3.5 Stars Same Time Next Summer by Annabel Monaghan was a great follow-up to her 2022 hit, Nora Goes Off Script. 30-year-old Sam Holloway has returned to the beach house on Long Island where she spent every summer growing up, but she’s barely been back since her first love, Wyatt Pope, broke her heart thirteen years prior. Sam is with her successful dermatologist fiancée, Jack, checking out a wedding venue near the beach house. When she spots Wyatt again for the first time since they broke up, it feels like time has stopped and her heart has cracked open again, since she never got over her heartbreak. Sam still feels a connection to Wyatt and begins to question if she’s really living her life authentically.

The story has an alternating timeline and alternating POVs, showing Sam’s and Wyatt’s perspectives in both the present and the past. It reminded me a lot of Carley Fortune’s Every Summer After, but without so much of the teen angst. This felt like a good beach read; it was simple, sweet, and easy to breeze through in one sitting. Overall, I enjoyed it and look forward to seeing what Monaghan writes next!

I wasn’t a big fan of this book. I had a hard time even finishing it. I did not feel like I connected to any of the characters. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

After loving Nora Goes Off Script, I was so excited to see that Annabel Monaghan was coming out with another book! Same Time Next Summer was a great read and made me ready for summer. I loved all the characters, setting, and basically everything about this book. My only complaint is that I wish it was longer - the last third seemed to be a bit rushed and I would have loved to read a few more chapters in there.

I was looking forward to reading this after Nora Goes Off Script and it lived up to my expectations. A nice second chance romance with a few surprises.

Fans of “Nora Goes Off Script” will be pleased with Annabel’s latest release. A perfect blend of summer nostalgia and the realities of relationships.

Will be excited to bring this title into our store and feature for summer beach reads.

Ahhh, the magic of summer and the excitement of first loves! Second chance romances are my favorite and I’ll never tire of reading them. Monaghan had me longing to dip my toes in the sand and return to the carefree summer days, and I couldn’t help but sing “Summer Nights’” the whole time.

The dual timeline was a perfect fit for Sam and Wyatt’s tender love story, but I do wish we given more from Wyatt. I feel like if there had been more from his before - how he healed - then there would have been more of a connection to his after and the growth of his character. I really liked Wyatt, but it was challenging, at times, to reconcile how he went from being angry and broken to content and established. I wanted to see the work he put in like we witnessed with Sam!

I might love Nora Goes Off Script a bit more, but I really enjoyed Sam’s journey to grow, heal and find herself while rediscovering the magic of summer and getting a second chance with her first love. Same Time Next Summer was the most delightful and brimming with nostalgia, a charming supporting cast, and an adorable small beach town!

The end of the book snuck up on me!! It’s a great ending, but I just wasn’t ready to be done with it!! That said, I finished the book with a smile and a sigh. It’s sooo good!!


Thanks to #NetGalley and the publisher for early access to this book in exchange for an honest review.

To be honest, this one fell kind of flat for me. Nothing too crazy or exciting happened. I liked the main characters but otherwise, it was kind of lack luster.

It was very light and easy to read. So I’d you’re looking for something to read on the beach or after a dramatic read, this one would fit.

I loved Annabel Monaghan's other novel NORA GOES OFF SCRIPT, so I was especially excited to read this one! SAME TIME NEXT SUMMER is a sweet, summery second-chance romance that centers around Samantha (Sam) and Wyatt. Sam used to be a carefree, spontaneous girl who lived for summers at her family's Long Island beach house, where she spent every day with her friend-turned-boyfriend, Wyatt. But after they broke up, everything changed, and she's back in that same town, planning her wedding to a totally different man. Will Sam and Wyatt find their way back to each other again? Or are they truly meant to be apart?

