3.5 stars rounded up! I really enjoyed Kate Spencer's other romcom, IN A NEW YORK MINUTE, so I was especially excited to read her latest. ONE LAST SUMMER follows Clara Millen, whose life isn't exactly going according to plan (and of course, she always has the perfect plan). She's still reeling from a breakup, and her dream job is shaping up to be more of a nightmare. Noticing Clara's stress, her boss sends her off on a "micro-sabbatical," the timing of which just so happens to align with her annual summer camp reunion. Back at Pine Lake, Clara finds herself rekindling neglected friendships...and maybe even a romance with Mack, her old camp rival. Can Clara abandon the life she always thought she wanted for something newer—something that truly makes her feel alive?

This was a really sweet, quick read! Rivals-to-lovers is one of my absolute favorite romance tropes, so Clara and Mack's dynamic was a highlight for me (the banter!). The sleepaway camp setting was so well-developed and immersive—I felt like I was right there at Pine Lake with Clara and the crew. The camp truly felt like its own character, which was a great touch. Also, not a huge part of the story, but I appreciated that Clara was steadfastly childfree—I personally haven't seen that a ton in romance books! I loved her friendship with Sam, and how Clara still completely supported her on her path to motherhood, while also being totally sure and unapologetic that it wasn't something she personally wanted for herself. In general, I think so many readers will be able to relate to Clara and her journey!

In terms of things I didn't love, I feel like I had some of the same quibbles with this book as I did with Emily Henry's HAPPY PLACE—they definitely have some similarities imo, so if that was your favorite of EmHen's, you might feel differently! I thought the themes of self-discovery, dealing with burnout, and realizing your childhood friendships have changed in shape and nature over the years, were so important. However, I wished that the romance had been a bit more developed alongside those storylines. The story seems to be marketed as a romance, but I feel like sometimes the love story took a backseat to other plot points (which again, I generally enjoyed the other storylines, but wished there had been a little more of that balance). I also struggled a little with the pacing and timeline. I felt like the story would have made just as much sense if the characters were aged down a few years, and the ending felt a little bit rushed to me. (The epilogue was super sweet, though!) Overall, even though I wanted more from some aspects of the book, I enjoyed ONE LAST SUMMER for its fun, summery vibes! Thank you to NetGalley and Forever for the ARC.

This book is an absolute delight, putting a sweet spin on the classic coming-of-age tale! We follow Clara, who, feeling frazzled from work, is nudged into a “micro-sabbatical” by her boss. This just so happens to align perfectly with the annual reunion at her beloved summer camp, organized by her old friends. The idea of returning to a place so pivotal in her youth is incredibly charming, though I did wish Clara’s bond with the camp had been fleshed out more to really drive the point home.

Clara and Mack shared a magical kiss as teens and that spark never quite fizzled out. However, their journey to rekindle that romance as adults felt a tad rushed. I was craving a bit more build-up and conflict before they (spoiler alert!) finally got together. But hey, it's a romance, so we expect a happy ending, and this one tied up all the loose ends in a very satisfying way.

All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed this book! I just wished for a bit more substance and character development to make me fall head over heels for these characters and their journey. I’d definitely recommend this as a fun, breezy beach read or for anyone gearing up for a reunion. And if you get the chance, reading it by a campfire adds an extra sprinkle of magic!

An (adult) summer camp second-chance romance with found family and a bit of finding yourself along the way. 🏕️

How I wanted to love this one! 😫 So many great elements to work with, but the book never really came together for me. In my opinion, it felt like it was trying to be an Emily Henry book and it didn’t hit the mark. Our FMC, Clara, was kind of a jerk, and our MMC, Mack, was completely one dimensional. The found family dynamic, which should have been lovely, felt disjointed and forced and unbelievable. The only character that really worked for me was Sam, one of the friends. The book kept me reading, but was just okay in the end. (I also felt personally victimized by the reference to the “hang in there” cat poster of my childhood being referred to as AN OLD PERSON REFERENCE! 😱😂)

My thanks to NetGalley and Forever (Grand Central Publishing) for a complimentary advance copy of this eBook, out 6/11/2024.

