MINT TO BE

Seventeen-year-old Emma Sherman returns home from her Manhattan boarding school for the holidays and faces her estranged childhood best friend, Aiden Cooper-Gallo.

Aiden and Emma, inseparable since kindergarten, grew up in the quaint town of Briar Glen, six hours by train from New York City. Emma dreamed of traveling and one day, over their traditional peppermint hot chocolates at local cafe Cup o’ Jo, she excitedly announced her interest in Easton Academy, a prestigious boarding school on the Upper East Side. Aiden didn’t get a chance to tell Emma about his feelings for her before she left in June, without even saying goodbye. In the intervening six months, their contact has been limited to cursory texts—“One-word replies. Thumbs-up emojis”—but now Emma is returning for Christmas with Sam, her new boyfriend from school, who matches her academic drive. Neither boy knows anything about the other, and tensions rise as the three are inevitably thrown together. Being in Brian Glen brings out Sam’s overbearing and snobbish big-city ways, and forces Emma and Aiden to stop avoiding uncomfortable conversations. The chapters move backward and forward in time, allowing readers to understand the teens’ decadelong friendship. The small-town festivities form an enchanting backdrop for the unfolding of love triangle and boy-next-door romance tropes. The story is peppered with charm, humor, a dog with a big personality, and plenty of sweetness (that never crosses over into being saccharine). The leads present white.

A cozy and atmospheric Christmas romance.