FALL

before the

17 Summers: The Series

For the first time in her life, Elle Adams will never have to move again. After a childhood spent bouncing from California to Ohio and beyond, Elle’s parents have promised that their latest cross-country move to Baltimore will be the last before she goes off to college. Elle plans to spend the next two years making real friends at St Catherine’s prep school, and scoring high enough grades to get into UCLA so she can move back to California, which still feels like her true home. So when she meets a cute boy at the state fair before junior year even starts—a senior with a womanizer reputation, no less—Elle is determined not to let anyone throw her off-course. Even if Riggs is the first person she’s ever met who seems to understand her, Elle has learned the hard way not to let anybody close.

Riggs Montgomery knows what people think about him. Bad boy, flirt, heartbreaker. It’s never bothered him before—he’s in it for a fun time, not a long one. Then he meets Elle, the sun-kissed new girl fresh off the plane from Cali, and everything changes. For the first time in his life, Riggs wants to stick around. More than that, he longs to win Elle’s heart. Their weekly friend hangouts quickly become daily dates, yet Elle still refuses to officially become his girlfriend. When a drunken mistake threatens everything he’s tried to build, Riggs will have to prove, both to Elle and to himself, that he’s more than just his reputation.


BEFORE THE FALL is the first book in a completed contemporary romance trilogy following Elle and Riggs through high school, college, and beyond. Book one is complete at 55,000 words, with books two and three also complete. Based on my own relationship with my first love who got away, this series explores how young love can challenge us, break us, and build us back up again across the formative years that shape who we become.

Based on a true story.

CURRENTLY SEEKING LITERARY REPRESENTATION

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CURRENTLY SEEKING LITERARY REPRESENTATION 〰️

about me:

The 17 SUMMERS series is more than fiction—it's a reimagining of my own coming-of-age journey. Like Elle, I was transplanted to Maryland as a teenager where I met my own "Riggs" at the state fair, experiencing the transformative power of first love that has influenced my life ever since. Many of the moments in these books—from the emotional highs to the devastating lows—are drawn directly from my lived experience, including my college relationship with my own version of "Grayson."

For fifteen years, I've channeled my creative energy into building a successful business as the founder and CEO of PS Creative & PS Studios, helping clients tell their stories through strategic branding and design. This professional experience in narrative development has given me unique insight into how stories shape our understanding of ourselves and connect us to others.

While I didn't ultimately end up with my "Riggs," the impact of that relationship provided the emotional blueprint for this series. I've created in fiction what many of us wish for in reality: the chance to explore how timing, circumstance, and personal growth might eventually align to bring two people full circle.

I currently live with my husband and family, balancing entrepreneurship with my passion for storytelling. 17 SUMMERS is my debut series, but the authentic emotions behind it have been decades in the making.

Book One: Before The Fall

Book Two: When World’s Collide

Book Three: If We Find Our Way Back

Series Synopsis

The 17 SUMMERS series traces the complex, often heartbreaking, and ultimately transcendent love story between Elle Adams and Riggs Montgomery across seventeen years of near-misses, wrong timing, and the magnetic connection that continually draws them back to each other when they least expect it.

Beginning with their chance meeting as teenagers and spanning into their early thirties, the series explores how first love shapes us, how heartbreak transforms us, and how sometimes the person who knows you at sixteen can still see you most clearly at thirty-three—even when life, ambition, and other loves conspire to keep you apart.

With emotional authenticity, complex characterization, and settings that range from elite East Coast prep schools to prestigious universities, glamorous film festivals to European capitals, the 17 SUMMERS series delivers a love story that grows with its readers. It explores the universal question: What if the love of your life isn't meant for just one chapter of your story, but for the whole journey—once you're finally ready to write it together?