Do you remember your first love? I feel like summertime and first loves go hand in hand. I had my first love in the summer after HS graduation. There is a certain magic about it. Do you remember you first heartbreak? Nothing hurts worse than getting your heart broken by your first true love. Can a first love be your true love? In this book we meet Samantha (Sam) and Wyatt. They met when Sam was 5 and Wyatt 6. Their parents had summer homes next to each other. We see them grow up and fall madly in love. Everyone knew them as being joined at the hip. Then something happens that Wyatt came get past and he suddenly disappears. Sam has moved on and is engaged to be married to Jack. Jack is a doctor and has their lives planned out. But, when she visits the beach house to plan for the wedding, she comes face to face with Wyatt. This book is everything summer. I felt nostalgic for my days on the beach. There are boogie boards, soaking sun, ice cream shops, bike riding, and a really cool treehouse. . Of course there are all the feels this book offers. For anyone who has felt true love, lost that love, and wondered and hoped if we can ever really move on, this book is for you. This will be a top book for summer 2023, I know it. It is on my top 10 list. Thank you to Netgalley for the chance to read this.

Same Time Next Summer, by Annabel Monaghan was the perfect book to get me into the summer mood. Do you love a good romance? A lost love that is found again, and the heartache of young love not fulfilled. This book is set against the backdrop of Manhattan where Sam has set up her structured life; perfect fiancé, perfect job. When they return to her families Long Island Beach, to begin preparations for her wedding, she is confronted with Wyatt, a guitar playing rugged good looking man who broke her heart 14 years ago. The meeting is unexpected. Monaghan deftly shows us the "Then," when Sam and Wyatt were children, falling in love, discovering each other and making plans for the future; together, in LA. Tragedy strikes and as expected things fall apart, and they go their separate ways.

Our story has two narratives; "Now" and "Then" and we switch perspectives and see both Sam's story, and Wyatt's. This moves the story along quickly and we get carried away. We are reminded of how young love can feel all consuming, as we bare witness to young love unfolding. I loved that most of the story takes place on the beach, in fact, it was so brilliantly written, so vivid, I was swept away with Sam and Wyatt as they surfed, I could hear the waves, smell the salty air, and feel the sand between my toes. I was transported. I love how the beach became its own character.

Although the story was predictable, it was the perfect book to take me away to the beach, and filled me with nostalgia for a time when you had no worries, just time laid out in front of you. We saw this happen for Sam, as she was faced with major life decisions, but ultimately its always about coming home, honoring who you are, and making hard choices.

Cute beachy summer read! I mostly really loved that it wasn't fully a romance book but it was a story about a girl trying to find herself again.

This book is the book of summer! It made me so nostalgic for first love and had me reminiscing on summers. I couldn't put it down and was on the edge of my seat waiting to find out how it all would end. If you're looking for a heartfelt book about rediscovering yourself and second chances, this book will not disappoint.

I absolutely adored the authors last book, Nora Goes Off Script so to say this was a highly anticipated read for me is putting it mildly. This was a mix between a second chance romance but also friends to lovers as Wyatt and Sam started dating as teens and were friends first. Sam is about to marry someone else and I don’t usually enjoy a love triangle but it was well done here so it didn’t even bother me a little bit. There was some serious nostalgia here as the author captured the magic of first love so perfectly and combine that will all the summery vibes and I was swooning. Overall this was such a well rounded romance with amazing characters you will connect with, a fun setting and a love story that will give you all of the feels.

Thanks so much for the arc!

I really enjoyed Nora Goes off Script so I was thrilled to be approved for Same Time Next Summer!

I foresee this being one of the summers top beach reads! The cover is so charming and Annabel Monaghan’s writing is a delight!

Sam has been hiding from her childhood beach home. But when her younger sister Gracie asks her to come out to Long Island she can’t turn her down. She brings her fiancé Jack with the promise to her parents that they’ll check out a wedding venue. Jack is a doctor which makes everyone so proud.

The reason Sam has had trouble revisiting this home is surprisingly there when she arrives. Wyatt. Her high school and first love. The next door neighbor. The musician. The childhood friend turned love. The breakup that destroyed her.

As we weave through Sam's past to learn more about her life with Wyatt we uncover so much about Sam. She is faced with her memories of Wyatt and all the feelings she went through- since she’s challenged with seeing him again. It makes you feel for her as many of us have a first love. You’re always left wondering was it young love or more.

The more the wedding plans progress the more the reader is left wondering if she’s made the right choice. Jack is practical and regimented. Wyatt is creative and kind. Who is right for Sam? I couldn’t put this down as I just had to know!

Such a great book! It had many elements- lighthearted youth mixed with heavy adult issues.

Oh lord, I swallowed this book in 9 hours. Could have been less but I cannot deal without sleep. Thank you so much to Netgalley and the publishers for letting me read this before publication. I am truly obsessed.

Samantha is a woman in her thirties with apparently the perfect life: she lives in NYC, has a good job she's good at and she's about to marry the perfect man. Until one day she "screws up" at work and her job gets on the line, Samantha and her fiance decide to make a visit to her family at their summer residence in Long Island.

