Summer in the City by Alex Aster• ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Read: 3/02-3/03 2025

✨ Review ✨

Thank you so much William Morrow Books and NetGalley for this ARC!!

I love the Lightlark series, so of course I had to read this! Now, first thing’s first, you’ll definitely want to read this after, while, or right before you eat because of how much food is involved in this book.

I love getting to tour around New York with Elle and Parker. As someone who never has, and probably never will, go to NY, it’s fun getting to read about it as if I were there. Especially the food. Seriously, the detail in this will make your mouth water.

And Parker, the man that he is. He is the best billionaire boyfriend ever. The things he does for her. I need a Parker in my life.

And we can’t forget about poor Luke, the contractor. Poor man thinks Elle is a serial killer. You’ll understand when you read this.

Now I do feel that Elle tried to be a little too independent. Of course she has her history and it’s very understandable of why she would be hesitant of someone with so much money. It just felt like she used that as an excuse one too many times and really let it control her life, which does definitely give a realistic aspect to this, but in the fictional world, it feels like she created this rift that didn’t need to happen.

Overall though, it was really fun reading about their dates, going to the different filming locations, and getting some found family with Parker’s friends.

Plus, we need to talk about the looks of this book! The cover! The sprayed edges! The endpapers! I love how different stores sell different versions of this, each with their own meaning. The Amazon pre-order link is below. Thank you again Alex Aster and I can’t wait to read the Grim and Oro book!! (Team Grim)

Releases March 25, 2025
Amazon Pre-Order link: https://a.co/d/jjEGD1Q

I adored this book. I had been looking to read another contemporary romance after finishing Nisha Tuli’s Not Safe For Work, and this really hit the spot. Rom-coms tend to be a bit predictable, as this one was, but there is a certain comfort in that; you know what you’re going to get. It hugged my heart in all the right ways and I couldn’t put it down.

Aster does such a great job describing the scenes, I almost felt like I was walking the streets of NYC myself. Everything played out just like a movie in my head, which is appropriate since the FMC Elle is a screenwriter.

Elle is doing her best to be a strong, independent woman who don’t need no man, though a lot of the decisions she makes are really frustrating to watch and makes me wonder if maybe she needs some therapy to work through her past trauma. But these flaws made her feel more relatable to me. The third act breakup was a bit much, but I wasn’t completely bothered by it and at that point I expected (and wanted?) my heart to get a little broken anyway, so it could get put back together in the end.

I loved the pacing, the relationship development, the found family with the side character girlfriends, and MMC Parker and their banter. The book overall was just very charming.

I am so grateful to William Morrow and Alex Aster for this ARC! I’m a big fan of the Lightlark Saga, so this was a highly anticipated read for me and I’m so happy I got to read it early. I hope Aster continues to write in this genre, I would read them all!

Getting an Arc for this book (Thank you Harper Collins) made my week. Not only was I so excited to get the Arc, but it lived up to the hype. This is such a well written romance! I felt all the emotions and couldn't put the book down. Really, I read it all in one sitting, and there was screaming, laughing and tears involved. I fell in love with the characters and was rooting for them the whole time. The prose of the book is also very whimsically, romantically written. It might not be for everyone, but I like the ways days bled together and we got a montage feel of their romance at points. This was easy to rate 5 stars, I absolutely love it, please check it out!!

I give this 3.5 stars, rounded to 4. I mostly enjoyed this book. It had good pacing, and the chemistry between the characters made me not care that the premise was silly. I would read another romance novel by this author.

I would've liked this book more if there had been more about Elle's relationship with her dad. There was never any closure on that storyline. The plot flitted about too much and shouldve focused more on Elle's childhood. I also felt that it started to drag in the last few chapters, and Elle's waffling started to get irritating.

Thank you NetGalley and William Morrow for the ARC of this book - out March 25!

This one caught and kept my attention from the first page. I enjoyed the setting being in NYC versus most small town or beach romances I've read lately. I read this in just a day, and I enjoyed the writing style and storytelling - a great straightforward predictable summer romance. I knew what I was getting, and got it.

