His Final Girl

Ann (the Brides of Prophecy series) playfully combines romance tropes with the campy horror beats of ’80s slasher movies in the fun first novel in her B Mine series. Farm girl Linnea Langenkamp and computer nerd Wes Carpenter meet at summer camp before their senior year of high school sometime in the 1980s. Their instant mutual attraction develops into love with very few stumbling blocks, save for the cartoonish jocks and cheerleaders who bully them (“The Neanderthal grinned. ‘I like punching nerds.’ ”). Then a storm strikes, cutting the power and knocking out the bridge that connects the campsite to the mainland. When one of the campers turns up dead, Wes and Linnea discover that the camp abuts an abandoned mine with a tragic history. With a masked killer on the loose and bodies piling up, Wes and Linnea attempt to keep their peers alive, aided by their Native American camp counselor, who has little to do beyond offer sage wisdom to the white teens. Despite the danger, the couple still find time for tender sex scenes that will gratify romance readers, but the emotional moments are hampered by two-dimensional characterization. Still, this quick, genre-bending story will please New Adult romance fans. (Apr.)