The summer before college is a time when you get ready to leave your old life behind and embark on a new one. Check out my list of YA Books Set the Summer Before College. Updated in 2023!
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YA Books Set the Summer Before College
Romance, travel, bucket lists, makeovers – this list has high school graduates trying to make the most of that summer before college. Check it out and tell me what you think!
Exactly Where You Need to Be by Amelia Diane Combs (2022)
Florie’s OCD has kept her from a lot of things, like having an after-school job and getting her driver’s license. Now that she’s graduated high school, her best friend Kacey is headed off to Portland in the fall, while Florie’s taking a gap year before starting college.
But Florie can’t ignore the growing itch to become the person she wants to be and venture outside the quaint, boring Washington town she grew up in.
Winning tickets to see her favorite true crime podcast’s live show in California gives her the opportunity to do just that, if only for a few days. So—unbeknownst to their parents—Kacey and Florie set off on a road trip to San Francisco.
The only downside in Florie’s opinion? Sam, Kacey’s older brother and Florie’s forever crush, is their ride. The Samson Hodge, who Florie hasn’t seen since winter break, and who she’d prefer to never see again, if possible. But Florie is willing to put up with Sam if it means one last adventure with her best friend.
The Signs and Wonders of Tuna Rashad (2022)
Let’s be clear. No matter what her older brother, Robby, says, aspiring screenwriter Tuna Rashad is not “stupidstitious.” She is, however, cool with her Caribbean heritage, which means she is always on the lookout for messages from loved ones who have passed on.
But ever since Robby became a widower, all he does is hang out at the house, mock Tuna for following in their ancestors’ traditions, and meddle in her life. Tuna needs to break free from her brother’s overbearing ways.
Based on the signs, her ancestors are on board. They also seem to be on board with helping Tuna win over her crush, Tristan Dangerfield. The only hiccup? She has to do it before leaving for college in the fall. A ticking clock, a grief-stricken brother, and a crush who doesn’t believe in signs. What could possibly go wrong?
Right Where I Left You by Julian Winters (2022)
Isaac Martin is ready to kick off his last summer before heading off to college in the fall. There he won’t have his best friend Diego and, despite his social anxiety, will have to make friends on his own.
Isaac makes a foolproof plan: snatch up a pair of badges for the epic comic convention, Legends Con, and attend his first ever Teen Pride. Just him and Diego.
But when an unexpected run-in with Davi, an old crush, distracts Isaac the day tickets go on sale, suddenly he’s two badges short of a perfect summer. Even worse, now he’s left making it up to Diego by hanging with him and his gamer buddies.
But some of Diego’s friends turn out to be pretty cool, and when things with Davi start heating up, Isaac is almost able to forget about his Legends Con blunder. Almost. Because then Diego finds out what really happened that day with Davi, and their friendship lands on thin ice. Isaac assumes he’s upset about missing the convention, but could Diego have other reasons?
The Edge of Summer by Erica George (2022)
Saving the whales has been Coriander Cabot and her best friend Ella’s dream since elementary school. But when tragedy strikes, Cor is left to complete the list of things they wanted to accomplish before college alone, including a marine biology internship on Cape Cod.
Cor’s summer of healing and new beginnings turns complicated when she meets Mannix, a local lifeguard who completely takes her breath away. But she knows whatever she has with Mannix might not last, and that her focus should be on rescuing the humpback whales from entanglement. As the tide changes, Cor finds herself distracted and struggling with her priorities.
Amelia Unabridged by Ashley Schumacher (2021)
Eighteen-year-old Amelia Griffin is obsessed with the Orman Chronicles, written by the young prodigy N. E. Endsley. They’re the books that brought her and her best friend Jenna together after Amelia’s father left and her family imploded.
When Amelia and Jenna get the opportunity to attend a book festival with Endsley in attendance, Amelia is ecstatic. It’s the perfect way to start off their last summer before college.
