| Author/Contributor(s): | Mehuron, Mary Kathleen |
| Publisher: | SparkPress |
| Date: | 7/15/2025 |
| Binding: | Paperback |
| Condition: | NEW |
“Glitter and grit . . . a steaming—and unforgettable—summer of initiation.”—James M. Tabor, O. Henry Award winner and author of Blind Descent
“Quirky characters, unpredictable twists, a beautiful love story, and even an appearance by Bruce Springsteen . . . A joy to read!”—Jacqueline Friedland, USA Today best-selling author of He Gets That From Me
1972, Jersey’s Asbury Park. One red-headed girl with a camera, one washed-up old seaside resort, ninety days to decide whether she leaves . . . or finally belongs.
Eighteen-year-old Maeve O’Connor has one way out of her strict Irish-Catholic home: win a statewide photo contest and bolt for art school in Manhattan. She stakes everything on one restless summer in weather-worn Asbury Park, a boardwalk alive with sideshow performers, flickering neon lights, and bar bands chasing their break.
Maeve’s lens, and her pulse, lock onto Georgie, a singer in midnight eyeliner whose voice rattles the plywood walls and refuses every label the town tries to stamp on him. Through Georgie she finds a community of carnival artists, stage performers and night-shift musicians who treat one another like family because the world won’t.
But rumors spread fast in Asbury Park. Scathing newspaper headlines branding her a “Lewd Voyeur,” church busybodies judging her, and Maeve’s own parents tugging her home.