Carrie Mesrobian
Jun 9, 2026
Hardcover
Young Adult Fiction / Social Themes / Emotions & Feelings / Pregnancy / Lifestyles / Country Life
Ages 14 And Up, Grades 9 And Up
Set in a single sweltering summer, the story of two traumatized teenagers picking up the pieces of their lives in the wreckage of a bizarre gothic mansion.
Seventeen-year-old Leo Arceneaux has been raised by his mother and uncle, having lost his father in a shockingly random murder when he was two. Connor Rigby is the teenage daughter of a wealthy lifestyle influencer. She has no idea who her father is. As summer begins, Leo and Connor both find themselves in a small town in rural Minnesota, living in the rundown grandiosity of Connor’s mother’s family’s estate. Rigby Mansion is a secluded gothic monstrosity that Connor’s mother is slowly renovating without ever actually being present. Leo is there as a summer landscaping laborer, working to pay off a debt to his mother and uncle, and Connor arrives shortly after, having left behind wreckage of her own and looking for a place to lie low away from her mother.
Connor and Leo soon find themselves in an unfamiliar but intense relationship—not simply a summer romance but something that feels important and somehow tied to the combination of this particular blazing-hot summer and this weird house in the middle of nowhere.
Seventeen-year-old Leo Arceneaux has been raised by his mother and uncle, having lost his father in a shockingly random murder when he was two. Connor Rigby is the teenage daughter of a wealthy lifestyle influencer. She has no idea who her father is. As summer begins, Leo and Connor both find themselves in a small town in rural Minnesota, living in the rundown grandiosity of Connor’s mother’s family’s estate. Rigby Mansion is a secluded gothic monstrosity that Connor’s mother is slowly renovating without ever actually being present. Leo is there as a summer landscaping laborer, working to pay off a debt to his mother and uncle, and Connor arrives shortly after, having left behind wreckage of her own and looking for a place to lie low away from her mother.
Connor and Leo soon find themselves in an unfamiliar but intense relationship—not simply a summer romance but something that feels important and somehow tied to the combination of this particular blazing-hot summer and this weird house in the middle of nowhere.
