“A wise and charming debut” –NYT Bestselling Author Alison McGhee
Montpelier, VT– For fans of Jenna Evans Welch and Barbara Dee, Mima Tipper’s “Kat’s Greek Summer” (SparkPress, May 13, 2025) is a timely and uplifting contemporary YA story of a fourteen-year-old girl risking it all for self-truth, family, and first love over one sun-drenched Greek summer.
Ready—set—look out, world! Kat Baker is about to explode… onto the high school scene, that is. All she has to do? Spend July and August training with New Canaan High’s cross-country team, become a running goddess and, come fall, claim her place as the team’s star freshman runner.
When her mom shocks her with the unwelcome news that the family will spend the summer exploring their roots in the rustic Greek village of Paralia, Kat’s sure her high school popularity plan is toast. Once in Paralia, punishing heat and cultural clashes force her to launch a risky and covert training strategy to keep her running-star dreams alive. And it is during these hidden sessions that Kat is swept into late-night encounters with Theofilus Zafirakis, a beautiful but off-limits Greek boy.
As Kat’s lies mount, her secret odyssey spirals out of control, finally putting one of her cousins in danger. In the end, it takes the unexpected meddling of a village full of crazy, wonderful (and not so wonderful) Greeks for her to open up to her Greek side, discovering at last that the key to belonging anywhere is belonging first to herself.
About the Book…
“Kat’s Greek Summer”
Mima Tipper | May 13, 2025 | SparkPress | Genre
Paperback | ISBN: 978-1684633067 | $13.99
Ebook | ASIN: B0DJC8Q6J7 | $9.99
Praise for the Book…
“sparkling… a coming-of-age story that explores themes of identity, family, and self-discovery with grace and insight.”
–Publishers Weekly, BookLife (Editor’s Pick)
“Mima Tipper excels at bringing to life the gentleness and fire of first love, as well as Kat’s dawning awareness that only she can stake her own claim in the world. A wise and charming debut.”
–Alison McGhee, New York Times bestselling author of “Someday”
“Meet Kat Baker. She’s not the girl you want to be; she’s the girl you are. Mima Tipper’s impetuous, likable protagonist learns that desire is a wellspring that spurs her forward like Artemis, the goddess she can be if she trusts her instincts and stays true to herself. Readers will love this fresh for-real heroine.”
–Julie Pidgeon, Principal and Middle School English Teacher, Folsom Education and Community Center, South Hero, Vermont
“‘Kat’s Greek Summer’ is the fantasy we all dream of…a secret romance in a Mediterranean paradise with the swooniest local boy on the Aegean Sea? Sign me up! And yet author Mima Tipper skillfully navigates the complexities of young love against a backdrop of stark inequality for women in Kat’s new surroundings. With her unflinching portrayal of the challenges Kat faces, Tipper delivers a triumphant narrative that celebrates love and family while confronting the gritty truths of life.”
–Kristin Nilsen, author of “Worldwide Crush” and “The Scott Fenwick Diaries”
About the Author…
MIMA TIPPER: Half-Greek, half-American, Mima Tipper and her writing reflect her heritage—a little bit old-country, a little bit rock and roll: one foot wandering through the dreamy realms of myths and faerie tales, the other running on the solid ground of fast-paced, contemporary story. She earned her MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults from Vermont College of Fine Arts, and has published YA fiction in Hunger Mountain and Sucker Literary magazine. Her YA short story “A Cut-out Face” received an honorable mention from Hunger Mountain’s Katherine Paterson Prize, her work-in-progress “Chasing a Blue So Wild” was a top ten finalist in Voyage YA’s first chapter contest, and her work-in-progress “Channeling Marilyn” came in second place for Paranormal Romance in the Chesapeake Romance Writer’s annual Rudy contest. “Kat’s Greek Summer” will be her first published novel. Beyond devoting most of her time to writing, Mima volunteers at her local library and is committed to promoting literacy. Mima lives in Vermont with her family. Learn more at: www.mimatipper.com
Follow Mima Tipper on social media:
Facebook: @mimatipper | Twitter: @meemtip | Instagram: @mimatip
In an interview, Mima Tipper can discuss:
- How her own Greek-American heritage inspired “Kat’s Greek Summer”
- Why connecting with your roots can be an empowering experience
- How she wrote about first love with both compassion and candor
- The book’s many timely lessons, including the importance of finding your voice and standing up for what’s right
- What she hopes young readers will take away from the book
An Interview with Mima Tipper
1. What inspired you to write “Kat’s Greek Summer”?
I let Kat Baker, my fictional character, say and do and ask things that I never knew or had the courage to say and do and ask. A lot of my remembered feelings and experiences surfaced. These feelings and experiences informed Kat’s story more and more, and the result of that process is Kat’s Greek Summer. Though Kat’s story is fiction, many, many aspects of her story hold the emotional truth I discovered exploring my own heritage growing up half Greek/half American.
2. Did you have your own summers in Greece as a girl?
Regarding the Greek characters and Kat’s relatives, most are compilations of my true family members and of Greeks I met during my Greek summers, especially Yiayiá Sofia. My Greek grandmother Kalomira passed away a bunch of years ago, and it was amazingly fun and personal to bring her back through my fiction. No spoilers, but pretty much everything that happens in the book actually happened to me or to one of my cousins—fictionalized, of course😊
3. Is Paralia a real town? How did you capture the uniquely Greek setting of this book?
My Paralia is not an actual place, but is based on many actual Greek villages I’ve visited and researched. The word “Paralia” means “beach” in Greek, and I figured that was a perfect name for my small, rustic Greek fishing village. I’ve set the story on the Aegean Sea, and there are many real Greek places and villages in that part of Greece that have the word Paralia in them. I thought Paralia would be general enough to encompass the kind of Greek setting I wanted for my story. I also just love the word because it kind of sings off the tongue.
4. What do you hope young readers will take away from the story?
When my readers turn the last page of Kat’s Greek Summer, I want them to take a big satisfied breath because they feel like they’ve gone along with Kat on her daring, swoony adventure in gorgeous Greece, and were rooting for her all the way. I want my readers to feel powerful and hopeful about their own possible choices and future. I want their takeaway from this reading experience to be the message that to belong anywhere or to anyone or anything, they must first belong to themselves.
5. What’s next for you?
Right now, I’m going through the final rounds of revision on a paranormal YA novel that I hope to publish with SparkPress sometime in 2026. Beyond that publishing goal, I hope to continue championing my writing community and local literacy efforts by helping out at my local library in South Hero Vermont and at Inklings Children’s Books in Waitsfield, Vermont. I am also starting the wheels turning on a family trip to Greece. We are long overdue!
A former award-winning journalist with national exposure, Marissa now oversees the day-to-day operation of the Books Forward author branding and book marketing firm, along with our indie publishing support sister company Books Fluent.
Born and bred in Louisiana, currently living in New Orleans, she has lived and developed a strong base for our company and authors in Chicago and Nashville. Her journalism work has appeared in USA Today, National Geographic and other major publications. She is now interviewed by media on best practices for book marketing.
