Betty Wales, Senior

The last chapter of a beloved college series. Betty Wales returns to Harding College for her senior year, knowing this autumn gathering marks the beginning of the end. Her roommate Rachel is there, the freshman she mentors looks to her for guidance, and all around her friends are contemplating the same terrifying, exhilarating truth: in a year, they will leave these halls forever. Dunton captures something universal in the particular: the strange grief of loving a place you must leave. The humor crackles through everyday moments, but underneath runs a current of tender loss. These girls have four years of shared jokes, secrets, and small rebellions. Now each day is borrowed time. For readers who loved the warmth of Anne of Green Gables, this is the bittersweet finale. It's a portrait of friendship at its most sincere, before adult life reshapes everything.