I absolutely ADORED this book. I loved Sam and Wyatt and the beach setting — Sam’s parents’ happy, cluttered house full of driftwood and paint and mason jars — and the nostalgic feeling of the little town. The character development was fantastic, and I am impressed, as I was with Nora Goes Off Script, at how Monaghan writes romance with depth,, and with language and dialogue that always feels fresh — never cheesy or trite. It feels like only a very select few RomCom authors succeed at this these days, and Monaghan is one of them. This book had my heart aching alongside Sam’s and Wyatt’s, both in the “then” chapters and the present day. The only thing that keeps this from being a full 5-stars, for me, is that I wanted more from the ending, or specifically, more time with Sam and Wyatt together as adults — maybe in an epilogue. I’d also loved to have been able to read/experience the celebratory evening at the Old Sloop Inn that is planned in the book’s final pages, which also would have been a nice way to extend our time with Sam and Wyatt back-together. Nonetheless, I loved this book, and will absolutely be rereading and recommending it.

Nora goes off script was one of my favorite books of 2022! When I heard that Annabel Monaghan was releasing a new book for release in June 2023, I was so excited to request and potentially get my hands on it from NetGalley! I'm so blessed to have received an early copy!
I was sucked in from the very first chapter. This book gave me Summer Loving-Grease vibes. Wyatt and Sam-I-am’s unfinished love story kept me wanting more. To see them change from friends to innocent, but genuine childhood crushes to intense lovers was captivating.
It was engaging to see how they've changed through years and distance. The reader is left wanting to know…what happened? As the story evolves you see how and why Sam has ended up with her doctor-fiancé Jack and still looks for an appropriate career for herself and choosing the safe choice for a man and not to get hurt. Wyatt’s life is also full of surprises, appearing initially as the local townie who is fixing cars and playing his guitar.
Their story is told in alternating now and then timelines. The reader gets to see the free and fun first love between Sam and Wyatt come together and then fall apart, and in the present experience their strong gravitational pull towards each other.
My only complaint to this story was Sam and Wyatt’s present moments felt a little rushed, but this story was still so enjoyable. I also loved all of the supporting characters including Sam’s eccentric artist parents, Gracie, and her grandparents.
Special thanks to NetGalley for sharing this digital reviewer copy with me in exchange for my thoughts.

3.5 stars rounded up. I loved Nora Goes Off Script, but struggle sometimes with second-chance romances. It was a quick read and it'll make a great summer beach book.

Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC!

As I finished the last page of Same Time Next Summer, I thought to myself - Annabel Monaghan has done it again! I was almost afraid to read this book as her first book was so wonderful that I didn’t want to be less in love with her second book. I should never have doubted that whatever magical writing skill Annabel has would weave its way into whatever she writes !
Same Time Next Summer is about Samantha ( Sam) as she approaches her wedding day while struggling to take a walk down memory lane and the boy who broke her heart when she was a teenager. There are so many wonderful and complex relationships in her life , with her friends and even with herself.
I give this book 5 stars and only wish there was even more of it to read!

Another great read by Annabel Monaghan! Sam has her life in order. Everything is predictable and simple, clean and oragnized. Just the way she needs it......but is she happy? Sam is 30 years old and engaged to Jack, a doctor. She has a job in HR where she helps keep people in line. And a nice apartment in the city where she and Jack live. As she and Jack plan their upcoming wedding, they decide to spend some time out on Long Island at her parents' beach house. Sam spent her summers at the house growing up. Her first love was her next door neighbor Wyatt. Sam has not seen from or heard from Wyatt in over 10 years. When she and Jack arrive at the beach, she learns that Wyatt is there for a visit. No big deal, right? She is engaged and happy in her predictable, routine driven life.
When Sam sees Wyatt again, all the memories of her youth come flooding back. Is who she is now really who she wants to be? Is she really happy in this life? The book alternates between then and now while you learn about Sam's past with Wyatt. Will this connection come back? Will she be forced to decide what she really wants in her life?
This book is cute and funny. It makes you want to keep reading. Sam and her family are such loveable characters! I am a big fan of Annabel's writing style. Thank you to Annabel Monaghan, Penguin Group Putnam, and NetGalley for this book.

After loving Nora Goes Off Script last week, I was thrilled to see a new book from this author was coming out! This was such a great second chance romance - the characters felt real and relatable. I loved the dual POV and past/present timelines. Absolutely recommend - I think this will be the perfect summer read!

