Can't Wait Wednesday!

Can’t-Wait Wednesday is a weekly event hosted by Tressa at Wishful Endings that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.

I am combining CWW with Books From the Backlog hosted by Carole at Carole's Random Life in Books. This will allow me to feature some newly "rediscovered" books, which I plan on reading, alongside a new release.

This week I can't wait for:

10 Things I Hate About Pinky
Sandhya Menon
Series: Dimple and Rishi, #3
Age/Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Release Date: July 21, 2020
Goodreads

The delightful follow-up to When Dimple Met Rishi and There’s Something about Sweetie, which follows Ashish’s friends Pinky and Samir as they pretend to date in order to achieve their individual goals, to disastrous and hilarious results.

Pinky Kumar wears the social justice warrior badge with pride. From raccoon hospitals to persecuted rock stars, no cause is too esoteric for her to champion. But a teeny tiny part of her also really enjoys making her conservative, buttoned-up corporate lawyer parents cringe.

Samir Jha might have a few…quirks remaining from the time he had to take care of his sick mother, like the endless lists he makes in his planner and the way he schedules every minute of every day, but those are good things. They make life predictable and steady.

Pinky loves lazy summers at her parents’ Cape Cod lake house, but after listening to them harangue her about the poor decisions she’s made (a.k.a. boyfriends she’s had), she hatches a plan. Get her sorta-friend-sorta-enemy—who is a total Harvard-bound Mama’s boy—to pose as her perfect boyfriend for the summer.

When Samir’s internship falls through, leaving him with an unplanned summer, he gets a text from Pinky asking if he’ll be her fake boyfriend in exchange for a new internship. He jumps at the opportunity; Pinky’s a weirdo, but he can survive a summer with her if there’s light at the end of the tunnel.

As they bicker their way through lighthouses and butterfly habitats, sparks fly, and they both realize this will be a summer they'll never forget.

Why I want to read this book

My love affair with Sandhya Menon began at the beginning with When Dimple Met Rishi. I was captivated by the characters and their story, and it was just a made-me-happy kind of book. Since then, it has, more or less, been hit after hit from Menon. This book was an auto-add to my TBR, because I am that sure I will love it.

I am excited to revisit the Dimple and Rishi world, and to catch up with the characters from the other books. Special bonus! I get a new couple to fawn over. The MCs are Ash's friends from There's Something About Sweetie, and it's the much beloved trope of fake dating.  I think we get to spend the summer with them in Cape Cod, which ups the appeal for me, because my family used to vacation there, when I was younger, and I loved it.

The Comeback Season 
Jennifer E. Smith
Age/Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary, Romance
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Release Date: Feb 11, 2008
Goodreads

Baseball brings them together—but will his secret keep them apart? Find out in this heartbreakingly beautiful novel from Jennifer E. Smith, author of The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight.

The last place Ryan Walsh should be this afternoon is on a train heading to Wrigley Field. She should be in class, enduring yet another miserable day of her first year of high school. But for once, Ryan isn’t thinking about what she should be doing. She’s not worried about her lack of friends, or her suffering math grade, or how it’s been five whole years since the last time she was really and truly happy. Because she’s finally returning to the place that her father loved, where the two of them spent so many afternoons cheering on their team. And on this—the fifth anniversary of his death—it feels like there’s nowhere else in the world she should be.

Ryan is once again filled with hope as she makes her way to the game. Good luck is often hard to come by at a place like Wrigley Field, but it’s on this day that she meets Nick, the new kid from her school, who seems to love the Cubs nearly as much as she does. But Nick carries with him a secret that makes Ryan wonder if anyone can ever really escape their past, or believe in the promise of those reassuring words: “Wait till next year.” Is it too much for Ryan to hope that this year, this season, might be her comeback season?

Why I want to read this book

I feel like I have tried to put this one on my TBR before, but it got bumped for some reason. Well, here it is, the chosen backlog book, and alas, it will be read.

I am a big fan of JES. I first discovered her via This is What Happy Looks Like in 2014. I will admit, it is still my favorite of her book, though all have been quite pleasing to me. JES is on my list of YA gotos, because I have yet to not enjoy one of her books.

Getting to why I want to read this book:

1. Jennifer E. Smith wrote, so I will read it
2. Baseball. You all know how much I love some sports in my books. They don't even having to be playing. 
3. Part of the story takes place at Wrigley Field, which makes me think of my daughter (she lives a block or two away), and therefore, I have this connection the story. 
4. It's a grief book. I can't resist them. 

What are you waiting on?
Any backlog books you want to read soon? 
Let us know in the comments!