I really enjoyed this book! I loved the summer vibes and the beach setting. The dual POVs and timelines were well done and drew me into the story right away. I liked the love story a lot, but the family relationships and the character development we see from Sam were the real highlights for me. It was great to see her grow as a person and become her true self. If you loved NORA GOES OFF SCRIPT and Carley Fortune's EVERY SUMMER AFTER, I think you'll love this one, too! I definitely did. Thank you NetGalley and Penguin Group Putnam for the ARC.

Same Time, Next Summer is a familiar story that we've seen many times lately, but I feel like it is executed in a less dramatic way that allowed me to care without too much additional stress - or eye rolls after some big reveal of the reason for the childhood breakup. Yall know which books I'm talking about. Sam and Wyatt were able to re-connect without such a huge ridiculous tragedy hanging over their heads which made me feel a lot less stressed about their future.
This book may not feel as passionate or angsty as our other beach house themed second chance romance novels, but i think it allows the reader to translate this feeling on their own without it feeling too heavy. I was able to learn to love our female lead through the childhood flashback chapters, which were done well. It was nice to watch Sam get back to her true self as the book went on.
The only thing that didn't really work for me were Wyatt's chapters. I am a huge, huge fan of dual POV narratives, because it gives us that chance to feel everything from both sides. Unfortunately, I found Wyatt to be a little boring and not forthcoming enough with his feelings for me to feel like he was contributing much to the story. I needed him to trust me a little more with his little heart so I could be happier when it filled back up.
Overall, if you like second chance romance I think you'll like this one. Especially if you'd rather avoid absurd drama between the two main characters.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to read an ARC of Same time next summer.

This was an enjoyable read. I really like the premises of this book, but I had trouble connecting with the characters. I wanted to feel the emotions the characters were going through, but it just fell flat.

Nora Goes Off Script was one of my favorite reads last year and Annabel Monaghan has done it again! Thank you so much to NetGalley and Putnam for the advanced copy. For lovers of Every Summer After & Love and Other Words- this one is for you.

Sam is an engaged woman who comes face to face with her first love who she hasn’t seen since she was 17. Seeing Wyatt makes her question everything she thought she knew about love and her fiancé. Being back in the place where they grew up, Sam starts to reevaluate the perfect life she’s constructed for herself.

I devoured this story in a day! This will be the perfect summer read. The chapters are short and I simply could not put it down! I enjoyed watching Sam and Wyatt’s story unfold from the very beginning to the present. As with Nora Goes Off Script- Monaghan writes in the family characters just as well as the main ones. I grew to love Sam’s unique family and how they fit into her story. What a fun read!

Nora Goes Off Script was one of my 5-star books in 2022, so I was super excited to receive a NetGalley advance copy of Annabel Monaghan’s latest book, Same Time Next Summer. Spoiler alert, it was another 5-star for me (my first of 2023!).

Any book about summers at the beach is a winner for me, and while this one is set in Long Island, it could easily be about your own favorite summer spot. This story is told in alternating viewpoints by Sam and Wyatt, and also alternates between Then and Now. It revisits their dynamics growing up as friends and next door neighbors every summer at the beach, and how that childhood friendship blossoms into a first love. Fast forward to today, Sam and Wyatt have each grown up with their own separate lives on opposite coasts, but find themselves reunited at the beach again when Sam returns to plan her wedding to her fiancé, Jack.

I was drawn into the story through the alternating narratives and the vivid details that brought me back to summers on the beach, and found myself so invested in Sam and Wyatt’s stories that I finished the book in two days. This book is available in June and will be the perfect one to pre-order or purchase for your beach bag this summer.

What a lovely book. Sam is around 30, living and working in the big city, in a job she very much dislikes, engaged to a man about whom she is not excited. Jack is boring, vanilla, monochrome, a doctor who doesn't like his clients, dedicated to the treadmill (metaphorically and literally). His idea of a good life is to have certain and immovable limits/boundaries/constraints. After being shattered as a young teen by intense heartbreak, this is exactly what Sam needs. She doesn't realize how much she's limited herself until she reunites with her true love, Wyatt, and this realization forces a painful reckoning for both of them. With beautiful descriptions of a seaside childhood home and village, this book had everything a reader wants from smart, thoughtful romance.

