Renaissance Fair Reads
What teenager wouldn't want a chance to leave behind the embarrassment and pain of a cheating high school boyfriend and reinvent themselves for the summer?
In My Faire Lady by Laura Wettersten, Rowena Duncan gets that chance when she answers an ad for an artist in a remote location and ends up living at a medieval fairground for the summer as a face painter and occasional serving wench. Between the jousting and the craftsman and the cute guys that work as knights or whip crackers, Ro barely misses her friends back home. But the simple life she expected to find in the woods is complicated by her own heart being drawn in different and unexpected directions. When she returns to the everyday life after her medieval summer adventure how much of her past will she bring with her?
Summer Job or Summer Fling?
These great summer escapes have it all!
- Thrill Ride by Rachel Hawthorne - Seventeen year old Megan has a summer job at the amusement park Thrill Ride! She likes living on her own with roommates and the rides are free, plus her coworker is super-hot, but the drawbacks include periodic homesickness and dressing like Gretel for job in fairyland gift shop. Plus she has that super-hot coworker . . . and a boyfriend back home.
- How Zoe made her dreams (mostly) come true by Sarah Strohmeyer - Seventeen-year-old Zoe and her cousin Jess eagerly start summer jobs at New Jersey's Fairyland theme park, but Jess does not get her dream role and Zoe is assigned to be personal assistant to the park's "Queen," winning her no friends.
- Sunset Ranch by A. Destiny and Emma Carlson Berne - Chloe can hardly believe it when she lands a summer job mucking stalls at one of the best dude ranches in Colorado. The summer only gets better when she meets Stephen. He's funny, friendly, and hardworking--a welcome antidote to Chloe's daily doses of Zach, the cocky, self-satisfied fellow ranch hand. When a trailer full of new colts arrives for training, Chloe is given the job of caring for them. But as the summer continues and Chloe starts to see a different side of Zach as he works with the horses, she starts to wonder if maybe she judged him too harshly at first. Could there be something between them after all?
- Dream Factory by Brad Barkley and Heather Hepler - Alternating chapters present the view points of two teenagers who find summer employment as costumed cartoon characters at Disney World and try to resist falling in love.
- Getting over Garrett Delaney by Abby McDonald - Seventeen-year-old Sadie Allen has spent the last two years pining for her best friend, Garrett, but when he heads off to literary camp for the summer without her, she decides to kick her unrequited crush for good, with the help of her co-workers, another boy, and her own summer twelve-step program.
- All's Faire in Love - Use your library card to stream it online or download to your tablet from Hoopla. Set in the world of Renaissance Faires, All's Faire in Love is a film reminiscent of Shakespeare In Love and The Princess Bride. It’s the tale of college football star Will (Owen Benjamin), who is compelled by Professor Shockworthy (Cedric the Entertainer) to join the rag-tag Greenbriar Theater Troupe. There he meets Kate (Christina Ricci), a performer who left her career as an investment banker for a life on the stage. Will and Kate must overcome all manner of opposition and treachery to prove their worth, win the day, and perhaps even fall in love.
Photo Credit: Featured image modified from an original photograph by Doug Wertman "Renaissance Festival - The Dance 001" Scenes from an outdoor dance at the Oklahoma Renaissance Festival. CC by 2.0
Bonus points if you plan to attend the Kansas City Renaissance Fair on weekends in September and early October!
