Nora Goes Off Script was such a fun summer read last summer, but this one fell short for me. Meet Sam who is engaged to be married. Her and her fiancé go to Long Island for some pre-wedding plans when she runs into Wyatt, her crush from her late teens. Emotions and past love bubbles up as she remembers her time with him. It is told in a dual timeline giving you the past relationship with the current situation.

While this romance was a light and summery, I never felt connected to the characters or their history and the development of the story just felt too slow.

Thank you to NetGalley and G.P. Putnam's Sons for the advance e-copy of this book.

After a disastrous end to her teenage love affair with her best friend and first boyfriend Wyatt, Sam found a controlled and stable adult existence, and a fiance who thrives on stability and control. But a trip to the beach - where her family spends every summer becoming their most chaotic and authentic selves, and where she and Wyatt met - threatens to unravel Sam's hard-won, perfectly boring life.

My favorite thing about this novel was actually not the second-chance love story (which was sweet) or the descriptions of Sam's summers at the beach with her quirky family (which were delightful), but Sam's adult life and her relationship with her fiance. The description of their life together was such an authentic rendering of an adult relationship, wavering somewhere between actually-pretty-good and a-few-uncomfortable-compromises.

Of course, this being the kind of novel it is, we know that those compromises will turn out to be incompatible with Sam finding herself again, and that it will turn out that her true nature can only be found in the teenager she was, long ago, at the beach. We see these summers directly in the novel's "then" timeline (there are two timelines, and two points of view - Sam's and Wyatt's - in each, but miraculously it isn't at all confusing) but, while the writing in these sections was great, I didn't feel they were necessary. Sam's present-day self and her vacillation between the life she has planned with her fiance and the risky but fulfilling life she feels herself drawn to are so compelling that this sand-and-sun-and-first-love thread feels superfluous.

4.5 stars.

I absolutely loved Nora Goes Off Script so I was thrilled to be approved for this title. This was the perfect kick off for summer reading. Absolutely loved the beachy setting, the past timeline, Sam’s family and of course sweet Wyatt.

I picked this one up after LOVING Nora Goes Offscript and was super excited to see how it would go. I'm not sure if I really liked the introspective writing that was very reactive in that book because she was a mom and protecting her kids was the most important thing but that writing style didn't work as well here as I would've liked.

I think the frustrating thing was that I really liked the ending - when Sam ends up figuring out how she really feels about Jack and stepping away - but it was such a long process throughout it that I didn't feel like rooting for her. I wasn't even hugely a fan of Wyatt who I wanted to like, given the backstory but I felt like we didn't get as much of a chance to see them connect as adults before they were breaking back apart again.

I dunno! This was a cute and quick read, but I think it was missing something.

Thank you to G.P. Putnam's Sons and NetGalley for a chance to read and review!

I read this while at the beach in Costa Rica, and it really was the perfect beach read! ( But not in the “beach read=light without substance connotation).

This was such a sweet story that immediately sucked me in. The alternating chapters between Sam and Wyatt, along with the alternating Past and Present timelines, did such a great job portraying both their history together and their unresolved feelings in this second chance romance. This was such a great example of that trope!

My only critique is that I thought it was far fetched that Sam didn’t know Wyatt’s song was written about her, so that “delay” in their communication and contacting each other also seemed like a stretch.

Other than that, another great romance perfect for summer reading season!

I love second chance romances and this one works well. Samantha (Sam) Holloway’s family goes to the shore every summer. Her father is an artist and teaches at NYU. Wyatt Pope’s family comes every summer from Florida and has the house next door. It is an idyllic childhood. Wyatt loves being with the more causal and open Holloways. He is friends with Sam’s brother first and she tags along. But the summer before her senior year love blooms and it’s everything until it falls apart.

The book opens as Sam is coming to the shore for a week with her fiancee Jack to plan their upcoming wedding. Wyatt who she hasn’t seen or heard from in a decade is staying next door. Their young love story is Part 1 of the story and Part 2 covers Now. I’ve read this trope several times but this works. The authors writing is engaging and I love Sam and Wyatt. I want to swim to the cove and hang out in the treehouse with them. Sam’s heartbreak tugged at my heartstrings and the author surprised me more than once in the story. Supporting characters add to the plot and I love the younger sister Gracie. The ending hits a little quickly with big changes addressed but not totally laid out. But as I read the last lines I was smiling and feeling happy inside.

I really enjoyed this story and especially the big emotions of first love. The heartbreak is unique too and it is causes her to turn inward craving safety, not wanting to rock the boat. I’m surprised it didn’t impact her feelings about her parents more. This is a women’s fiction that has a little more depth and heft. Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Group Putnam for the ARC and I am leaving a voluntary review.

Another solid and sweet romance from Monaghan! This book made me long for summer and time at the beach! I thought the characters were developed well and I thought the balance between present day and past was well balanced. I never felt like it was dragging in one aspect. I felt this book moved quickly and kept me interested.

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Group for an arc of this book in exchange for my honest review.

