Excerpt from Weathering by Lucy Wood, plus links to reviews, author biography & more

The ground turned sandy and there was the bridge in front of them. 'There's lots of birds next to that,' Pepper said. 'In the photos.' Luke nodded. 'Pearl used to wade out into the water. Sometimes squat for hours, waiting.'

'I could do that,' Pepper said. She should have been back before her mother, but she could see the car already parked next to the house.

'No one's stopping you,' Luke said.

As they went over the bridge, purple clouds rolled closer and rain came down in a torrent. Pepper's nose ran over her lip. Her waterproof crumpled against her skin like a leaf. She looked over the railings and saw someone sitting on the far side of the bank. It was raining so hard that whoever it was blurred into the rain. Pepper glanced at Luke but his head was bowed towards the ground. When Pepper looked back, the air was so full of rain she could hardly see three inches in front of her face. Huge drops splashed down, soaking everything, and Luke was too slow so she ran over the gravel, up the steps and into the hallway, where the saucepan caught the rain as it came through the roof.

Excerpted from Weathering by Summer Wood. Copyright © 2016 by Summer Wood. Excerpted by permission of Bloomsbury USA. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.