I fell in love with Samantha's parents. They are artists, very creative. Obviously not perfect people, but so supportive and loving. I would have loved to grow up with artsy people that would push me to chase my creativity.

Anyway, Samantha gets really nervous when she realizes that her teenage love fling is at the house next door. She hasn't seen Wyatt since she was 17, after a very painful breakup she never really got over, despite her efforts. The story jumps back and forth to now and then, giving context of how Samantha and Wyatt met and fell in love, which in my opinion was well executed and not confusing at all.

This book is about a love story, but it's also about how one loses and finds oneself again. How we know exactly who we are when we are younger and somewhere along the way we start making decisions on what we think we should do or be. Then we go back to our hometowns or childhood homes and we realize we don't know who we are anymore. I can really identify with this and that's why I could not stop reading. Short chapters helped too.

Bottom line: I laughed, I swooned, I cringed and fell in love with all the characters. This might be THE beach read of the year, but don't quote me on that. I will probably reread this soon and I don't ever reread. It's that good.

This is the PERFECT summer beach read. It’s a second chance romance set at a summer house, so a popular chick lit subgenre, but it hit harder than other similar titles released recently, such as Happy Place.

What Same Time Next Summer is able to do so successfully is make us care about the characters by showing us how they were when they were young and the connection they shared. These chapters are perfectly interspersed to keep the story moving but rope us into Sam and Wyatt’s past. I could have used some more Wyatt chapters in the present; we’re only treated to one, which makes sense because of the reveals that are kept secret until the end, but I would’ve loved to see the pining on his side.

The book leans women’s fiction. If you’re looking for spice, this isn’t for you; it is firmly closed-door and more about emotion than chemistry.

Annabel Monaghan is quickly becoming one of my favorite authors! I recently read Nora Goes Off Script and read it in one sitting while on vacation with my girlfriends. I had a similar experience reading this book as I read the majority of it on a train ride. Her books are such quick, and enjoyable reads.

This book felt very similar to Every Summer After when I first started, but definitely stands on its own. What I love about her writing is that her characters seem so relatable and real. My only complaint is that I would have liked more pages devoted to her summers with Wyatt, and her love for creating as a kid. I think that would have tied up the book to make it a 5/5 for me.

Thank you to NetGalley for my ARC! This book will be out on June 6th and will be the perfect beach (or train) read.

I loved this book. It was a quick and easy read that felt like a perfect summer read, but with more emotional depth than I was expecting. Monaghan does a wonderful job of pulling at the reader's personal memories and making them experience the uncertainties of life's decisions all over again. I thought I had the book figured out right away and had steeled myself for the standard troupes and cliches, but was glad that Monaghan didn't take the easy way out and instead trusted her readers to enjoy the emotional complexities that exist in relationships at all ages.

Do you ever read a book and only realize at the end who the author is? That's what happened to me reading Same Time Next Summer. I had no clue Annabel Monaghan was the author of Nora Goes Off Script!... I know, duh! However, I loved Nora Goes Off Script so much and discovering Same Time Next Summer was also written by Monaghan as the book ended, only affirmed to me how much I liked this book.

A huge thank you to PRH Audio and G.P. Putnam's Sons for granting me access to the audiobook and e-book. I buddy read this with a group of bookstagrammers and was initially bummed I didn't have the book, but enjoyed following along with their reading of this title. All of them said they read it in a day and talked about their various feelings which only made me more excited for the book!

I fell in love with Sam and Wyatt. I loved their stories both together and apart. Told in alternating POV chapters with now and then timelines, I watched these two fall in love and fall apart. Love can do that to us. It can make us come completely undone, unraveling us to our core and make us uncertain of who we are.

Potential spoiler ahead: Sam described the games she would play with herself to convince herself she'd hear from Wyatt and gosh it broke my heart, but also made me feel so seen for feelings I have experienced in my lifetime.

I just finished reading Yours Truly by Abby Jimenez last night and was feeling a true book hangover and this book was the perfect follow up for me! My heart feels so full from these two reads, but boy did it ache along the way!

I think I will love anything Annabel wants to write. Her storytelling is so beautiful and captivating that I read this in just two sittings. I gave her debut novel 5 stars last year, but this one didn’t quite get there simply because I have read numerous iterations of this story over the last several years. If you liked love and other words or every summer after, this will feel similar but I think you’ll still enjoy the ride.

Sam goes back to her family’s beach house with her fiancé after avoiding it for over a decade. She is confronted with the very reason for that avoidance in the form of Wyatt, her childhood friend and first love. The story is told via dual timelines and dual pov, although we get more of Sam's experience than Wyatt’s.

Sam’s life is on track. She has the perfect doctor fiancé, 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?

What unfolds is such a great beach read story! The setting is so atmospheric and takes you right to the beach. You can feel the breeze and smell the salt air. The author also perfectly captures that feeling of your first love and how all encompassing that is as a teenager. I definitely saw my younger self in her several times. Sam was such a messy and real character and I loved her and rooted for her the whole time! And Wyatt, what a great character he was also. I loved watching their story develop, and the ending was perfect!