Parker was the perfect billionaire book boyfriend and really spoiled his lady. I loved his instant chemistry with Elle and the draw that kept them coming back together. The pacing was good - not instant love, not a super slow burn, but a nice consistent and gradual love story. Elle is the main reason for a loss of a star. Her grudge held for a miscommunication was a bit extreme and was really frustrating toward the end.

This was super cute and super swoony! I immediately fell in love with Parker and the vibes that Aster gave us! Aster perfectly encapsulated the aura of NYC (one of my favorite places on Earth to visit). The only thing that is holding me back from giving this 5 stars was the last 10% of the book. The third act break up ALWAYS makes me angry but this one was just unnecessary and it was dragged out for way too long. Elle really just annoyed me the last 25% of this book while Parker did all of the groveling.

I wanted to like this so bad, and I did…it just fell a bit short. But let’s start with the good - First, I finished it in 24 hours. Super easy to get through, keeps you entertained, just enough romance, angst, spice, and billionaire vibes.. everything you want in a rom com. Fun NYC summer vibes too.
BUT, the main character was insufferable at times!! She really threw the book off for me. What good is having a billionaire boyfriend if you can’t appreciate it and you’re just going to put him down all the time? LOL she was just really selfish at times and didn’t put herself in his shoes, when I wish she did. She was really big on earning things on her own instead of being given things, which I understand, but there were times where she should have just appreciated what she was given from him and been thankful. A lot stems from her past and her parent’s relationship which you’ll learn about, but it still rubbed me the wrong way. Other than that, I loved her love interest Parker and thought he was a gem! They really are cute together in the end.
A lot of this is extremely unrealistic, so just bear that in mind, but if you get past that and the main character’s bit of an attitude, it really is a cute rom com. Not going on the favorites shelf but I’d definitely still recommend, for a fun, easy summer read.

I love Alex Aster, and was excited to read her new contemporary romance! This was the perfect summer rom com, with rivals to lovers, close proximity, and a fun “date for the summer” romance! I especially loved the setting of NYC and all the special locations they visit throughout the book! Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC of this book for an honest review!

I have to start off by saying that I did enjoy this story. It was a cute light read and Parker (MMC) was everything you would want in a book boyfriend. You get to see the FMC Elle move past her traumas and fall back in love with a city she hated. If you are someone that has dreamed of ever going to New York this book will validate you.




However, there were so many contradictions in this book that didn’t make sense. She mentioned how Elle never did any physical activity since 10th grade and gets winded going down the stairs but then later it’s revealed that she used to play basketball as a kid and she plays again but older and is just automatically still good and in shape???

Then it does explain that her sister travels a lot and has all this money but her and her husband don’t work? It hints that she just takes money from her dad who is rich but it still doesn’t make sense.

i'm sorry (no i'm not) but this was just so bad. like, i literally have not a single good thing to say about it. the only decent thing was the mmc but he bored me so is that even positive?

first of all the whole "enemies to lovers" thing? it's not that at all. they have one (1) exchange and suddenly hate each other over it for years even though they don't even see each other? i mean what? the tension, the angst, the yearning - nowhere to be found. contemporary romances need to stop saying they're enemies to lovers. because genuinely, if we're not in a fantasy or a dark romance, what could possibly happen to make the two characters real enemies?

the fmc is positively insufferable. she has this "not like other girls" vibe for the entire book. the entire book. there was no character growth whatsoever. and can we talk about how hypocritical she was? idk i felt like she was constantly contradicting herself and going against her "beliefs" and "opinions." i nearly dnf'ed just to shut this girl up.

didn't loveeee the writing style. i can't pinpoint exactly what it was, but i didn't like it. and idk if it's the writing style that made the book bad, or if it's the book that made the writing style seem bad. either way, i didn't like it.

clearly this was a letdown. the potential is RIGHT THERE but the bar was missed by 100 feet. cute cover at least, i guess.

thank you to william morrow & netgalley for the arc! all opinions are my own <3

I’m stuck between a 3-3.5. Now I did devour this book in a day as it was a pretty addicting read.

