“A riveting coming-of-age story about a girl sleepwalking through a hot Midwestern summer until the sudden reappearance of her mother―and a new boy in town―challenge her to dream bigger. Readers will eagerly follow Bliss as she discovers some rainbows are worth chasing.” ―Laura Ruby, two-time National Book Award Finalist and author of Bone Gap
Seventeen-year-old Bliss Walker has been stuck in a home that doesn’t feel like hers for six years. Ever since Mama dropped her off and never came back.
Then, the summer before her senior year of high school, two things happen: Mama returns out of the blue, and Bliss meets Blake, a boy who listens like everything she has to say is worth hearing.
It should be a dream come true. But as the summer spins on, Bliss finds herself facing a painful choice: between the life she’s always longed for, and the world she’s starting to make for herself.
Raw and unvarnished, Jennifer Wilson’s debut about one girl’s messy, unglamorous, very real summer in central Illinois is perfect for fans of Emergency Contact and Far from the Tree.
Can she mend the past with her mother without shattering the future she’s just starting to build for herself?
- Small Town Summer Romance: One hot, unglamorous summer in central Illinois, two boys—one new and kind, one familiar and complicated—and a choice that could change everything.
- An Absent Mother's Return: After six years of silence, Bliss’s mother is back out of the blue. But can a relationship fractured for so long ever truly be repaired?
- Found Family: Stuck for years in a house that never felt like hers, Bliss has to decide if the family who raised her is the one she's willing to fight for.
- An Impossible Choice: The life she always dreamed of with her mother is finally within reach, but grabbing it might mean letting go of the new world—and the new boy—she’s just starting to love.
Jennifer Wilson grew up in central Illinois and, like Bliss, she’s walked beans and detasseled corn in the damp summer heat. She holds an MFA in creative writing for children and young adults from Hamline University, and a BS in Education from Indiana University. She is currently braving the icy winters and soaking up the perfect summers in Minnesota, where she is an early childhood educator. When she’s not writing or teaching, she is crafting and trying to keep her one plant alive. You can visit her at www.jenniferwilsonwrites.com.