4.5 stars for Sweet Home Alabama vibes, first loves coming back around, and finding your peace and your truth with the people you love.

Sam and Wyatt grew up together at their Long Island Beach cottages every summer. They surfed and swam and adventured and fell in love. An incident between their families shook up their relationship and they haven't talked in over a decade. Until Sam comes back to the beach with her new, buttoned up, doctor-fiance to start planning the wedding. What she didn't know is that Wyatt is back, too, and after 14 years, there are still some things they never got closure about.

This was a sweet, emotional, & quick (one day) read that I would recommend. Thanks NetGalley for an ARC!

I've read a couple second chance romance books that started at a beach house when the main characters were kids recently, and I was feeling a bit 'been there, done that' starting this book despite really enjoying Nora Goes Off Script. This ended up being the best of this genre of book (for me, at least)!

Sam and Wyatt were both thoroughly developed characters. I expected to feel frustrated when I got to the reason Sam and Wyatt broke up as teens, but I ended up genuinely understanding why they fizzled out despite their big feelings. The other characters were such fun - I especially loved Granny and Grace.

The aspect of the story I struggled the most with was Sam and Jack being engaged for the majority of the book. It was so anxiety-inducing for me that it took down my enjoyment of the book a smidge. However, I still really liked Same Time Next Summer and will read whatever Annabel Monaghan writes next.

Same Time Next Summer gave me all the nostalgia vibes for those young, carefree days being a kid at the beach and then to those confusing days of first falling in love and feeling unsure of who you are becoming. It is masterfully written and such a joyful read.

Samantha (Sam) was once a happy, spontaneous girl living for her summers at the beach with her friend and then boyfriend Wyatt, the boy next door. After a messy breakup, she pivoted to become a very buttoned up woman who needs to have a plan and can only bear to spend a weekend along the Atlantic with her family. This year she brings her fiancée along to the beach, and the reappearance of Wyatt threatens to throw her life off of its very well designed track.

I loved the chapters describing Sam and Wyatt in the past, as we watched them grow from strangers meeting at age 5 to unsure young adults to teens in love. There was so much nostalgia sprinkled in and young love was described so beautifully that those sections were just perfection. These were interwoven with the story of today, as Sam attempts to plan her wedding amidst some confusion about seeing Wyatt again.

The dialogue is well written, the characters incredibly well developed, and I know I will need to buy a physical copy of this book to revisit it during the actual summer.

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

I was glad to read this though I still prefer Monaghan’s first book. Recommend to those who enjoyed that !

I IMMEDIATELY fell into this story! I’ve read a few books with similar vibes and outline, but this one definitely stands on its own. My favorite type of romance novels are character focused, so this was perfect for me. Annabel Monaghan has a real talent for writing authentic, believable characters that feel so relatable and down to earth. I had high expectations because of how much I loved Nora Goes Off Script and this definitely delivered.

A sweet, summery beach read! Featuring themes of second chance romance, coming of age, family ties, the and the importance of creativity and being true to one’s own voice, I found Annabel Monaghan’s Same Time Next Summer to be a delightful, at times insightful tale that truly transports the reader to a charming small Long Island beach town during the protagonists’ childhood and, in a separate story line, during their early 30s.

This novel is not as original, well developed or tightly woven as last summer’s Nora Goes Off Script, and I would have loved a bit more of the “adult” story line (particularly from Wyatt’s POV) - and perhaps an epilogue. That said, Monaghan has a true knack for writing about families and conveying a strong sense of place, and fans of Monaghan and of Carley Fortune’s Every Summer After will especially want this book in their beach bags. Maybe Monaghan will revisit these characters someday by spinning a new story featuring teenager Gracie?

Many thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Group Putnam, G.P. Putnam’s for a complimentary ARC. Opinions are entirely my own.