SPRING BREAK MISTAKE

After years of suffering through the most boring spring vacations ever, Avalon Kelly is ready for a week of adventure. On a hash-tagged whim, she entered the PhotoReady app’s spring break getaway contest—and won! What could be more exciting than five whole days exploring and taking pictures of one of the most photographed places in the world?

But right away, this trip of a lifetime isn’t turning out as planned. Avalon’s best friend isn’t one of the PhotoReady winners, which means that not only will Avalon have to venture to the Big Apple by herself, but she’ll be assigned a stranger as a roommate. The perky and talkative Sofia seems pleasant enough, but snooty Kensington—who was placed in Room 609 at the last moment due to a mix-up—is a whole other story. Not only are the girls not bonding, but within an hour of meeting, they’re barely even speaking to one another, and the tension has left Avalon with a hearty dose of homesickness. Just when Avalon is about ready to abandon the trip entirely, one of the fellow contest winners, the cute and mysterious Tate, disappears from the group, and the Room 609 girls must band together, using the clues within their photographs, if they have any hope of tracking him down. Will the view of New York City through her camera lens—plus the view of Tate down the sidewalk—be enough to convince Avalon to stick it out for the full week? Or will the two roommates’ help turn what was supposed to be the best spring break ever into the biggest mistake of Avalon’s life? Allison Gutknecht is the author of Don’t Wear Polk-Dot Underwear with White Pants (And Other Lessons I’ve Learned) and A Cast is the Perfect Accessory (And Other Lessons I’ve Learned). After graduating from the University of Pennsylvania, she earned her master’s degree in Children’s Media and Literature from NYU. Allison lives in New York City with her rambunctious toy poodle, Gypsy, and her literate cat, Folly.