Happy Messy Scary Love by Leah Konen

Happy Messy Scary Love

A Story of Summer Lies, Online Love, and Finding the Courage to Be Yourself

Leah Konen, Sandy Rustin, Recorded Books

Harry N. Abrams · Print & ebook · May 14, 2019

A sweet, funny, and deeply relatable summer romance about learning to embrace failure, owning your passions, and discovering that the scariest part of falling in love is letting someone see the real you.

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Who it’s for
An online crush, a summer lie, and the nerve to be seen.
Genres
Romantic Comedy for Teens, Finding Your Footing, Friendship for Teens
Published
Harry N. Abrams, May 14, 2019

About this book

A sweet, funny, and deeply relatable summer romance about learning to embrace failure, owning your passions, and discovering that the scariest part of falling in love is letting someone see the real you. Olivia Knight's summer plan—binge-watching retro horror movies and anonymous online chatting with her horror-loving friend, Elm—was supposed to be a cozy escape from the anxiety of failing her NYU screenwriting application.

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But when Elm (aka Jake) unexpectedly sends a selfie and turns out to be impossibly cute, Olivia panics. In a moment of pure, messy fear, she sends him a picture of her beautiful, confident best friend, Katie. It's just a harmless lie, right? They'll never meet in person. Wrong. Forced by her parents into a summer working at a zipline company in the Catskills, Olivia comes face-to-face with the real Jake—the boy she's been falling for online. Now, she's trapped: caught between the truth, the escalating lie, and the magnetic chemistry she shares with the boy who thinks she's someone else. As Olivia navigates treacherous high ropes courses (despite her fear of heights!), a disastrous new job, fights with her best friend, and the absolute terror of her secret being exposed, she has to figure out if she can stop pretending to be the perfect girl online and start accepting the imperfect, smart, horror-movie-obsessed girl she truly is.

Messy Summer Sparks

An online crush, a summer lie, and the nerve to be seen.

Come here for

  • Playful teen romance tangled up in online identity
  • Horror-movie affection and summer-job chaos

Expect

  • Awkward chemistry, friendship friction, and fear of being found out
  • A tender turn toward owning imperfection

Where it sits

Romantic Comedy for Teens56%
Friendship for Teens37%
Finding Your Footing35%

Percentages are BookFrontier’s reading of the book.

Publisher categories

  • Funny YA
  • Contemporary YA Romance
  • Finding Your Footing
Authors
Leah Konen, Sandy Rustin, Recorded Books
Publisher
Harry N. Abrams
Published
May 14, 2019
Format
Print & ebook
Reading lane
Funny YA