I wasn’t sure anything could replace “Nora Goes Off Script” in my heart, but it looks like they will be sharing space in there. Lovely story, wonderful imperfect characters, beautiful writing. I read in over an afternoon. I haven’t found myself that swept up in a book in years. Thank you for the ARC. 5/5

I didn't enjoy this one as much as Nora Goes Off Script. I just didn't connect with the characters as much, and the old boyfriend trope didn't seem to get a fresh treatment here. I do think it will be popular. And I look forward to her next book!

3.5/5 stars

I really wanted to love this book since I really loved Nora Goes off Script but this book unfortunately didn't live up to it.

This book was very similar to 'Love and Other Words' and 'Every Summer After' and it was so hard to root for a character that needed a bit growing up and living on her own before she was ready to go back to her 'first love.' I do love second chance romances and some things I did enjoy about this book was the setting, the 'then' sections when Sam and Wyatt were meeting and developing their relationship and as someone who is in HR, I liked that her job was in HR too.

But 12 years without google searching who he was?? A bit unrealistic and threw me off.

This book is a enjoyable summer read but the ending was a bit rushed and I'm not super happy with the ending.

A perfect summer read! This will definitely be a go-to beach read and one you’ll want to bring on vacation as the perfect romantic escape.

Same Time Next Summer follows Sam and Wyatt- teenagers who lived next door over the summer months on the beach in Long Island. Over the years, their friendship turned into much more until a major event drove them apart- leaving Sam devastated.

Now Sam is engaged to Jack and has brought him to Long Island, as they plan for their upcoming wedding, when Wyatt happens to be in town as well. While Jack is everything her parents could dream of- he’s safe, a doctor, and looks great on paper- Sam can’t help it when her feelings for Wyatt come flooding back and they are forced to face their past and all that’s changed over the years.

I was shocked by how much I loved this novel. I was not as taken with Annabel Monaghan's first novel Nora Goes Off Script, so I had low expectations for Same Time Next Summer. However, I was incredibly surprised with how great her storytelling and scene building has improved. This is a perfect summer 2023 read!

Same Time Next Summer is Annabel Monaghan’s second novel. After absolutely loving Nora Goes Off Script, I was ecstatic to get a digital ARC of this upcoming release.

This family drama felt authentic, not far-fetched or outlandish in any way. The main character is relatable and faced with genuine life challenges and stresses, like wedding planning and feeling unfilled at work. I appreciate how the novel felt so realistic in the sense that everything in the book could easily happen to you, a friend, a neighbor, or a family member. I continuously felt myself cheering on Sam (the FMC) as she made big life decisions that would impact the course of the rest of her life.

This is definitely a romance novel in that it’s entirely centered around relationships but there is no steam, whatsoever. You could recommend this to your mom without any reservations. 🤣

The book features dual POV and alternating timelines (now versus the past), which I typically like both. It didn’t feel excessive in how much it switched between MCs and timeframes so it wasn’t hard to keep everything straight.

This was very close to a five star read for me. I’m giving it 4.5 ⭐️ only because I felt it was predictable, and while I enjoyed how the story played out, I really was never surprised.

I feel like I could sum all my feelings up by saying this reminded me a lot of Carley Fortune’s Every Summer After but minus any steam. Every Summer After was one of my absolute favorite reads of 2022 so the fact that this reminded me so much of that book, wasn’t a bad thing at all.

Same Time Next Summer releases on June 6, 2023. Thank you NetGalley and G.P. Putnam’s Sons for the ARC.

⭐ Rating: 4

🌶️ Level: low, but lots of very charged casual touching 😆

From the Publisher:
The ultimate summer nostalgia read, about an engaged woman who comes face to face with her first love who she hasn't seen in fourteen years, but who she spent every summer with from age five to seventeen when he broke her heart, calling into question everything she thought she knew about their love story, and herself.

My Thoughts:
A fun second chance romance in the vein of Every Summer After! I really liked the beach setting of this and the couple was cute. There was definitely a little bit more suspending of disbelief I had to do for a few things (unfortunately can’t say more with out spoiling), but that’s probably me being too type-A. 😉 I also wish we had gotten a bit more on the main character’s relationship with her parents, as I think there was some potentially interesting stuff there that went unexplored. Overall though, this will make for a good beach read for the summer!

Out 6/6. Thank you to @netgalley and @putnambooks for the advanced copy.

I absolutely loved Nora Goes Off Script so I was excited for the opportunity to read Annabel Monaghan's new book, Same Time Next Summer. It was a fun beach read that will be great for summer. I enjoyed the dual perspectives of Sam and Wyatt both in the present and in the past when they were kids spending the summer at the beach but I wish the Now timeline had been a little more developed. It was pretty easy to see how things were going to end up from early on but there were surprises throughout that kept things interesting and overall, it was an enjoyable book!

