I absolutely love Annabel Monaghan’s books! Every one that I’ve read has been a great, light romance read! This is going to be a perfect summer read!

This was another great book by Annabel Monaghan. The story centers around Ali and her emotional journey over a summer. She has lost her mom, her husband wants a divorce, and she has lost herself along the way. Ali meets Ethan and has an instant connection with him. As the summer progresses Ali finds herself, a bigger understanding of her purpose, and love.

Synopsis: Summer Romance follows our lead character as she navigates the grief of her mother’s death, divorce, parenting and a new relationship.
Pros: While this is definitely a sweet romance it is more a women’s fiction with the main character having personal growth throughout the story. A common phrase used was “being the architect of your own experience” and I really liked this positive message of being in control of your life and the choices you make.
Also the romance made me smile like a psycho the entire time. It was a closed door romance and while I prefer some spice it didn’t need it because the characters’ chemistry was palpable!
Cons: The main character talks to her deceased mother - and she answers back throughout the book. At first I thought this was odd and almost docked a point but then at the end there is an author’s note where she discusses why she wrote this way- and alas I can’t dock.
Overall, I loved it. It was sweet, it was about adults vs twenty year olds which was refreshing, and solidifies that I’ll read anything Annabel Monaghan writes.

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Group Putnam for this advanced copy. Absolutely add it to your TBR for June (ah sorry so far away!)
Side note to the publishers- the typos and random hyphenated words were horrendous. Fix asap.

This book had so many emotions rolling through me. Just about every person in the book gave me a different emotion. Fantastic read.

Excellent follow up novel to her previous "Same Time Next Summer," which I also really enjoyed. I liked the characterization of the family dynamics, and that Ali seemed like a fully formed character. Ethan is a little manic pixie dream boy but that's okay for this novel, and I really liked the exploration of what it means to escape a version of yourself as you were when you were younger when you've actually changed versus not changing over time. Would definitely recommend.

I received a free ARC in exchange for the potential of an honest review.

Annabel’s best yet! Ali is so likable and relatable which I feel is hard to do when tackling heavier issues like grief and not wearing “hard pants” iykyk.
Ali and Ethan’s chemistry LEAPT off the page from the beginning. I loved every second of this book!

I really enjoyed this second chance romance. I fell in love with Ali and Ethan immediately and the support characters just created a comforting vibe to the entire novel. The novel was so relatable but also inspiring as Ali rediscovered her true self during such a dark time such as grief and loss.

Annabel Monaghan has done it again! She’s written a multi-layered, heartwarming novel filled with relatable characters. A big part of the charm of Summer Romance is that the plot is entirely believable and the characters so familiar.

Ali is dealing with overwhelming losses. Her beloved mom is dead, her husband wants a divorce, and she’s lost her sense of self. She’s struggling to be a great mom even while life is starting to feel overwhelming. She’s stuck and can’t see a way forward until she meets Ethan at the local dog park. What starts as an innocent infatuation and a fun way to spend the summer becomes complicated when hearts are involved.

Monaghan blends the romance between Ali and Ethan with an examination of the other relationships in their lives; all of which make the characters multi-dimensional and the story more compelling. This book checked all the boxes for me and is one I would highly recommend. I loved her previous books (especially Nora Goes Off Script), but Summer Romance is my new favorite.

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Books Putnam Group for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This is a cute romance about a woman, Ali, who separated from her husband for about a year and they have decided to divorce. She meets a man, Ethan/Scooter, in the dog park and hits it off with him after her dog pees on his leg. Little did she know that this is her best friend's little brother that she has not seen in years. He recognized her immediately as his older sister's best friend that he has had a crush on for years. The book is their romance, but it's a lot more. It is also Ali's story as she figures out how to live her life during and following her divorce.

I loved this single mom, best friend's brother romance! It was sweet, fun, and romantic! I loved the MMC and his ultimate devotion to Ali! 4.25 stars

Thank you NetGalley and Penguin Group for the advanced reader copy!

This was such a fun read, just like her previous two novels. Annabel Monaghan is great at creating vivid characters and scenery—I felt like I could picture everything and everyone. There were tears and happiness and laugh out loud moments. Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for an advanced reading copy.

4.5⭐️
Absolutely loved this “sit by the lake and read all day” romance. The perfect summer read! I wished I could sit and read in one sitting- if you can, do it!

The writing was easy and fun, while addressing harder circumstances and life’s ups and downs.

All the characters fit well together and had me rooting for the MCs from the start.

Rescue dogs, foster kids, finding yourself, teenage/family struggles, bookish content, organization, and a heart warming ending will all be found here.

I absolutely adored this! Nora Goes Off Script is one of my favorite feel good stories and this rivals that. Already looking forward to the next Annabel Monaghan book.

If you're a fan of Nora Goes Off Script, you will absolutely enjoy Summer Romance. Monaghan has such a knack for creating a beautiful love story with just the right amount of realism. Pair the great story with characters that you genuinely care about and the pages in this book will fly by.

