What's Fresh with Jennifer Echols's Endless Summer

The Boys Next Door and the sequel, Endless Summer, in one volume!

Two irresistible boys. One unforgettable summer.

Lori can't wait for her summer at the lake. She loves wakeboarding and hanging with her friends--including the two hotties next door. With the Vader brothers, she's always been just one of the guys. Now that she's turning sixteen, she wants to be seen as one of the girls, especially in the eyes of Sean, the older brother. But that's not going to happen--not if the younger brother, Adam, can help it.

Lori plans to make Sean jealous by spending time with Adam. Adam has plans of his own for Lori. As the air heats up, so does this love triangle. Will Lori's romantic summer melt into one hot mess?

Hello Jennifer, as always, it's a pleasure to have you with us on YA Fresh! Please tell us about your latest novel Endless Summer and what we can expect from your characters.

Jennifer: Endless Summer will be published by Simon Pulse on May 25. It’s feel-good romance about a girl who tries to catch the guy she’s had a crush on forever, only to be foiled by his younger brother, who has a crush on her. The story is set in summertime on a lake in Alabama like the one where I grew up, and I really think anyone who wants to laugh their way through a romantic beach read will not be disappointed in this book.

Sounds great! What's your current writing schedule like?

Jennifer: I get up at 4:30 a.m. and work for two hours. I make breakfast for my son and get him off to school, run four miles, then come back to work for another six hours. I’ll try to get a few more hours of work in late at night. “Work” could mean copyediting other people’s writing or creating my own, depending on which deadlines are closer! It’s very difficult to juggle these two jobs, and I just have to take it day by day.

What's up next? Do you have another project in the works? If so, please tell us about it.

Jennifer: My next more serious book, Forget You, will be published by MTV Books on July 20. I’m also working on another romantic drama for MTV that will be published in July 2011.

Fantastic, Jennifer! Thank you again for stopping by and best of luck with Endless Summer!

Jennifer Echols grew up in a small town on a beautiful lake in Alabama--a setting that has inspired many of her books. Always interested in creative writing, she finished her first (and still unpublished) novel soon after graduating with a degree in English from Auburn University at age 20. She worked as an editor for newspapers, a writer for business publications, and a writing instructor for three major universities, completed a master's degree in English, and finished the coursework for a PhD in genre studies before selling a book. Since then, she has written many young adult novels for Simon & Schuster, including Major Crush, which won the National Reader's Choice Award, and Going Too Far, which is a finalist in the 2010 RITA, the National Reader's Choice Award, and the Book Buyer's Best. Her next novel, Forget You, will be released on July 20. Currently she works as a copyeditor and lives in Birmingham with her husband and son. Please visit her online at jennifer-echols.com.