Dels life blows up right before a big career opportunity which forces her back to her hometown where she reconnects with local bar owner Eddie. The present timeline offers them a second chance, while the story’s past timeline unfolds and gives readers a glimpse at the two of them navigating high school and difficult upbringings.

For me this story was take it or leave it. I mostly enjoyed Del and Eddie, but I didn’t feel any real urgency or tension in their relationship (I actually felt more moved and that her character shows more growth by her relationship with her dad). I also felt that some of the other characters could have been developed a little better.

Overall I don’t feel that this book was poorly written, but it also didn’t feel super memorable. Will it change your life and make you keep thinking about it? Probably not. Is it a good option for throwing in your bag and reading at the shore? Yes.

Summertime Punchline is a delightfully funny debut novel which follows Delfina, an up-and-comer who’s finally receiving her big break in comedy…. Meanwhile everything else in her life is falling apart. She’s lost her job, her apartment and her boyfriend all in the course of the worst day ever. Forced to move back up and face her past, she reunites with an old flame. Can the fire burn a second time?

Told in alternating timelines of present & flashbacks to the past, this story packs the comedic punch it claims but also brings the feels with it. This second chance romance shows just how much love is worth fighting for!

Great beach read! 3.5 ⭐️

Thanks to NetGalley & Avon and Harper Voyager for the opportunity to read this digital ARC. All opinions expressed are my own.

Summertime Punchline by Betty Corello is a fun enemies to lovers romcom.
Del’s life has just imploded. She walked in on her boyfriend and friend in a compromising position, now she has no place to live, and her comedy career revolves around jokes about her and her now ex boyfriend. So where do you go when the world is falling apart? The place that means home, even if it’s a small town in New Jersey that is a ghost town in winter, and a tourist trap in the summer. Del makes the trip to Evergreen NJ to stay with her grandmother, unfortunately she has some not so pleasant memories of her home town, or more of a certain person that lives there.
Evergreen hasn’t changed all that much, although Del sees some positive changes, like the Ferris wheel being repaired. But when she runs into her childhood bully, Eddie, she goes down the path of remembering things she didn’t want to remember. I love the way the author goes from the present to the past, painting their story from memories and giving them both a new perspective.

Living in a small shore town in the very southern part of New Jersey, I loved the picture the author painted. Her description is accurate describing how the short tourist season can make or break a business, and the way the scents and smells are so nostalgic. I have never been to Evergreen, but it easily describes towns like Ocean City or Wildwood.

I truly enjoyed the characters progression, both as individuals and eventually together. The interactions with other characters were great, loving Nan Roger and Sam. Eddie is definitely swoon worthy. Definitely an enjoyable story. I will definitely check out more books from Betty Corello, especially if her future books are as sweet and heartwarming.

fun romcom
enemies to lovers
Second chance romance

Del is a working comedian whose life gets upended and she finds herself having to go home to pick up the pieces with her Grandma who raised her, her father who failed her, and Eddie, the guy she blames her heartache on.
I loved these characters, Del and Eddie, Roger and Nan. The relationship development built through the book and the dual timeline was perfect for explaining where Del’s fight or flight attitude came from.
This was a great read for readers who love:
It’s always been you
Second chance romance
Thank you to Netgalley and Avon for an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Del is finally getting her big break in comedy, but the rest of her life has fallen apart. After a job loss, break-up and apartment loss, she heads back to her hometown that she left behind years ago. While there, she reconnects with Eddie, as well as some other pieces of her past. The story provides some flashbacks (which I generally always dig), so you can also see where Del and Eddie have been. While this book is touted as being about comedy/funny, it's also got some heavy feels. Del has navigated a lot of things in her hometown, and she revisits those as she's back again. There are moments of levity and even ways she turns this into her comedy, but this one was a bit more emotional (and that's not a critique just a noted fact) as a second-chance romance than I anticipated going in! This is a good summery read, and a thanks to NetGalley for the early look at this May 2024 release!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫 (4.5/5)

This book was like cracking open a cold one with the boys…refreshing and wholesome. Born and raised in Jersey and having experienced Jersey shore summers, I absolutely loved that this was the setting. This debut novel was EVERYTHING! The dual timeline worked so well here and I absolutely love the author’s style of writing. I do wish we got a little more of Eddie’s story with his dad and why he’s so broken but I loved the progression of Del and Eddie’s relationship. Second chance romance is slowly becoming one of my favorite tropes. I’m excited to read more from this author in the future.

