When Abby inherits a box of love letters written to her grandmother from a mysterious stranger, she decides to spend the summer on Nantucket looking for clues. There, she uncovers the truth about O’ma’s Holocaust history and her secret lost love, while finding unexpected romance herself. (Sydney Taylor Young Adult Honor) ( )

Abby’s grandmother recently passed away, leaving behind letters that open up a past she never talked about. Abby dives head first info finding out who the people are in the letters and what they mean to her grandma. The letters leaves her to Nantucket and spending the summer on the island. Until she runs face first into Noah, the grandson of Edward, the man she’s trying to track down. This is the perfect book for summer and has a bit of romance, history, and mystery within it. I absolutely loved this book and was eager to see where this mystery led Abby. ( )

Rising high school senior Abby, a white, Jewish resident of South Hadley, MA, wants to be a historian, and she's starting by digging into her family history. Abby is particularly interested in tracking down any information about her recently deceased grandmother Ruth, who she called O'ma, whose parents sent her to America from Germany by herself when she was only four years old; Ruth's parents were later killed in Auschwitz. When Abby reads some of O'ma's old love letters from someone called Edward, she tracks him down and decides to spend her summer on Nantucket, where he has a house, to see what she can find out. But Abby runs up against Edward's grandson, Noah Barbanel, who is fiercely protective of his family - and also, incidentally, very handsome. As Abby digs deeper into O'ma and Edward's history, she begins to fall for Noah, but will he ever put her ahead of his family? And the necklace Edward referred to in his letters - where is it now?

Abby is a thoroughly engaging, lively Gen Z character. She has a loving relationship with her parents; though her mom sometimes irritates her, she still thinks she's the best mom in the world. Her religion and culture is a part of her life, from Shabbat prayers to bagels and cream cheese. She is a little scared of falling in love for real, and Noah calls her on it. And she is an excellent and tenacious researcher.

Sydney Taylor YA Honor Book

Quotes

You couldn't long for something - lust for it - then feel hollow as soon as you achieved it.
Could you? (20)

"Isn't it selfish to do what I'm interested in if I could do something else and have a bigger impact?" (Noah to Abby, re: studying biodiversity vs. business, 101)

But how did we record everything accurately? How did we make sure to pass the knowledge from one generation to the next?
How did we decide what deserved to be remembered, and what forgotten? (190)

"I've never had adults dislike me. I hate it. Your grandmother thinks I'm awful." (301)

"It's about trust, Noah. And being honest."
"It would have upset you."
"Then upset me! I'd rather be upset than oblivious! (323)

"You have to be as nice to yourself as you'd be to a friend. That's what my therapist says." (Stella, 331)

I'd thought people grew up once they became adults, but maybe no one ever really grew up. Maybe people were always capable of being petty and cruel, even people with all the power in the world.
But maybe they were also capable of changing. (335) ( )

This teen summer romance is as sweet as apple pie.

Abby's grandma passed away and left behind a set of love letters between her and a man Abby never heard of. She realized she knows very little about her grandma's life - both how she escaped the Nazis who killed her parents and how she ended up in an ill-fated romance with a wealthy man who summered on Nantucket - so she takes the opportunity to go to Nantucket for the summer to research, getting herself hired at a bookstore.

But when her research includes getting hired to a catering job so she can snoop through the wealthy family's home, then getting caught by their cute grandson, her summer takes a turn. Noah is rich, cute, charming and from another world. Abby is still recovering from her ex dumping her so he'd have more time for college applications, but Nantucket's a small island, and she and Noah keep finding each other.

I enjoyed both the historical mystery and the present romance. I hadn't heard of the Jewish children who were snuck into the United States ahead of the war, so I liked the details on Abby's grandma. Noah and Abby's romance was super cute, too.

This is the perfect light-hearted YA summer romance.

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Teen for the advance review copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. ( )