“On Again, Awkward Again” by Erin Entrada Kelly and Kwame Mbalia

For Young adults (middle and high school)

Neither Pacy nor Cecil plans to start off freshman year with a bout of insta-love, but that’s what happens when they lay eyes on each other in the nurse’s office after Pacy busted her lip on a water fountain and Cecil had to make a dash for the bathroom due to his Irritable Bowel Syndrome. Of course, they aren’t going to TELL each other how they feel. Instead, they’re going to trip through a series of awkward encounters, questionable decisions, bad advice, word vomit, meddling family and friends, and multiple ill-timed allergic reactions on their way to figuring out first love.

Pacy and Cecil are delightfully weird, vibrant characters whose antics are as relatable as they are goofy. Well-intentioned family and friends stumble through our main characters’ lives, unsuccessfully trying to help or complicating things with their own foibles. There is a refreshing lack of toxicity throughout. Bad luck, misunderstandings, and anxious flubs are the only things keeping the two apart. Fate will take its course, so the reader needs only to sit back and laugh along. It’s a sweet, feel-good comedy of errors that will inspire even the most cynical to believe in love’s possibilities.

“Sounds Like Love” by Ashley Poston

For Adults

A songwriter on the rise, an ex-boyband bad boy, a small beach town in North Carolina, and a pinch of magic come together to create this gem of a romance.

Joni Lark is living her dream in LA when she encounters ex-boy band member Sebastian Fell at a concert the night before she heads home to Vienna Shores, NC, to visit family. The trip home is an annual summer tradition; however, this year is different than most. Joni is in a songwriting rut, and everything at home is falling apart. Her mom has dementia, her best friend is keeping secrets, and the family business is set to close at the end of summer. As if all this wasn’t stressful enough, Joni starts to hear an unfinished melody in her mind along with the voice of a musician looking for a comeback. Is it just stress and her imagination going wild, or does this unlikely duo need to come together to complete the song?

This book has all the feels: mother-daughter relationships, best friends, enemies-to-lovers romance, all set in a perfect beach town steeped in music references. It also tackles the heartbreaking effects of Dementia on a family and making hard choices without giving up your own goals.