The Iridescent Stone of Summer

Arden Rios is trying to survive the summer before college in her mountain hometown of Mammoth Lakes. Months ago at Rainbow Falls, a terrible moment on the wet rocks and a powerful current took her twin brother, Ashton. Now the falls have fences, a scholarship in his name, and a video that will not disappear. Everyone around her has an opinion about what happened. Arden can barely find the words.

Her friends are splintering under the pressure. Sienna Kwon is trying to hold the group together. Beckett "Beck" Hollis is drowning in guilt. Priya Desai is digging through old ranger emails and safety reports. Miles Carter keeps everyone laughing so he does not have to think too hard. Jonah Ellwood, the musician barista at Summit Brew & Books, is the one person who lets Arden tell the truth about how broken she feels.

When the school asks Arden to help shape The Ashton Rios Outdoor Leadership Scholarship and the "official story" of the falls, she is forced to revisit that day and the secrets that survived it. An iridescent stone lost in the water and found again becomes her lifeline as she faces one last season of skate nights, campouts and hard conversations, then leaves for Pacifica State University on the coast.

Set between Mammoth Lakes and the California ocean, The Iridescent Stone of Summer is a contemporary YA novel about grief, friendship, first love and the complicated space between accident and blame. It asks whether you can begin again without leaving the people you love, and the person you used to be, behind.