by Tom Perrotta
First published 2001
Danny spends his spring break from Yale manning the Roach Coach, his father's lunch truck that serves office parks across central New Jersey. While his classmates head to Florida beaches, Danny works the coffee urn and navigates two complicated relationships. Back home, his girlfriend Cindy has just delivered shocking news that changes everything between them. At Yale, he's involved with Polly, a moody student who favors vintage clothing and has started seeing one of her professors. The lunch truck work brings its own dangers when the Lunch Monsters, a group of local thugs, decide Danny has invaded their turf and begin threatening him. Between dodging these menacing competitors and serving sandwiches to office workers, Danny tries to sort through his tangled romantic life and figure out what he actually wants from both women and his future.
Genres: fiction, romance, contemporary, college
Vibes: emotional, fast-paced, thought-provoking
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, fish-out-of-water
Setting: Central New Jersey, Florida, Yale
Period: Spring Break
306 pages · Paperback · St. Martin's Griffin