Bicentennial Summer is Eleanor & Park meets The Summer I Turned Pretty meets Stand By Me.
High school friends discover growing up isn’t all child’s play in this coming-of-age trilogy set in 1970s small-town America.
Friendship is Just the Beginning . . .
Cole has always loved Tiffany—but lately, that love feels different. Deeper. Sharper. He can’t shake this new feeling, no matter how hard he tries.
Praise for Chris Poore’s Writing:
“Bicentennial Summer is everything I want in a small town coming-of-age story; sweet, melancholy, and as Proustian as the smell of cornfields in July. Chris Poore is a welcome new voice in midwestern fiction.” —Sean Doolittle, Device Free Weekend
“Outstanding, can’t-put-down debut! Bicentennial Summer weaves a tale of lost innocence, young love, and even stronger friendships.” —Emersyn Park, He Loves Me, She Loves Me Not
Back Cover Blurb:
Friendship is just the beginning . . .
It’s the summer of ’76, and everything feels like it’s about to change. Cole Walker has always loved Tiffany Whitford—but lately, that love feels different. Deeper. Sharper. Cole can’t shake this new feeling, no matter how hard he tries. He wants to tell her, but is terrified of losing the one person who’s always been there.
Cole and Tiffany have been best friends since forever—small-town kids bound by shared secrets, lazy river days, and a friendship forged in childhood. But when a mysterious new guy pulls Tiffany in a direction she doesn’t expect, and a tragic farm accident shakes their small town to its core, storm clouds of grief, jealousy, and buried secrets will form on the summer horizon.
Set against the backdrop of America’s bicentennial celebration, growing up means pulling apart. And by the time the fireworks fade, nothing will ever be the same for the folks of Cottonwood, Nebraska.
Fans of Eleanor & Park, The Summer I Turned Pretty, and Stand by Me will fall for this nostalgic coming-of-age story about first love, fractured families, and the moment childhood slips away.
Grab your copy now and discover where The Cottonwood Chronicles begin.
Bicentennial Summer is vol. 1 of The Cottonwood Chronicles series, a sweeping coming-of-age historical trilogy set in a time before cell phones, social media, and the internet—when summer meant freedom, friendship meant everything, and growing up meant learning hard lessons as childhood is swept away.
In the small town of Cottonwood, Nebraska, friends come of age over consecutive Fourth of July holidays, where fireworks in the sky echo the turmoil in their hearts. On the precipice of adulthood, they must face life-or-death decisions about who they want to be and what they’re willing to leave behind.
Poignant, nostalgic, and emotionally honest, the series captures the thrill, ache, and magic of growing up in a forgotten time.
Burning Summer, vol. 2, is available now on Amazon.
Bye, Bye Summer, vol. 3, will publish late 2026.
About the Author:
Chris Poore has been telling stories in one form or another his entire life. It just took a global pandemic to finally get him to put them down on paper. A dinner conversation at the height of Covid lit the spark, and Chris quickly wrote several award-winning screenplays.
Next, he set his sights on his first novel. Bicentennial Summer, published in 2024 at age 53, is the first in The Cottonwood Chronicles trilogy.
Chris has been a journalist, entrepreneur, and a technology leader. He lives just outside of Omaha with his wife Sue, two children, and two rescue dogs.
To learn more and to sign up for Chris’ newsletter, visit: https://linktr.ee/chrispoorewrites
