Jamie Brenner, the bestselling author of the summer hits BLUSH and GILT, returns with yet another sun-kissed, drama-filled beach read. In A NOVEL SUMMER, she invites readers to gorgeous, picturesque Provincetown, Massachusetts, where three young women must redefine their years-long friendship amid buried secrets, hurt feelings, a bookstore war and more than a few romantic entanglements.

Although Shelby, Hunter and Colleen all come from wildly different backgrounds, their summers in Provincetown formed the foundation of a lasting friendship. Lifelong Cape Codder Colleen runs the town’s independent bookstore, Land’s End Books, and Hunter has known her for years as her wealthy family owns a summer home there. Shelby arrived in Provincetown the summer after her freshman year of college when Hunter invited her. Since then, the girls have spent every summer together, soaking up the sun, devouring books, and celebrating their girlhood and friendship.

That is, until college graduation. Shelby left to embark on a career as a writer in New York City, Hunter moved to Boston for a job in publishing, and carefree Colleen stayed in Provincetown to (wo)man the bookstore. They agreed to reunite every summer. But when we meet them, it has been two years since they all really spoke or got together. The occasion is momentous, to say the least: Shelby has been published, and her debut, Secrets of Summer, has brought her back to Provincetown for her book launch at --- you guessed it --- Land’s End Books.

"If you were to look up 'perfect beach read' in this reader’s personal dictionary, you’d see A NOVEL SUMMER. Jamie Brenner has a singular talent for crafting settings that are airy, sunny and inviting, and complicated characters with relatable motivations..."

Colleen is as buoyant as ever, but during the Q&A portion of Shelby’s event, an angry Hunter takes the mic and drops a bombshell of a question: “Do you ever think twice about the people you betrayed in writing this book? Or doesn’t that matter? Maybe getting this book published is just more important than your friends.” Needless to say, Shelby is gobsmacked. She always has been taught to “write what you know,” and while her book’s protagonist does share some similarities to Hunter --- a sex-positive free spirit from a wealthy family --- she never would have cast her best friend in a negative light. At least not intentionally. But Hunter’s feelings are not the only issue plaguing Shelby --- or Provincetown, for that matter.

Right before Shelby departed for Massachusetts, her boyfriend dumped her over jealousy about her debut. And she's struggling to write her next book, which is due to her agent very soon. Hunter, meanwhile, is dealing with a recent layoff from her job and her feelings of inadequacy as a girl who doesn't need to work for money, but who also doesn't want to rest on her parents’ wealth. And for Colleen, recent changes to Provincetown --- storm damage, a lack of affordable housing and a new bookstore among them --- are making her parents take a hard look at the family bookstore and its ability to thrive in a changing market. With all three young women dealing with painful, complicated issues of their own, it's easy to see why their friendship has taken a back seat…but not so easy, at least for Shelby, to see why it seems to be suddenly full of land mines and buried hurts.

When Colleen, facing some new developments of her own, asks Shelby to come back to Provincetown for the summer to run the bookstore, it seems like chaos in the making. Not only will a return put Shelby in close proximity to Hunter, it also means reentering the orbit of Justin Lombardo, her first love whose heart she broke when she left for New York. With the opening of a new store, Land’s End needs to get competitive, and that means going against the town (and her ex) to secure permits to use the beach as overflow for events. And, you know, booking those events in the first place.

The arrival of an esteemed, award-winning bigshot author in town seems like the answer to Shelby's prayers. But between Hunter, Justin and her budding feelings for the author, bookselling just became a messy business for her. Can she save Land’s End, finish her manuscript and repair her friendship with Hunter in the process? And if it’s impossible to do it all, will she choose love --- of her friends or a partner --- or her career?

If you were to look up “perfect beach read” in this reader’s personal dictionary, you’d see A NOVEL SUMMER. Jamie Brenner has a singular talent for crafting settings that are airy, sunny and inviting, and complicated characters with relatable motivations…and then grounding her concoction with real-world, timely issues like conservation, affordable housing and responsible tourism. The Provincetown of the book is indeed idyllic, but it is no utopia, and Brenner is very conscious of the mechanisms that allow the town to thrive. This may seem like an obvious, necessary skill for an author, but she’s not content to stop there. Instead, she makes her readers know, understand and care about these mechanisms. The result not only grounds but elevates her books, letting the characters live and breathe as real people and allowing their romances, friendships and ambitions to soar.

With its nod to readers and bookstores, along with its “insider baseball” takes on publishing and bookselling, A NOVEL SUMMER is a beach read for beach readers, a real love letter to the escapism (and, if you’re lucky, real-world bonds) that books deliver. What I always love about Brenner’s characters, particularly here, is that they're complex, ambitious women with real goals, dreams and secret hopes all their own. The ways she pushes them apart and together highlight the difficulties and achievements of their successes, but she never asks them to give up on their dreams, and there’s a lot of good messaging and heart in that approach. Add to that Brenner’s swoony romances, and you have everything you need for your next summer read.

Throw A NOVEL SUMMER in your beach bag, carry it on the train to work, or enjoy it on your own patio. There’s no wrong way to read a Jamie Brenner book, except not to read it at all.