Ali is a strong motherly figure with her own unique, yet VERY relatable, problems, thoughts, and feelings. It's wonderful to follow this character and see how she is able to learn and grow. I think every woman will be able to relate to this character, and the complexities of families and relationship dynamics that are explored, in some way.

Ya’ll… while we’re in the midst of the hockey romance season, can Annabel Monaghan kick us off with a season of skater boy romances??

And that’s simply one element of this new book that I think is my favorite so far. Nothing short of 5 stars for this one.

Ali and Ethan experience insta-attraction in this summer romance between a professional organizer and a skater boy lawyer. Plus, these two know how to have a heart pounding conversation through a fence. (Me to Spouse: Hear me out, on our next date, will you stand on the other side of that fence and just talk to me? 😁) My heart is so full reading through the journey of them coming together.

Amidst the love story, Ali’s journey to reclaim her voice is developed so well I could feel it along with her. As much as I was enraptured with Ali and Ethan’s romance, Ali’s grieving her mother’s loss drew me in. In the future, I know I will be Ali. Annabel did such a great job writing this piece of Ali’s story.

Some content warnings include grief/mourning the loss of a parent, divorce, and death.

THANK YOU SO MUCH to NetGalley and Putnam for the ARC! I was simply delighted when the approval came through to get early access to this book.

This is, by far, Annabel Monaghan’s best book. She’s now an auto-buy author for me. I couldn’t put it down and it has all the feels (is that what the cool kids are saying now?). It’s a lot deeper than what I was expecting, but it made the story better. Make sure to put this on your TBR pile!

I received an ARC from NetGalley and the publisher.

FIVE SPARKLING STARS for Annabel Monaghan's "Summer Romance"!

Goodness I loved every minute of reading this book. The characters are so well developed that you feel very much a part of this gem of a small town. This book follows Ali, mid-divorce, living in a less than stellar narrative and trying to make the most out of a life that has been happening to her. She meets Ethan and a Champagne Summer of learning to be the architect of her own destiny begins.

This book had me laughing, smiling, heart soaring, and completely broken. As a mom of three young kids being able to watch Ali navigate tougher moments in parenting teenagers had me finishing the book feeling not only entertained but also like I might have learned something that would serve me well in the future.

Having previously read both Nora Goes off Script and Same Time Next Summer I am forever cemented as a Monaghan fan. Her books are very much closed door romances, and I absolutely love the way she can write a scene that doesn't tell you what happened, but instead shows you how that moment felt emotionally and how it changed the characters. I find this style to be far more intimate as it makes me bond with her characters in a way that I don't in other romances.

"Summer Romance" isn't just another Summer Romance. Get ready to go along for a journey or grief, learning to live with loss, struggles in parenthood, and complicated family dynamics. I would recommend this book to absolutely everyone I know.

Thank you to Netgalley, Penguin Books Putnam Group, and sweet Annabel Monaghan for the ARC in exchange for my honest review. I honestly could not have loved it more.

3.5 rounded up. I adored Summer Romance! The beginning was tough for me and I am glad I stuck with it because the book got better and better. By the halfway point I couldn’t put it down.

This would be a solid 4 for me if it wasn’t for the MC talking to (and getting answers from) her dead mother. The author explains this in the notes at the end about how she really does this herself, but I found it distracting in the book and it took me away from the story. This might have been hard for me because I don’t have a relationship like that with my mother and I couldn’t relate.

That aside, the story was so fun, funny, and engaging. The characters are well developed and I felt like I knew them. This will be the perfect quick read this summer!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a copy in exchange for my honest review.

This woman is just magic! The story and the plot may be a little predictable, but the way this book is written, so beautifully and strongly is just crazy! Not even an ounce of cringe in confessing love, each emotion is like written with feathers! And the ending two lines of the novel left me with happy sighs

This is gorgeous and Annabel is a master at her craft. Her stories stick to my very bones long after I finish them. Poignant and real and achingly wonderful.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Putnam for providing me this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

4 enthusiastic stars! Annabel Monagham has really come into her own with this story. I loved it so much that I read it twice!

I loved watching Ali regain her confidence and self worth. I loved how her relationship and belief system about her parents changed and developed over time. I loved how she cared about her kids. I totally loved Ethan who has now become one of my favorite heroes. He's kept his childlike wonder and sense of fun but is also a mature, capable adult. The supporting cast of characters were also great.

There was a sweetness to this story that I really enjoyed and, although the main characters did face some life challenges, there wasn't a lot of angst and no cringe worthy moments. The overall feeling was heartwarming without being sicky sweet and also had a great dose of snarky dialogue which I loved. And, of course, a very satisfying HEA. So good!

And then there are the adorable antics of Ferris and Brenda! So entertaining!

Some profanity and PG love scenes.