This year, in an effort to blog more, to become more involved with the blogging community, and to keep up with the latest publications, I thought I’d create a monthly post about the ARCs I’ve received. These ARCs will be read and reviewed a month prior to the publishing date. The Advance Excitement at a Glance posts will feature one or two (or more, depending on what happens this year) books to look forward to, and it will motivate me to keep my to-read list on track.

Last month I announced The Girls at the Kingfisher Club, a book you can purchase today at your local bookstore! For July, I have a handful of ARCs, but in light of the YA support lately, I’ll reveal two YA romances.

The Vanishing Season by Jodi Lynn Anderson
(July 1, HarperTeen)

Girls started vanishing in the fall, and now winter’s come to lay a white sheet over the horror. Door County, it seems, is swallowing the young, right into its very dirt. From beneath the house on Water Street, I’ve watched the danger swell.

I’m tied to Maggie and Pauline, though I don’t know why. I think it’s because death is coming for one of them, or both.

Maggie and her family move from Chicago to a small town in northern Michigan along the lake coast. She befriends her free-spirited, beautiful neighbor Pauline and Pauline’s long-time shadow Liam. The three are inseparable, until Pauline is sent away. There’s a murderer in town, and Maggie and Liam seek comfort in one another through the long winter, in hopes that their bond with Pauline will not shatter once she discovers them.

Sounds like a good romance mixed with some mystery and ghosts. Plus, winter in July sounds pretty nice.

Through to You by Lauren Barnholdt
(July 8, Simon Pulse)

It starts with a scribbled note in class: I like your sparkle. Harper had casually threaded a piece of blue and silver tinsel through her ponytail in honor of school spirit day. And that carefree, corny gesture is what grabs Penn Mattingly’s eye. Penn—resident heartbreaker of the senior class. Reliably unreliable. Trouble with a capital “T.” Harper’s surprised by Penn’s attention—and so is Penn. The last thing he needs is a girlfriend. The note is not supposed to lead to anything.

Oh, but it does. They hang out. They have fun. They talk. They make out. And after a while, it seems like they just click. But Penn and Harper have very different ideas about what relationships look like, in no small part because of their very different family backgrounds. Of course they could talk about these differences—if Penn knew how to talk about feelings.

Good girl Harper receives a flirty, carefree note from bad boy Penn and she’s immediately unsure of how to assess the situation. Penn doesn’t even know why he was moved to give her the note in the first place. But that note sparks a roller coaster friendship traveling at high speed, leaving both teens reeling.

Who doesn’t want to read a a good-girl-meets-bad-boy romance every once in a while? This looks like just the ticket.

Which ARCs did you receive for July? What books are you looking forward to reading?