While I found the initial meet-cute and reveal a little unbelievable, this book charmed me in the end. I always appreciate Monaghan's romances for focusing on women with actual lives and problems. Her books always are dealing with loss and grief in some way. In this one, the FMC is explicitly grieving her mother, who died two years before the start of the book. Since losing my own parent, one of the things I've realized is that death doesn't end a relationship. A relationship can grow and deepen and change even after death, and this book provides a great depiction of that.

I absolutely adored this small-town romance by Annabel Monaghan.

Ali Morris has been in a funk ever since her mother passed. Although she is a professional organizer, she can't seem to organize her own life. She has three kids, a dog, is about to divorce her husband, and has no interest in wearing real pants. But her life takes an unexpected turn when she meets Ethan at the dog park. What follows is a genuine love story that tackles all the messy parts that come with finding love again when you're all grown up.

Familiar tropes of best friend's brother, small-town romance, and single parenting. This is a closed-door romance.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This was a fun read. The characters were surprisingly likable, and I liked the relationship between Ali and Ethan. I thought their romance was sweet, but also strangely practical? I enjoyed that it lacked the angst of "we just can't be together" and had more intricate problems and details stemming from Ali being a mother of three, in the middle of a divorce, and trying to navigate how to juggle everything in her life at once.
I thought Pete was a good character, and I thought that enough attention was paid to him being sort of a jerk without making him overly evil or cruel. The scenes where he and Ethan are in mediation were some of my favorites. I don't have much else to say, just that this book was enjoyable. Nothing about it really blew me away, but I don't feel like I wasted my time reading it. It was easy to get through and enjoyable. Can't ask for much more than that.

Thank you to Putnam Books and NetGalley for the ARC of this book.

Ali Morris lost herself in her marriage and found herself in her divorce. A professional organizer who is a mess at home. A mom of three who is kind of going through the motion.

I loved it from the meet cute with Ethan at the dog park and couldn’t put it down. Monaghan writes characters that are relatable. Her writing style makes you feel like these are your people. For me, I feel the feelings. I fell in love with Ethan. I grieved with Ali. I was proud of her growth.

It’s bingeable. I laughed, loved, and cried.

This is a perfect book for the summer and I sure hope you grab it.

Annabel Monaghan just gets better and better, and with her third book Summer Romance, she’s now officially a staple author I’ll always read. This book, my favorite of hers, is a beautiful story exploring grief through the loss of a parent, divorce, parenting, finding new love, and most importantly, finding oneself. I love that, though this is a HEA romcom with smart banter and swoony scenes, this is an authentic book with convincing, complex characters and genuine conflicts. Monaghan writes of beautiful heartbreak and redemption, with themes touching on grief, death, bravery, and hope.

I adored the hero and heroine in Summer Romance. Ali is a single mom who is navigating life, grieving her mother’s death and finding her own as she processes her divorce (side note: Pete, her ex, is such a tool!). Ethan has admired Ali since high school, and he empowers her to find herself, giving her freedom to feel her feelings and find what she wants, while encouraging her to be more trusting and showing her what a real man should look like for her children. I also love the relatability to Ali; she’s vulnerable, smart, and 38! The soft pants and shaving with reading glasses… I feel so seen. Thank you, Annabel, for the representation! Ethan is such a swoony supporter, a true man in a modern world. Thank you again, Annabel, for THIS important representation of a supportive, caring man.

I also adored the secondary characters - the three kids, the loveable elderly neighbors, and the town friends and family. I especially love dogs, who were characters in their own right! They felt so real, and I appreciate Monaghan sharing these people and their stories with us. This book was a homerun for me - the very best in the romcom genre. Five full stars for Monaghan’s beautiful writing, heartfelt emotions, and highly satisfying ending.

Summer Romance follows professional organizer Ali and her dog park meet-cute Ethan through, well, their summer romance! I loved everything about this book. The pacing was great, the characters were well-fleshed out (even the most tertiary side characters!), and the conflict was believable with high stakes but not dragged out too long. I would've liked a bit more spice, but that's just personal preference. Five stars!