Thank you NetGalley, AvonBooks, HarperVoyagerUS, and Betty Corrello for this arc in exchange for my honest review. 🫶🏻

Quick but meaty read, highly enjoyable. When Del's life in New York City implodes, she goes back to New Jersey to stay with her grandmother and prep for a prestigious stand-up comedy showcase. While there she re-connects with high school frenemy Eddie, their past told in flashback segments. As Del becomes closer to her roots, she makes some big decisions about how she wants the rest of her life to look. Del and Eddie are childhood frenemies (is "frenemies to lovers" a formal trope?). I enjoy a good childhood to adulthood love story. Nice level of sparks, it made things more interesting and I loved the push-pull between Del and Eddie. The author has a fun voice, I really enjoyed it and I'm looking forward to reading more from her! Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Thanks to NetGalley, HarperCollins, and the author for an early copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This was a beautiful second chance romance book. Del goes back to her hometown after her life falls apart in New York and while there she reconnects with people from her past. I really enjoyed Del as a character, she felt very real and relatable, and you get a deep understanding of her through flashbacks, jokes, and songs. I do wish we got a bit more of Eddie's backstory and feelings during some of the key scenes, but I still enjoyed him as a character. Overall, a cute summer read!

This was such a delightful and breezy read! Summertime Punchline is Betty Corello's debut novel. It follows comedian Delfina as she reluctantly moves back to her hometown after losing her job, boyfriend, and apartment in one bad afternoon.

The way Del fell into old rhythms in her gentrifying hometown was a relateable charade. The dual timelines really added value to the story and helped me better grasp why the characters were who they were in the present-day timeline. The backstories also supported the second chance romance, which sometimes feels frustrating to me. Del and Eddie's relationship unfolded naturally but I wish I knew more about Eddie! This book was reminiscent of Funny Feelings (not just based on the comedian main character element) and it felt like a good representation of relationships that are imperfect but worth fighting for.

This is a perfect summer beach read! 3.5 stars! Thank you to NetGalley, Avon, and Harper Voyager for the ARC of this one for an honest review.

This was SUCH a great debut! I adored it. Del was such a good main character; she was relatable, funny, and overall provided a really fun perspective to read from. Watching her self-discovery was really great! I also really enjoyed the dual timeline and getting to see the progression of Del and Eddie's relationship both in the past and in the present. All of the side characters were really well written as well, and they all stood out individually! I loved Sam and Del's friendship, and Del's relationship with her Nan.

The romance in this was absolutely adorable, tender, and perfect. The chemistry between Del and Eddie was so well done, and I honestly couldn't believe this was a debut novel! It was really well-paced, the writing flowed well and was easy to read, and it had so many hilarious moments. There are also some heavier topics in the book, but the author writes them very well. I think this is going to be in my top books of 2024. Overall, I would completely recommend this book!

Thank you to NetGalley and Avon and Harper Voyager for the ARC of this one for an honest review.


I really enjoyed this book. It was well written and the main characters as well as fringe characters were likeable and interesting.
Del is a stand up comedian who ends up back in her hometown after spending ten years in NYC trying to "make it." She had a somewhat difficult childhood and grew up with her grandmother due to a an absent father and a mother who died of an overdose. On her first week back she runs into her high school love, Eddie, who now owns the popular bar downtown. They rekindle their relationship while working through all of the reasons their relationship didn't work in the first place. I love a second chance romance and this one was very sweet and fun to read. I was rooting for them for sure. Id recommend this one to others for sure and look forward to others by this author. Thanks for the chance to review it.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC!

I absolutely adored this book. The writing, the setting, the characters, ALL OF IT. It had me laughing and tearing up at the same time. Del and Eddie's relationship unfolded in such a natural way. I want to read a thousand more books exactly like this. It's like candy, sweet and addictive.

This was a cute story with potential to be really great but unfortunately for me it did not work out. I really pushed myself to at least read 50% before calling it quits. I did enjoy where the plot was headed and I really liked the setting but I felt lost in TOO much description and felt overwhelmed . I think that perhaps i couldn't really connect to the main character. She was kinda annoying but not in a good way and she seemed to lack that hook that has the reader wanting to root for them. The main love was hot but the connection between them seemed so sudden and kinda forced. I wish i could have finished it and maybe later on i'll give it another shot but right now this wasn't my cup of tea.

