Somewhere Beautiful: A Campus Romance Novel by Gary Marks

Novel. Author: Gary Marks

2009

Genre: Voice-driven literary fiction

Sub-Genre: Campus / romantic existentialism

A post-millennial teenager meets a girl on a family vacation in Paris the summer before college. Love, and a death-defying event back home, reshape his sense of the world and his place in it.

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Synopsis

A teenager named Mayor has no idea what he wants to do with his life. College feels wrong. Careers sound like traps. The future looks like a long series of obligations he has no interest in fulfilling.

Then he meets Ruth. Mayor immediately wants Ruth to ditch her plans of going to college so they can run off together. He dreams of adventure and escape. But Ruth refuses. She wants to go to college and find her own path.

Mid-semester, Mayor comes to her college unannounced and tries to convince her to leave. She turns him down but comes up with a challenge he will have to fulfill if he wants them to stay together.

At home, Mayor's closest ally is his younger sister Darcy, whose faith in him has never wavered. When a devastating event leaves Darcy needing help, Mayor abandons his plans and dedicates himself to helping her recover.

In the middle of the cirsis, Darcy hands him a gift that feels like just a thoughtful present at the time, but will eventually change his life.

Somewhere Beautiful is the name of the gift, and the name of the story he writes.

UKnIreland Magazine: “Living at the Edge of Somewhere Beautiful,” February 2026

“This is a novel written by someone who understands exactly how it feels to be young, gifted, and unwilling to surrender to the world. But it is also clear that Marks went down that road far enough to understand its limits, and its costs. You don’t close Somewhere Beautiful thinking about what the title means. You recognize the place. And you understand why it’s a place you want to stay.”

— Emma Russel UknIreland Emerging Art 'n' Artists News

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