Nate Plus One

Seventeen-year-old Nate Hargreaves has spent the past year getting over his secret former boyfriend Tommy Herron, whom he hasn’t heard from since being ghosted. Nate’s infatuation with Jai Patel, 17, his musically gifted best friend and the guitarist of the band Infinite Sorrow, has been a good distraction. Despite his stage fright, Nate even volunteers to be Infinite Sorrow’s lead singer after a bandmate unexpectedly bails weeks before a potentially career-launching band competition. He’s excited to attend his cousin’s summer destination wedding in Johannesburg, until he learns that Tommy will be in attendance as a guest’s plus-one. When Jai offers to escort Nate to the wedding, Nate is elated, but repeated run-ins with Tommy have him on edge. As his emotions become overwhelming, Nate turns to Jai and his supportive family to help him navigate heartbreak and a second chance at love. Though early chapters read as memoir-like, Whye (Date Me, Bryson Keller) uses an empathetic cast, upbeat narrative, and strikingly detailed locale to effectively convey whirlwind wanderlust in this exuberant summer love story. Nate and his mother are described as mixed-race; their South African family is Black and white; Jai is brown-skinned. Ages 14–up. Agent: Robert Guinsler, Sterling Lord Literistic. (May)