LONG STORY SHORT

Serena Kaylor's debut, LONG STORY SHORT is a raucous delight, a romcom with a heart of gold, and a hilarious portrait of a bookworm lost in a sea of drama geeks.

Sixteen-year-old Beatrice Quinn doesn't text or tweet and thinks the Kardashians are the nice, elderly couple that live up the street. She is awkward, easily confused by social cues, and has always preferred the company of books to people. When homeschooling is no longer an option, she takes a shot and finds herself accepted by the University of Oxford, and on track to study statistical genetics. Beatrice thought the hardest part would be getting into Oxford, not convincing her parents to let her go. They've put a halt to her plans until she can prove she is able to make friends with people her own age and function in social situations. Their solution: theatre camp and a detailed list of teenage milestones to check off. She has six weeks at the Connecticut Shakespearean Summer Academy to show her parents she can pull off the role of "normal" teenager and won't spend the rest of her life hiding in a library. Beatrice tackles the list with her usual brand of dogged research and sarcasm, and she knows anything less than a perfect score will ruin her shot at Oxford. Unfortunately, hearts and hormones don't follow any rules, and there is no textbook for teenage interactions. When she's adopted by a group of eclectic theater kids and immediately makes an enemy of the gorgeous, popular son of the camp founders, she begins to realize that relationships might be trickier than calculus. As the summer draws to an end, and with Oxford on the line, this girl genius stumbles through illicit parties, double dog dares, and more than your fair share of Shakespeare. Before the final curtain falls, she begins to wonder if Oxford alone will still be enough. Serena Kaylor likes to write about that first flush of summer love, whispered conversations at midnight, and endings happy enough to make your toes curl. She grew up running wild as a changeling through North Carolina swamps, and hiding in bookstacks until she was dragged back into the real world. Through a weird twist of fate, she wandered from libraries into medicine, but when the moon shines down onto her balcony amongst the trees, she'll pull out her laptop and dream of other lives. When she's not writing, she can be found experimenting in her kitchen, wallpapering any blank surface, and hugging every dog that will let her. LONG STORY SHORT is her debut novel.