Annabel Monaghan does it again with this upcoming release, Summer Romance. My first book by this author was Same Time Next Summer. Shortly after, I devoured Nora Goes Off Script. I was beyond excited to get my hands on this ARC, and even with through the roof expectations- it delivered!

So let's talk Summer Romance. Ali is in her early-ish thirties with three kids and a soon to be ex-husband, Pete. Pete is kind of a undercover jerk. He seems fine on the surface, but a closer look (which Ali is finally taking) reveals he is selfish, rude, and entitled. When Ali has a meet cute at the dog park, she's sure she will never see Ethan again but lo and behold, this is a romance novel and they meet again soon. And you know what? That's all you need to know. I love that the synopsis of this one is just the taste you need and doesn't ruin any of the early reveals so I won't ruin them either!

Even if you aren't a romance reader, I encourage you to give Annabel Monaghan a try. She writes beautiful characters that have been through heartbreak and are finding themselves and rediscovering how they can interact with the world without just being in constant service to others. I adored how Ali (FMC) was relatable and unique, and that Ethan (MMC) is not your cookie cutter male love interest. He's a whole human being and so is she. I will read everything Monaghan ever writes, and I plan to buy this when it comes out. It's just that good.

I have never been more excited to read a book than I was this one. I loved Annabel's first two books so, so much, and this one as well. As a mom, I really zqe myself in Ali and the way Ethan loved her was just SWOON. I'm already looking forward to next summer so I can read a brand new world from Annabel

Thank you netgalley for this opportunity! Was never so excited.
If I wasn't coming down off the emotional hangover that is Iron Flame, I think this easily would have been my top read in November. It was an absolute gem of a book from Monaghan and I think her best yet (and I ADORED STNS and NGOS).
I loved that this took on an approach of a divorcee who ISN'T completely destroyed by her divorce: she is instead aware how their marriage fell apart and is instead trying to find the 'her' she lost somewhere along the way. I loved that it also dove deep into grief, the relationships we have with our parents, and the great (but not always great) ways they shape our other relationships. Ali is older (I love an older female lead), flawed, and self-aware. Ethan is just straight perfection: the idea of a man trying to make a name for himself apart from his family's generalizations of his childhood is so compelling.
The romance is fantastic and I actually really enjoyed how closed-door this was. I didn't need steam to absolutely fall for Ali/Ethan.

Annabel Monaghan has quickly become one of my favorite authors. This book was a pleasure to read - I wouldn't change a thing.

As a reader in my 40s, I love that Annabel is writing slightly older protagonists. I relate so much to Ali - it's so easy to subconsciously let marriage and parenthood chip away at who you are; to dull your shine. I'm so glad Ali got her shine back. Ethan's journey seemed equally important. They were both coming at adulthood from different angles but learning the same lesson - how to remain true to themselves while navigating disappointment and figuring out who they really are.

Full disclosure: this was an advanced reader copy received through NetGalley but I will happily pay for this book once it comes out.

I loved Nora Goes Off Script and Summer Romance is just as wonderful! Ali and Ethan are both loveable characters. The story is set in Beechwood, NY and there are rescue dogs, sweet kids, skateboarding, beach time and so much more,

Ali and Ethan have a funny meet-cute at a dog park when Ali’s dog pees on Ethan’s foot, soaking his sock. Ali runs into him again at the skateboard park when she’s dropping her son’s lunch off at rec camp. They end up going to the beach together with their dogs and the way the beach was described made me feel like I was there. It’s fun to see Ethan fall first and I loved their first date to the baseball game. Ethan has a way of bringing joy into their lives – when she’s having a bad day, he teaches her to skateboard!

