A Lovestruck Summer and Books that Connect

This past Memorial Day Weekend, I took the short trip down the road to the local bookstore and spent some meandering time. At the high school reading list table (love those tables) I pondered classics I hadn't yet read and picked up Ken Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. At the popular paperbacks I found and collected a book long on my list—Muriel Barbery's The Elegance of the Hedgehog. My agent, Amy Rennert, had suggested Marianne Wiggins' The Shadow Catcher (about the American West and photography, among other things; how could I resist?) so I went and hunted that down. Next I asked the sales clerk what literary book is currently selling well, and she suggested Broken for You by Stephanie Kallos. I like to be in the know, every now and then, and so I added that to my pile.

Finally, I went to the YA shelves and collected Melissa Walker's newest, Lovestruck Summer. I have a thing about owning all of Melissa's books—she's so cute, to begin with, but also, just as important, I learn a lot from her each time I curl up with one of her teen novels. This time was no exception, for Lovestruck Summer isn't just a compelling tale of summer romance and indie music. It's also a novel that showcases Melissa's tremendous ear and her ability, from the first sentence on, to juice a book with momentum and voice.

Listen, for example, to the book's first paragraph: "I live my life in headphones. That way I can control what I let in. If kids at school are being idiotic and perky, I put on a mellow track and tune out their spirit rally. If my parents are nagging me, I play a fast song and rock out in my mind while smiling and nodding at them."

That's good. That's very good, and here are some reasons why. First, rhythm. This book is about music and from the start, Melissa's language has jazz. From the start, too, the words surprise. Kids being idiotic and perky? Clever coupling. Tuning out a spirit rally? Wait. A spirit rally? Let me take another look, you think, at that. And do we not, in just a paragraph, get who this narrator is? Can we not already picture her, caught up in the medleys she's got tracking through her mind?

There is a reason that those who have big followings have garnered that affection. In Melissa's case, she knows her audience, she knows what they think (Sex and the City characters are old, for the record, and there are just some things that people shouldn't wear), and she knows how to write a credible romantic tale that will keep teens on the edge of their seat.