I really enjoyed this one; definitely for fans of Beth O’Leary! Chelsea and Colllin are perfectly imperfect, and gosh did I find Chelsea relatable! Thoroughly charming.

I did enjoy reading this book, despite the lower review. I struggled a bit with the FMC, she was very stuck in her ways, which often many people are, BUT it just felt so frustrating. I think having dual POV for this book would've helped us get more insight into her character. I enjoyed the setting of this story and loved that Collin was so invested in helping Chelsea find life outside the box she put herself in. His POV would've been awesome.

Overall, it was a quick, enjoyable read. Just missed some marks for me.

An Irish Summer was probably the perfect read to remind me of my time in Ireland. The characters were so loveable. I now feel the need to go back and fall in love with the country all over again.. Chelsea and Collin 4ever🩷

Chelsea is working at a bed and breakfast in Massachusetts when she learns they are closing. she takes a job at a bed and breakfast in Galway but really wants to return home. will her new friends change her mind?

An Irish romance? SIGN ME UP! There’s nothing I love more than a nice cozy summer romance. The characters were hilarious and heartfelt, the settings were picturesque and described so well I felt like I was in the book at times. I would’ve loved to have seen less repetition in the narration, but otherwise it was a fun read!

This was such a beautiful and cozy romantic comedy novel! From the scenery to the characters, this book is the perfect summertime read! It’s in Ireland, where a young woman takes a trip! It made me feel hopeful, lighthearted, adventurous and relaxing. It felt like I was by a land of water, just enjoying the sun and being surrounded by nature! This book also gave me some much needed laughs, which I loved! It is a medium paced read that is character driven. It makes me want to pick up my bags and travel to Ireland right now. It had lovable characters, vivid imagery and a golden retriever Irishman! Overall, I give this book a 4.5 out of 5 star rating!

I think fans of the movie Notting Hill would enjoy reading this book. Content warnings include wanting to take a trip to Ireland as soon as possible!

Thank you to NetGalley, author Alexandra Paige and Avon and Harper Voyager for this electronic ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review and feedback. All thoughts and opinions expressed are my own.

This book is expected to be published on July 1, 2025!

This was such a good book. I loved the story and the writing so much. The characters were great and the story flowed smoothly. Will definitely read more books by this author in the future.

One of those books that make for easy reading while sunning on the beach or on your commute to and from work. Nothing complex here. Just a very simple and somewhat common plot. Girl loses job in her home town of Boston and finds a temporary summer job in her field in Ireland. As you would expect, things don't always go as planned. It's actually all very predictable, all the way up until the end. No surprises at all, even what are surprises to our protagonist, Chelsea. Essentially, this is the book version of one of those types of stories that you might see on one of those women's cable channels.

Have to admit that the first half of the book I found to be extremely redundant. The same old conversations, over and over again, with slightly different topics. Fortunately, things pick up during the second half. There is more activity with more interesting scenarios. With that said, everything is still predictable. It's just more interesting. Didn't save the book for me, but I do realize that some will find this book romantic and appealing. It was just not my cup of tea at all.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a copy of the eBook in lieu of a review.

Bostonian Chelsea is forced from the comfort of home into a summer of work at a hostel in Galway, Ireland. What ensues is an unexpected summer in a place she didn’t expect to be. It’s a self discovery story with an element of romance. If Ireland is your place, this book is for you.

I was grateful to be given an ARC of Irish Summer on NetGalley. 3.5 stars: I liked this book, but some elements felt underdeveloped. There was mention of her mom and some underlying tension there, and I got it but it never was examined deeply nor really resolved, so it almost felt like it could have just been left out. Other elements were like that—good but left me wanting just a little more (with her friend in Boston and wondering how things turned out). I loved how the plot showed off Ireland realistically and in its glory! It felt a little like traveling there vicariously through the story, and that’s something I always like in stories on location. This was overall a fun read and I would recommend it for anyone traveling to the West Coast of Ireland or just wanting a summer read that transports you there!

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC of this book!

An Irish Summer is a sweet, cozy romp through the rolling hills of Ireland. We follow Chelsea, a young woman who, after losing her job at a Bed and Breakfast in her beloved hometown of Boston, takes an opportunity to work at The Wanderer, a hostel in Galway. There, she meets Collin, who is insistent that he can change her pessimistic attitude about her plans gone awry and get her to fall in love with Ireland.

