Until Next Summer, the sweet, steamy third novel by Ali Brady (The Beach Trap), celebrates the magic of summer camp and the glittering potential of second chances both romantic and platonic. Jessie and Hillary met at Camp Chickawah as campers and became best friends, dreaming of working together as counselors one day. But their paths took radically different turns and left them estranged for years--until Jessie, now the camp director, learns that this summer will be Chickawah's last.
Determined to go out with a bang, Jessie and her gruff assistant director, Dot, plan a series of adults-only reunion weeks to crown the camp's final season and raise a little cash. Hillary returns to supervise the arts and crafts cabin, hoping to mend fences with Jessie. As for Jessie, she's dealing with a cranky novelist who's renting a camp cabin for the summer, plus the fact that she's got no post-camp plan B. Both women--with assists from Luke, the novelist, and Cooper, the hotshot Boston chef who's running the camp kitchen--find more in the Minnesota woods than fireflies and a game of Capture the Flag.
Brady (the pen name for coauthors Alison Hammer and Bradeigh Godfrey) hits all the right summer camp notes: kayaking, last-minute musicals, toasted marshmallows, and, of course, camp romances. But the novel's true magic emerges as all the characters are forced to reckon with what's next. While camp may be a temporary state, the lessons of Camp Chickawah's final summer linger like the echo of a beloved campfire song. --Katie Noah Gibson, blogger at Cakes, Tea and Dreams