This book was so cute! It was the perfect beach read. The characters are lovable and the storyline keeps you hooked. I’m a fan of Kate Spencer and her stories.

This is a perfect nostalgic summer book and it made me want to reevaluate my entire life and jump in a lake. The growth of Clara and the strength of her friendships was truly endearing, and the story was so vibrant I’ll be thinking about it for a long time. Especially recommend if you miss friends and your childhood summers.

Wow I LOVED this one. I was never lucky enough to spend my summers at a sleep away camp, but this made me feel nostalgic as if I had. I loved the friendships and the banter as well as the years long tension between mack and Clara. I couldn't put this one down and will be recommending it to anyone looking for a summer read.

4 Stars - Loved this story of going back to where you belonged. It was a great slow burn and I also loved the secondary story of burn out and leaving a career that no longer serves you. Very (if not too) relatable :)

This was truly the perfect summer read! So much banter, I felt like I was watching a fast paced tennis match. I loved the characters, the story line and the BANTER!!

Clara has just been sent on a micro sabbatical after her boss proclaimed to a room full of her colleagues that she was burnt out. So Clara heads to Pine Lake Camp for one last hurrah with the six people she grew up with at camp and who she hasn’t made time for in the past number of years. Tensions are high between the friends, but no more so than between Clara and Mack, her childhood enemy and crush.

First the bad - in this novel, Clara is supposed to be 35 but she acted much more like a mid-twenties girl and I found her mostly insufferable. She was exceptionally self absorbed, and I couldn’t see why the other people wanted to continue being friends with her. The chemistry with Mack was certainly there, but again, if I were him, I would’ve wanted to run far, far away from her. I also think the burnout angle was repeated far too often and I wanted to scream I GET IT.

But, let’s end on the good. Kate Spencer certainly knows how to set a scene. I felt like I was at Pine Lake Camp alongside them. I could perfectly picture the area, and each of Clara’s friends. I could picture the silly games and the food fights and the chill of the water. I really enjoyed Spencer’s first novel, In a New York Minute, for the same reason - atmosphere. She puts your right inside her novels and that takes real talent. It allowed me to leave my daily life and visit another each time I picked up the book.

With some tweaks to Clara, I think I would’ve enjoyed this novel a lot more, but I also think that there is plenty to like about it as you’re sitting poolside this summer.

In a New York minute was my favorite romance a couple years ago, so when I saw that Kate Spencer came out with a new book i was sooo excited! unfortunately, a fell a little short for me. Clara is forced to take a sabbatical from work and agrees to go to camp reunion to see her old friends. I really wouldn’t consider this a romance, sure, there were sprinkles of romance throughout the book, but I felt like this was more of a woman’s fiction. Unfortunately, I didn’t love it

For all those who miss their friends and summer camp, read this book!

One Last Summer had the cutest friendships and I loved watching them come back to each other! After missing so many reunions, Clara is finally reuniting with her friends for a summer (after quite literally being forced by her job).

I went to camp every summer, so this book provided me with all the nostalgia. Who hasn’t had a “camp fling” and the second chance romance was oh so sweet!

This had a great ending - I was so happy with the outcome and how everything fell just to place!

Thank you NetGalley and Forever (Grand Central Publishing) for this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Overall a really enjoyable story about old friends coming together for a week of reconnection and unsolved problems. Friendship is the base for all of the relationships that we get to read about in this book. Our main character Clara is a workaholic that’s losing her groove because she is burning herself out. Clara doesn’t like that everyone including her boss is forcing her to take time away to become refreshed so she can be ready to land a big client. This happens just as her old camp friends are meeting up at the summer camp they all went to as younger kids. While Clara is reluctant to let work go she starts to see that her friends have all started to move on with their lives and leave her in the past. Self acceptance is another important aspect of this story. Clara definitely has to face this but also Mack, who is Clara’s romantic interest. So many great moments with these two but also with all of the friends you meet.
For some parts of the story I really wish this was a dual POV or even a dual timeline. I think some of the scenes could have benefited from more context or another’s POV than just Clara. Clara was a bit immature at some places and IMO was annoying. She seemed stunted in her friendships instead of trying to grow to be better for each of her friends. In the end the ups and owns pay off and we get what most romance readers love a HEA. I definitely would recommend this to other readers especially those that are looking for a summer read that’s about reconnection with others and yourself!

