I really liked this summer read about first loves and what happens with that magical feeling! A great book to read over the summer!

I know I’m not the only person that walks around a pool while on vacation, spying on the books people are reading. I guarantee this is the book you will see the most - it’s going to be the book of summer!
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𝗦𝗮𝗺𝗲 𝗧𝗶𝗺𝗲 𝗡𝗲𝘅𝘁 𝗦𝘂𝗺𝗺𝗲𝗿 is my idea of summertime perfection. A great setting, a second chance love story, fun characters, light but never mindless fluff. I sometimes struggle with womens fiction or romcoms but never with @annabelmonaghan books. Her writing is smart and sharp. This book includes so many of my favorite things to read - coming of age story, alternating timelines and points of view, and I always love rooting for the love that got away.
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𝗡𝗼𝗿𝗮 𝗚𝗼𝗲𝘀 𝗼𝗳𝗳 𝗦𝗰𝗿𝗶𝗽𝘁 was a favorite from last year and I’m so glad to say the same about this book. I’m already looking forward to what comes next!

Such a cute book! I never get tired of this trope and the book did not disappoint. Ending was perfect. It will most definitely be a book of the summer.

Sam's life seems perfect with her ideal fiancé, Jack, and a successful job in Manhattan. However, as she visits her family's beach house on Long Island to tour a wedding venue, she senses something amiss. The reason becomes clear when she discovers Wyatt, her former love interest from her teenage years. The memories rush back, from their romantic moments to the painful breakup. Surrounded by the familiar beach atmosphere and the sound of Wyatt's guitar, Sam is reminded of her past self. The undeniable connection between Sam and Wyatt resurfaces, forcing her to confront her emotions and make a difficult decision.

Same Time Next Summer is perfect for fans of Every Summer After! The story is told with a dual timeline from Sam’s first-person point of view. In the past, Sam is falling in love with Wyatt and experiencing childhood summers on Long Island. In the present, Sam is planning her wedding and re-evaluating her rigid life in the present.

One of my favorite things about this book was how it focused on Sam re-evaluating her entire life piece by piece. Some of it is in the context of her romantic relationships, but it also explores her relationship with her family, her career, and her relationship with herself.

If you enjoy childhood friends to lovers, and second chance romance like Every Summer After, I recommend Same Time Next Summer! However, I should warn you that this is not just a straightforward romance. The story heavily focuses on Sam’s character progression and less overall on her romantic relationships.

Thank you to @putnambooks and @netgalley for the advanced copy! All opinions are my own!

Sam has spent most of her adult life striving for a future without surprises. She has finally reached her idea of perfection, the perfect safe job, and now a fiance who thrives on routines. Everything is just like she wants it, and she is thrilled. Or at least she's supposed to be. A trip to her family's beach house and a face-to-face meeting with the boy, now man, who broke her heart makes her question all that she needs to be happy.

With sensitivity and humor, Monaghan addresses the beauty of first love and the heartbreak of loss, looking at both the past and the present intermittently throughout the book. By creating beautifully flawed characters, the author engages readers in a believable love story that is difficult to put down.

In Same Time Next Summer, Monaghan has once again written a lovely, thought-provoking novel about love, life, and the stories people tell themselves. With well-written characters and an engaging storyline, Monaghan delivers a story worth reading repeatedly.

I loved the author’s previous book “Nora Goes Off Script” and when I saw she another book coming out I have to read it. This story is the perfect summer read about a young couple who gets a second chance at romance!

Sam in engaged and thinks she's totally over Wyatt, her teen first love, when she returns to the beach town they spent their summers at and fell in love in to plan her upcoming wedding to someone else, he happens to be there and they decide they can both be friends. There are a lot of chapters of their backstory as they grow up and fall in love at the beach. They really make you feel like you are part of this story and on the beach with them. I really enjoyed this book. Nothing is rushed or forced and things happen between the characters in what seems like real time. Great summer read or any time read for that matter.

Thank you to NetGalley for this advanced copy in exchange for an honest review!

This book was such a delight to read. I was completely engrossed. What really drew me in were the two main characters. They were so well developed and they captured my whole heart.  The perfect summer read, with great characters, nostalgia, and romance.
Annabel Monaghan refined story telling was so natural that you’re effortlessly swept from page to page. I followed along my physical book with the audiobook. Dan Bittner and Brittany Pressley narrated very nicely. They were the perfect duo for the characters in the book. And the pacing was solid! I will definitely be checking out more books from Annabel Monaghan.

