Cruel Summer | ✓

When Charlie Miller loses her job the week before both her roommates move to California, she decides it's time to get out of Texas. But with her bank account embarrassingly empty and her newly divorced parents living thousands of miles apart, she doesn't know where to go.

And then she remembers Fisher. The small lakeside town in Idaho where she spent every summer until she was eighteen at her uncle's cabin. It's the last place she was truly happy, so the day Gaby and Tay move out, Charlie packs up her car and embarks on the 1,800-mile drive. She has no idea what to expect when she gets there: her uncle sold the cabin six years ago, after all, and the last time she was there she was surrounded by her cousins. This time around she is alone, and she is lonely. When she revisits the old cabin, it's pure nostalgia.

Until she is caught by the neighbor. Who just happens to be the most beautiful woman Charlie has ever seen. She is smitten, instantly, and all of a sudden her trip to Fisher has a purpose. The only problem: Lou is almost twenty years older, she has a teenage daughter, and Charlie's pretty sure she's straight. But the more time they spend together, the less sure Charlie is, and when a freak event throws them together, there's only one way to find out.

After all, she's only here for two weeks and then she has to figure her life out. She has nothing left to lose.

© Elle Carrigan 2023