In a heartbeat, everything goes horribly wrong. When Jenna gets a chance to meet the author and Amelia doesn’t, the two have a blowout fight. Then Jenna is killed in a freak car accident. Grief-stricken, and without her best friend to guide her, Amelia questions everything she had planned for the future.
When a mysterious, rare edition of the Orman Chronicles arrives, Amelia is convinced that it somehow came from Jenna. Tracking the book to an obscure but enchanting bookstore in Michigan, Amelia is shocked to find herself face-to-face with the enigmatic and handsome N. E. Endsley himself, the reason for Amelia’s and Jenna’s fight and perhaps the clue to what Jenna wanted to tell her all along.
Check out my review of Amelia Unabridged here!
Say Yes Summer by Lindsay Roth Culli (2020)
Rachel always does what she’s supposed to, but the summer before college, she decides to say yes to adventure and romance.
Rachel Walls has capital-G Goals: straight As, academic scholarship, college of her dreams. And it’s all paid off. Rachel is graduating at the top of her class and ready to celebrate. But Rachel Walls has spent most of high school saying no to dances, no to parties, and most especially, no to boys.
Now, for the first time in her life, there’s nothing stopping Rachel from having a little fun–nothing, that is, except herself. So when she stumbles on a beat up old self-help book, a crazy idea pops into her head: What if she just said yes to . . . everything?
And so begins a summer of yes. Yes to new experiences and big mistakes, yes to rekindled friendships and unexpected romances, yes to seeing the world in a whole new way.
Check out my review of Say Yes Summer!
The Marvelous Mirza Girls by Sheba Karim (2021)
After the death of her beloved aunt, Noreen takes a gap year and she and her mother take off on the trip of a lifetime to New Delhi, a trip in honor of her aunt.
To cure her post-senior year slump, made worse by the loss of her aunt Sonia, Noreen decides to follow her mom on a gap year trip to New Delhi, hoping India can lessen her grief and bring her voice back.
In the world’s most polluted city, Noreen soon meets kind, handsome Kabir, who introduces her to the wonders of this magical, complicated place. With the help of Kabir—plus Bollywood celebrities, fourteenth-century ruins, karaoke parties, and Sufi saints—Noreen discovers new meanings for home.
But when a family scandal erupts, Noreen and Kabir must face complex questions in their own relationship: What does it mean to truly stand by someone—and what are the boundaries of love?
Check out my review of The Marvelous Mirza Girls!
We Can’t Keep Meeting Like This by Rachel Lynn Solomon (2021)
Quinn works in her family’s wedding planning business, but she has a secret: she doesn’t want to go to college and study business like her parents want her to.
Quinn Berkowitz and Tarek Mansour’s families have been in business together for years: Quinn’s parents are wedding planners, and Tarek’s own a catering company. At the end of last summer, Quinn confessed her crush on him, but he left for college without a response.
Quinn has been dreading seeing him again. When he shows up at the first wedding of the summer, looking cuter than ever after a year apart, they clash immediately.
Quinn can’t deny her feelings for him are still there, especially after she learns the truth about his silence and opens up about her own fears. Maybe love isn’t the enemy after all.
Check out my review of We Can’t Keep Meeting Like This!
You Say It First by Katie Cotugno (2021)
Meg has her entire life set up: she and her best friend, Emily, will to head to Cornell together in the fall. Now she works at a voter registration call center in her Philadelphia suburb. But everything changes when one of those calls connects her to a stranger from small-town Ohio.
Colby is stuck in a rut, reeling from a family tragedy and working a dead-end job. The last thing he has time for is some privileged rich girl preaching the sanctity of the political process. So he says the worst thing he can think of and hangs up.
That night on the phone winds up being the first in a series of candid, sometimes heated, always surprising conversations that lead to a long-distance friendship and then—slowly—to something more.
Meet Me At Midnight by Jessica Pennington (2021)
Two teens have an annual prank war at their summer lake houses, until they decide to call a truce.