Ali has been grieving her mother’s death for two years. She and her husband have been separated for a year and hired a mediator for their divorce - Ali is struggling. She works as a professional organizer and while she loves working on other people’s homes, her own home has gotten pretty messy. She is a loving and caring mother and always comes up with creative things for her and her three kids to do that are ‘fun-tastic’ (like her mother did before she passed). She has fixed up her backyard where they have picnics and hunt for stones in the creek and it sounds like a magical place. Her ex, Pete coaches the girls’ soccer teams but isn’t good about committing to when he will be picking up and dropping off the kids. When he tells her he is getting a bigger apartment and they need to juggle some expenses, she realizes she needs a lawyer. Luckily for Ali, Ethan is a lawyer! Some of my favorite scenes are the mediation with Pete - there are some funny moments and I found myself rooting for Ali and Ethan.

Ethan is in Beechwood for the summer, to clear out his parents’ home after they move to FL. He moved to Devon, CT to get away from his family who couldn’t see past the boy he was when he misbehaved in his youth to the man he is now. They think he is unreliable and still call him Scooter, his childhood nickname. Ethan has built a new life that is rewarding. I don’t want to give too much away but he is a delight. There are also wonderful secondary characters like Ali’s mom, Ethan’s family, the kids and the dogs. Ali and Ethan are so good together as they enjoy their summer romance and realize maybe they don’t want summer to ever end.

The beginning of the story was sad and a little slow, but not for long. It’s sweet, tender and funny and would make a great beach read. It’s a feel good book that kept me smiling. Thank you to Annabel Monaghan, Penguin and NetGalley for the advanced copy of the book.

Annabel Monaghan did it again with swoon worthy, Summer Romance! I know I'm loving a book when it has me grinning from ear to ear/blushing over golden forearms. While this book was a fun, giggly read, it also touched on so many important issues- divorce, loss of a parent, coming of age, motherhood, etc. It was truly a beautiful book about not only romantic relationships, but about the mother/daughter relationship as well.

I’m a huge fan of this author’s and was so excited to receive this arc. I loved that the main character was in her late 30s with three children, without a “highly successful“ career, and that her love interest was her friend’s younger brother. It was a really touching story about loss and love, between her experiences with her mother and her neighbor. My only feedback is that it did feel like a slower, lengthier read… I do wonder if that’s a result of the arc and some thing that will change when it approaches publishing. Thank you for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Beautiful, relatable, funny and quiet in its magic. I had felt such an understanding and kinship with Ali and it was so refreshing to have such a relatable FMC who was relatable -- not because she was quirky (which typically leads to cringey) but because Monaghan found a way to make her an everyday mom who was also smart, tender, responsible and still gave her the tendencies, thoughts, and guilty pleasures we all have. I loved that the MMC was so well thought out and was such a brilliant type of man (strong but sweet and likable) to bring in on the heels of such an emotional life change. I loved the details of the summer dinners on the back deck and from start to finish, it was such a delicious read. Easy, easy 5* recommendation.

I have yet to read anything by Annabel Monaghan that I didn't absolutely love. Summer Romance was no different. I knew exactly who would be the MMC when her friend mentioned the family event and I loved it. Scooter was an absolutely delight of a man. I loved Ali's transformations. It's way to easy for mothers and wives to get sodden down by the day to day life and lose themselves in the process. I could absolutely relate to this. This book was absolutely perfection. So grateful to get an ARC.

If you’re a fan of Emily Henry and Katherine Center, Annabel Monaghan might be your next favorite author. I adored Nora Goes Off Script two years ago. Same Time Next Summer was fine but lacked something in the plot department. Summer Romance was back to the Nora level.

Lately, I have been very much appreciating these authors who are creating relatable characters in their 30s and 40s. Ali is a soon-to-be single grief stricken mother of three who has lost herself in both motherhood and a marriage where she let herself disappear. After running into a man from high school (who she didn’t think too highly of at the time), she both falls in love and remembers who she is.