I really loved this story! The FMC was hilarious and SO relatable! I was worried for a bit about the MMC but he redeemed himself. This story was a second chance romance between a comedian and single dad. The side story and characters were all fabulous too.

Thank you so much to NetGalley, HarperCollins, and the author for this ARC**

This rom com made me actually laugh out loud. The characters are lovable and relatable. I loved the duel timelines that really explained the characters and helped develop the story over time.

Thank you so much to NetGalley, HarperCollins, and the author for an early copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I just have to thank the universe for all of the amazing rom-coms that have come into my life recently, because wow wow wow this book really kept up with the trend.

I was immediately drawn to this book when I saw the premise- a romance for the comedians? For the weird ones? The sarcastic ones? Yeah, I'm sold. I went into it hoping that the writing would be humorous and the characters relatable in the way that people who cope with their traumas through humor are relatable. Pleasantly, this went above and beyond.

"There I went, swan-diving into a bright new day and the crystal-clear pools of my future. What I didn't know was that, when I hadn't been looking, someone had drained the lake."

The writing was, at many times, absolutely hilarious. I was consistently laughing and highlighting quotes that had me rolling, and that isn't something that I often find in a book. But woven into those moments of levity, there was so much depth and character development that happened. In so many ways, Del's journey was similar to my own, and she has become yet another character that I can see as a mirror of myself. She's barbed in humor and a past that shaped her in sharp edges, she doesn't quite fit with the masses. She grew from her traumas in the only way she knew how, and that is something I understand completely. Watching her growth, watching her find her place and a path to change her dreams, was so special to me. She made her place in the world, and that is something that will keep me remembering this book for a long time to come.

"Some people are just like that. Big enough in their goodness to fill all your empty spaces."

Alongside the healing and growth is the romance, and I think Betty wrote a really beautiful second-chance romance that was filled with enough angst and longing that I found myself unable to stop reading, eager to get more of Eddie and Del's story. The glimpses into the past were a really nice touch, and while it was painful to read, the tumult and heartache of teenage love is something we all know, and the pain that Del felt throughout their relationship was something I could understand. Also, I love a relationship built on just roasting the shit out of each other. It's a love language in itself, and Del and Eddie have it mastered.

"I'm sorry I never found a way to you sooner... I didn't know where to look."

I loved this book. I loved the familial healing, the personal development, the rekindling of old love. All of it was a recipe for a perfect summer read, and that's what this is.

This was fun! I'm not sure I've ever read a romcom novel that does such a killer job of establishing a sense of place. Before reading this, I had never been to New Jersey outside of the Spirit terminal at Newark. And now? I'm basically a local. Or at least that's how well I can feel this city in my bones.

Summertime Punchline is an incredible debut. I cried several times reading this; Del's relationship with her dad is beautiful and heartbreaking. Eddie is also the perfect perfect man (in the present, at least). Their relationship feels so real, and I loved that this was about more than Eddie—it was about Del's relationship with her dad, her hometown, and herself. Corrello is a comedian, which really shows in her situationally-funny writing, which line-level is pretty solid. My single critique is I think it could have been even better with more scenes of their past, more reveal about Eddie's character, and the jokes were lowkey not very funny.

Summertime Punchline is told from Delfina’s perspective in dual timelines. In the present day, she’s a standup comedian who moves back to her Jersey Shore hometown after life deals her a bad hand of cards. During her time there, she has to prepare a segment for the biggest comedy festival that could make or break her career. She ends up running into her old high school crush, Eddie, and they unpack what happened between them a decade ago.

Del is strong-willed and hilarious, but plagued by fears and insecurities. I loved watching her channel that “main character energy” in her own story (quite literally) as time went on. I also related to her relationship with her father and it was inspiring to see them work through their struggles.

Present-day Eddie is a sweetheart who takes care of his business, family, and community. I would’ve liked more of his backstory to help me better understand the choices he made in the past.

I loved the side characters in the book, especially Del’s grandma, Nan. We all need someone like her in our lives! This woman deserves her own spin-off.

Overall, I think this is a good debut novel that gives off Every Summer After x Funny Feelings vibes. Corello is on my radar and I’ll definitely be keeping my eye out for more of her books in the future.

Thank you HarperCollins, Avon Books, and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

i love second chance romances and this did not disappoint. i love del and eddie, although i wish we knew more about eddie but overall, a good fun read. binged it in one day and no regrets.