I really enjoyed this new read by Annabel Monaghan. This was a quick read and moved along really well. I enjoyed the romance of it all but also the focus on Sam figuring out who she is. The past easily mixed with the present, although I couldn't figure out why the past and present had different points of view. I got used to it but why was the present in the first person but the past was not (when Sam was the POV)? But overall, I did enjoy Sam's story.

One small downfall was I do feel like it all wrapped up really quickly (which may be because it was a quick read). I found myself wanting a little more out of the end. The other being why Wyatt and Sam broke up in the first place. It seemed a bit cliched.

Thanks for the publisher, author and NetGalley for an ARC!

Sam and her fiancé Jack visit her family on Long Island to look at a wedding venue, but her childhood memories with her first love Wyatt come flooding back.

This is such a perfect beach read — I loved the family beach house setting and all the references to being out on the water. It’s told in a dual timeline so we witness the present day discomfort reuniting with an ex and the teenage love unfold.

As an adult it can be hard to think these teens have long-lasting love, but I feel like Monaghan sold me on their connection with the growing up next door and endless summers on the beach.

There are so many charming and nostalgic moments with the family and Wyatt. I loved watching Sam’s growth too as she realizes she’s been holding back her authentic self.

Really enjoyed it overall and highly recommend packing it on your beachy summer vacations.

Perfect read for the summer - I felt like I was transported to the shore and had my toes in the sand. I liked Nora Goes Off Script, and found this one even better. Loved the present vs past storylines, some of the “what happened in their past” mystery, and felt the characters’ emotional flaws were realistic. This book reminded me a bit of “Every Summer After” and “The Summer I Turned Pretty” but without as much of the teenage angst that leaves a reader frustrated with the character's choices.

The only two critical points I have: I would have loved the ending to be just a bit longer, or to start to happen 30 pages sooner to let you linger a bit more on the conclusion, and I hated Dr. Judy’s character even though we never actually meet her, what a terrible therapist for a teenager.

This book will be published June 6, 2023 and I highly recommend it for anyone looking for a good summer love story. Thank you to Netgally and the publisher for providing access to a digital ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Sam loves the beach and swimming and she loves the next door boy Wyatt. This is a book about summer love and finding out who you really are.
Annabelle does such a fantastic job creating vivid settings and story. I just read this book and saw the whole story happening. She is truly gifted in writing. So many highlights in this book. I felt the love, happiness, pain, heartbreak. The characters are so well written and likeable. I wouldn’t mind there being a sequel but for now I’ll just remember Sam I Am and Wyatt swimming and singing.
Thank you to netgalley for providing an advanced copy in return for an honest review

☆☆ 3.5 stars ☆☆

"If you’ve loved someone your whole life, it kind of makes sense that you’d love them forever."

Summers at the beach held the promise of forever for Sam and Wyatt until an act of betrayal led to the destruction of everything they had both dreamed about. Same Time Next Summer was a love letter to the magic and beauty of first love, starting so innocent and sweet and then evolving into something so all-consuming, loving someone so much that they become a part of you. Their happiness becomes your happiness and their pain becomes yours as well.

After their last summer together, Sam built a carefully constructed life, engaged to a man who seemed precisely perfect. She tried to protect her heart from breaking again and her new life felt safe. But would that be enough? What happens when you live a life of black and white and gray? How do you add the color back into your life? And what happens when you see your first love again after over a decade apart?

I loved the "Then" chapters, watching the budding romance between Sam and Wyatt unfold. From a tender first kiss to raw shattered emotions, Sam and Wyatt were a perfect match with everything between them feeling so natural. I loved the intimacy they shared while on the great expanse of the ocean and I adored the endearing moments that captured my heart. I thought the characters were very well developed in these chapters but less so in the "Now" chapters. As adults, their motivations and actions were less clear and seemed to rely on the strength of the "Then" chapters for explanation. It became difficult to get lost in everything they were feeling and going through.

Music and art were beautifully entwined into the story, adding depth to everything the characters felt and experienced. I liked the friends to lovers aspect of the story and the way Sam was able to rediscover her sense of self at the beach. She came back to her true self and I enjoyed how she remembered who she was and how she found what truly made her happy in life. Her journey was a great reminder to never try to change who you are for anyone else. Make choices to live the life you want but don't sacrifice who you really are along the way.

With a release date in early June, this book would be perfect to read on the beach this summer. It may even make you remember your own first love. Sam and Wyatt's story left a smile on my face and I think it will for many other readers too. 💖

"Sometimes you have to walk away from all the things you don’t want to make room for the future."

** Special thanks to PENGUIN GROUP Putnam, G.P. Putnam's Sons and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this ARC. All thoughts and opinions expressed are my own. Quotes subject to change at time of publication. Available June 6, 2023. **

DNF at 13% mostly due to formatting issues. Lots of works were hyphenated that shouldn't have been which made it hard to read. That being said I am not sure if I would have kept reading as I am not a fan of the trope that was being set up.