This is bound to be THE book of the summer! When Sam goes to tour a potential wedding venue near her childhood summer home, she is immediately thrown back in time to her past life with Wyatt... who is not her fiancé! I love a book focusing on someone forced to reevaluate things and make a decision between what currently is and what could have been. The contrast between her buttoned up current life and her free-spirited first love was excellently written. I loved Carley Fortune's debut, Every Summer After, last year, and this book has the same kind of magic for me. Will definitely be buying a hard copy on release date!! Thank you for the early review copy- amazon review to come!

I don’t know if I’ve ever been more satisfied by an ending. While she was by no means a perfect character, I found I related so much to Sam. Both in her train of thought and her metaphors/connections she made with her feelings. This was the kind of light hearted, second chance at love, easy read I needed right now!

I didn't want this book to end! Please give us more stories about Sam and Wyatt!

Annabel Monaghan has definitely become one of my favorite must-read authors now with Nora Goes Off Script and now Same Time Next Summer.

Thank you NetGalley and Putnam Books for the e-ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This book made me want to pack up and move to the beach for the summer!

⭐️: 4/5- This Second Chance Romance is a perfect beach read! Second chance romances are not usually my jam, but I really enjoyed this one. This book really reminded me of Love and Other Words, but I think this one is SO much better. In part one this book goes between “Then” and “now” to cover Sam and Wyatts story. I kept smiling reading about Sam and Wyatt falling in love as kids. I loved all of the characters and I loved the location. I suddenly want to go for a swim in the ocean so badly and feel so nostalgic of going to beach in the summer as a kid. While the romance is the focus of the story, i really enjoyed Sam’s rediscovery of self the most. If you’re looking for an easy beach read, I really liked this one!

🌶️: 2/5 most of the spice happens off page.

If you like Second Chance Romances, Friends to Lovers, Love and Other words, Dual Timelines, or beach reads I think you will really enjoy this one! It was the perfect book to read to kick off Summer.

“You’re the cake that looks normal until people dig in and find out it’s spectacular. You’re the chocolate fucking cake, Sam, and you won’t even choose it.”

Thank you @Putnambooks and @annabelmonahan for the gifted ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Same Time Next Summer is out June 6th, 2023

“You’re my person on the beach.”

I don’t know that I can write a comprehensive review. This book was amazing. Completely, utterly, and undeniably a 5⭐️ read. When I read Nora Goes Off Script I had fallen in love with this author and knew instantly that I’d read anything she wrote and STNS is the perfect - yes PERFECT - beach read for 2023.

Sam & Wyatt were fantastic characters. They are lovable in so many ways, and I cannot go into them all without this turning into a 10 page essay. The entire cast of characters were so well rounded, so developed. The writing was incredible. The author has a way of making you feel like the things happening to these characters are happening to you. Like she’s narrating YOUR OWN LIFE back to you, even though you may have never done these things. Every line, thought, feeling makes sense. Nothing is rushed. Nothing is slow. It all unfolds and makes you feel at the exact right time. It is exciting, vulnerable, and tender all at the once.

This story does have a dual timeline where we can see what happened between Sam & Wyatt when they were young - how they played, lived and loved to what they are now. Distant. Civil. Heartbroken. We don’t get a lot of Wyatt chapters but I think they were some of my favorites.

For sure this is a similar genre to NGOS; more contemporary women’s lit than romance but the romance! Gosh, the romance in this was igniting! I in fact have already done a 2nd read of STNS but it may take me a 3rd or 4th to truly gather my thoughts for a more thought out review because, as mentioned I LOVED this book in so many different and wonderful ways.

Y’all: pleaseeee go get this when it comes out! There was not one disappointing moment. This story pierces your heart; it is fresh and poignant and mirrored what youth and summer and love and freedom feels like. If you’re looking for a second chance romance, a nostalgic love story, the perfect book to read at the beach… this is it.

Gah! I wish I had more eloquent words to fully describe how much I adored this novel. Sam & Wyatt will live in my brain and heart and every summer forever. Sorry (not sorry) to all my acquaintances who will never stop hearing me rave about Same Time Next Summer. Also - I will never read the word “corps” the same way ever again.

Thank you to Netgalley and Putnam Books for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

Same Time Next Summer is going to be this summers hit. It's got the perfect summer setting (Long Island), a second chance romance, nostalgia, a quirky family and Sam's journey on relearning who she is. I read this book in less than a day. It was impossible to put down. The romance between Sam and Wyatt was so sweet (both past and present). 5 stars. This is the perfect summer beach read.

This book was so good! I loved Annabel’s book Nora Goes Off Script so much, and I was so excited for this one! It is going to make a perfect beach read! I love a second chance, and it has an alternating timeline and I love both of those things so much. This is my favorite kind of book I think? It’s the summer house, finding your person when you’re a kid, losing them, the life altering heartbreak, the moving in and growing up and then coming back together? All of it is SO GOOD?! I just love it so much. And I loved Sam and Wyatt so much.

