Written in 2021 by K. L. Walther, The Summer of Broken Rules is a work of contemporary fiction that quickly became a New York Times and USA Today bestseller and a BookTok sensation. This is Walther’s second book, with her first being If We Were Us. Although The Summer of Broken Rules demonstrates the whirlwind plot characteristic of a modern-day romance novel, it also tackles a variety of much more serious topics, the most prominent of which focuses on the death of a family member and the various ways in which family members collectively process their grief.

This guide refers to the Sourcebooks Fire paperback edition of the book.

Plot Summary

A year and a half prior to the beginning of the novel, Claire Fox died in a car accident involving a drunk driver. After Claire’s death, her sister, Meredith, isolated herself from everyone except her boyfriend, Ben Fletcher. Now, one of Meredith’s cousins is getting married, and the entire family is gathering at the family homestead on Martha’s Vineyard to celebrate the wedding. The event marks the first time since Claire’s death that everyone is getting together. To complicate matters further, Ben broke up with Meredith just two weeks before the gathering, doubling her sense of grief and loss.

She and her family arrive at Martha’s Vineyard, and the bride announces to everyone that in honor of Claire’s memory, everyone will play Claire’s favorite game, Assassin, during the week of the wedding celebration. (Traditionally, the family played this game every summer.) Everyone who RSVP’d that they wanted to play is assigned a target, and there are only three rules to the game: (1) The game is active 24 hours a day, and eliminations can happen at any time; (2) all eliminations must occur outside, and “outside” is defined as being a minimum distance of 10 feet away from a door; and (3) no eliminations are to interfere with official wedding events. That night, Meredith makes two resolutions. The first she makes with Wit, one of the groomsmen, whose real name is Stephen, agreeing that each will share intelligence and let each other know if either of their names come up in conversations; the second she makes with herself: that she will win the game of Assassin this year in Claire’s honor.

Throughout the week, Meredith reunites with both friends and family, but no one seems particularly happy to see her. Her friends feel betrayed, believing that she abandoned them to be with her boyfriend while they all grieved Claire's death together, while her family simply misses the girl she used to be prior to the tragic event. Despite these difficulties, Wit is attentive and affectionate and represents everything that Meredith wants in a romantic partner. While interactions with him are pleasant, he also distracts her from her goals in the family game. Although the two are quickly attracted to one another, both are faced with the reality that they will have to separate at the end of the week—Meredith to go to college and Wit to go on his adventure to New Zealand.

As the week winds down, Meredith’s grandfather, Wink, asks her what her plans for college will be now that she has come out of her shell and started healing from the grief of Claire’s death. His question leads Meredith to reflect on who she was, who she is, and who she wants to be. She decides to continue with her plan to attend Hamilton College and to continue healing with the help of her parents, but she also decides to get a therapist and start a long-distance relationship with Wit, knowing that they will have the opportunity to reunite at Martha’s Vineyard next summer. Although she does not win the game of Assassin, she still knows that Claire is proud of her.

One year later, Meredith and Wit are still together, and their relationship is stronger than ever. Everyone in the family has made progress in forgiving and helping each other, and Wink initiates a new tradition: the “Claire Fox Cup,” which is a trophy that will be awarded each year to the winner of Assassin, in honor of Claire. As this year’s targets are assigned and a new game begins, Meredith is in it to win it—for real this time.