First Summer

First Summer by Ekin Oklap is a tender coming-of-age novel that traces the electric, unsettling moment when friendship starts to tip into first love. Set over a slow, sun-soaked summer, it follows a teenage narrator as she notices Clara, the new girl across the street, and feels a jolt of recognition—loneliness meeting loneliness, then gradually softening into warmth, humour and trust.

As the girls spend long afternoons reading and talking side by side in the garden, the narrator discovers what it’s like to be truly seen, without the usual self-consciousness. Running alongside their days is the shared world of a beloved children’s sci‑fi series, where space explorer Nadia travels the galaxy with her companion Rosa—fantasy helping them name feelings that real life can’t quite hold yet.

Perfect for readers who love literary fiction, adolescence on the cusp, and emotionally precise queer romance (without a neat label), this is one to slip into and savour. Add it to your basket and let this first summer linger.