Cover Reveal! Monica Wagner's FROSH

Monica has been a fixture in the YA writing community for the last few years, mentoring everywhere from Pitch Wars to the Writer's Voice. But she just got her cover for her upcoming NA, Frosh, and the book looks like so much fun!

Here's the blurb:

During welcome week at Hillson University, the FROSH will hit the fan.

Type-A aspiring journalist Ellie plans to take freshman year by storm. But hell-bent on breaking a huge on-campus scandal, she risks becoming one herself—and getting the mysterious, heart-melting QB in serious trouble.

Grant, star quarterback and charismatic chick-magnet, is hiding a life-altering secret. The last thing he needs is an overeager (absolutely adorable) journalist asking questions. He’s got a reputation to protect.

High-society legacy student Devon is ready to catch the football hottie of her dreams. If the tabloids feature her with the “it” boy on her arm, her tainted past will be buried—or so she thinks.

Charlie, pre-med, is done being the sweet and funny geek that girls like Devon ignore. But if he tries to impress her with a new edgy, spontaneous attitude, will his heart end up in the emergency room?

FROSH intertwines the stories of Ellie, Grant, Devon, and Charlie in Mónica B. Wagner’s sexy NA debut series, about falling in love and falling apart.

 Without further ado, here's the cover!

The book releases October 20th, and you can add the book to Goodreads here.





Mónica was born in a Peruvian city by a snow-capped volcano. Growing up, books were her constant companion as she traveled with her family to places like India (where she became a vegetarian), Thailand (where she *almost* met Leonardo di Caprio), France (where she pretended to learn French), and countless other places that inspired her to write. Now, Mónica lives in Chile with her husband, three boys, eleven hens, and stray dog.

The Summer I Found You

I've spent the last several days since I finished Jolene Perry's The Summer I Found You thinking about the book. Aside from the fact that the lovely cover and title don't have a lot to do with the book (which takes place during the school year and not on a beach), there was a lot to like about the book.

Jolene Perry is a master at writing emotional scenes--at cutting to the emotional core of each character and I think that shows here. Kate is 17 and struggling with her Type 1 diabetes diagnosis (and her tendency to ignore her symptoms and blood sugar frequently lands her in trouble). She just wants to be normal--forever is such a long word for an illness--and get through the school year and move to California with her best friend for college.

Then she meets her best friend's cousin, Aidan, home from Afghanistan with wounds on his heart and body (he's missing most of an arm from the blast that killed one of his best friends). Although Aidan is pretty sure that dating anyone is a bad idea, he finds himself drawn to Kate. And Kate finds him an equally compelling distraction, though neither of them intended their involvement to go as deep as it does.

Plotwise, there's not a lot that happens in this novel. But I thought it was a compelling character study of two people who are struggling to find themselves and their place--and the way they brought their strengths (and weaknesses) to each other. They're not perfect: Aidan is in denial about a lot of the things he needs to do (his List) to get his life back in order; Kate is in denial about the seriousness of her condition. She struggles to be open and forthcoming, and those weaknesses nearly cost her her relationship with Aidan.

Genre-wise, this book felt like it straddled NA and YA. It's billed as NA, and I would definitely say it's not for young teens (language, some sex and discussions about sex), but parts of it--particularly Kate's point of view--still felt very YA to me.