Sidney and Asher should have clicked. Two star swimmers forced to spend their summers on a lake together sounds like the perfect match. But it’s the same every year: in between cookouts and boat rides and family-imposed bonfires, Sidney and Asher spend the dog days of summer finding ways to prank each other. And now, the summer after their senior year, they’re determined to make it the most epic yet.
But their plans are thrown in sudden jeopardy when their feud causes their families to be kicked out of their beloved lake houses. Once in their new accommodations, Sidney expects the prank war to continue as usual. But then she gets a note―Meet me at midnight. And Asher has a proposition for her: join forces for one last summer of epic pranks, against a shared enemy―the woman who kicked them out.
This is How We Fly by Anna Meriano (2020)
A Cinderella retelling featuring a girl who joins a Quidditch league the summer before college.
Vegan feminist Ellen Lopez-Rourke has one muggy Houston summer left before college. She plans to spend every last moment with her two best friends. But when Ellen is grounded for the entire summer by her (sometimes) evil stepmother, all her plans are thrown out the window.
Determined to do something with her time, Ellen convinces her parents to let her join the local muggle Quidditch team. Suddenly Ellen is thrown into the very different world of sports: her life is all practices and training.
Even as Melissa pulls away to pursue new relationships, Ellen is steadily finding a place among her teammates. Maybe Quidditch is where she belongs.
But with her home life and friend troubles quickly spinning out of control–Ellen must fight for the future that she wants, now she’s playing for keeps.
Field Notes on Love by Jennifer E. Smith (2020)
Hugo has a non-refundable train ticket with his ex-girlfriends name on it. Enter Margaret “Mae” Campbell, who has the same name and is willing to share the trip.
Mae is still reeling from being rejected from film school. When she stumbles across Hugo’s ad for a replacement Margaret Campbell, she’s certain it’s exactly the adventure she needs to shake off her disappointment and jump-start her next film.
A cross-country train trip with a complete stranger might not seem like the best idea. But to Mae and Hugo, both eager to escape their regular lives, it makes perfect sense.
Just One Day by Gayle Forman (2013)
Allyson is on a post-graduation to Europe when she impulsively decides to head to Paris with a guy she’s just met. A whirlwind romance!
Allyson Healey’s life is exactly like her suitcase—packed, planned, ordered. Then on the last day of her three-week post-graduation European tour, she meets Willem.
A free-spirited, roving actor, Willem is everything she’s not, and when he invites her to abandon her plans and come to Paris with him, Allyson says yes. This uncharacteristic decision leads to a day of risk and romance, liberation and intimacy: 24 hours that will transform Allyson’s life.
My review of Just One Day, and my comparison to the indie film it resembles a LOT, is here!
Little Do We Know by Tamara Ireland Stone (2019)
Lifelong best friends and next-door neighbors Hannah and Emory never go a single day without talking. But now its senior year and they haven’t spoken in three months. Not since the fight, where they each said things they couldn’t take back.
Then one fateful night, Emory’s boyfriend, Luke, almost dies. And Hannah is the one who finds him and saves his life.
As Luke tries to make sense of his near-death experience, he secretly turns to Hannah, who becomes his biggest confidante. In Luke, Hannah finds someone she can finally talk to about all the questions she’s grappling with.
Emory just wants everything to go back to normal–the way it was before the accident. She has no idea why her relationship is spiraling out of control. But when the horrifying reason behind Hannah and Emory’s argument ultimately comes to light, all three of them will be forced work together to protect the one with the biggest secret of all.
Check out my review of Little Do We Know!
That Thing We Call a Heart by Sheba Karim (2017)
The summer before Shabnam heads to Penn, she works at a pie stand, spends time with her Pakistani-American family and falls for a guy.
Shabnam Qureshi is facing a summer of loneliness and boredom until she meets Jamie, who scores her a job at his aunt’s pie shack. Shabnam quickly finds herself in love, while her former best friend, Farah, who Shabnam has begun to reconnect with, finds Jamie worrying.
