A quartet of teens meet one summer at Donner Lake in Northern California and reunite during subsequent school breaks to reestablish their bonds in this contemporary novel. Nora and her older brother, Wesley, first go to the lake when their long-absent father suddenly reenters their lives, taking them to his family's cabin in part to give their mom, who is ill, a break. Nora follows unpredictable Grace, who beckons to her after Nora watches her sneak out the window of her nearby cabin one night, and Wesley trails them to a meeting point Grace has set up with her friend Rand. In an eerily atmospheric narrative that moves sometimes confusingly between the present--when readers know that Grace has gone missing--and various points in the past when the group spent time together, a story emerges of a deeply felt but unconvincing camaraderie among the four and romances between Grace and Wesley and Nora and Rand. Grace's role as the star that holds the other three in her orbit is made clear from the start, though her character isn't developed deeply enough to make her hold on the others believable. The realistic subplot about Nora's and Wesley's strained relationships with both their parents is a poignant one, and it proves more compelling than the central drama. All of the characters are White. A somewhat engaging but ultimately meandering and uneven story. (Fiction. 14-18) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Told through alternating past and present perspectives, Taylor's (A Map for Wrecked Girls) character-driven mystery centers four teens who meet three times a year at a secluded vacation destination, until one of them mysteriously goes missing. After siblings Nora, 14, and Wesley Sharpe, 16, reunite with their long-absent father to spend a week at his lakeside vacation home on Donner Lake, they continue to visit during various school breaks over the next two years. During their first trip, they befriend idiosyncratic Grace Lombardi, 16, who lives next door, and acrophobic Rand Elliot, 15. Grace is the group's glue, effortlessly pulling them back together even after months apart, but her sudden disappearance causes tension, and the remaining teens struggle to maintain their relationships without her. Though the narrative, which begins after Grace goes missing, can jump confusingly between pre-disappearance and the present day, it's Grace's arrestingly written personality, and the years the protagonists spend together eating oysters at night on the roof of the local hotel, leaping off cliffs into the lake, breaking into a boathouse to sneak champagne, and watching outdoor movies under the stars, that serve as the heart and soul of this atmospheric read. All main characters read as white. Ages 14--up. Agent: Melissa Sarver White, Folio Literary. (July)

Taylor mixes teenage drama with a combination of mystery and thriller, concocting a novel for readers who enjoy their books on the darker side. Nora, her brother Wesley, and their friends Grace and Rand always meet at Donner Lake during school holidays. The close-knit foursome has experienced its share of disagreements, tangled romance, and tense emotions, but until recently, the teens' relationship has weathered all of this. As time has passed, Nora has found herself drifting further away from her friends. But new feelings are stirred up when Grace suddenly goes missing, pushing Nora to reflect on the group's history as she struggles to understand why Grace is gone. Chapters guide readers through two years of lake visits, divided by season and punctuated by moments from the present. The eerie lake setting seems to hide secrets of its own, augmenting the tense and mystery-laden atmosphere. With a strong emotional core connected to friendship, love, and familial relationships, this is the right novel for those who are just as invested in character development as the mystery itself.