This was the book I needed, the one that broke me out of a slump. Fans of Nora Goes off Script need to be ready to forget the real world and get lost in Same Time Next Summer. This will make a perfect summer beach read! I finished in less than 24 hours and loved everything about Sam and Wyatt. Sam's family rounds out a fantastic cast of characters who make you want to pull up a chair and join them for dinner. Not one character is perfect and made them more likable and pulled you to them even more. Fans of summer love, childhood love, second chance romance should add Same Time Next Summer to their TBR and be ready when it comes out June 6th!
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Thank you NetGalley and Penguin Group for the advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

Second chance romance.

Sam and Wyatt fell in love young and hurt each other. It's been 14 years since they've seen each other. Sam is now engaged to Jack. Her parents want her to go to the beach house for a week in the summer. But everything there reminds her of Wyatt, and now Wyatt is in town. The two reconnect and now Sam has a choice to make.

I loved this book. It's dual POV and past and present. It is written so well. I think it reads more as "womens lit" then romance.

Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for the eArc in exchange for my honest review.

Same Time Next Summer is everything I love in a beachy romance. Delightful relaxed beach house setting, beautiful weather, lots of deck time, a surfer boy. Sam, an uptight city girl, brings her uptight city fiancé to her family's beach house for a few days. Her first love (with whom she hasn't spoken in 15 years) is staying next door just like old times. Sam is planning her uptight wedding. What could go wrong?! The characters are well developed and likeable (with one exception called out below), the story, while predictable, does have a twist or two I wasn't expecting, and the writing is good. I love a female protagonist I feel I could be friends with, and Sam is that for sure. Rigid job, struggles with the desire to be in control and wanting some freedom and creativity in her life.

My one pain point was Jack - he was just SO AWFUL the whole time that you want to just shake Sam and scream "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" But I guessed how the story would end up so I tolerated him anyways.

SAME TIME NEXT SUMMER is a sweet second chance romance — my favorite romance trope — that also explores identity and who we are, both in terms of who we want to be and who others expect us to be.

There was a lot I really loved about this book: the setting, the sweet cast of side characters, and the fact that it hooked me from the get go. My qualms fell with the middle, where I felt the narrative lost its spark and the chemistry between the MC and her childhood love interest faltered.

There was also one part involving the MC and her job that felt a little unrealistic and elementary to me, but the conflict it presented was a nice touch in helping the MC on the road to who she would become and, in turn, the direction her life would go.

If you’re a fan of a second chance romances and the author’s recent release, NORA GOES OFF SCRIPT, you should definitely add this to your list. It’s out on June 6 and I can see this being a summer favorite!

♥️ Thanks so much to NetGalley + Putnam Books for the advanced copy. All thoughts are mine!

First book from the author and it did not disappoint! This is highly recommended to read this summer <3

Who doesn't remember their first love? Or wish for a do-over? Thirty year old Sam has moved on from her first love, Wyatt, and is engaged to Jack, a doctor. She's happy with her life until she goes back to her parent's beach house and sees Wyatt after being out of touch for years. Suddenly, she's questioning everything she thought was right in her life.

Engaging book, I enjoyed the story and the writing style really flowed for me. The description of the beach and relationships jumped off the page, and I read this book in two days.

Thank you Netgalley and PENGUIN GROUP Putnam, G.P. Putnam's Sons for the ARC!

Annabel Monaghan does it again, striking the perfect balance between a fun summer read and an exploration of love, relationships, identity, and longing. Wyatt is the dreamiest!

Sam's life is on track. She has the perfect doctor fiance Jack (his strict routines are a good thing, really), a great job in Manhattan (unless they fire her), and is about to tour a wedding venue near her family's Long Island beach house. Everything should go to plan, yet the minute she arrives, Sam senses something is off. Wyatt is here. Her Wyatt. But there's no reason for a thirty-year-old engaged woman to feel panicked around the guy who broke her heart when she was seventeen. Right? Yet being back at this beach, hearing notes from Wyatt's guitar float across the night air from next door as if no time has passed--Sam's memories come flooding back: the feel of Wyatt's skin on hers, their nights in the treehouse, and the truth behind their split. Sam remembers who she used to be, and as Wyatt reenters her life their connection is as undeniable as it always was. She will have to make a choice.
I loved the second chance aspect of this book. I liked the relationship between Sam and Wyatt and how it evolved from then they were teenagers to adults. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the advanced copy.

I loved Annabel Monaghan’s first book and SAME TIME NEXT SUMMER was no different! It was such a lovely, warm read - like meeting a bunch of old friends. A really sweet story with great characters!

By 10% I am still completely uninvested and not interested in continuing, so I’ll be DNFing this. I’ve seen mixed reviews from friends and am not sure how I feel about knowing this is a 2nd chance romance, but the female MC has a fiancé. Hopefully others enjoy this more than I did.

A moving second chance romance that takes place over several summers told in flashbacks. Sam and Wyatt grew up spending their summers together as vacation home neighbors in a small Long Island town. Best friends, their transition to lovers seemed like a natural evolution of their friendship but one fateful night blows everything up and it's ten years before they're reunited again as Sam prepares to get married to someone else.

I devoured this book! I loved the short chapters, the tender first love, the dyslexia rep, the big-hearted family and the struggle Sam had moving on and finding the courage to pursue what truly made her happy rather than what was just the 'safe' path in life. Perfect for fans of books like Every summer after by Carley Fortune. Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early digital copy in exchange for my honest review!

CW: alcoholic sibling, parental infidelity

"Putting a person back together isn't easy, but if you're smart about it, you can reassemble yourself in a totally different, better way."

