I just finished Same Time Next Summer by Annabel Monaghan. This was my first Annabel Monaghan book and I enjoyed it! I thought the end slightly predictable, but I find that is often the case for romance books. It was a light, summer read that would be perfect to take on vacation or for by the pool reading. I will definitely add other Annabel Monaghan books to my TBR pile for my next beach vacation!

Thanks NetGalley and Libro.fm for the advanced reader copies!

Who needs a slow burn, second change romance for the beach this summer?!?! Well then Same Time Next Summer is for you! I am a fan of Annabel Monahan so I was excited to get this book. Annabel fills pages with amazing and honorable characters and a plot that will leave you wanting more. The childhood sweethearts and beach setting will be perfect for reading ocean or pool side!

Sam grew up spending summers at her parents’ second home on Long Island Beach, until Wyatt broke her heart. Now 30 years old with the perfect life - doctor fiance, comfortable HR job, and predictable routine - Sam and her fiancé head to her parents’ summer home to consider getting married there and hopefully finally set a wedding date. When Wyatt’s guitar melodies drift in from the treehouse next door, Sam must consider whether she has truly moved on from her first love.

I wish this book had been 100-150 pages longer. I really enjoyed the slow burn second chance romance, and I wanted it to never end! The love triangle continued longer than I would have liked, but I genuinely appreciate that Annabel illustrated that sometimes someone isn’t a villain, they’re just not the ideal fit for you.

I really really appreciated how honorable Wyatt was. Where this book could have easily have drifted into territory that I wouldn’t have been a fan of, Annabel did a fantastic job with the story.

I thought that Sam had great character development, especially considering the book length. I am such a fan of Annabel’s settings and storytelling, and Same Time Next Summer is a book I will definitely share with friends and re-read.

This was a great second chance/childhood sweethearts romance, with a beach setting. I enjoyed Monaghan's first book slightly more but this was still a solid summer read for me.

If you remember your first love fondly, this is the book for you. Sam and Wyatt experienced first love as teenagers at their adjacent beach houses on Long Island many years ago. Their parents were good friends. After several years of long-distance romance followed and summers together, an unfortunate event tore them apart. Now many years later Sam has returned to her family’s beach home from NYC with her doctor fiancée to look at a wedding venue. She is on a leave from her HR job after providing a client with advice that angered her boss. Wyatt has returned from CA to work on his family’s house. As Sam spends time with her artsy parents and renews her love of the beach, she questions her life choices and goals. This is a wonderful beach read. I loved some of the characters and hated others. Annabel Monaghan’s first book Nora Goes off Script was excellent and this one may be even better! I thank Penguin Group Putnam and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this ARC.

Thank you NetGalley and publisher for this ARC publication for an honest review.

I loved Annabel Monaghan's book "Nora Goes Off Script" and her latest is also a winner. This is the perfect beach read! Partly showcasing the past and first love and then the current timeline with a potential 2nd chance romance (even though the lead is engaged to another! Boo Jack!!) Okay, you know how the story is going to go...but honestly, who cares! lol The storyline is fun and so sweet, and the characters keep you invested beyond just the main couple. The glimpses into Wyatt and Sam's past were so pure...and the event leading to their separation was absolutely heartbreaking. The way everything comes full circle was perfect and felt so real! There is forgiveness, healing, finding your true self and your true love...happy sigh.

5 stars

I can hardly wait to see what the author creates next!

Need a beach read that you can fly through yet feel you spent some well-deserved time with characters you love? This one is for you. This author has a knack for writing simple and beautiful stories that tug at heartstrings, warm your soul, and make you remember your first love. To me, this book is the perfect summer getaway in page form. The setting is brilliantly written to where it feel like the entire book has a glow around it, just like the perfect summer nights. When I think of first loves, I want them to be like this one: sweet, thoughtful, deep, and hard to shake.

Yet another hit for me with this author. I cannot wait for more from her in the future.

Thank you to the publisher for my gifted copy.

The perfect beach read! It had a deeper focus but not so deep that it couldn't be enjoyed pool side or by the water.


I received an advance copy. All thoughts are my own.

A sweet second-chance love story that was a quick, enjoyable read. The perfect beach read romance book, in my opinion. Main character Sam takes her fiancé Jack to visit her family's lake house, and when she arrives, she is surprised and conflicted to find her ex, Wyatt, is also there. And, he is living in the treehouse where she and Wyatt shared many firsts, to boot! The more time Sam spends with Wyatt again reminds her how good it was, and she finds herself questioning what happened and hoping for a second chance.

Same Time Next Summer is the perfect beach read for summer, and I loved everything about it. It is a story of first love and heartbreak. It is also a story of second chances and finding yourself. I loved the setting. There’s just something about the beach that is so carefree. It was so cute and sweet. It was well written and the characters felt real. I’m going to be swooning for a long time about this one. It’s a must read!

This is summer perfection!

All of the lake vibes. The summer vacations. The summer romance that ignites.

This book should be on the top of everyone’s summer reading lists!!

I totally enjoyed my time reading Same Time Next Summer. I devoured this story of first love and second chances. The characters and setting were delightful and well developed. I would definitely recommend this to anyone who is looking for a light summer romance. I loved it!