I loved the NYC setting and the pacing was fast. It was an easy fun rom-com. It really gave the vibe of the 2000s rom-coms that I loved to watch.

I also liked that Parker was not the typical broody grumpy billionaire that you see in most billionaire romances.

Also, I appreciated that this wasn’t insta love. The only reason why it’s not getting a higher rating was because of Elle. The unnecessary third act breakup at the end just annoyed me. I also felt like she was a little whiny at some points which turned me off.

Overall this was a fun read and I would recommend.

Thank you William Morrow and NetGalley for this eARC.

[arc review]

i was a little nervous to start this book because i tried reading lightlark when it first came out and i learned that alex’s writing style wasn’t for me. but i’m so glad i decided to take the plunge with her new romance novel because i ended up really enjoying it.

i think both parker and elle are grumps but elle is more grumpy than parker is and parker leans more toward sunshine. although he isn’t entirely sunshine, he’s just more positive than elle is. i really liked that though, usually billionaire ceos are very grumpy and parker strayed away from that.

parker in other aspects though, fell a little flat for me. by the end of the book, i felt like i learned more about elle than i did parker. however, that’s not to say that he didn’t grow. he was very used to buying his way into things and he had to unlearn that behavior for elle. she was the one thing parker could not buy. he did try though. he bought her favorite coffee shop because they stopped making her favorite blueberry scones. i didn’t want to like him at first because of the comments he made but he’s actually a softie and a romantic.

elle’s got a tough relationship with money and refuses to let a man with money control her the way her dad did with her mom. she became a screenwriter because her mom encouraged her to at a young age and after graduating from columbia, she became her own rich man. she didn’t make as much as parker does but it was enough to get her out of debt and to live off of. she’s always giving back to her community as well, which i admire.

overall the plot was cute and the pacing felt very natural. i teared up a few times but that’s just me loving love 🥹

Thank you to William Morrow, NetGalley & Alex Aster for the chance to read “Summer in the City” before publication. If you’re a fan of NYC, Billionaire Romances, Fake Dating, Forced Proximity & Second Chances, this may be up your alley.

I’ll start with saying that this was a pretty cute and easy read, I loved the descriptions of New York and chapters seemed quick. There were a bunch of “she’s looking at the view, he’s looking at her” moments, which we always love.

I do truly wish that we had gotten at least a little bit of Parker’s POV, which may have helped explain some things that I was confused about. I wanted to know if he ever did truly hate her after the stairwell moment, because it did seem sort of one-sided.

Elle seemed extremely judgmental and immature- I do believe that after everything she went through with her mother and her father respectively, she needed therapy. Parker was a sweetheart and I felt like Elle was rude to him quite often during their arrangement. Even after he apologizes to her for how their first interaction went and about flaunting his money, she still doesn’t seem to accept it. Her focus was constantly on how much money he had, even Penelope brings up her hyper/focus on money post-chapter 30…

Speaking of…Chapter 30 was very abrupt - we already hate third act breakups and this one gave me whiplash. I don’t want to ruin the entire chapter, so I’ll leave it at that.

Again, if you’re a fan of NYC, Billionaire Romances, Fake Dating, Forced Proximity & Second Chances, you may enjoy this one, but it didn’t quite meet my expectations.

This book touches on topics such as Parental Loss & Medical Trauma.

The book lives up to its name and captures the fun, the whimsy, and the possibility that comes with spending a summer in New York City. Billionaire romance can be hit or miss but Alex makes it work with the female characters backstory and drive to achieve financial stability on her own. It's equal parts funny, romantic and heartbreaking, and heartwarming. This book will be loved by fans of Ali Hazelwood and Abby Jimenez.

Such a fun read! Everything you could want in a summer romance. Witty banter, steamy MMC and successful but down on her luck leading lady. Throw in some forced proximity, enemies to lovers and fake dating and this might be the perfect rom com. I found myself laughing out loud multiple times and felt like I took a summer vacation to NYC.

