arc review: summer official by rebekah weatherspoon, available 4/26/2026 from g.p. putnam’s sons books for young readers. thank you penguin random house for providing this book for review consideration via netgalley. all opinions are my own, and if you order through that bookshop link i receive a 10% commission.
summer official is a contemporary young adult book set in los angeles and features the characters from her good side, weatherspoon’s ya contemporary from 2023. saylor’s mom is an influencer, and saylor hurts herself at basketball camp while distracted by an embarrassing video her mom posted. no longer able to spend the next several weeks at camp with her friends, saylor begs her crush heaven to hang out with her. saylor needs to get away from her mom and strikes a deal with heaven. heaven is an aspiring tattoo artist, and someone she wants to work with encourages her to increase her social media presence and post her art. she’s also an introvert and the idea of putting herself out there is terrifying. saylor tells heaven she can help with the social media stuff if heaven can tag along on the annual bingo challenge heaven’s dad makes for her. as they complete the bingo squares and have adventures through los angeles, they grow closer.
there were several things i enjoyed about this book. both saylor and heaven are biracial; saylor is Black and white, and heaven is Black and korean. they’re both lesbians and they both love los angeles. heaven wants to be a tattoo artist and her parents support her, and encourage her to go to a local college to get an accounting degree so she knows how to do financial stuff for a future tattoo career. saylor’s relationship with her twin sisters was fun, as was heaven’s relationship with her parents. i loved the bingo game heaven’s dad put together for her every summer.
a few things i did not enjoy: mentioning the pandemic as if it’s over (it’s not) and ppe isn’t needed (wear a mask, kids); the term “friend-zoned”; a little too much wealth–as a teen i also would have made fun of a peer with an audi; and finally there wasn’t enough conflict for me. it kind of felt like an add-on/bonus for bethany’s book. there was a lot of interior thinking but i think i wanted a little more exterior conflict. also, why did heaven’s dad have an obsession with olive garden?
overall i enjoyed this and will continue reading weatherspoon!
cws: accident — breaking a bone and scraping her face; child influencers (somewhat forced); racist microaggressions
Saylor Ford and Heaven Goo-Campbell could not be more different. Saylor is bubbly, popular, athletic, and always coupled up. Meanwhile, Heaven is grumpy and artistic, prefers her skateboard to people, and is perpetually single. So obviously, sparks fly when they must spend the entire summer together.
official description:
When Saylor, distracted by her mom’s viral video about Saylor’s coming out, breaks her arm at basketball camp, she becomes determined not to spend the summer stuck at home with the social media star. Her best escape is the girl she’s pretty sure can’t stand her but whom she finds absolutely irresistible, Heaven. Thankfully, Heaven is willing to let Saylor in on her summer plans, but for a price. Saylor has to help Heaven establish her social media presence, showcasing her art for her future career as a tattoo artist.
They didn’t anticipate the intimacy of spending each day together and the deepening feelings that followed. And their bingo scavenger hunt is now less a shared project and more a skate ramp to romance. But do the girls have a future together if Saylor is wary of bringing a relationship out into the open—too afraid that her mom’s influencer status will attract more attention than Saylor and timid Heaven can handle?