A newly retired elite swimmer and a tv sports host who just happened to have been best friends growing up, had a falling out, and are now stuck together again for a wedding? All the while they’re both figuring out their own lives? Sign me up. This book was so cute. All of the romance in this book—especially of the side characters—was absolutely amazing and I will happily read anything else by this author in the future. At its core, this was a book about two people that need a life change, and they maybe figure it out together and hopefully figure out their own relationship along the way.

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Phew, this book took me forever to read. Not sure if it was me, but despite elements that really work for me, this was a little bit of a slog.

Fabulous setting usually sucks me right in - an Italian beach, yes please. Intelligent, quirky podcaster as a main character? Yesssssss.

Plot? So predictable. Maybe would have hit better as a binge read.

Salt air, and the rust on your door… anyone?

As an “august head” and lover of beach/summer/childhood friend romances, this was right up my alley and I’m so grateful to have been given the chance to read and review this!

It’s a beautiful story of childhood awkwardness, the struggles of hard emotions as children and also as adults, the effects of sports and being “great” as well as the pressures of living up to your parents (and everyone else’s) expectations. There was also great mental health representation. I loved the side story we got of Ellie’s parents, and how you can lose a really great thing if you forget to cherish it and that you can’t just become lazy in a relationship just because you’ve been together forever. Love takes work and effort and it’s crazy and all consuming, but it’s a worthwhile fight.

I loved how flawed and real and relatable the characters were, making them personable and making you want to root for them.

It was a super easy, quick, and light read and has me itching for summer as I sit here with my many blankets and watch the snow fluttering down outside my window.

My ONLY negative point (and this is not related to this book alone but most books that have other languages) is that I wish there were active translations for the things said in Italian lol. My duolingo knowledge of Italian failed me and it was frustrating to have to pull out my phone and type in things to google translate so much while trying to read. But, again, this is not a problem just with this book and is really just because I didn’t listen to that damn owl and keep up with my learning.

Overall, if you’re looking for a sweet, closed door summer romance, this is the perfect book!

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for providing me with this ARC in exchange for an unbiased review. All opinions are my own.

Sooo I kind of fell in love with this! And about 40% in I had to place an order for a physical copy. This book is what an actual heartthrob sensation feels like! Cris and Ellie?? They are a story and pair you are going to want to read and meet! I really can’t give a review without spoiling so all I’m gonna say is this story is emotional, riveting, has realistic dialogue and the visuals?! 5/5

Thanks to NetGalley & St. Martin’s Press for the arc!

**1.5 stars** This is sadly a dnf for me but I liked the writing. I had to stop at the 44% mark because this felt like reading a whole lot of nothing with flourished but monotone prose.

Many summers ago, Ellie Beltrami and Cristiano Conte, who have been family friends since forever, share a brief moment that haunts them for the next decade. Years later, Ellie is now a host of a sports talk show and makes quite a rookie mistake that may cost her career. Meanwhile, Cristiano is a newly retired swimmer after being accused of taking an illegal substance. Both find themselves back in Italy for a wedding between Ellie’s grandmother and Cristiano’s grandfather. After many awkward encounters they decide to work together to remedy Ellie’s reputation and for Cris to share his side of the story. All while fighting a decades long attraction.

When I first started reading this, the writing felt very reminiscent of Catherine Bybee–a romance author I LOVE. But as I read more, that became the only thing I really liked, hence the .5 star rating. This book solely revolves around the miscommunication trope, which is not a favorite trope of mine but if the writing is good, I can overlook that. But this along with many other issues made me ultimately stop reading.
There were too many things happening. We are thrown a plethora of problems, none of which add much to the story? Ellie’s parents get a divorce very early on in this book and at 44%, it hasn’t been mentioned again. We also learn Ellie is autistic, which okay but it was mentioned once. Yes this book takes place during a wedding where the two parties are family friends. But if every second we are tugged in one direction by a cousin or aunt/uncle, we are dragged out of the main story and into a filler section. This happens quite a few times.

