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Laura Lombardi’s debut novel hits shelves in spring 2027
NEED TO KNOW
- Laura Lombardi’s debut novel The Summer She Stayed will be published on April 27, 2027
- The book follows a woman as she returns to her New Jersey beach town and confronts its hidden secrets
- Lombardi drew inspiration from her experience living along the Jersey Shore
Author Laura Lombardi is making a splash with her upcoming book.
In The Summer She Stayed, out next spring from Sourcebooks Landmark, a woman returns to her seaside hometown, where she’s met with more than she anticipated. PEOPLE can exclusively reveal the cover.
The novel follows Edie Lane, who always managed to escape Cape June, a New Jersey beach town, during its peak tourist season. It’s especially dire after her affair with Roger Knight, an heir to the town’s most powerful family, goes awry. But after a family crisis, Edie is forced back home, and into the Knight Hotel.
Soon, Edie finds herself pulled back into familiar social circles and complicated friendships, per the book’s official synopsis. But when news breaks about a missing girl who has ties to Roger, Edie is thrown into her own reckoning as Roger’s wedding nears.
Lombardi, the pen name of Laura Gianino, knows the publishing industry well. As an associate director of publicity for HarperCollins, she’s helped to bring many stories to a wider audience — but writing her own offered an opportunity to share a more personal one.
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“The Summer She Stayed is deeply inspired by some of the beautiful places along the Jersey Shore that I have both visited as a tourist and live in as a local,” the author tells PEOPLE. “I think there’s a pride that comes with living in a vacation destination, but there can also be a protectiveness. I wanted to explore what happens when the secrets a town keeps threaten to come out.”
Edie proved to be the perfect character to explore these themes, the author says.
“She’s not quite local, not quite tourist, and her unique perspective on this world captivated me from page one,” Lombardi adds. “At its heart, this novel is an exploration of what it means to truly belong.”
“I became completely swept up by the shimmering, seductive and secretive world of Cape June as I was writing, and I hope readers will feel the same.”
Lombardi’s writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post and The Rumpus, among other outlets. The Summer She Stayed is her first novel.
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The Summer She Stayed will be published on April 27, 2027 and is now available for preorder, wherever books are sold.
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