Summer of Sloane

Seventeen-year-old Sloane has a fine setting to nurse a broken heart: her mother’s gorgeous beach house on the Hawaiian island of O‘ahu. Betrayal is at the center of this novel—by friends, longtime boyfriends, parents—and Sloane grapples with the possibility of forgiveness under especially painful circumstances: Mick, Sloane’s best friend from childhood, is pregnant, and Sloane’s boyfriend, Tyler, was the other party involved. It’s a situation that could be ripped from a soap opera, yet debut author Schneider steers the story away from melodrama, instead focusing on Sloane’s time in Hawaii, seeing old friends and making new ones while enjoying the recreation the islands have to offer. The introduction of a romance with a boy named Finn heightens Sloane’s conflicting feelings about her past, but also allows her to see Mick’s and Tyler’s betrayals with new eyes and sympathetic distance. Through Sloane and everyone who orbits her, Schneider examines betrayal from many angles, as well as the myriad ways that people hurt one another and how one teenager moves forward to see new romance and hope in her future. Ages 12–up. [em]Agent: Lisa Grubka, Fletcher & Company. (May) [/em]