This book was pure fluff - like cotton candy. The romance was sweet, but surface level. The characters were fun, but there wasn't much to them. I wanted more from Chelsea's adventures around Ireland - she never really seemed excited about the travels that Collin set up for her, constantly dreaming of Boston and her "old life" there. Her attitude towards him and The Wanderer was quite pessimistic and dour. Everyone seemed to be bending over backwards for her and I couldn't really get behind that. If she was a real person that I worked with, I would not want to get to know her or spend that much time and energy trying to make her experience enjoyable.

All in all, this was a fun little ride, but there's not a lot of depth or substance in this story. Great for readers who are looking for a travel read, beach read, or just a quick little romance!

Thanks to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for the opportunity to read an advance copy of this book.

Overall, I enjoyed the story, and I loved Collin, but my rating isn't higher simply due to the FMC, Chelsea. I just couldn't get over her pessimism about moving to Ireland and having to work at a hostel (which seemed to be so beneath her). I found it quite unbelievable that someone from Boston - and she lets you know repeatedly there's nowhere better than Boston! - would be so clueless about anything Irish. And if you're going to move to another country, wouldn't you do ANY research before you got there? She calls herself an event planner, and yet she didn't check out all there is to do there?? All of her co-workers seemed to love her, which I didn't understand, and although I loved Collin's character, there wasn't much chemistry between them.

It's cute! It's predictable! It's set in Ireland! All the elements for a cozy read are there. Main character Chelsea is having a great day on page one, but things go downhill quickly. She's getting laid off from the b&b where she works -- and lives -- which means she's about to be displaced from her apartment too. But the inn owners have a great idea -- why not go to Ireland for the summer where Chelsea can work for a family member who runs a hostel there? Well... that doesn't sound so great to Chelsea. She's got her life goals pretty well mapped out and that map did not include the other side of the Atlantic.
Of course she ends up going, hating it at first, and challenging herself to enjoy the experience under the guidance of the hot hostel bartender, Collin. There was a *lot* of focus on Chelsea's inner turmoil over what seemed like a pretty easy series of decisions, but maybe I'm more laidback now than when I was Chelsea's age and would have related more when I was in my 20s.

Poor Collin, he didn't deserve Chelsea. I wanted her to fail so badly because all she did was mope and complain but nope, he chose her. What a terrible book. I read the whole thing to try and get ideas for my future Ireland trip but I wasted my time.

Chelsea creía tener su vida bajo control: un trabajo estable en un hostal de Boston, un apartamento acogedor y un plan claro para su futuro. Pero todo se desmorona cuando el hostal cierra inesperadamente, dejándola sin empleo ni lugar donde vivir. Ante la falta de opciones y con la presión de sus padres por seguir un camino seguro pero poco inspirador, Chelsea recibe una oferta inesperada: pasar el verano trabajando en un albergue en Irlanda.

Lo que comienza como una solución temporal se transforma en una experiencia que desafía sus límites, cambia su perspectiva y la obliga a cuestionar todo lo que creía querer. Entre campos verdes, compañeros de trabajo de lo más peculiares y una cultura totalmente nueva, Chelsea descubrirá que a veces perderlo todo es el primer paso para encontrarse a sí misma.

I actually ended up not finishing this whole book. The FMC was insufferable. So rude and ungrateful. The other characters were flat and the Irish setting could have been super cool but it, too, was super underdeveloped.

This book was so cute! I am obsessed the romance and the setting was amazing! I need to read more from the author!

Chelsea loved working at "O'Shea's B&B", but now the owners want to retire and sell it. What is she going to do? She has worked and lived on sight there for years. But where is she going to find work in Boston and an apartment, as she is losing her onsight apartment too. As she wants to stay in the same type of work. Mrs. O'Shea has a sister who lives in Ireland. Lori is need of help at her hostel in Galway, Ireland. What would life be like in a foreign country? It is just for the summer, Chelsea does accept the job and off she flies. She is to be the receptionist in the faraway land.

When she arrives she finds many things she does not like, sharing a bathrrom, it rains all the time and why no iced coffee. She left behind her parents and very best friend (like a sister) in Boston. Who will she meet? How will she adjust to their customs and language there? Her new co-workers are sure to change her mind about Ireland, especially, tour guide, Collin. The adventures she go on with him and friends she makes at the hostel while there.

