Stefi and the Spanish Prince

Freitas (The Nine Lives of Rose Napolitano) conjures a Barcelona summer via lush sensory detail in this foodie rom-com. Seventeen-year-old aspiring pastry chef Stefi is vacationing in her mother’s native Catalonia. While consuming the best omelet she’s ever eaten in the marketplace, La Boqueria, she meets 18-year-old Xavier, a tapas proprietor’s son. Stefi is eager for a summer fling to help her get over her cheating ex-boyfriend. Xavi, meanwhile, contends with intense pressures he can’t share with Stefi: he is the secret love child of King Alfonso, and heir to the Spanish throne. As Santiago, Xavi’s 19-year-old royal guard, tries desperately to keep them apart, Stefi and Xavi fall in love in “sunny, buttery Barcelona.” But with Xavi’s scheming ex-girlfriend and a ruthless gossip magazine reporter in the mix, their relationship—and their privacy—may be too much for their young guard to defend. Freitas occasionally employs stilted declarative prose to ferry the near-perfect characters along on their fairy tale–like romance while Xavi’s secret identity drives the central conflict. A queer romantic subplot and tensions between Catalonia and the Madrid government add depth to this beatific romance. Ages 13–up. Agent: Miriam Altschuler, Miriam Altschuler Literary. (July)