance, threatening to break her heart again. “Ernessa T. Carter is a fresh new voice. In Davie Jones, she has created a wicked yet empathetic character.” —Terry McMillan, #1 New York Times–bestselling author of Waiting to Exhale  “32 cheers for Ernessa T. Carter! She’s created one of the freshest, funniest characters I’ve ever read. . . . 32 Candles is a charmer.” —Carleen Brice, author of Orange Mint and Honey “This summer’s juiciest beach read. . . . [A] disarmingly moving tale.” —Essence “Potent and well rendered.” —KirkusReviews “[Davie’s] need for sweet revenge adds a welcome dark edge.” —i

Sammy's mother is out in Hollywood, trying to make it as an actress. After her famous appearance in an anti-flatulence commercial, Sammy has always been rather sceptical of her mother's endeavours, and somewhat embarrassed. In this book, she goes (rather reluctantly) to LA to see how she's getting on and becomes involved in a Hollywood mystery...