The banter was genuinely witty and funny not just between the two love interests, but also among the delightful cast of family and friend side characters. I loved seeing her learn to try to find that tricky balance between staying true to who you are, pursue what you love and also unselfishly sacrifice when necessary. Too often characters searching for identity end up swinging too far to one side of that pendulum. In terms of the guy who she didn’t think too highly of in the beginning, in many books this kind of character is the “reformed bad boy” who chooses to change just because he falls in love. That’s always a risky choice when it’s not clear if the maturity will stick. In this case, he’s just a guy who didn’t know who he was in high school, floated with the wrong crowd for a bit and then matured; unfortunately, he ended up stuck in that place where people in your hometown or family members seem to never view you differently. The changes the characters made were realistic and relatable to me.

Summer Romance doesn’t come out until June but I highly recommend adding this to your TBR now!

I truly believe I have been waiting my entire life to read this wonderful book. Ms. Monaghan has once again created endearing characters who will live in our hearts forever. Each word she writes is seared into our souls, every sentence becomes a paragraph that we will read over and over again so we can relive the all encompassing emotions between Ali and Ethan. The title of her latest masterpiece reminds me of a long beach weekend on Cape Cod with my college roommates where the sunsets were romantic and the college guys were dreamy and a lot of fun. Usually there is an ending in sight to these brief encounters but for Ali and Ethan, their time together that summer was never going to be enough. Stolen moments at the beach and skateboard park, or just holding hands, was magical and a surprise to both of them.

Ali’s life is in transition and she wishes she could seek advice from her beloved mother just one more time. She feels that her mother is always with her, leading her in the right direction and leaving a little “sparkle” along the way. Ali organizes peoples houses for a living but she cannot begin to straighten up the pile of mail on her kitchen counter. With her kids away at day camp, Ali sought refuge with her dog, Ferris, at the dog park where she met the man of her dreams. Was it fate that brought Ethan into her life or was her mother telling her that she deserved her happily ever after?

Ali feels “lighter” when she is with Ethan, as if a new version of herself was about to bloom. She never stood up to her soon to be ex-husband and had lost sight of who she really was. She was more than just a mom, which of course, was her most important job! She had also been a successful accountant where each day everything added up at the bottom of the spreadsheet, which was the exact opposite of how her life was now. Ethan turned her head, made her smile and gave her ideas she shouldn’t be having, but why wouldn’t she want to be loved by a good man? Ethan was thoughtful, really listened to what she had to say, and had a way of making every day special. Was it too much to ask that they could somehow always be together so their days and nights would begin and end with a love and a little sparkle?

4.5 out of 5 stars

I adored this book. What makes this book stand out are the characters. Every single character in this novel sings- Ali, Ali's kids, Ali's parents, Ethan, Ethan's parents, Ethan's sister - every single one of them feels real and full formed. None of them seem perfect. Their vulnerabilities are well drawn and it makes them incredibly lovable and relatable (except for Pete - he sucks). Sometimes that "realness" and relatability made it hard for me to read the book, and I'd have to put it down for a few minutes. It just felt like my heart was fully in the game- some angst would bubble up for me, and I'd need to take a breather.

I was so thrilled to watch Ethan and Ali fall in love. I wish there were more open door sex scenes, but that's just my preference.

There isn't much a "plot" here. The plot is largely the emotional journey of these two characters as they learn to open up to each other and overcome their fears. The absence of greater action might bore some readers. For me, the love story was so romantic that I never found myself bored.

(And, if the author were to make this into a series, I'd happily read subsequent books about the novel's secondary characters!)

Summer Romance is a truly beautiful story about Ali, a mother of three, trying to find herself after the death of her mother and her divorce. I was absolutely hooked after the first chapter. The writing is very well done. I truly felt like I was going through all the emotions with the characters. It was a nice easy and enjoyable closed door romance. This was my first Annabel Monaghan novel and I can't wait to dive into her other books!