Throughout the novel, we gather that there’s an undeniable attraction between the two main characters. But it is told in a way where the author provides the tiniest snippets which pop up SO randomly in conversation. They could be having coffee and then BAM Ellie thinks of a flashback. I almost wish it was written in two timelines rather than told in random bursts throughout a chapter. This was just another way in which we are dragged from the main storyline.

It is really a shame that I didn’t like this book. After reading the description of a second-chance romance set in the Italian seaside, it was anything but. No chemistry, no palpable relationship, emotional conflict that stemmed from something SO JUVENILE, this made me feel nothing. (Also worth noting that this weirdly familial wedding has no effect on their romance??? Okayyyy.) I learned more about their obsession with pie more than anything.

If the novel takes place on the Italian Coast or anywhere in Italy, I will read it! A wonderfully written novel about how love has no age limit and there’s always room for a second chance (in love and in life). We find Ellie, the female protagonist at a crossroad with her talk show and Cris who recently retired from elite swimming. Both are in Italy for a wedding between Ellie’s grandmother and Cris’ grandfather.

I love how the novel shows how there is no one way to define love and how it is okay to not have everything perfect in life and bumps along the way are normal. Also I appreciate having a neurodiverse female protagonist who recently learned about her autism diagnosis. Representation matters.

Thank you St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review. The Summer You Were Mine comes out July 1, 2025!

I wanted to like this book. The cover is fun. The tropes were promising. Sadly, this book fell flat. I didn’t feel any chemistry between the MMC’s. It was slow. I had to push through to even finish the book. For a teenage kiss to have affected them for over 15 yrs where was the chemistry??? Thank you for letting me read this ARC. I’m sure others will love it for the tropes.

This was a fun slow burn, second chace romance set in beautiful Italy! And I love the autism representation! It took me a few chapters to really get into this story, but once I did, I was hooked. Everything about this story and the characters just felt so real. Thank you so much to NetGalley and to the publisher for my digital ARC!!

The summer you were mine
By Jill Francis

Ellie and Cris are reunited after 14 years on the coast of Italy for an unlikely second wedding for her grandmother and his grandfather. Ellie is dealing with a career setback after facing backlash for saying some questionable things on live TV, as well as a recent diagnosis that she is neurodivergent. Cris is newly retired, career swimmer who is accused of using a controlled substance.

Will this be the second chance they were hoping for?

I loved the emotional aspects and humour to the story that seems relevant.

I understand this being an ARC the writing structure wasn’t going to be perfect. This writing style I found kind of chaotic and the dialogue hard to follow, which made it difficult to fully understand what was going on. Overall it didn’t capture my attention the way I had hoped.


Tropes
•Contemporary Romance
•Second Chance Romance
•Italian Sea Side Setting

Thank you netgalley, St. Martin’s Press, & Jill Francis for providing an ARC in return for an honest review.

I was so excited to read this book, based on description. It fell completely flat. I was bored basically from start to finish and only finished because I needed to review for NetGalley.

What was with the random Italian with no translations? Why did everyone speak in a way that made them seem like robots? Why did two educated adult characters have a relationship similar to 15 year olds.

I don’t like dumping on books and tend to not review if I really didn’t enjoy but this book was awful. I will not read anything else by this author.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

I absolutely adored this second chance romance. Ellie has a recent neurodivergent diagnosed & has committed a pretty big faux pas, at work. Cris is a retiring pro-swimmer who is suffering from a very recent scandal. They have known each other since childhood & have a complicated, & not altogether pleasant, history.
I thought the way Ellie is navigating her neurodivergence was really well done & incredibly relatable. There are many in my life who have to move through the world in similar ways to Ellie. Cris was just so incredibly likable & easy to fall in love with. There was a whole host of side characters I found myself falling for, as well. Ben, Ellie’s brother was my absolute favorite & I wish we had gotten so much more of him! (Would love perhaps a spin off with him navigating his new, possible relationship with a certain man we meet in the book! 👀), his dynamic with Ellie reminded me of my sister & I.
Cris’s twin brothers were hilarious & seem absolutely exhausting, in the best way. The grandparents, oh my were these two so cute. Also love that, although they’re in their 80s, the grandparents are supportive of their grandchildren & didn’t carry judgmental stigma because of their sexual orientation.
The Italian coast I would argue is a character in & of itself, I felt like I was there & was wishing I had a trip planned this summer. This will be a great beach read.