Annabel Monaghan's books have such heart to them! I thoroughly enjoyed Ali journey and her and Ethan's story. Looking forward to the next one! I know Monaghan will be on bestseller lists for years to come.

Annabelle Monaghan never misses. This book sparkles.

Summer Romance is a cute, summery, squeal-worthy romcom with a deep message: love is a risk. To love and be loved is to accept grief and heartache and pain and change.

Ali is a professional organizer with a mess of a pantry, processing a divorce, and coming to terms with the passing of her mother. If that weren’t enough, she’s raising teens.

Meet Ethan--dog lover, skateboarder. A confident, charming cutie with a big heart and hot hands and a past desperate to pigeon-hold him.

He’s her best friend’s brother, and he’s her divorce attorney. Can’t he also be her summer fling?

Thank you NetGalley and Annabelle Monaghan for the eARC in exchange for an honest review! Run, don’t walk, to add this to your summer TBR. SUMMER ROMANCE hits the shelves on June 4, 2024. Here's to a champagne summer!

Loved it! Monaghan's writing is such a delight; this is this is the third book of hers and it's such a great summer frolic. Get your seat by the pool or ocean and be sure to take this fun one on vacay in 2024.

i always love a single parent trope. she learned so much but unfortunately it was annoying that she only grew as a person because of another man pointing it out.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an ARC for review.

Annabel Monaghan has done it again. This is her third book I've read, no, her third book I've devoured. I love her writing and just breeze through these books. I finished this in maybe a day? While they are easy to read, they do deal with serious topics in such a thoughtful way. Ali is a newly-divorced mother of three, who is also grieving the loss of her mother. When a romantic interest breezes into town, it turns her world upside down.

Sometimes the content was hard to read -- Ali is learning how to find her voice again -- but it all comes out positively and you want to cheer her on.

Ali Morris is still recovering from losing her mother when her husband demands a divorce from their auto pilot marriage. Her life is a mess, her house is a mess, which is ironic since she makes what little money she does from organizing other peoples houses, and she needs to get her life together for her three children if not for herself.

All the characters in this closed door rom-com are delightful, from the kids to the friends to the dogs, with the exception of the soon to be ex husband. I have been losing patience with many of the rom coms I have tried recently, but I really enjoyed this one and really cared what was going to happen to these people who grew on my heart so quickly. I liked watching Ali regain her confidence and begin to stick up for herself, and how hard she tried to be the best parent she could be. I think this is another winner for Annabel Monaghan.

Thank you to Net galley and the publisher for an e galley in return for an honest review.

Five stars because Annabel Monaghan’s writing made me feel everything and things I’ve never had the pleasure/pain to feel before in my life. The writing so easily transported me into Ali Morris’s shoes. A reread forever and one I will be purchasing in a physical copy that will have a worn cover for sure. I cannot recommend louder.

For me, it’s a 3-star book. For the intended audience, it’s a 5-star book. So we’ll make it a 4. It’s actually fine, harmless, and fluffy, just Not My Thing. Or at least not the thing I was in the mood for.

This is a book about a divorcing woman with 3 kids trying to get her life together. I am, therefore, not the intended audience of this book, as I can’t relate to any of that (except the very last thing). But if you can identify with that character, and if you want to imagine starting up a summer romance with a nice guy from your hometown, then this may be the book for you, Mary Sue.

Ali felt very ‘real’ to me, although honestly just in the way that other characters like her are, not in a way that I actually know people like her. It is a cozy book that wasn’t written for me. Every single thing that happened was predictable. But, well, sometimes you want that? If so, this is the book for you.

I got this one in advance through NetGalley, but I’m not motivated to read more of this author. I have a feeling it’s all the same.