I loved this book! It gives ALL the cozy, beachy summer vibes. I liked how the flashbacks to the past were kept in one part of the book - I don’t see that very often. I’m a sucker for a second chance romance where the story starts as teenagers, and I was rooting for Wyatt the whole time.

what to expect:
- perfect summer beach read
- second chance romance/with the wrong guy
- dreams + discovering what you really want in life
- teen love/heartbreak

I struggled a bit for the first 1/3 or so of this book because I just couldn’t wrap my mind around the main character being so heartbroken about her high school boyfriend over a decade later. I eventually settled in — or, rather, I was charmed enough by old flame Wyatt that I just went with it. I ended up liking this book, but it didn’t have the magic for me that Nora had.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the e-arc for review.

Nora Goes Off Script was THE book for me… it was my favorite book from last year, maybe one of my top books ever, and I was sooo pumped for this one… and it just didn’t quite hit the mark for me in comparison. It’s still a really great book, but I just didn’t fully connect with this one the way I did NGOS. That (maybe unfair) comparison aside, this is an excellent second chance romance between childhood sweethearts many years later. Sam and Wyatt were best friends during the summers growing up, as next door neighbors on Long Island. Until the summer they fell in love, and swore to be together forever… until they weren’t because of family dramas. Fast forward nearly 15 years and she’s right back at her family’s beach house, next door to Wyatt, who has returned for the summer. All of a sudden, Sam isn’t sure that her picture perfect life is the right one for her… the perfect doctor fiancé, the sleek Manhattan apartment she shares with him, her soulless corporate HR job, the bland vanilla wedding she’s planning. The instant she hears Wyatt playing the guitar from their treehouse, she finds herself feeling feelings she has no business feeling. The hurt, the anger, the longing… she’s being pulled in two directions and isn’t sure which one is the right path. As the days pass, she’s more and more confused about who she is and how she got there, or more importantly where’s she’s going (and who’s she’s going with).

This is a really cute summer beach read. Sam's childhood boyfriend shows up on the beach where they met when she is visiting with her now fiance, and the story unfolds from there as would be expected. I do wish we would have gotten more of Sam's relationship with Jack and her journey with her previous job - much of the story focused on her dissatisfaction with both and I guess I wanted to see more of how they came to be. The issue with her job that caused her to be in such trouble seemed... very minimal? I did love the back story of her and Wyatt and how everything developed throughout the novel. Overall, I would say 3.5 stars.

On a trip to her hometown in search of the perfect wedding venue, Sam is faced with the harsh realities of her life decisions when she runs into her childhood best friend and first love, Wyatt. Is this the most original premise? No, but I absolutely adored it! It was so well written. Second chance, small town romance and friends to lovers tropes. The beach setting was so appealing and I loved the way the author described scenes on the beach and the feeling of summer when you're just a kid. I enjoyed the dual POV and dual timelines and thought it worked really well for this story. I found myself finishing a "then" section and not wanting to switch to the "now." And then by the time the "now" section was over, I didn't want to leave that timeline either! I loved the characters. All of them flawed, but lovable and relatable. Sam's character arc was refreshing to read, her growth throughout so evident on the page, as it seemed every day she was getting back to herself a little more. I loved that she wasn't perfect, a little awkward, which made her all the more charming in my eyes. Wyatt's a smoke show of course, but he took entirely too long to apologize for what he did. I appreciate that the author left out a cheating trope, and thought it made Wyatt a better character for it. They had a naturally budding romance that didn't feel rushed or premature, and was truly beautiful to read. Also, add in some fun side characters and a little family drama to keep the story moving and that made this a 5 star read for me! (The relationship between Sam, her mom, and grandma was so cute!) So basically, this is the perfect beach read! This was the first I've read by this author, but definitely not the last!

4.5 stars. Thanks to Netgalley and PENGUIN GROUP Putnam for the E-ARC. I truely enjoyed this story of Sam finding herself. I enjoyed the timeline of how it would go back to Wyatt and Sam when they were teenagers and to the present. I loved the little plot twist even though it was not a thriller lol it still kept me on my toes reading to find out what happened. I loved that as much as it was a love story between Sam and Wyatt, there was a huge focus on Sam finding her true self as a individual.

I really enjoyed this book and I'm very grateful that I had the opportunity to read an early copy. If you enjoyed Love and Other Words by Christina Lauren, I think you'll really enjoy this book. We get to see Sam and Wyatt in the summers while they grow up, and we get to see them in the present. We see them fall in love, and I truly believe that they belong together and love each other. It has a fun, beachy vibe that I love, but there is also some really great depth to the story and personal growth for the characters.

One thing that I wish was different in this book is that I wanted to meet Wyatt in the present a lot earlier than we did. It takes a long time before we see him, and I think that makes the chapters that are in the present drag. While I flew through the chapters in the past, I slowed down when I hit the present chapters until Wyatt was in the story again. I think it also made it more difficult to know Wyatt as he presently is because of this.

Overall, I recommend this book if you love second-chance romances and a good summery read!

I loved it. I knew I would! If Elin says to put a book directly into your beach bag…well.. you put the damn book into your beach bag!

The pages just flipped and flipped so easily as I devoured the short chapters, multiple POV, lovable characters, and of course, the deliciously written descriptions of all things beach cottage, salt water, sand, and summer.

It took a second to get used to having both first person dual POV and a third person narrator telling about the past, but the author explained her reasoning for this in the interview at the end of the book: If you were asked to describe a teenage relationship now, you would likely downplay it and regard it as unimportant/in the past (which, for most of us, it is), but Annabel needed us to be immersed in Sam and Wyatt’s past first hand in order to feel how consuming and colossal their love was, and to understand why it may still matter in the present.

Bonus points for cute and cranky/sassy grandparents.

☀️ Read if you love:

🏖️ beach setting
💕 second chance romance
👫 YA romance vibes
🎥 the movie The Notebook
👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 Family drama
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