Which is why when it came to collaborating with her husband and fellow author David Yoon for Safe Harbor, their first fictional short story together, the couple drew inspiration from their time with someone very close to home.

"We have a 14-year-old,” Nicola told E! News in an exclusive interview, “and we've been showing her all our favorite old movies. And because David and I are both total romantic nerds, goobers—this is an era of Sixteen Candles and The Breakfast Club. We both sort of love big casts, and Breakfast Club was really great. That was inspirational for us."

And cast ensembles aside, Nicola and David found themselves not quite forgetting about the elements that made those films special.

“We were thinking about what kind of things kids go through, hard things,” she explained. “Because the thing about writing for young adult audiences is that they go through a lot. They go through the same thing adults do, but they go through it for the first time. And that's what makes it so great to write for them because you're sort of in the conversation, in the mix with them.”

In Safe Harbor, that conversation centers around Isabel, a young artist who crosses paths with other teens once she attends Safe Harbor’s therapy program to navigate her parents’ divorce.

“We just came up with this idea: it's like Breakfast Club, but the kids are going through divorce—and it was just really fun," Nicola shared. "We've been wanting to do something together for—we have been together for 27 years. We met in graduate school. We wanted to write together for one million years and could not figure out a way…and so we did.”

During the couple’s writing process, Nicola—who was friends with David first before they began dating (classic rom-com come to life)—even found herself gaining that competitive spark once again.

“One of the things I really liked and started crushing on about him is he's a great writer, and I just remember being in class and being competitive in a way,” she explained. “When you're younger, you're kind of more competitive. So that was one of the first things I even fell in love with about him.”

Indeed, Nicola knew she met the boy she would marry—and would eventually write with.

“Just to feel that little bit of competitiveness again,” she shared of their short story, “it was just really great to see what he would come up with. I would do something, and then he would like take a pass over, and I was like, ‘Oh, we've made this third thing.’ It doesn't sound like me, and it doesn't sound like him. It sounds like this third person.”

As for what she hopes readers take away, Nicola wants to highlight the importance of what teenagers go through in life—a sentiment that she values within her own.

“One of the things I remember so much from being a teenager is that moment you realize your parents are people,” she noted. “And not just there to serve you, but like actual people who are flawed. And it's the flawed part that's really defining because you have to accept that they are sometimes wrong about things and they sometimes don't know the answer and that you have to find your way, sort of on your own.”

It’s a lesson Nicola finds herself learning more about when it comes to raising her own teenager.

“I also think it's important that she understands that I will absolutely make mistakes," she shared, “and even big ones, and that it's fine. She will figure it out, and so [we] will muddle through it together because that's what you do. That's always the message, really, is that you're gonna screw it up, and your parents are gonna screw it up, but have some grace with each other because you're in it together.”

For a look at even more books being released this summer, keep reading...

Raeve and Kaan’s story continues in the second installment of Sarah J. Parker’s Moonfall series.

While everyone’s favorite bristly, assassin-with-a-cause has more memories at her disposal in the sequel to When The Moon Hatched, whether she utilizes them is up to Raeve and Raeve alone. But as ghosts—remembered and new—from  her and Kaan’s pasts begin to threaten their future, she’ll need to embrace her most painful moments in order to secure the life she’s always deserved.

Plus, there’s the threat of a moonfall—the biggest and most devastating Raeve’s world has ever seen—looming on the horizon.

After captivating TikTok with her candid pop culture takes and love of romance, Averick is officially shifting into BookTok with this heartfelt love story. On the cusp of her 30th birthday, Phoebe Berman has just one objective: Lose her virginity. The obsessively organized teacher must confront the debilitating anxiety that has prevented her from dating—and untangle her dynamics with three men in her life.

Is it too on the nose to say Schmit has aced this debut? Still, the sentiment stands. Austin Hardy is under enough pressure making his US Open debut. Being the first openly gay man to play in a Grand Slam  only ups the stakes. Further complicating the dynamic is his new friendship—or something more—with no. 2 in the world Diego Cruz. This sweet queer love story set in the world of tennis is the perfect addition to the sports romance genre.

Patchett’s reputation precedes her enough that just seeing her name on the cover means you’re in for a moving, captivating work of literature. And The Whistler is no different. When Daphne and her husband visit the Metropolitan Museum of Art, she has a chance encounter with Eddie, her former stepdad whose presence loomed large on her life. After reconnecting, they look back at their time together, the catalyst for his divorce from her mom and how it shaped the years that followed.

