Stars, Stripes, & Summer Nights by Celeste Dador

“All Abby wants is one normal summer before college. No headlines. No drama. Just a chance to breathe.

But when a run-in at the White House with Gabriel Calabrese—a maddeningly carefree small-town photographer—spirals into a pizza delivery scandal that makes front-page news, Abby’s plans disappear overnight. To escape the fallout, she’s sent to a charming country inn run by Gabriel’s family.

Now she’s stuck with the last person she wants to see.

As Abby and Gabriel team up to save his family’s Fourth of July festival—and tackle Abby’s secret summer bucket list—sparks begin to fly. Especially when he helps her experience all the “real” teen moments she’s missed: parties, picnics… and maybe even a first kiss.” - taken from Goodreads.

This was a super sweet romance. Abby is the First Daughter of the United States and she doesn't get to live the life of a normal teenager. Everyone believes she and the Vice President’s son Oliver, are destined to be a couple, even Abby herself. But when she meets her aunt’s godson Gabe at a state dinner, her summer plans are abruptly changed when she causes a minor scandal over a pizza delivery. Abby and her younger sister are sent to Mystic Hollow, Virginia for the month of June to stay with their aunt at an inn owned by Gabe's mother.

The more time Abby and Gabe spend together working on her summer bucket list, the closer the two become. Can any relationship between Abby and Gabe survive her return to DC?

Visit Celeste Dados’s website.

The Way You Make Me Feel by Maureen Goo

“Love has a way of finding you.”

“Clara Shin lives for pranks and disruption. When she takes one joke too far, her dad sentences her to a summer working on his food truck, the KoBra, alongside her uptight classmate Rose Carver. Not the carefree summer Clara had imagined. But maybe Rose isn't so bad. Maybe the boy named Hamlet (yes, Hamlet) crushing on her is pretty cute. Maybe Clara actually feels invested in her dad’s business. What if taking this summer seriously means that Clara has to leave her old self behind?” - taken from Goodreads.com

This is another book that I pulled off of my TBR pile and I literally devoured it in days. Clara Shin is a prankster and pulls the ultimate prank when she is crowned Junior Prom Queen by reenacting the blood scene from Carrie. Getting into a fight with Rose Carver, her enemy, a fire breaks out, putting an end to prom. To compensate for the damaged cafeteria, Clara's dad makes her work on his Korean Brazilian food truck over the summer. Rose's parents think that this is a good idea and make her work on the KoBra as well 

Slowly, Clara and Rose learn to work together and discover that their perceptions of one another are false. In Clara's life is turned upside down when a cute boy named Hamlet enters her life. I thoroughly enjoyed this story of two girls and their burgeoning friendship. The romance play as a secondary part in the story.

Visit Maureen Goo’s website.

The Summer I Turned Pretty by Jenny Han

"I can't believe he even has to ask. I would go anywhere.'Yes,' I tell him. It feels like nothing else exists outside of that word, this moment. There's just us. Everything that happened this past summer, and every summer before it, has all led up to this. To now."

Belly measures life in summers. For her, life really doesn't begin until June when she, her mother, and older brother Steven head towards Cousins Beach. Or specifically to Susannah Fisher's beach house at Cousins. There they hang out with Susannah and her two sons, Conrad and Jereimah. It has always been that way for as long as Belly can remember.

Conrad is the oldest. He is dark and completely unattainable. Jeremiah is Belly's friend. Though thick and thin, they have been by each others side. He is the fun one who is not embarrassed to hug his mother. Conrad is quiet, moody and prefers to be alone. Belly wants to make Conrad hers. This summer, Belly has come into her own and Susannah's boys have noticed. Join Belly during the summer she turns sixteen, starts to date and is dealt a devasting blow. 

Visit Jenny Han's website.

Belly's life one summer later and all that has happened since that time.

The story of Belly, Conrad and Jeremiah will continue in the summer of 2011 in We'll Always Have Summer.