Thank you to NetGalley and Annabel Monaghan for the advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

Summer Romance is the story of Ali, an almost single mom learning to rebuild her own strength and confidence after death and a soon to be divorce take their toll. This is a non spicy, slow burn, best friends brother romance that starts out as a romance but is more of an exploration of overcoming stagnancy after loss.
I am a fan of this authors first books, Nora Goes Off Script, and appreciate the opportunity provided by Netgalley and Penguin to read and review another book by this author.
Ali, her love interest Ethan, all three of her kids and almost all of the secondary characters are likable. I will say that her soon to be ex, Pete, is understandably not very likable and her best friend Frannie is a bit unyielding at times with her own minor subplot about an inn. This book does well to show how sometimes things can just slowly wear down not only a person but a marriage. I appreciate that there is no cheating plot in this book. These are just two people who are no longer connected by anything but legalities and their children. Of course Pete is shown to be a rather absent father both physically and emotionally and I think that it might be better served for his character to have actually been a better father. This would have illustrated the point of that sometimes its not a specific person that causes a death in a marriage so much as it just happens and its no ones fault..
While I did enjoy the romance storyline of this book, I do feel that the love interest Ethan did get to help Ali learn to stand on her own, I wish that his own storyline of showing his family and the people in the town that he was no longer the troublemaker they assumed him to be anymore. If there could have been a scene of him even saying to his family stop calling me by that childhood nickname kind of scene I would have really liked that.
I am giving this book 3.5 out of 5 stars and will absolutely post a review on my social media closer to the release date in support of this author.

Annabel Monaghan has quickly become one of my favorite authors. Her stories are relatable to my season of life.
I think Summer Romance is going to be the beach read of 2024.
The story followers the MC that is a mother of three and divorcing and finding herself again after years of being stifled.
I can't say I'm a fan of reading about divorce as it can be a downer however, Annabel has an awesome way of bringing me along the journey and feeling the emotions without sending me into depression (or rage at the ex partner).
It's the perfect mix of emotions that it's not fluffy but it's not written with too much angst. Highly recommend.

A summer romance that was heartwarming, sad, reassuring and all about finding yourself again when one chapter ends and you realize you aren’t aware of who you’ve become anymore. I loved it. It made me laugh, cry and melt with how sincere Ethan was in all aspects of his life.

3.5 stars, rounded down just because I don't think it's going to stick with me.

Another solid book by Annabel Monaghan. I still think <i>Nora</i> is her best, but her books have all been approachable and relatable. I love that her main characters are women in their mid- to late thirties. I love that they have normal, believable lives. And I love that the romances all feel realistic.

Summer Romance definitely hits all of those checkboxes, and it was enjoyable to read. But, also, nothing about it really wow-ed me. I think it could be a great beach read, but it's also not something that you'll go to bed thinking about.

I really enjoyed this book! It was a quick read. I finished Nora Goes Off Script two weeks ago and loved that so I was happy to get the chance to read another book by the same author. I really loved her books, her descriptions of her character’s yards have me ordering more flower bulbs than I know what to do with.

the cover? cute. the story? wow. it wasn’t just a summer romance novel. it explored topics of grief, divorce, family, and friendships. definitely would recommend. i like when a romance can explore such topics and be relatable as someone who dealt with family/friendship issues. i did enjoy the banter dialogue as well. overall, great read.

Drop this in your beach bag! I loved reading this multi-layered story well crafted by Annabel Monaghan. Notwithstanding its title, Summer Romance is no ordinary light romcom. While the book has laugh out loud moments, snappy dialogue and a love story to be sure, Monaghan explores in depth themes of grief (death, divorce), family, friendship and self-development. Both primary and secondary characters were well developed (so much so that I wanted more about Frannie and Phyllis), and protagonist Ali in particular is both relatable and likable. The sense of place was so strong throughout I felt small town vibes, the fairytale like appearance of Phyllis’ house, the allure of the inn owned by Frannie’s parents. Ultimately, I craved more about these families and this town.

Highly recommended to fans of Monaghan’s Nora Goes Off Script and of other authors of intelligent, contemporary fiction, such as Emily Giffin, Elin Hildebrand and Katherine Center. 4.5 stars.

Many thanks to NetGalley and G.P. Putnam’s Sons for a complementary ARC. Opinions are my own.