The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants meets The Education of Margot Sanchez in this Caribbean-set story about four friends who experience unexpected changes in their lives during the summer when a hotel developer purchases their community's beloved beach.

Eve is the rock in her family of seven, the one they always depend on. But when her dad is diagnosed with cancer, she wants nothing more than to trade her worries for some red lipstick and a carefree night.

Faith is the dancer all the boys want, but she only has eyes for the one she can't have. Only thing is, all the flirting in the world can't distract her from her broken home life...or the secrets that she hides.

KeeKee is the poet who won't follow the rules, not even to please her estranged father. But after a horrible betrayal, she'll have to choose between being right and losing everyone she loves.

Nia is the prisoner longing to escape her overprotective mother. A summer art program might be her ticket to freedom, yet it comes with a terrible price—and the risk may not be worth the reward.

Ready or not, it's time for these four friends to face the sun. (From Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers)

Janice Lynn Mather was born and raised in Nassau, Bahamas. She is now a novelist and short story writer based in Vancouver. She holds a BFA and MFA from the University of British Columbia. In 2018, she released her debut novel Learning to Breathe. The book was a finalist for the 2018 Governor General's Literary Award for young people's literature — text.

"I was lucky growing up to have a close knit group of friends and to still be in touch with them now. I always look back at my teens as a time when it seemed quite common for there to be these groups of friends that were often best friends. But I remember there being little clusters. Sometimes the clusters would overlap and sometimes they wouldn't — and there would be groups of friends breaking apart and coming together.

"As I got older and began having different kinds of conversations with friends, I came to realize that there were certain things that we just didn't talk about.

"There were often things that we were dealing with at home that maybe we didn't want to bring to our friendship. We didn't want to pollute our friendships almost with those things — or we didn't feel comfortable sharing them.

"I found it interesting to go back and, through these four characters, look at the things that they talk about together and what they decide to share with each other."