We Regret to Inform You by Ariel Kaplan

Take one part rom-com, one part coming-of-age story, and one part prep school mystery, you’ll get yourself the adorable and unexpectedly impactful new book, We Regret to Inform You by Ariel Kaplan.

Mischa Abramavicius is a walking, talking, top-scoring, perfectly well-rounded college application in human form. So when she’s rejected not only by the Ivies, but her loathsome safety school, she is shocked and devastated. All the sacrifices her mother made to send her to prep school, the late nights cramming for tests, the blatantly resume-padding extracurriculars (read: Students for Sober Driving) … all that for nothing.

As Mischa grapples with the prospect of an increasingly uncertain future, she questions how this could have happened in the first place. Is it possible that her transcript was hacked? With the help of her best friend and sometimes crush, Nate, and a group of eccentric techies known as “The Ophelia Syndicate,” Mischa launches an investigation that will shake the quiet community of Blanchard Prep to its stately brick foundations.

This book is at turns curl-your-toes sweet and adorable, but also a total page-turner as Mischa works to uncover the mystery of her college rejections and discovers a major scandal at her top tier prep school.

While the majority of the book has a light, fun feel to it, Kaplan doesn’t shy away from more serious topics and the result is a book that is both fluffy and meaty.

I loved the friendship and maybe-romance between Mischa and Nate (and the fact that Nate is a genuinely fascinating character in his own right, and not just some hunky man candy), and this aspect of the book was really a highlight for me — especially since I’ve been in such a mood for romance this summer. (Also, more Nate please. Can we have a Nate book? I’d read a Nate book.)

But the book is also about Mischa figuring out who she really is when the veneer of overachiever is stripped away; when she stops living for everyone else’s expectations and starts to figure out what she really wants from life. And I loved seeing her go on this journey and see how she came out of it on the other end.

Plus prep school scandal-mystery solved with the help of a group of hacker girls? Oh yes.

There is so much to love about We Regret to Inform You, and you can look for it in stores now.