For anyone that loves reading about found family, friendship and beautiful settings as much as a good romance, you're going to love this book!

📚 One Last Summer
✍ Kate Spencer
📖 RomCom
⭐4/5
🌶️ 🌶️ (mostly closed door but sex is implied)
➡ Caught up in her whirlwind career, Clara Millen has missed the last five summers of camp reunions where her small, dedicated friend group relives their glory days at Pine Lake Camp in New Hampshire. When her boss proposes a new 'mini-sabbatical' company benefit and brazenly assigns Clara to be the first employee to partake, she returns to Pine Lake only to find that she's missed out on a lot more than a few campfire stories.

Upon her arrival, she quickly realizes that her friends have all grown during their time apart and that the beloved camp they've returned to each summer has been sold to a new owner. Determined to fit everything they can into their one last week at camp, they set out to relive their best experiences together before the camp turns into a glamping facility. For Clara, the week means revisiting everything she thought she wanted at 15, including her camp crush and constant rival, Mack with a fresh set of eyes- and what she finds may shift her version of the past...and the future.
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🙏 Thank you to Grand Central Publishing, NetGalley and Kate Spencer for the advanced copy of One Last Summer. All opinions are my own.
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🎯 What I loved: The summer camp setting was so visceral and well described that I really felt like I was there- I think this is going to make a GREAT beach read! And I loved that this book was as much about Clara finding herself as it was about friendship evolution and romance. I enjoyed Clara's character journey and self-discovery and appreciated that she wasn't perfect even though she did a lot of things that I didn't like during the course of the story. There was strong authentic representation of LGBTQ+ relationships, a journey to single motherhood and childhood challenges that were all well done.

🙅‍♀️ What I didn't: A lot was packed into this book considering that it all happened in a week. I think I would have liked the timeline to be a little more stretched out to make it more believable as it's just really hard to forge or re-forge connections so deep in a matter of days. There was also a lot of miscommunication/lack of communication between characters which I found frustrating. My biggest bone to pick though is that I struggled with liking Clara as a character and found her really immature- between her inability to put her work down and need to re-engage in summer camp competitions so intensely and put down the people around her, it was hard to connect to her but I do think she had a good character arc and readers were able to see some strong self-development by the end of the book.
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Read if you love:
*summer camp settings & lots of reminiscing without dual timelines
*found family
*second-chance romance
*self-discover & questioning career choices
*opposites attract
*friends to lovers
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See also: Reasonable Adults, Say You Still Love Me, Summer Sisters

I really enjoy Kate Spencer‘s books. I love how she writes her characters and their relationships. This book definitely gave off the vibes of Emily Henry’s happy place, but I actually think I liked it more. I’m a huge fan of that childhood friends to lovers trope, and I think Spencer did a great job of writing in this one. While the romance was great, my favorite aspect was the friendships. I thought it was cute, if a bit unrealistic, that a bunch of adults would return for camp reunion every year.

I enjoyed this sweet summer romance. At the beginning, I wasn't sure I liked the main character very much, but she grew on me as the story progressed. The reunion at the summer camp, where the group of friends reenacts their adolescent activities and strengthens their lapsed relationships, made the story engaging and touching. Clara's rediscovery of the old friends whom she'd forgotten were so important to her and an old undeclared love that she realizes has never grown cold leads her to a reevaluation of her life's path and values. I became invested in the story quite early on; the writing is wryly funny, and the characters are sweetly quirky, as befits a rom-com. The overall theme, attaining the clarity to understand what you truly need in life and being brave enough to risk seizing it, shines through the novel without becoming preachy. Lovers of rom-coms should find this a great summer beach read.

Thank you #netgalley for the ARC. I was so happy to receive this book as I was such a fan of Kate Spencer's first novel, In a New York Minute and was excited to read another novel by her.

