Bright Before Sunrise

Brighton Waterford is the most popular girl at school, but she and her family are still mourning the loss of her father: “Five years. And it’s still so raw.” Surly Jonah Prentiss is new in wealthy Cross Pointe; he can’t stand the town or anyone in it, especially his mother’s rich new husband, or Brighton, whose perkiness embodies everything that angers him about Cross Pointe. Brighton needs Jonah to participate in a school service project, and she will try and get to him however she can, including agreeing to babysit his baby sister to get access to him. When Jonah catches Brighton snooping in his room, it sets off a long night of mishaps, misunderstandings, arguments, party- going, near-fistfights, angry ex-girlfriends, and an eventual romantic spark between the two teenagers. In this combative but eventually sweet opposites-attract romance, Schmidt (Send Me a Sign) has the two protagonists narrate in alternating chapters, and she has a good handle on Jonah’s anger and class-based insecurity as well as Brighton’s exhaustion between her grief and the many pressures she’s under. Ages 12–up. Agent: Barry Goldblatt Literary. (Feb.)