Description

From #1 New York Times bestselling author Sarah Dessen comes a big-hearted, sweeping coming of age novel about a girl who reconnects with a part of her family she hasn’t seen since she was a little girl—and falls in love, all over the course of a magical summer.

Emma Saylor doesn’t remember a lot about her mother, who died when Emma was twelve. But she does remember the stories her mom told her about the big lake that went on forever, with cold, clear water and mossy trees at the edges.

Now it’s just Emma and her dad, and life is good, if a little predictable…until Emma is unexpectedly sent to spend the summer with her mother’s family that she hasn’t seen since she was a little girl.

When Emma arrives at the small town of North Lake, she realizes there are actually two very different communities there. Her mother grew up in working class North Lake, while her dad spent summers in the wealthier Lake North resort. The more time Emma spends there, the more it starts to feel like she is also divided into two people. To her father, she is Emma. But to her new family, she is Saylor, the name her mother always called her.

Then there’s Roo, the boy who was her very best friend when she was little. Roo holds the key to her family’s history and its many secrets, and slowly, he helps her put the pieces together about her past. It’s hard not to get caught up in the magic of North Lake—and Saylor finds herself falling under Roo’s spell as well.

For Saylor, it’s like a whole new world is opening up to her. But in this heartfelt story, when it’s time to go back home, which side of her—Emma or Saylor—will win out?

Childhood Friends to Lovers: Roo was her best friend when they were little. Now, he holds the key to her past, and maybe her heart, too. A Bittersweet Found Family: Emma doesn’t remember her mother’s family, but spending a summer in their world means uncovering the past she never knew she had. A Summer of First Love: Caught between two worlds and two names—Emma and Saylor—she finds herself falling for the one boy who’s always known her. YA Contemporary Romance: A sweeping, emotional novel about the magic of summer, the pull of family, and the courage to find out who you really are.