In her quest to figure out who she really is and what she really wants, Shabnam looks for help in an unexpected place—her family, and her father’s beloved Urdu poetry.
My Best Everything by Sarah Tomp (2015)
You’ll love this YA “Breaking Bad” story!
Luisa “Lulu” Mendez has just finished her final year of high school in a small Virginia town, determined to move on and leave her job at the local junkyard behind. So when her father loses her college tuition money, Lulu needs a new ticket out.
Desperate for funds, she cooks up the (illegal) plan to make and sell moonshine with her friends. Quickly realizing they’re out of their depth, they turn to Mason, a local boy who’s always seemed like a dead end.
As Mason guides Lulu through the secret world of moonshine, it looks like her plan might actually work. But can she leave town before she loses everything? My Best Everything is Lulu’s letter to Mason–but is it a love letter, an apology, or a good-bye?
The Disenchantments by Nina Lacour (2013)
Colby and his girlfriend planned to tour with her band the summer before college. Then she breaks up with him and tells him she’s not going to college.
Colby and Bev have a long-standing pact: graduate, hit the road with Bev’s band, and then spend the year wandering around Europe. But moments after the tour kicks off, Bev makes a shocking announcement: she’s abandoning their plans – and Colby – to start college in the fall.
But the show must go on and The Disenchantments weave through the Pacific Northwest, playing in small towns and dingy venues, while roadie- Colby struggles to deal with Bev’s already-growing distance and the most important question of all: what’s next?
Along For the Ride by Sarah Dessen (2009)
Auden goes to stay for the summer with her dad, his new wife and their new baby. Also try This Lullaby for another great before-college Dessen book.
Nights have always been Auden’s time, her chance to escape everything that’s going on around her.
Then she meets Eli, a fellow insomniac, and he becomes her nocturnal tour guide.
Now, with an endless supply of summer nights between them, almost anything can happen.
Check out my review of Along for the Ride!
There is also an Along for the Ride series on Netflix!
Roomies by Tara Altebrando and Sara Zarr
Two future roommates exchange emails the summer before college.
When Elizabeth receives her freshman-year roommate assignment at the beginning of summer, she shoots off an email to coordinate the basics. She can’t wait to escape her New Jersey beach town, and her mom, and start life over in California.
That first message comes as a surprise to Lauren in San Francisco; she had requested a single. But if Lauren’s learned anything from being the oldest of six, it’s that you can’t always get what you want, especially when what you want is privacy.
Soon the girls are e-mailing back and forth, sharing secrets even though they’ve never met. With childhood friendships and family relationships strained by change, it suddenly seems that the only people Elizabeth and Lauren can rely on are the complicated new boys in their lives…and each other.
My review of Roomies is here, on my sister site, YA All Day!
Interested in YA Books Set in College – check out my list!
I just finished You Say It First last night, and it a really great exploration of that period between high school and college. I appreciated that these characters were not necessarily following the planned paths, and rather, figuring out what they really wanted.
Thanks for the report and glad you enjoyed it! I love her writing but most of the books of hers I’ve tried have had love triangles, often with cheating. But maybe I will try this one!! Love the cover.
My daughter really enjoyed Fangirl. There are a couple there that I think she’d enjoy. I’m off to check out if my library has them. You Say it First is one I’m hoping they have, I think it sounds so good!
You Say It First comes out in mid-June, but maybe they’ve ordered it and you can put a hold on it!
WHY IS MY FAVOURITE YA EVER NOT ON THIS LIST? Just One Day by Gayle Forman, Jen! Add it, add it!
I think I left it off because the sequel was so disappointing, but I did love the first book which reminded me SO much of Before Sunrise. Ok adding it NOW!!!
Why have I not read any of these books?! They sound fantastic.
Thanks – hope you try one!
I haven’t read any of those but a couple of them sound interesting.
lol Mary your photo is CHILLING!!!
Don’t tell anyone, but I’ve only read one of these!
Your secret is safe with me.