The Goodbye Summer

Sarah Dessen meets Morgan Matson in the perfect summer debut about learning to say goodbye―or finding a reason to stay.

Caroline is counting the days until September, when she'll turn seventeen and she and her older boyfriend, Jake, will run away together. She doesn't feel connected to anyone at home now that she has him, and she can't wait to see the world with the most important person in her life. So with just a few more months until freedom, she spends her summer working at the local aquarium gift shop and dreaming of the fall.

Then she meets Georgia, a counselor at the aquarium's camp, and Caroline's world changes. Through pizza lunches, trips to amusement parks, and midnight talks, Georgia begins to show Caroline there's more to life than being with Jake.

The stronger Georgia and Caroline's bond grows, the more uneasy Caroline becomes about her plans to leave. When summer comes to a close, she'll have to say goodbye to someone...but who is she willing to lose?

Sarah Van Name grew up in North Carolina and attended Duke University twice, once for a teenage creative writing camp and once as an undergraduate. She lives and works in Durham with her husband, Ben, and her dog, Toast. She is the author of The Goodbye Summer and Any Place but Here.