The story follows Elle, a screenwriter who has been tasked with completing a movie script in 3 months set in specific NYC locations. This is the city she hates, full of terrible memories and she only agreed to this because the studio made her an offer she couldn’t refuse. But maybe with the right experiences and the right person she doesn’t hate this city so much after all? I appreciated the realness and messiness of life, family relationship and friendships in the midst of the romance.

I cannot recommend Summer in the City highly enough!

Many thanks to William Morrow and NetGalley for an eARC in exchange for my honest review.

First, thank you to NetGalley, William Morrow and Alex Aster for this eARC.

Now onto the review!! For this being Alex's first adult contemporary romance she blew it out of the park!! I was hooked almost instantly and felt so invested in the characters and their story.

Elle is a screen-writer and a pretty damn good one...but she is anonymous because of issues she's had in the past with men and money. But she has writers block and she has a screenplay due at the end of the summer. She goes back to New York in hopes that mapping out and visiting all of the locations will inspire her. But she soon realizes her neighbor is tech billionaire Parker Warren, her stairwell hookup from 2 years ago...who she despises.

But seeing him spikes a hate-filled writing marathon...so is he her muse? And if she can stand to be around him maybe she can get this screenplay written. So it's decided that they date for the summer because he needs the positive press it would bring. Once the summer is over it ends, no big deal right? Until it turns into so much more!

There is so much laughter, I was legit laughing out loud so many times. Elle has stuff she is working through and she slowly opens up to Parker and in turn he opens up to her. Their story is so fun to watch, but with some heartbreak woven in and so much growth. I couldn't recommend this more. And the NYC setting in the summer has me itching to move to the city to experience it myself!

Summer in the City was such a delightful surprise! After reading Lightlark and not being the biggest fan, I wasn't sure what to expect with this, but I was hooked from the start. This quick and charming romcom had me flying through the pages. The MMC was such a standout, and I really enjoyed the dynamic between him and the FMC. While the FMC did get on my nerves a bit at times, the relationship they shared was sweet and heartfelt. The first half of the book had me feeling five-star vibes, but the ending didn’t quite hit for me, which knocked it down a little. Still, it was a fun and satisfying read, and I’d love to see Aster write more romcoms in the future.

Thank you to NetGalley and The William Morrow Team for this arc!!

4.5/5 ⭐️
1.5/5 🌶️

Thank you to Alex, her publisher, and NetGalley for providing me with an electronic ARC of this novel.

I had read Alex’s Lightlark series and was excited to see she’d written an adult contemporary romantic comedy! The story was fun and the FMC was relatable. The one-liners and banter had me cackling. He super slow burn romance had me giggling and kicking my feet.

The only thing I didn’t love was the third act breakup right after saying ‘yes!’ It just felt out of place. I understood why it happened (for the sake of the story) but I feel that it needed to happen a tad earlier in the story. And a proposal after a summer fling/romance? Stranger things have happened but it felt really fast. But the MMC was SO gone for her.

I forgive the third act breakup, because otherwise this story was so fun and funny! I highly recommend you pick up a copy when it publishes later this month.

3.5⭐️
I really didn’t think Summer in the City was going to get this high of a rating from me but about 1/3 in, it really hit a grove and I become HOOKED. I started to really care about the characters and wanted them to end up together and be happy. I think a big part of it was it felt like the author was trying to keep too many big traumatic reveals about Elle for her to share later in the story about her past. We don’t need the details of her father and her mothers death and her childhood all the be secrets from us the audience even if they are secrets from the MMC. Because of that, it felt like there was no emotional depth to her for a while.

It is rare I wish a book was duel POV but I do kinda wish we got Parker chapters. I think seeing him on San Francisco would’ve been interesting and given more depth into his personality.

Overall, I think this book had a great balance of romance, banter, spice, depth, and classic troupes. An excellent beach read for the summer!

Thanks NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for a digital advanced copy of this book!

If i didn't know better, i would never had known this was Alex's first contempory romance book. It had me smiling and kicking my feet. i loved this book so much. parts of the book was predictable but it didn't stop me from thoroughly enjoying this book. i loved parker and how wholly he loves.

thanks to netgalley for the Advanced copy!