Welcome to Beach Town

Wiggs’s (Sugar and Salt) timely, unputdownable coming-of-age novel is set in fictional Alara Cove, CA, “Surfer City, U.S.A.” Former self-described trailer-park kid Nikki Graziola, scholarship student and valedictorian at the prestigious Thornton Academy, had a bright future in store until she went off-script during her commencement speech and revealed the school’s cover-up of a hazing incident that killed her best friend. Her whistleblowing implodes her life, so when she’s offered a chance to compete in the Global Surfing League in Australia, she jumps at it. Fifteen years, minor fame, and little fortune later, Nikki faces another life-changing tragic event that leaves her no choice but to return home. Readers will be awed by this novel’s flawless narrative. Wiggs spins a poignant and convincing yarn while epitomizing her very believable cast of eclectic characters, including Nikki; she is a heady mix of vulnerability and tenacity, a woman who is not afraid of new challenges or of learning and growing from her past.