One Year
Status: In revisions
Genre: YA contemporary, a companion to This Year (Mabel is a character's younger sister)
Inspiration: I went through a season in life where I depended heartily on my core group of friends. We went through a time of looking into our identities and it was life-changing. While that inspired the themes, the idea of working at a water park for the summer is entirely based on my experience as a teenager doing that exact thing.
Four seasons, four love stories, one group of friends discovering their identities.
Rule-following Mabel convinces everyone that getting jobs lifeguarding at the local water park is how they’re going to connect and make the most of their summer. When she draws on her personal experience to save a park guest from hypoglycemia, she doesn’t expect to be confronted with her deep-seated fears of losing those she loves, which sets her on a mission to live out her identity in every way she can.
Adventurous Lea lives life to the fullest, jumping at every opportunity that comes her way. When unexpected news at the doctor’s office pulls her physical activity level to a halt, she’s forced to slow down and think about what it means to commit to something. Or someone. But how does she reconcile that with how she was designed?
Perceptive Ash recognizes that she’s not the most exciting corner of their friend quad. In fact, she’s overlooked and left out more than she’d care to admit, even within her family. After her friends got jobs as lifeguards for the summer and she was stuck slinging burgers at the water park, she decides having a part-time job isn’t so bad. Queue the arcade and a quest to find her own identity. But what if she doesn’t?
Brutally honest Justine is well-known as the one you go to for the truth. She’s used to being blunt and taking names. She’s also used to her people: her three best friends and steadfast boyfriend. When he drops a truth-bomb of his own, Justine has to reckon with who she thought she was and who she truly is.
At the end of the year, these four friends will either come out stronger than ever, or completely fall apart.