Summerwork - by Carrie Mesrobian (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

Seventeen-year-old Leo Arceneaux has been raised by his mother and uncle, having lost his father in a shockingly random murder when he was two. Connor Rigby is the teenage daughter of a wealthy lifestyle influencer. She has no idea who her father is. As summer begins, Leo and Connor both find themselves in a small town in rural Minnesota, living in the rundown grandiosity of Connor's mother's family's estate. Rigby Mansion is a secluded gothic monstrosity that Connor's mother is slowly renovating without ever actually being present. Leo is there as a summer landscaping laborer, working to pay off a debt to his mother and uncle, and Connor arrives shortly after, having left behind wreckage of her own and looking for a place to lie low away from her mother.

Connor and Leo soon find themselves in an unfamiliar but intense relationship--not simply a summer romance but something that feels important and somehow tied to the combination of this particular blazing-hot summer and this weird house in the middle of nowhere.

When an accident on the estate's grounds reveals the bones of two long dead people, Leo and Connor become obsessed with the couple buried beneath the fountain. Neither of them can say exactly why, but they're sure that somehow these two corpses are tied to the to whatever comes next in their lives.

Review Quotes

"Mesrobian has a real penchant for description, painting the lush setting with a vivid specificity, from the crumbling Art Deco mansion to the vegetation-clogged pond behind it, and fully immersing readers in the swampy, stormy world....This is a glimpse of one humid Minnesota summer, where not a lot happens, but a whole lot is going on."--BCCB

About the Author