Samantha and Wyatt knew each other since they were little. Their families owned beach houses right next to each other. Friendship blossomed into romance, but life tore them a part. Years later, Sam is visiting with her fiance and looking for wedding venues after carefully "reassembling" her life. Wyatt happens to also be visiting. Will they be able to put their past aside to make an attempt at friendship?

I have not read Nora Goes Off Script, but I've heard such good things about it that I had to read this book by the same author. This story was told between "then" and "now" with both Sam's and Wyatt's points of view. It really helped sell that first love feeling. The tension between Sam and Wyatt leaped off the pages, and the pull that drew them towards each other was undeniable. This combination made it hard to put the book down. Sam's devastation as well as her drive to put her life into a carefully laid out plan so she would get no more surprises after her and Wyatt split was relatable. The fact that this was set on the beach made it that much better. The sun was warm on my face, the salty air was sticking to my skin, and the enticement of first love was in the air. Nothing gets much better than that. This is definitely a book you need to be reading on the beach this summer (or to bring the beach to you).

A big thank you to Netgalley and Putnam Books for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Same Time Next Summer is a second chance romance that I think will be a great beach read this summer! There's a nostalgic feel to it and I really enjoyed being at the beach with Sam, Wyatt, and their friends and family. There is a lot of time spent on establishing the past relationship between Sam and Wyatt from age 5 to 17 over the course of many summers they spend together on Long Island. I would have loved to have spent more time with these characters in the present, (as they are now in their early 30's), which is why the ending seemed a bit abrupt to me. That being said, while I didn't love this as much as the author's debut, Nora Goes Off Script, I think there is much to enjoy here and I will definitely be reading more from this author. Put it in your beach bag this summer!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an ebook copy of this book in exchange for an honest opinion.

This is one of those books that makes you feel warm and fuzzy inside. Perfect for a summer beach read, Thanks to NetGalley for the advance copy.

finished this in 2 sittings. i don’t remember the last book i wrote down and screens shotted so many quotes and paragraphs. i’d say i want a movie of this but i need a limited series over 8 episodes so it lasts longer.

however, in jest, the worst offense of this perfect book is she writes “the sunrise highway” and “in long island”.

I saw a new book by Annabel Monaghan and had to have it! I really loved her last hit, "Nora Goes Off Script" and wanted to see if this new book was as good. It did not disappoint!

Sam is about to marry Jack. He is a doctor, reliable, everything she should have. She heads out to her family's beach house to discuss wedding plans, and who is there but Wyatt, her ex. She has not seen him in years, and she is constantly telling herself that it is no big deal but at the same time does not want to run into him. What comes next is a story about old love, family ties, and how this affects the here and now.

Again, the author totally sucks me in to the point that I cannot go to sleep until I finish the book. You feel like you are back to your first love, wondering what is real and what is not. This book will have your heart.

Thank you to NetGalley, Penguin, and the author for the opportunity to read this advance reader copy in exchange for my honest opinion.

I’m absolutely obsessed with this book. This book follows Sam, an engaged woman who comes face to face with her first love, Wyatt, who she hasn’t seen in 14 years since he shattered her heart. Sam had to go through years of therapy to get over Wyatt. But I’m the process of mending her broken heart, she lost herself. When she comes back to her childhood home to plan her wedding, she must confront her life head-on and decide what she truly wants for her future.

Annabel Monoghan is now an auto-buy author for me. She truly made these characters come alive. Once I picked this book up, I was unable to put it down. It was addicting, I had to know what happened next. I fell in love with Wyatt. I fell in love with Sam’s parents and their free natured spirit. And her love for Gracie was just so heartwarming. A true 5 stars. Possibly my favorite read of the year.

Sam is making preparations for her wedding to Jack and they're headed to the NJ beach for a week to make some wedding decisions and spend time at her family's beach house. Sam hasn't been to the beach house in 14 years - since the summer her young heart was broken by the boy next door, Wyatt. Wyatt and Sam's relationship took a turn when Wyatt discovered a secret being hidden by their parents and the aftermath was too much for Wyatt to handle. Turns out Wyatt is in NJ also and he and Sam spend time together. Story is told in the present and also the past. I didn't agree with the way Sam's therapist treated her relationship with Wyatt. I really enjoyed this story.

I absolutely loved Annabel Monaghan's Nora Goes Off Script, and I absolutely liked Same Time Next Summer. The tone was different on this one, which I appreciated. Instead of a rom-com, it's more of a relationship fiction/romance with a bit of humor here and there.

Sam is returning for a short trip to her parent's Long Island summer home with her uptight fiance in tow. We don't hate him, but clearly he's not "the one," which becomes immediately clear when Sam finds out her first love Wyatt is, for the first time in some 17 years, at his family's summer home next door. Sam has had years of therapy to get over guitar-playing, California-living Wyatt who she hasn't even Googled since their catastrophic breakup when she was 18.

The first half of the book replays their love story while the second focus entirely on the present as Sam comes to terms with the person she's become and begins to learn who Wyatt is now....is there a way to forgive the past and find their way back to each other? I mean, yes, of course, but it was fun and a little nail-biting to see how Monaghan would make it happen.

The Now and Then sections were reminiscent of other recent romances — I'm thinking Every Summer After and Love and Other Words — but with more personal development of our main character, Sam. I have to say I was very glad that the Then sections were only for the first half. They were necessary, but the writing felt less developed in those parts — more YA, and like they were perhaps rushed. (The author has written YA in the past, so it may have been intentional).

I loved all the interactions between Sam and Wyatt and the idea that although people change, they can still know each other deeply while. Sweet story and bonus points for the humorous grandparents.

Same Time Next Summer is a wonderful will-they/won’t-they beach read! Light, fun… another hit for Annabel Monaghan!!