No one writes a female lead that I cheer for like Monaghan. The way Ali lost her way but did not lose herself, deep down, was so heartening and was the part related to her relationship with her mother. I particularly liked how Monaghan made the relationship layered--it was clear that Ali and her mother had a loving relationship but also sometimes loving relationships can be a crutch or make it easier to settle for things that one would not settle for otherwise. Who could not love and relate to Ethan and the particular anxiety that comes from returning to a town that where some really rough teenage years took place. One of my favorite things about Nora Goes Off Script is that there were these little quippy asides (I'm thinking specifically of Nora referring to Leo as her husband and saying something to the effect of "and that's legit") and those were in this book too. I think it does a wonderful job humanizing Ali and showing her particular sense of humor. Overall, just a lovely book.

This was such a sweet story about love, family, friends that become family and most of all standing up for ourselves. Ali was in a rut of grief over the loss of her mother and the end of her marriage and learns so much about herself in this book. This was my first Annabel Monaghan read and definitely not my last. Thanks to Putnam Books and NetGalley for a chance to read an early copy in exchange for an honest review.

Ohmygodddddd I cannot get over how much I love Annabel Monaghan’s books. Cannot. Get. Over. It.

Summer Romance, which I had to FORCE myself to slow down in reading because I knew once it was over I’d be in WITHDRAWAL LAND, was like the first sip of champagne on a very exciting night. It was like the first bite into a dip that you were staring at in the oven, waiting for it to cook. It was like the first sip of rose on a hot summer day.

I am currently reading it in December and can report back that this is a fabulous book to read any time of year. But when that copy lands in my mailbox on publication day on June 4th - it’s going to just be perfection. 🤌🏻

I found myself highlighting portions of every other damn page in this book. Annabel’s writing is just so good. So good. She makes you really feel what her characters are feeling, and you are championing for them from the start. I love that she includes kiddos and that relationship and their lives in her books, and that she can touch on topics such as grief, divorce, and heartbreak, and do it in a way that doesn’t feel too heavy.

Some of my favorites that made me swoon and also have to rip the dagger out of my chest:
* References to a “champagne summer”
* “The smile of a six-year-old boy who hasn’t seen his mom in ten hours”
* “Hard pants”
* The tension and banter with Ethan and Ali, and her excitement for him…”carbonated”
* “It’s funny what you’ll do for your kids but not for yourself” 👏🏻
* The inherent heartbreak of dog ownership “and I know for sure that I will always have a dog” 😭
* “Shaving in the shower with glasses on”
* The love shared by bringing another person a cup of coffee

Annabel Monaghan was already an auto-buy author for me, but I am just so, so enamored by this book and am so excited for it to get into everyone’s hands. This is the perfect gift for a sibling, parent, in-law, cousin, coworker…you name it! I cannot recommend her enough.

Thank you to @netgalley and @annabelmonaghan for the advanced copy, I devoured it! 🥰

Thank you to the publisher for this ARC. I absolutely loved this book. I couldn’t put it down. I had a similar reaction to Nora Goes Off Script and I will definitely be seeking out books by Annabel Monaghan in the future. Summer Romance has great character development. The characters are very likable and I was just pulling for them to make it the whole time. My only critique is that there were a few places where it was difficult to determine who was talking or who the pronouns were referring to.

I unfortunately couldn't get into this book. It's definitely more women's fiction than romance and I was hoping for more romance.

Thank you to NetGalley and the Publisher for an advance E-Copy of Summer Romance by Annabel Monaghan in exchange for an honest review.

"Summer Romance" by Annabel Monaghan is a truly captivating book that delves into the journey of Ali, a mother of three, as she navigates her way through the challenges of loss and starting afresh after her divorce. From the very first few lines, the writing effortlessly draws you in, making you feel like a part of Ali's world and empathize with her emotions. The author's ability to create relatable characters and weave a beautiful closed-door romance adds an extra layer of depth to the story. This book is a delightful and enjoyable read that will leave you eagerly anticipating your next encounter with Annabel Monaghan's works. I gave this book a solid 4.5 Stars! Highly Recommended!