A “sparkling social history” that brings the twilight of the Edwardian era to life (Entertainment Weekly). The Perfect Summer chronicles a glorious English summer just over a century ago, when the world was on the cusp of irrevocable change. That summer of 1911, a new king was crowned and the aristocracy was at play, bounding from one house party to the next. But perfection was not for all. Cracks in the social fabric were showing. The country was brought to a standstill by industrial strikes. Temperatures rose steadily to more than 100 degrees; by August, deaths from heatstroke were too many for newspapers to report. Drawing on material from intimate and rarely seen sources and narrated from the viewpoints of a series of exceptional individuals—among them a debutante, a choirboy, a politician, a trade unionist, a butler, and the queen—The Perfect Summer is a vividly rendered glimpse of a bygone time and place. “Brimming with delectable information and little-known facts . . . manages to describe every stratum of English society . . . Where Nicolson is especially good, however, is with the royals and the aristocracy, whose country estates, salons, entertainments, and affairs—discreet and indiscreet—she describes with accuracy and humor.” —The Providence Journal “A hugely interesting portrait of a society teetering on a precipice both nationally and internationally . . . As page turning as a novel.” —Joanna Trollope

Meet the new Lou! She's thirteen years old, so it's time to stop mooning over the guy who used to be the guy next door. Instead she's heading for a dreamy seaside village with her friends Mina, Mary Emily, and Karen. Let the boy hunt begin! But the first cute boy she spots is Tristan, the guy next door himself! It's the perfect opportunity to rekindle their romance. So why is Lou giving Tristan the cold shoulder? And why can't Tristan strike up a conversation that doesn't end with his foot in his mouth? It doesn't help that Mary Emily is making the moves on Tristan herself. And things get really messy when Lou's mom shows up with a surprise: Lou's old pal Paul! But Paul is just a friend, nothing more, right?

Some families we’re born into, some we find for ourselves. When Serenity Alston swabbed her cheek for a DNA test, she joked about uncovering some dark ancestral scandal. The last thing she expected was to discover two half sisters she didn’t know existed. Suddenly, everything about her loving family is drawn into question…and meeting these newfound sisters might be the only way to get answers. The women decide to dig into the mystery together at Serenity’s family cabin in Lake Tahoe. With Reagan navigating romantic politics at work and Lorelei staring down the collapse of her marriage, all three women are converging at a crossroads in their lives. Before the summer is over, they’ll have to confront the past and determine how to move forward when everything they previously thought to be true was a lie. But any future is easier to face with family by your side.

Harry Kirkland was a star shortstop in a small Western Pennsylvania steel town where baseball was everything. Everyone in his home town eagerly followed this Little League hero’s career. Their adulation and loyalty convinced him that his life would continue on a golden road of success and good fortune. But Harry never fulfilled his dreams. Stricken with a bout of viral encephalitis and sent to live in a mental institution, he slowly faded away—brain-damaged, toothless, and void of hope. Until the day that Ted Tresh, Harry’s childhood friend, arrived at the hospital for a long-overdue visit. Armed with recollections of a simpler life, championship games, and lazy summer days, Ted takes Harry back to revisit their past, and reconnect with the boys they once were. The Last Perfect Summer is a nostalgic trip back to the 1960s—back to the days when a soda cost a dime and Mickey Mantle was every schoolboy’s idol. Back to a time when the innocence of youth allowed for any dream to come true.

Meet Lou! She's hardly your average 12 year old. Her handmade outfits are the talk of the school (even though they make the other girls laugh), and her homework gets a lot of attention from her teachers (even though it lands her in the shrink's office). Home sweet home is an apartment she shares with her couch-potato mom and a cat named Cat. At least she can pour her heart out to her best friend, Mina, and scribble her dreams in her secret diary. Now that she's almost a teenager, Lou's life is becoming even more interesting. Playing with dolls has lost its appeal and the boy across the street gets cuter every day. The new neighbor, Richard, just might be the perfect match for Lou's mom. But will Lou or her mom ever pluck up their courage and actually talk to their crushes?

From the bestselling author of Lucy in the Sky and Chasing Daisy, there are two soulmates, but three broken hearts in this “refreshing take on the happy-ever-after tale” (Marie Claire). “Do you still love him?” Every second of every minute of every hour of every day… Alice is eighteen and about to start university while Joe’s life is seemingly going nowhere. A Dorset summer, a chance meeting, and the two of them fall into step as if they have known each other forever. But their idyll is shattered, suddenly, unexpectedly. Alice heads off to Cambridge and slowly picks up the pieces of her broken heart. Joe is gone; she cannot find him. When she catches the attention of Lukas—gorgeous, gifted, rich boy Lukas—she is carried along by his charm, swept up in his ambitious plans for a future together. Then Joe is there, once more, but out of reach in a way that Alice could never have imagined. Life has moved on, the divide between them is now so great. Surely it is far too late to relive those perfect summer days of long ago? If you fall too fast you might just crash…

Facing up to a cheater at an elite soccer day camp and some difficult events at home helps eleven-year-old Lucy do some growing up during a summer which, while very different from the one she imagined, turns out to be just right.