June Baby: moving and heartbreaking, 'the book of the summer' (Elin Hilderbrand)

In this moving debut novel set over one transformative summer in the lush, beachy enclave of Block Island, a young woman reckons with love, loss and and a startling secret. A transporting summer read for fans of Into the Blue, Lily King, The Paper Palace, Elin Hilderbrand and The Wedding People. 'A novel about grief and first love...tender and precise' Coco Mellors'The book of the summer. It has everything I want in a beach read: juicy romance, explosive family secrets, and a delicious island setting' Elin Hilderband'Sun-drenched... a glittering debut' Jenny Jackson'A love letter to summer romance' New York Times Book ReviewThe first summer Ruth arrives on Block Island, she is seventeen, her mother is dead and she has nothing in her pocket but a receipt scrawled with the name Diana Beckett. Diana, a renowned photographer, takes Ruth in, and the island becomes the refuge she returns to each June. It is a place to grieve, to write - and to fall in love for the first time, with Diana's nephew Charlie. Now, ten years on, Diana dies suddenly and Ruth's world turns upside down once more. She goes to Block Island to admit her feelings to Charlie - but he has his own revelation to share. And when Ruth receives a box left to her in Diana's will, its contents raise questions about just how well she knew the two women who raised her... Salt-kissed and moving, June Baby is a tender slow burn about love, grief and the crossroads of life, set against a backdrop of golden dunes and fading sunsets.

• Publication date: 10 September 2026
• Page count: 352
• Dimensions: Height 233 mm; Width 155 mm; Thickness 29 mm
• Publisher: Headline Publishing Group
• Format: Paperback
• ISBN-13: 9781035451005