I loved Sam so much. She grew so much, and then she kind of stopped, because she was comfortable right? And then she finally faced Wyatt again and everything changed. And it was exactly what she needed. Wyatt was exactly what she needed. And this was of course about the two of them, but it was mostly about Sam’s journey of healing as a teenager/young adult and then sort of re-healing as an adult?

Which isn’t to say Wyatt didn’t go through a lot of changes! Because he did! And it was just as beautiful. He was a broken and sad kid who loved so hard, but didn’t know what to do with his life changing. And he pushed away the good thing because he didn’t want to hurt her in the process of finding himself.

But I loved them together. Seeing them in the past where they began. And then seeing how easy it was for them to step back into being friends. And even though it stirred to so many things for them and everyone around them. The two of them, at the end of the day were easy. Exactly what they needed. And I loved them so much.

The reason they stopped talking was so complicated, but I’m glad it was an external(ish) conflict?? It was obviously something that affected them both, but it affected Wyatt so much more and that changed their relationship. They were living though the same thing but with different outcomes, and he couldn’t get past it - and I don’t blame him. but I’m just glad it wasn’t because they didn’t love each other?? Because they clearly did!

Thank you so much to Penguin Group Putnam for this ARC in exchange for an honest review! I loved being back in a world that Annabel created!!

I loved Nora Goes Off Script so much, so I was excited to read a copy of Same Time Next Summer. It’s a quick, easy summer read, but it felt a little flat. Scenes and moments were kind of glazed over without much development, and the different points of view were confusing. Just a little meh and vanilla for my liking, but not bad!

For fans of Every Summer After & Love and Other Words, Same Time Next Summer did not disappoint! I loved the then and now timeline and the childhood friends to lovers story. The plot twist was a fun surprise that was executed flawlessly. A must read for the summer!

For fans of Every Summer After & Love and Other Words, Same Time Next Summer did not disappoint! I loved the then and now timeline and the childhood friends to lovers story. The plot twist was a fun surprise that was executed flawlessly. A must read for the summer!

Nora Goes Off Script was one of my favorite reads last year so to say my anticipation level was high for this one would be an understatement. BUT Annabel Monaghan came through and delivered THE swooniest summer read that had me shopping for a beach house.

Sam and Wyatt have next door beach houses and formed a deep friendship then young love as kids/teens. When an action tears them apart, they breakup and lose touch for years. Sam comes back to the beach house as an engaged adult and, of course, Wyatt happens to be visiting at the same time. These two must find some closure to their situation, but the pull of young love is strong.

This premise is nothing new. I can name 3-4 books off the top of my head who basically do the same thing. The thing that makes this one stand out is the emotional pull of this writing and these characters. Annabel Monaghan knows how to create characters that you can see yourself in. The hurt, love, and hope is tangible. Sam longs for the carefree girl she used to be, but is comfortable with the safe bubble that she's put herself in. We don't get as much from Wyatt, since it's mostly from Sam's point of view, but the tension between them is wonderful. If anything, I wish we would have lost the fiance a bit sooner, but I'm also happy with the journey that Sam took.

The book is incredibly page turning. It has short, binge-able chapters and you never get stuck in a timeline for too long. It's literally made for summer reading! Now I'm off to wait 12 months for Monaghan's next summer gem.

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Group Putnam for the e-book in exchange for my honest review.

I enjoyed this nostalgic story of Sam and her first love Wyatt then and now. I liked the change in POV between Sam and Wyatt and the different timelines. It was a story that resonated with me as I search for a new career path. I understand how Sam felt not living her authentic life and instead living this life that was safe that she built. It was a great storyline and really showed her growth by the end. If you liked Every Last Summer I think you will enjoy this one.

Thank you to NetGalley and GP Putnam for my digital ARC of this book which releases 6/6.

Wyatt and Sam (Samantha) grew up spending summers on long island as neighbors, friends and when they were 17, so much more. An event takes place that tears them apart. They both move on eventually and build their own lives. They have returned to Long Island this summer, Sam with a fiance in tow. Sam and Wyatt rekindle a friendship and maybe more.

What I loved:
- I loved these characters! Sam and Wyatt's love story is classic young love and it is very sweet!
- The side characters are great. I loved Sam's parents and her brother and his boyfriend
- This beach setting was so perfect for a summer/beach read. That's just what I want to read in the summer.
- The short, fast chapters made the pages go by very quickly.
- This plot was a romance story, yes but it had a little bit more and hit on some heavier topics as well.

What I didn't like:
- Nothing!

4.5 stars rounded up