Alexandra “Andie” Walker is the daugher of a congressman who just had to go on sabattical because of some irregularities in his campaign funds. For the last five years, since her mother died of cancer, Andie and her father have only really interacted in the public eye and her father has been busy with his political career in Washington D.C. Andie had very specific plans for the summer. They involved a pre-med internship at Johns Hopkins, far away from her father. Due to the minor scandal involving her father, she finds herself stuck without any plans for the summer and having to learn to relate to a dad who’s suddenly around constantly.
Andie’s best friends, Palmer, Bri (Sabrina) and Toby (Tobyhana) are delighted that she’ll be able to spend more of the summer with them. Maybe she’ll finally meet a guy that she’ll give the time of day for more than three weeks, max? It also means she’ll be present for Palmer’s epic annual scavenger hunt. Andie tries to adjust to her new, completely unplanned existence, and out of desperation gets a job as a dog walker. While walking other people’s pets, she meets the enigmatic Clark, who seems to live alone in a huge mansion, without any idea what to do with the dog in his care. Their first date is an absolute disaster (because Andie follows the same script she always uses, and shares absolutely nothing personal about herself), but after his dog gets badly sick and they spend a night monitoring its vital signs (not a good excuse to bring to your worried father the next morning, having not actually let him know where you were in the first place and letting your phone run out of battery), they start to make a connnection.
Andie discovers that Clark is in fact hugely popular best-selling fantasy novelist C.B. McCallister, who is staying at his publisher’s house over the summer in the hopes that he’ll finally get over his crippling writer’s block and finally deliver the manuscript for the third and final volume in the trilogy. Palmer’s boyfriend Zach is a huge fan and geeks out most adorably when he gets introduced to Clark. Andie’s loyal friends are delighted to realise that Clark has a huge house at his disposal and no parental supervision. Since he was home schooled, Clark’s never really had friends his own age and it doesn’t take long before the gang is hanging out at his place all the time. As Andie and Clark spend more time together and grow closer, might Andie finally have found a guy she’s developing real feelings for? What’s going to happen at the end of the summer, when Clark (hopefully) finishes his book and goes home to attend college?
Full review here.