Romantic Escapes

As most of us are sheltering in place, we are finding lots of time for reading. Each day we read sobering news about new COVID19 deaths and I, for one, am looking for some romantic escapes in my reading.  The enemies to lovers trope,  common in romantic literature, is cleverly employed in the four novels I am recommending this month.  Tweet Cute by Emma Lord pits Jack and Pepper, the children of restaurant owners, against each other, when they enter into a battle on social media over a grilled cheese recipe Jack's family accuses Pepper's mom of stealing. In Lucky Caller by Emma Mills, Nina and Jamie, best friends who had a misunderstanding that left them at odds, reunite when they collaborate on a radio broadcasting project.  Meet Me at Midnight by Jessica Pennington introduces Sidney and Asher, frenemies whose parents force them to spend summers together. They spend their time pranking each other until a prank gone wrong gives them a common enemy.  4 Days of You and Me by Miranda Kinneally follows the relationship of rivals Lulu and Alex, over four years of ups and downs in this opposites attract story. 

In Tweet Cute high achieving Pepper Evans, daughter of the owner of Big League Burger, gets into a Twitter war with Jack Campbell, whose family owns a deli named Girl Cheesing.  The deli claims Big League has stolen the recipe for the Campbell family grilled cheese classic.  Jack, an aspiring programmer, whose father expects him to take over the deli, tweets a snarky comment about the theft and Pepper's mother instructs her to respond. They get into a public battle that goes viral. Meanwhile, they are confiding in each other anonymously on a messaging app that Jack created.  This reimagining of You've Got Mail, focuses on two teens, whose personal aspirations conflict with their family loyalties, unwittingly finding solace in one another.

Lucky Caller introduces Nina, an Indiana teen, whose absentee dad is a semi-famous radio host in California.  She signs up for a radio broadcasting class during her senior year, hoping to connect with him.  She is grouped with Sasha, Joydeep and Jamie, a random group with whom she is at odds, for the class project. Complicating matters, Nina and Jamie live in the same building and used to be friends until a misunderstanding makes things awkward between them. The group decides on a 90s music theme, but have a hard time finding listeners until they capture the attention of fans of a 90s band known as the Existential Dead.  To attract more listeners, they advertise a mystery guest interview, whom Nina promises will be her father.  However, the hints they have been tweeting have people convinced the guest is either the reclusive frontman of Existential Dead or a member of a hit boy band. As Nina works through issues with her dad, her mom's new fiance, her growing attraction to Jamie, and the radio broadcasting class project disaster, she learns important life lessons through her mistakes.  Transcripts from her father's radio show and various class recordings add spice to this fun rom/com.

Meet Me at Midnight focuses on Sidney and Asher, competitive swimmers who have spent summers together with their families since they were 13. They should be friends, but instead they are enemies who spend their summers pranking each other.  When a prank gone wrong gets both families evicted from their rental homes, their parents rent a house together for the remainder of the summer. The close proximity forces Sid and Ash to communicate, and they decide to join forces to get revenge against their former landlord. As their cooperation leads to undeniable attraction, they struggle to put their feud behind them and give in to love. Many of the pranks are recounted in hilarious detail and alternating voices give the reader insight into their evolving feelings for each other.  

Four Days of You and Me refers to four class trips high schoolers Lulu Wells and Alex Rouvelis go on each May with their classmates.  Lulu, an aspiring graphic artist, and Alex, a baseball player and class heartthrob, start off freshman year as enemies. When they both run for student council president, Lulu's campaign speech is about things she will do to make the school greener, whereas he tells jokes and says, "Vote for me, I already told my mom I won."  Of course, he is the victor. On the first class trip to a science museum, they end up locked in an escape room and by the time they solve the puzzle, they are kissing instead of bickering. Sophomore year their romance is deep, but Alex's packed schedule leaves little time for Lulu and she breaks up with him.  As the school years unfold, they go through the ups and downs of teenage romance. They reunite on the junior year trip to Manhattan and then senior year they focus on what life will be like when they head off to separate colleges.  Things come to a conclusion on the senior trip to London.  The narrative alternates between the trips and flashback chapters that fill in the gaps chronicling the relationship of these two engaging characters.This book comes out May 5th.