Get ready to fall in love in a sweet a New Jersey beach town. Noelle Lewis is ready to take her love for books to the next level and become a librarian. That is, once she earns enough money to go back to college and then get her Master’s. Until then, she’s hustling in every way she can, including as a bridesmaid for hire. Jeremiah Smith, however, needs a girlfriend to bring to his family beach home for his first visit since his grandfather’s death. So, they strike a deal: She’ll pretend to be his girlfriend for a weekend, and he’ll make a massive contribution to her tuition fund. What could go wrong?

Williams’ is ready to have you dreaming of first-class and that coveted airplane meet-cute. After meeting the perfect man on the flight to Paris but forgetting to exchange names before casting director Sasha Cruz sets out on a journey to track him down. And beyond inadvertently enlisting the company she’s leading a new campaign for, she hires Wes, a private detective from her past help her find her probable soul mate. That is, until sparks begin to fly between her and Wes.

Sophie moves to coastal Maine to take on the role of head gardener of the eccentric, once-storied Lilymoor House. However, she soon discovers an odd, intriguing and new feature of the house in the form of a door leading to a secret garden. The catch: The door never appears in the same place twice and there is a man stuck there. With the future of Lilymoor in the balance, she must team up with the trapped man, not to mention the Lilymoor owner’s newly arrived nephew to help it thrive once more.

Keeping her real identity hidden, international thief Ophir launches a podcast, where she details her life of crime. But beyond regaling listeners with tales of crisscrossing the world, snatching up one priceless item at a time, she also details the more vulnerable side effects to living a life on the run. 

Lee’s novel The Idea of You has been a must-read for romance writers—not to mention a movie starring Anne Hathaway and Nicholas Galitzine. And now, the author is back with a different kind of story. In the novel, Cecelia Chen is at a crossroads in her life as a wife and mom when she reunites with a woman from her past. As they revisit their time together, Cecelia must reckon with all that has been weighing on her—her career, family, experience as a middle-aged Jamaican Chinese woman in America.

North Woods firmly put Mason on the map—even landing him on the Pulitzer Prize short-list. Now, he’s back, with Country People which follows Miles and his wife Kate as they relocate to Vermont for her visiting lecturer role at a prestigious college. Looking to find a place for himself, he soon becomes enmeshed with a group of odd locals who seem straight out of his beloved folktales. And after learning about some local lore, it becomes clear that maybe his reality is stranger than fiction.

After her beloved film teacher dies, actress-turned -producer Faye Heron returns to her college town for the funeral, where she reunites with her ex-boyfriend Henry Spalding, who broke her heart and inspired her star-making episode of TV. So, it’s no surprise when a seemingly cordial encounter ends with her being drugged and kidnapped to his remote family cabin, giving them a chance to relitigate their past—and get to the bottom of the secrets that have been lurking under the surface for more than a decade.

In the latest from the mastermind behind Mexican Gothic, a con artist with a penchant for robbing lonely women out of their fortunes in 1940s Mexico hits a roadblock with his latest mark when he meets her niece. Desperate to flee the confines of her aunt’s home, she proposes they join forces. However, as feelings get in the way, their plan goes increasingly more complex—until it threatens to spiral out of control.

It’s not a summer reading list without a little scare. Actress Marin Keene has landed her breakout role. Except there is a caveat: The role requires her to spend a week on a remote island where a group of women vanished a century ago.And, it just so happens that she is starring in a movie based on those events told through the diary of one of the women. Unnerved yet? Well, so Marin is, and it only takes a turn when just like before, people start going missing. 

Cabot’s latest Witches of West Harbor love story will put a spell on you—quite literally. Frankie and Ash couldn’t be more opposite. She’s a therapist who is annoyed with her town’s increasing popularity as a witchy destination. Ash has magical abilities that sometimes go awry. After witches flocking to their town begin disappearing, the pair team up to find them, and, well, some magic may just happen.

Not only is Liane Moriarty back with her first ever sequel, but she’s serving up another dose of the most chaotic mom group in fiction. Set a decade after Big Little Lies, the book catches readers up with Madeline, Celeste, Jane, Renata, and Bonnie as they face their latest challenge: parenting teenagers. However, old secrets are threatened when someone begins asking about the past, and they must contend with whether the truth can really stay hidden. If that isn’t thrilling enough, Big Little Truths is the source material for season three of Big Little Lies, so time to start preparing those cold little hearts.