Like most girls, I grew up loving Judy Blume’s books. Her “adult” novels are just as easy to devour. In the summer of 1977, Victoria Leonard’s world changes forever when Caitlin Somers chooses her as a friend. Dazzling, reckless Caitlin welcomes Vix into the heart of her sprawling, eccentric family, opening doors to a world of unimaginable privilege, sweeping her away to vacations on Martha’s Vineyard, an enchanting place where the two friends become “summer sisters.” Now, years later, Vix is working in New York City. Caitlin is getting married on the Vineyard. And the early magic of their long, complicated friendship has faded. But Caitlin begs Vix to come to her wedding, to be her maid of honor. And Vix knows that she will go—because she wants to understand what happened during that last shattering summer. And, after all these years, she needs to know why her best friend—her summer sister—still has the power to break her heart.

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I read this right after I had baby Emmeline, and I could do nothing but sit on the sofa with a sleeping newborn nestled on my chest. (For the record: not much has changed.) Like Sophie Kinsella’s other cheeky novels, this is Chick Lit at it’s best. Light and sweet and totally compelling. The story is about Emma Corrigan, a young woman with a huge heart, an irrepressible spirit, and a few little secrets. Secrets from her boyfriend: I’ve always thought Connor looks a bit like Ken. As in Barbie and Ken. Secrets from her mother: I lost my virginity in the spare bedroom with Danny Nussbaum while Mum and Dad were downstairs watching Ben-Hur. Secrets she wouldn’t share with anyone in the world: I have no idea what NATO stands for. Or even what it is. Until she spills them all to a handsome stranger on a plane. At least, she thought he was a stranger …. Until Emma comes face-to-face with Jack Harper, the company’s elusive CEO, a man who knows every single humiliating detail about her …

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Curtis Sittenfeld’s debut novel, Prep, is a beautiful coming-of-age story full of heartbreak and humor. She captures adolescent angst perfectly. There was something about this book that just stuck with me long after I read it. The story follows Lee Fiora, an intelligent, observant fourteen-year-old who has just begun at the prestigious Ault School in Massachusetts. She leaves her animated and loving family behind to head into a glossy prep school thanks to a scholarship. As Lee soon learns, Ault is a sheltered world of jaded, gorgeous teenagers who summer in Nantucket and speak in their own clever language. Though intimidated and fascinated by her classmates, Lee eventually earns herself a place at Ault. But when her behavior takes a self-destructive and highly public turn, her carefully crafted identity within the community is shattered. Pair that with a complicated love interest and frustration with her parents, and you’ve got yourself a universal teenage angst story you’ll find completely consuming.

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