Rock On, Summer Sanders

When fiddle meets feedback, hearts go off-key in this young adult rom-com from the author of 13 Days of Summer, perfect for fans of K.L. Walther, Sarah Dessen, and Jenny Han.

Sixteen-year-old Summer Sanders has been in a band since she was five. Unfortunately, that band is the Sanders Family Folk Collective, and it most decidedly does not rock—unlike Lethal Convection, the undefeated Anderson High Battle of the Bands champion. Like almost every other junior in Chicago, Summer has a raging crush on gorgeous frontman Shane Wiley, but actually finding the courage to talk to him feels about as impossible as the Sanders Family Folk Collective playing Coachella. But when her neighbor and Lethal Convection guitarist Isaac mentions that they’ve lost their bassist, Summer impulsively offers to take her place.
 
There’s only one problem: Summer plays the banjo, not the bass. And when Lethal Convection gets an opportunity that goes way beyond the Anderson High gymnasium, the stakes are higher than she could have imagined. As Summer immerses herself in learning the history of punk, how to actually play the bass, and what it means to take the stage, she realizes that Isaac might be more than the boy-next-door, that the band isn’t just a way to get to Shane, and that the music she grew up on rocks in its own way, too. In Rock On, Summer Sanders, Summer finds her voice—in every way.