Annabel Monaghan does it again. I loved everything about this book! It's going to be the perfect beach read. Thanks Netgalley and publisher for the ARC, It did not disappoint.

I love this author’s debut novel so I was excited to be approved for this one on NetGalley. Unfortunately, my expectations were not lived up to with this book.

Told in alternating timeline (and a different viewpoint near the end), we seem Sam’s life as she falls in love as a teen, and is getting married to someone else. She goes back to her summer home to plan her wedding and scope out venues, and her ex is there. The ex who dropped her like she was nothing. She spent years in therapy.

But one week back around him and she breaks up with her fiancé because her life is “boring” and “safe.” The conflict felt very contrived and it was obvious from the start that they would end up together. I just didn’t really buy the sorry, especially with how and why she gets reprimanded at her job. That was silly. I am bummed I didn’t like this one. Hopefully her next attempt works better for me.

Thanks NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Such a wonderful story! A young love romance falls apart until years later it gets rekindled with a few hiccups along the way. A very well written story including; family drama, significant others, planning a wedding, & finding one's true self along the way.
Same Time Next Summer is the first Annabel Monaghan book I've read & hopefully won't be the last. Easy to follow storyline with characters one can really relate to.
Highly recommend this book!

Annabel Monaghan's debut (Nora Goes Off Script) was a swoony rom-com (with substance and lots of insights about motherhood to boot) that was in my top 10 reads of 2022, so I put in my Netgalley request for her new book, coming out June 6, as soon as I knew it was happening. And I'm thrilled I got an advance copy, because what an absolutely delightful one-day read it was on my beach vacation this month! As the genre goes, there are some standard romance/rom-com arcs and tropes that we all know, so plenty of us have read (or watched) this basic plot before: out-of-town teen comes to a summer home where she's friends with the neighbor boy and over the course of one particular summer they realize they're each other's greatest love... but then it doesn't work out and now they find themselves back in the same place a bunch of years later (probably one of them is engaged to someone else), and despite their baggage, sparks still fly. In fact, the storyline is rather similar to last year's hit, Every Summer After, and I know tons of people loved that one, but to me it read as a storyline of angsty/infatuated teens alternating with a storyline of moody adults - whereas here Annabel Monaghan somehow made it feel fresh. Perhaps with better character development and more of a feeling of snapping and sparkling to the dialogue and writing in general? I did feel like on top of the romance tropes/arcs that draw you in and make you want it to all work out for these characters, there was some good personal development: you see how Sam turned from a carefree kid to a perhaps overly buttoned-up version of herself as an adult, and how reconnecting with the person she was in the summer of her teens - not to mention the person she was when she was with Wyatt - could bring her back to full expression (definitely helps you feel okay about rooting for her to dump her current fiancé, ha!). Didn't have some of the added components that made her debut a 5-star book for me, but definitely one for the beach reading list thanks to the summer nostalgia and beach setting, and the quick and easy (but not too fluffy!) reading that will draw you in and leave you satisfied in the end.

You know those books that resonate so deeply you feel as if they must have been written specifically for you? Or the ones that you wish you hadn’t read, only because you’re sad you’ll never get to experience the story for the first time again? SAME TIME NEXT SUMMER ticked both those boxes for me, and may have earned its spot as my favorite summer romance of all time.

Anabel Monaghan’s NORA GOES OFF SCRIPT was a surprise favorite for me last year, and so her second adult novel was at the top of my most-anticipated list for 2023. When I was approved for a digital ARC on NetGalley, I couldn’t believe my luck—and I was a bit worried it couldn’t live up to my own internal hype. I couldn’t have been more wrong: Now that I’ve read SAME TIME NEXT SUMMER, I’m a tinge sad I didn’t save it for the season it was meant for, when I could read it on a rocking chair on the front porch of the beach house we stay at every year, my feet tapping out a steady back-and-forth rhythm as I listen to the familiar melody of the waves crashing on the shore and the cars driving slowly down the road.

This book so perfectly captures the essence of first love and summer nostalgia, of how it feels to grow up counting down to days spent with your feet in the sand and the ocean reflected in your eyes, of wondering “what if” and trying to recall the person you were when everything felt possible. I can’t wait to get a physical copy when SAME TIME NEXT SUMMER is published so I can be swept away by the story again—it’ll be the first book to make it in my beach bag this year. Love, love, love.

This is the second book that I have read by this author. I loved her debut novel and found this one enjoyable. and entertaining. The characters are well developed and the storyline was well paced. I look forward to reading the next book this author publishes.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the digital ARC.