Love & Other Great Expectations

After an injury ends 18-year-old Britt Hanson’s soccer career, leaving her feeling unmoored and putting her UCLA scholarship in jeopardy, she finds purpose via academic competition in Dean’s breezy debut. When Ms. Carmichael, Britt’s Santa Barbara, Calif., high school’s English teacher, announces that Britt and three other students—meticulous overachiever Amberlyn Hartsfield, football player Spence Lopez, and sullen loner Peter Finch—have been invited to compete in a British literature–inspired scavenger hunt across England for a $100,000 prize, Britt’s all in. Despite insisting that she’s “useless” at anything besides soccer, she’s determined to take home the cash prize to help pay for college. While in England, Britt worries she’s falling behind the competition, until she meets handsome, charming Englishman Luke Jackson. He agrees to accompany her on the hunt, and as the two grow closer, Britt realizes that she might not be such a one-trick pony after all. Britt’s drive to overcome her insecurities—and her delight in traveling, meeting new people, and experiencing new things—are infectious in Dean’s lighthearted, good-humored summertime romance. Major characters cue as white. Ages 12–up. Agent: Eva Scalzo, Speilburg Literary. (June)