ARC REVIEW

Same Time Next Summer
By Annabel Monaghan

Rating:
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

Publishing Date: 6/6/2023

Sams life is going pretty well. She is engaged to a Dr, has a job she enjoys in NYC, and is planning a wedding. Sam and Jack ( her fiance) head to Long Island to tour a wedding venu near her families beach house. After arriving, she learns that her ex-boyfriend Wyatt is staying at  his families home next door....this would be no big deal if this wasn't her first love, who broke her heart at 17.  But Sam is getting married to someone else and is no longer an impressionale teen.....why would she still care about her first love?! ( Let's not forget that she needed therapy to help get over Wyatt)

Oh, man. I'm a SUCKER for child hood sweethearts turned second chance romance! I LOVED IT!!  Here is your summer romance book for 2023 everybody!

It gives " Every Summer After" and " Love and Other Words" vibes, and I'm PERFECTLY happy with this! Loved both of those, and loved this one, too.

I loved reading about Sam and Wyatt as teens. I dont know what it is about young love, but I'm here for it. It makes me think back to that time in my life, and I can remember how magical Love feels at that age. Annabel captured that first love feeling beautifully!

Please add this one to your summer reading list!

Thank you SO MUCH to @netgalley and @putnambooks for the arc! I feel lucky to read this one.

Couldn’t put it down. This is a beautifully written book about not just first love but powerful forever love. Two people who are meant to be together. The characters were written well and the whole setting was enjoyable.

My one quip would be that the cover and title do not do this story justice.

This was a really easy story to get into. I liked the then and now timelines and I liked that it was dual POV too. What I didn’t get was why there were different point of views used in each timeline. The writing changed from first person in the “now” timeline to third person in the “then” timeline. I guess it was supposed to read as more of a flashback and like we were seeing it from the outside but it just didn’t work for me.
It was hard to get into the romance for most of the book because Sam had a fiancé for the majority of the book. How was I supposed to root for her and Wyatt when she’s fully engaged to another man. It was clear that her connection with Jack wasn’t as great as what she had with Wyatt but it wasn’t like he was a horrible human being.
I really liked the setting of this story. The Long Island beach feel was really cozy and had great summer vibes.
I liked this one okay, I think if I had gone into it not expecting a big focus on the romance I would’ve liked it more. This is more about Sam finding herself again.
Thank you to netgalley, the publisher and the author for providing an early copy in exchange for an honest review!

No sophomore slump here! Annabel Monaghan has created another great summer read. Old love, new love, summer at the beach. What more do you need!!?

Thank you, NetGalley, for the Advanced Reader Copy/ARC of Same Time Next Summer, by the wonderful author of Nora Goes Off Script, Annabel Monaghan. Soon to be released - June 6, 2023!! Spoiler Alert! My book club had a LIVE zoom meeting with Annabel Monaghan last year that was absolutely delightful. She is generous with her time, funny, engaging, and we all loved her!

Now on to the review. This is a sweet now and then story of 30 yr-old Sam (female), engaged to Dr. Jack, with a pretty good life in NYC. She and Jack are *finally* going back to Sam's family's beautiful NJ beach house for a couple of nights to view possibly wedding venues, taste cake, etc. Suddenly the sound of guitar strumming wafts over to her patio. Could it be her first love, Wyatt, who she hasn't seen since age 18? Could he be hanging out in the amazing tree house at his next-door property where he and Sam spent some very powerful time together way back when? Why yes, it could.

This is a feel-good book about reclaiming the ideals and activities that made you joyful as a young person before other people's expectations cast you into something not reflecting your authentic self if you're really being honest with yourself. There is an ungraphic and brief scene that serves to pivot the plot, but doesn't warrant a trigger warning AT ALL (no spoilers). There are also no extreme sex scenes as is popular in the current romance genre, and no super bad guys, just a focus on relishing what you, well, relish, and finding someone to share that vibe with.

The only quibble I have is that I find it hard to believe Sam wouldn't have heard about Wyatt, although Ms. Monaghan cleverly crafts her story to explain why Wyatt's family wasn't in touch with Sam's, and why she didn't seek him out herself. Kudos to her. I enjoyed the book. 5-stars.

I was so, so excited to read this after loving NORA last year, and I’m so sad to write that this didn’t work for me. I’m not the biggest fan of second chance/first love, but if it’s done right, I can get behind it. However, you will never convince me that a first love needs rekindled while there’s an engagement/wedding planning happening. I don’t like cheating or even brushing with cheating at all. I also wish the characters had a bit more depth because I didn’t find these characters to be memorable like I did Nora, her children, and Leo. I will still check out her work in the future because I’m sure with this one, it’s more me than the book after reading some stellar reviews.

I adored Nora Goes Off Script so I was really excited for this one. The setting is beautiful- you can almost feel the breeze and hear the ocean. The story for me felt a bit flat- I wanted to know more about the characters, they all seemed under-developed. I also didn’t feel like there was a strong conclusion-the ending was a bit abrupt. Overall a light, beachy yet forgettable read. I received an arc of this book through NetGalley.