This is the story of Clara, a workaholic who's now a year out from a break-up with her long-term partner- who is now newly engaged. Her work announces a new "micro-sabbatical" program (forced vacation) and her boss chooses her to take this to address her burnout at her job- and makes this announcement in front of the whole company. On top of this, she receives a letter from herself at 15, saying all the things she wants in her adult life and Clara is both embarrassed and devastated to see how her life is measuring up. Clara finally takes her group of summer camp besties up on a trip to return to the place where they all found each other, Pine Lake Camp. Upon her arrival, she is reunited with old friends, her attractive camp nemesis, and learns that the property has recently sold. Clara must come to terms with what she wants out of life and the courage to go out and make it happen.

This was such a nostalgia-packed treat! I’d give this book 4.5/5 ⭐️s and highly recommend to anyone in search of a fun summer read with a nostalgic summer camp vibe. Similar to In a New York Minute and the city of NYC, Pine Lake Camp was like another character of this book. I'd definitely read another Kate Spencer book.

What would your 15-year-old self wished for your adult life? 💕📚

Thank you to NetGalley and Forever for the ARC of this one! This is my second book by Kate Spencer and I really enjoyed it!

Clara is a thirty something workaholic who is forced to take a mini sabbatical from her job. She decides to join in on a trip back to her old sleep away camp where all of her camp friends will be for the week. She hasn't done the best job of keeping in touch despite her love for them and is super wrapped up on her job and making a life for herself that she thinks she wants. When she sees her friends, specifically Mack, she realizes that what she thought she wanted actually isn't what she wants at all. This one is a sweet second chance romance with a dash of self discovery and I truly loved it! I was rooting for Clara and Mack the whole time and I felt like all of the characters in the book were real and relatable. A perfect summer/beach read! Quick and fun with some good depth and character development. Thanks for the opportunity to read it!

I was immediately drawn to this cover and it gave me feelings of summer camp nostalgia. I loved the premise and am usually a big fan of Kate Spencer. However, the execution fell flat for me. I didn't feel the chemistry between the love interests and the parts felt repetitive. Overall just meh from me.

Thank you to Netgalley & Forever (Grand Central Publishing) for the advanced reader copy.

Thank you to Forever and NetGalley for providing me with this ARC.

This book is perfect for people who have good memories of camp growing up. It was sweet, if sometimes cheesy.

Personally, I don't have many fond memories of camp - I was the weird kid that was being bullied. But I get the appeal, I really do. I love a good summer, enemies-to-lovers, kinda-second-chance romance as much as the next gal.

However, I definitely needed to suspend my disbelief at times. There is no part of me that accepts the fact that someone could still be hung up on a kiss they shared with someone twenty years later. How was a fifteen-year-old so good at kissing that it's still the hottest makeout you've ever had??

This book is so cheesy it triggered by dairy intolerance. There were also times when the characters behaved as if they were still 15 years old and I wanted to crawl into a hole and never come out. I wanted to love it, but apart from some sweet moments and the friendship between Sam and Clara, I was more uncomfortable than anything.

I absolutely loved Kate Spencer's debut, IN A NEW YORK MINUTE. It was exactly my style of rom-com, so I've been eagerly anticipating what would follow - and ONE LAST SUMMER was such a wonderful sophmore novel!

ONE LAST SUMMER follows Clara as she is forced to take a week out from work, aligning with the summer camp reunion she's been avoiding saying yes to attending. But things are different now - the summer camp's up for sale, and her old camp nemesis is there to push her buttons. But one night changes how Clara feels, so what happens when that spark turns into a flame...and Clara has to decide what is more important to her in life?

I love books like this. Rom-coms that focus on the characters, not so much the plot. I related a lot to Clara, having burnt out of my own dream job and deciding where to go next when you don't know what next is, or who you are without that identity. The romance was beautiful and didn't overshadow the book - romance that moves the plot forward! Sexual tension in spades! That's what romance is about.

If you're buiding a TBR list for the summer, or just in general, definitely add ONE LAST SUMMER to your reads.