Congratulations to Amy Spalding, whose forthcoming YA novel THE SUMMER OF JORDI PEREZ (AND THE BEST BURGER IN LOS ANGELES) just received a starred review from Kirkus! An excerpt:
Working at her favorite boutique and falling in love, a girl enjoys a lush Los Angeles summer—until things become complicated… Funny, full of heart, and refreshingly free of a weight-loss arc.
Sky Pony Press is publishing Amy’s latest in April, but you can enter to win a copy now (see Amy’s instagram feed for details), or, if you’ll be at ALA Midwinter this weekend, come meet her at 4pm on Saturday at Booth 1916 for a signing!
You can also preorder a copy at Indie Bound or your favorite bookstore, and send Amy congrats on Twitter at @atheames!
Seventeen, fashion-obsessed, and gay, Abby Ives has always been content playing the sidekick in other people’s lives. While her friends and sister have plunged headfirst into the world of dating and romances, Abby’s been happy to focus on her plus-size style blog and her dreams of taking the fashion industry by storm. When she lands a great internship at her favorite boutique, she’s thrilled to take the first step toward her dream career. Then she falls for her fellow intern, Jordi Perez. Hard. And now she’s competing against the girl she’s kissing to win the coveted paid job at the end of the internship.
But really, nothing this summer is going as planned. She’s also unwittingly become friends with Jax, a lacrosse-playing bro-type who wants her help finding the best burger in LA; she’s struggling to prove to her mother–the city’s celebrity health nut–that she’s perfectly content with who she is; and she’s desperately trying to remain behind the scenes and off-camera where she feels she belongs, when she hangs out with Jordi, who documents her entire life in photographs.
Though crazy, summer’s been fun, and just as Abby starts to feel like she’s no longer the sidekick in her own life anymore, Jordi’s photography surprisingly puts her in the spotlight for the first time, and it feels more like a betrayal rather than a starring role. Can Abby find a way to reconcile her positive yet private sense of self with the image that other people have of her?
