One S’more Summer
(The Campfire Series #1)
by Beth Merlin
Publisher: Ink Monster Books, LLC
Publications Date: May 30, 2017
Genre: Romance
Since that first bus ride to Camp Chinooka twenty long years ago, Gigi Goldstein has been pining for her best friend’s guy. She knows her crush is wrong and has to stop, but her heart won’t listen to reason. To escape the agony of their impending wedding, Gigi accepts a summer job at the only place she’s ever been happy.
But working at Chinooka isn’t all campfire songs and toasting marshmallows. Gigi’s girls are determined to make her look bad in front of the boys’ Head Counselor—the sexy but infuriating Perry—and every inch of the campground is laced with memories.
When Gigi realizes she can’t fix the present by hiding in the past, she’s forced to reexamine her choices. Maybe everything she thought she wanted wasn’t what she actually needed… But if she can get her act together, Gigi might have one last shot at the summer love of her dreams.
Excerpt…
“I can’t,” he answered, his voice losing all power.
“Can’t or won’t?”
“Gigi, please get home safe okay?”
“Please Joshua, wait—” I whispered to the dial tone.
I hung up the phone and sobbed so hard that the cab driver pulled over to the side of Second Avenue, where I pushed open the door and preceded to throw up vodka and French fries into a storm drain. The driver helped me back into the cab and then took me to my apartment, where I stumbled inside and passed out on the couch.
In the morning, my apartment felt stuffy and small, the guilt and shame of the night before completely suffocating me. I stood up to open some windows and noticed a packet with the Camp Chinooka logo peeking out from the pile of mail on my coffee table. I slowly pulled it out from underneath the large pile of bills I’d been avoiding and opened the envelope. Inside were a brochure, job application, and letter from Camp Chinooka’s director, Gordon Birnbaum.Dear Camp Chinooka Alumni,
As we enter into our 100th summer, we need you more than ever. We are looking for hard-working, fun-loving, energetic, and enthusiastic former campers to return to Chinooka as counselors or head counselors. If you think you have what it takes, and are looking to recapture a bit of your youth in the beautiful Poconos, enclosed is an application. Come join us for our amazing centennial year! We look forward to welcoming you back to the Chinooka family, your home away from home.Sincerely,
Gordon “Gordy” BirnbaumThe answer was so simple, and was now staring me in the face. I could work as a counselor at Camp Chinooka for the summer and get away from everyone and everything. I needed a job and a hideout—this was both. I needed time to mend my broken heart and figure out what to do with the rest of my life. Most of all, I relished the notion that I could actually revisit that time and place in my life where every decision was not life-altering and possibilities seemed wide open. I sat down at the kitchen table and filled out the application, and before I had time to second-guess my decision, slid it into my building’s mail shoot.
Meet the author…
Beth Merlin has a BA from The George Washington University where she minored in Creative Writing and a JD from New York Law School. She’s a native New Yorker who loves anything Broadway, rom-coms, her daughter Hadley, and a good maxi dress. She was introduced to her husband through a friend she met at sleepaway camp and considers the eight summers she spent there to be some of the most formative of her life. One S’more Summer is Beth’s debut novel.
Giveaway time!
That has to be one of the cutest necklaces ever! And a perfect companion to the books.
That little charm necklace is too cute. That was a good excerpt. I was just looking at the recipes on your recipe blog and have bookmarked a few of them.
OMG that cover and title! too cute!
For What It’s Worth
Camp Chinooka, if the name alone isn’t enticing I don’t know what is. I went to a camp called Tanadoona. I’ll have to see if this Camp Chinooka is as interesting as is sounds.#socialevent17
Had my eye on this one 🙂