New Adult bestselling author Cindy Miles has launched her latest novel, Stupid Girl, just in time for summer. What’s the secret behind a great summer love — and a fun summer read? Cindy shares her inspiration and story in this guest post:

When you’re young, the advent of summer symbolizes freedom and possibility—three glorious months of rolling out of bed whenever you want or lounging beside the pool in search of the perfect tan. For a southern gal like me, summer also meant vacationing with my family on Tybee Island near Savannah, Georgia.

Those were magical and heady days. Hot as all get out. Fighting with my sister over bathroom counter space in our family’s small beach cottage, and swimming in the Atlantic from sun up till sun down. There was nothing better than lying on my beach towel with a battered copy of A Ring of Endless Light by Madeline L’Engle or S.E. Hinton’s classic, The Outsiders. My mother joked that my suitcase weighed 60lbs, at least. (That was before you could jam hundreds of titles onto an eReader, and I couldn’t imagine spending any amount of time away from my lovelies.) Back then, as it is now, books were my best friends. They entertained me, comforted me, moved me to tears, inspired me to dream bigger—and to, ultimately, become a writer.

There was one summer when I “cheated” on my lovelies, though, with Cullen. He was a Yankee from Maryland with blond hair, cornflower blue eyes, and a smattering of freckles across his nose. We made sandcastles, searched for sand dollars, and stole kisses under the pier. For two whole weeks I walked around with a giddy, silly smile plastered on my face. I thought of nothing else except for the next time I could sneak away for one more kiss. I was stupid in love, and it was amazing—like being swept up in a cloud of butterflies.

In my latest New Adult romance, Stupid Girl, I tried to capture the essence of summer love with Olivia and Brax. Olivia Beaumont is a sassy, ranch-raised Texas girl attending her first year of college, with aspirations of becoming an astronomer. Boston bad-boy Brax Jenkins is the star baseball player for Winston College who picks up girls with the same ease as pitching a fastball. When Brax literally runs into Olivia on her first day of school, their connection is instant and electric at first blush. And neither of them are prepared for the tidal wave of emotions that follow.

When I first began crafting Stupid Girl, I thought back to the summer on Tybee when I fell hard for Cullen. But there are several marked differences between my experience and Olivia’s. As a sixteen year old, I dove head first into the deep end at the promise of new love. Olivia has a dark secret that threatens to overshadow her freshman year and makes her hold Brax firmly at bay. For Olivia being stupid in love is something to avoid, a distraction. But through Brax, Olivia finds out that being stupid in love doesn’t make her a stupid girl at all—it just simply makes her loved.

As an, ahem *clears throat*, more mature adult, many years have passed since I was Olivia’s age. (Can we say 15 years? LOL.) But, it wasn’t hard to channel her voice and breathe life into her story. The sure-fire writing trick I use is to just shut down all buzzing and beeping electronic devices and get quiet, letting the current world fall away. Then it’s easy to become that bright, young thing again who has the whole summer ahead of her—ripe with freedom and possibility.