Fling Club

In this entertaining first installment in Brown’s Serendipity series, set in a wealthy Long Island country club community, Cherry Kennedy catches her boyfriend in bed with her conniving friend Cait, “the ringleader of my life,” and vows revenge. Cait runs the secret Fling Club, in which young women show off their summer hookups. After years of conforming to the club’s strict rules and snobby ethos (“If you can’t tell a guy in his early twenties what to do, God help you in marriage”), Cherry joins forces with her siblings to take down the vicious “queen of clubs.” They hire geeky, gorgeous MIT robotics enthusiast Ashley Jardine, who agrees to play a part in their scheme because he needs the money to pay for tuition and help his financially strapped parents. As sparks fly between Cherry and Ashley, they become increasingly uncomfortable participating in this subterfuge. Then they learn about Cait’s extensive collection of compromising videos of Cherry and her friends—and Cait gets wind of their revenge plot. Well-rounded, appealing lovers and plentiful internal and external conflict make for a gratifying page-turner. Agent: Natalie Lakosil, Bradford Literary. (Aug.)