A novel about first love set in a beachside resort, in part inspired by Phillip Island, is released on September 16.

“Summer, in Between” centres on 17-year-old Cat Kelty, and her last summer before Year 12, as she tries to figure out her future.

Author Holly Cardamone grew up on a farm outside Wonthaggi and attended Newhaven College’s old Boys Home Road campus, and the beachside setting came naturally to her.

“I’ve spent every summer at the island and at Cape Paterson my entire life,” she said.

“I actually wrote three drafts of this novel on writers retreats on the island to immerse myself in the setting of a small town by the beach that’s a hot spot for tourists.”

In the novel, Cat should be spending her summer buried in books, prepping for the future she’s determined to claim.

Instead, she’s trapped in a house with rowdy brothers, mortifyingly affectionate parents, and a cantankerous Nonna. Then, to make things worse, Paul GD Lightwood – a walking surfer god, king of the

Neanderthals, all abs and an infuriatingly disarming smile – shows up to work for her father.

Cat’s plan is simple: escape this testosterone-fuelled town and never look back. But life – and Paul – have other ideas.

“Summer, in Between” explores the tender moments of adolescence and the teenage angst between girlhood and womanhood, while deftly exploring deeper themes of identity, cultural heritage, and anticipation for the future.

Holly Cardamone won the 2024 Hawkeye Publishing Manuscript Development Prize. She was a finalist in the 2025 Romance Writers of Australia Opal Award for an unpublished manuscript, the 2024

Romance Writers of Australia Sweet Treats Anthology and longlisted in the 2023 Furphy Award. She now lives and writes in Melbourne.