This is A beachy, second chance romance set up. Along the Italian coast, where life changing things happen.
but it isn't A story I really would consider my style.but everyone is different and would recommend everyone to give it A chance.

What a beautiful love story in such a gorgeous setting! Really makes the reader want to take a dive into Italy . Loved the characters, the big Italian families, the friendships. And neurodivergence was represented in such a respectful and hopeful way. Thank you, NetGalley, for the opportunity to read this moving story before its releases. The cover, the story, everything was well thought out.

If slow-burn, second-chance romance is your jam and you’re dreaming of a summer in Italy (but it’s not in the budget this year), pick up The Summer You Were Mine by Jill Francis.

Join Ellie and Cris, who spent their childhood summers together in Italy—until life pulled them apart. Now, their already chaotic families are about to become even more entangled when Ellie’s grandmother marries Cris’ grandfather. Both families are legends in the world of swimming and water polo—except for Ellie, who would rather avoid sports altogether. Instead, she’s built a career with her popular web show and podcast. But as her life spirals into crisis, she finds herself back in Italy… right alongside Cris, a champion swimmer on the verge of retirement and facing his own crossroads.

Can they navigate their personal struggles, survive the wedding madness, and maybe, just maybe, find their way back to each other?

If you love a sports romance that isn’t about hockey and adore books where the setting feels like a character of its own, add The Summer You Were Mine to your TBR list.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher St. Martin's Griffin for the opportunity to review the advanced copy of this book.

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Thank you NetGalley for providing me with an arc in exchange for my honest review! The premise of this story was intriguing and I will read any book set in Italy. I rarely DNF books but I just couldn’t get into this one unfortunately. I didn’t connect with any of the characters and the story was very slow to start. I really wanted to like this one but unfortunately, it just wasn’t for me.

I liked the premise of this one but the execution was just not good. I probably would have DNFed if I had not received this as an arc and so kept pushing through. The writing was kind of a mess and very cringe at times ex sexual feelings were called an "adult spasm" and there were many run on nonsense sentences. I was surprised with the representation for late diagnosed autism. I am autistic as well and this was the only part of the book I liked. The characters were all unlikable with zero depth and they never had any chemistry.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

What a beautiful love story in such a gorgeous setting! Really makes the reader want to take a trip (or move) to the Italian coast. Loved the characters, the big Italian families, the friendships. And neurodivergence was represented in such a respectful and hopeful way. Thank you, NetGalley, for the opportunity to read this moving story before its released date. And the front cover is absolutely bellissima! 3 and a half stars

Ellie had a tv show where she interviewed athletes until she said some derogatory things, believing the sound was off. It left her without a show. Cris suffered a lot of pain as an elite swimmer and was ready to quit. It was believed that he took drugs, and he feared for his reputation. Ellie and Cris had grandparents in Italy and spent summers growing up together. Fourteen years ago, they seemed to be more to each other until he broke her heart. They are now together in Italy for the wedding of his grandfather and her grandmother. Ellie overthinks things and creating a new career causes her concern. I love how she managed to think about what she wanted rather than go on with what she knew to do. I admired Cris’s ambition to start a new career as well. Most of the story takes place in Italy and I enjoyed the culture and customs. The tight knit family added a lot to the story. I loved how they supported both Ellie and Cris. Great story.

I love the tropes in this, but personally, it falls a little flat. However, I can see this being a hit with readers. It’s perfect as a beach read and charming.

Beautiful love story, amazing love story, beautiful setting. Such a sweet love story! I need to book a trip to Italy now ✔️