FAMOUS IN A SMALL TOWN

The summer before senior year, Sophie falls for a new neighbor and campaigns for a country music star to help raise money for the school band.

Sophie Kemper loves her small hometown of Acadia, Illinois. Though she’s focused on college applications, she can’t help wondering why anyone would want to leave. School band is her thing, and as the next president of the fundraising committee, it’s her responsibility to get them to the Tournament of Roses Parade in Pasadena. Sophie hatches a plan to raise money by persuading Megan Pleasant, country singer and lone famous person from Acadia, to perform at the fall festival. At the same time, she finds herself falling for August Shaw, the mysterious new boy who is staying with the family she babysits for down the street. They instantly click, exchanging clever banter and bonding over their blended families. But August won’t let Sophie in, and the sister she desperately misses disappoints her. Even her once-tight friendship group begins to splinter. On top of everything, Megan Pleasant seems to have deserted Acadia for good. Teeming with witty exchanges and realistic but heady drama, Sophie’s summer is easy to sink into. Though the romance is electric, it’s the relationships with her friends that really sing. Sophie and August are assumed white; there is some ethnic and sexual orientation diversity.

Rife with witticism, like a finely honed sitcom, and brimming with heart.