Emma Saylor Payne's mother died when she was young, and as a result she knows almost nothing about that side of her family. That is, aside from stories about North Lake, the small resort town where her mother grew up and met her father. When her summer plans fall through, Emma Saylor unexpectedly ends up staying with her mother's family in North Lake, people she hasn't seen since she was a toddler. As the summer progresses, she realizes that she is torn between two worlds: that of her father and friends from back home and that of the Calvanders, the family she's always had but never quite knew existed.
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This novel contains examples of:
- Continuity Nod: Spinnerbait is mentioned by Colin and Blake.
- Good Stepmother: Tracy for Emma— she seems to genuinely care for her, and is visibly pleased when Emma introduces her to the Calvanders as her stepmother.
- Parent with New Paramour: Emma's mother died when she was twelve. Her dad gets remarried at the beginning of the book to a woman named Tracy.
- Romantic False Lead: Blake for Emma.
- Suspiciously Similar Substitute: North Lake (a lake resort town) for Colby (a beach resort town), another frequent locale in Dessen novels, down to the divide between working-class North Lake and upper-class Lake North.
