MEET ME AT MIDNIGHT

Love sparks as a summer rivalry turns into a summer romance.

Since fellow swimmers Sidney Walters, who’s auburn-haired, and Asher Marin, with brown hair and magnetic blue eyes, were 13 years old, their families have spent every summer vacationing together at the Five Pines Resort and Lake House. Sidney and Asher have spent those summers as enemies, constantly trying to outdo each other with elaborate pranks such as putting self-tanner in sunscreen, lacing toothpaste with cayenne pepper, and spiking the shower with cherry Kool-Aid so it dyes everything red. It’s Sidney and Asher’s last summer before college, and their quest to outdo one another results in a prank that goes one step too far, costing their families their summer rentals. Forced to call a truce, their true feelings about each other begin to surface, and they’re faced with something even scarier than slipping in a room covered in mayonnaise: falling in love. In her novel told in Sidney’s and Asher’s alternating first-person perspectives, Pennington (When Summer Ends, 2019, etc.) crafts two believable teens ensnared in a hate-to-love romance that is addictingly enjoyable. The comedic matchup between Sidney, a meticulous overthinker, and the charming yet snarky Asher will have readers rooting for the duo. All main characters are assumed white.

A steamy, prank-filled summer romance that readers will devour.