Throw this one in your Summer beach bag and you won't be disappointed! Thank you to the author and NetGalley for this advanced copy. Annabel Monaghan is quickly becoming a must read author for me!

4.5 stars

This was a such a great Summer read with some Every Summer After vibes! Some of the tropes include childhood friends to lovers and second chance closed door romance. I loved the dual timeline point of view. I’d definitely recommend for a sweet beach read.

Well, this is awesome.

I’m generally not a fan of “then and now” storylines, because I often find they have a “filler” feel to the book (you know that feeling when an hour long phone call have been a text), but this was done so well! Both storylines were engaging and the “then” portion moved efficiently (and wasn’t the duration of the story).

I couldn’t put this one down ans stayed up late to finish.

Easily, one of the best summer reads of 2023. It had the right amount of whimsy, humor, and heartbreak. The characters were so well flushed out and relatable.

Highly recommend.

Thank you netgalley for the advance copy.

As a big fan of Nora Goes Off Script by Annabel Monaghan, I was eager to read her latest novel Same Time Next Summer. Thank you to @NetGalley and @Putnambooks for an advanced readers copy of Same Time Next Summer, an engaging, summer romance about long-time neighbors and friends Samantha and Wyatt. As good friends who eventually become high school sweethearts, the pair spend every summer together at their family beach homes. Throughout idyllic summer days surfing or swimming at the beach, the pair are inseparable and seemingly perfect for one another.

Alternating between the past and present, the novel begins with Sam and Wyatt inadvertently running into one anotther after 12 years of not speaking following a devastating break-up. Reuniting for the first time as adults, Sam and Wyatt are confronted with unresolved feelings about their breakup event though Sam is now engaged and planning her wedding. Monaghan ponders the question: can seemingly perfect young love survive misunderstandings and separation into adulthood.

An entertaining story about first loves, the most enjoyable parts of book center around Sam and Wyatt's budding love against the nostalgic backdrop of beach summers. The would have enjoyed learning more Nick and Wyatt and what challenges they were facing but overall I found this to be a great summer read.

Nora Goes Off Script was such a fun summer read last summer, but this one fell short for me. Meet Sam who is engaged to be married. Her and her fiancé go to Long Island for some pre-wedding plans when she runs into Wyatt, her crush from her late teens. Emotions and past love bubbles up as she remembers her time with him. It is told in a dual timeline giving you the past relationship with the current situation.

While this romance was a light and summery, I never felt connected to the characters or their history and the development of the story just felt too slow.

Thank you to NetGalley and G.P. Putnam's Sons for the advance e-copy of this book.

After a disastrous end to her teenage love affair with her best friend and first boyfriend Wyatt, Sam found a controlled and stable adult existence, and a fiance who thrives on stability and control. But a trip to the beach - where her family spends every summer becoming their most chaotic and authentic selves, and where she and Wyatt met - threatens to unravel Sam's hard-won, perfectly boring life.

My favorite thing about this novel was actually not the second-chance love story (which was sweet) or the descriptions of Sam's summers at the beach with her quirky family (which were delightful), but Sam's adult life and her relationship with her fiance. The description of their life together was such an authentic rendering of an adult relationship, wavering somewhere between actually-pretty-good and a-few-uncomfortable-compromises.

Of course, this being the kind of novel it is, we know that those compromises will turn out to be incompatible with Sam finding herself again, and that it will turn out that her true nature can only be found in the teenager she was, long ago, at the beach. We see these summers directly in the novel's "then" timeline (there are two timelines, and two points of view - Sam's and Wyatt's - in each, but miraculously it isn't at all confusing) but, while the writing in these sections was great, I didn't feel they were necessary. Sam's present-day self and her vacillation between the life she has planned with her fiance and the risky but fulfilling life she feels herself drawn to are so compelling that this sand-and-sun-and-first-love thread feels superfluous.

4.5 stars.

I absolutely loved Nora Goes Off Script so I was thrilled to be approved for this title. This was the perfect kick off for summer reading. Absolutely loved the beachy setting, the past timeline, Sam’s family and of course sweet Wyatt.

I picked this one up after LOVING Nora Goes Offscript and was super excited to see how it would go. I'm not sure if I really liked the introspective writing that was very reactive in that book because she was a mom and protecting her kids was the most important thing but that writing style didn't work as well here as I would've liked.

I think the frustrating thing was that I really liked the ending - when Sam ends up figuring out how she really feels about Jack and stepping away - but it was such a long process throughout it that I didn't feel like rooting for her. I wasn't even hugely a fan of Wyatt who I wanted to like, given the backstory but I felt like we didn't get as much of a chance to see them connect as adults before they were breaking back apart again.

I dunno! This was a cute and quick read, but I think it was missing something.

Thank you to G.P. Putnam's Sons and NetGalley for a chance to read and review!