The reason I wanted to read this book is 1) I was invited by Harper Collins to read before publishing 2) I loved the cover of the book and 3) it was in Ireland. I always have wanted to see Ireland, and got to read of some places to go visit there. Thank you Alexandra Paige for the wonderful read. It surely keep me reading. Some nights it was so difficult to put down. Harper Collins, thank you so much for the invite. This new authors talent in writing is wonderful.

"Unlike the Cliffs, Collin Finegan could be seen for the first time over and over again."

Have you ever read a book that you didn't know you needed to read and it just sends you into a spiral? That's what this book did to me. This book has touched some deep, fundamental part of me. The vivid imagery, the characters and their growth, the everything? A million of our 5 stars.

I saw so much of myself in Chelsea, the girl who methodically organized and planned her life down to a T, only for everything to get uprooted when the beloved B&B she worked at closed, leaving her jobless & homeless. It wasn't in her plan, and neither was the impromptu job at a hostel in Galway. Neither was the summer fling with a golden retriever Irishman who's covered in tattoos, loves his homeland and just wants her to fall in love too.

As someone who has been in similar shoes and wound up taking a trip to Ireland, this book was like a trip down memory lane. Not only did I revisit some of the places I loved when I was there through the writing, I revisited 20 year old me. I revisited what it was like to be in a similar boat to Chelsea, which made this story all the more real. It had me pulling up all my photos and reliving my time in this magical place, wanting nothing more than to haul my ass across the ocean to return.

To me, this story, these characters? It felt like coming home. I cannot recommend this enough.

And I can confirm, the Cliff's change you.

Tropes:
Contemporary romance
Workplace romance
Forced Proximity
Grumpy/Sunshine (she's grumpy)
Tattood, golden retriever Irishman
Slow burn
Friends to Lovers

Thank you Netgalley & Avon books for an advanced copy of this story in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and feelings are my own.

BOOK REPORT
Received a complimentary copy of An Irish Summer, by Alexandra Page, from Avon and Harper Voyager | Avon/NetGalley, for which I am appreciative, in exchange for a fair and honest review. Scroll past the BOOK REPORT section for a cut-and-paste of the DESCRIPTION of it from them if you want to read my thoughts on the book in the context of that summary.

Total brain fluff that made me want to be in my mid-20s and on an airplane to Ireland to work in a hostel and have a grand summer fling with a tattooed fella….

Perfect escapism for me this afternoon.

Made all the better because one of my Facebook memories of today was me over the moon about Jess Kidd’s book Himself, also set in Ireland, to which I gave 5 stars and now find myself wanting to read again. And I am not a re-reader for the most part (re-watcher yes, absolutely), so that’s saying something, particularly because it would be my third time around. Here’s the link to that review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

And now, back to the Deadwood territory of HBO series fame. (I will just be damned if I will buy into any of that Max baloney.) Isn’t fiction just awesome, however we partake of it? To be able to travel throughout time and space, whata miracle! Don’t ever want to take it for granted.

DESCRIPTION
A new romantic comedy in which a young woman embarks on a summer adventure—and summer fling—in Ireland, perfect for fans of Sophie Cousens and Beth O’Leary.

Boston has everything Chelsea needs: her best friend, her family, a great job. She’s worked and lived at the same bed and breakfast since graduating college, and she relishes the sense of stability. That is, until she’s informed that O’Shea’s Bed and Breakfast is being sold and she has less than a month to find a new job and apartment. Desperate, she takes a summer gig at the B&B’s sister hostel in Galway, Ireland. It’ll be an adventure, she convinces herself, and it’ll give her some time to plan her Next Act.

As it turns out, Galway has everything Chelsea hates: nonstop rain, no iced coffee, shared bathrooms. Working at The Wanderer might grant her time and a few extra lines on her resume, but Chelsea can’t help but feel like she left her life back in Massachusetts. Her new coworkers, however, are determined to change her mind, especially the handsome and charming tour guide Collin.

Collin and Chelsea strike up a deal: he’ll show Chelsea everything Ireland has to offer, and only then can she pass judgement. Sure enough, Chelsea finds herself warming up to the hostel and Irish lifestyle… and falling for her charismatic new friend. But as the summer comes to an end, she finds herself torn between the familiarity of home and the tantalizing adventure of life abroad.

An Irish Summer is a heartfelt, transporting story perfect for readers looking for the thrill of moving away from home and the unique magic of summer love.