✨What it is about:
Jessie and Hillary, two former best friends find themselves attending their childhood summer camp for the last time, as the land has been put up for sale. Devastated, Jessie sets up one last hurrah inviting past campers—including Hillary—to a nostalgic “adult only summer camp” before closing for good. Jessie and Hillary rebuild their friendship as they relive the best time of their lives and find love while at it! Seeing how important this place is to them, they team up and work together, just like the old days to try and save the camp from being shut down forever. ✨

💭My thoughts:
Ali Brady hold a near and dear place in my heart. This dynamic duo really know what they are doing, and together in my eyes, they make magic. I really wish they would write more than one book a year. Every single thing they write I really enjoy(both together and separately—-check out their individual books too they are great! @bradeighgodfrey @thishammer). I was smiling the whole time while reading this. I didn’t go to sleep away camp when I was a kid, and the only notion I had of it is what I’ve seen from the different Parent Trap movies, (which I love), and this book had me wishing I had attended and been a camp person, truly! It was a lighthearted story of friendship and second chances, with romance and humor that really hit the mark. If you are looking for the perfect summer read this is it you guys, it is fun and funny and just a great summer read. The dick tick situation was HILARIOUS. That’s all I have to say about that. Go read it!

5⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Read if you like:
🛶 Summer camp
🛶 Dual POVs
🛶 Female friendship
🛶 Found Family
🛶 Second chances

⚠️CW: Abandonment, mentions of divorce, sexual content, death of a pet.

Thank you to @berkleyromance and @prhaudio for the #gifted print and audio copies of this truly wonderful love letter to summer camp. Below is my honest review.

Jesse and Hillary became best friends as teens during transformative years at summer camp and dreamed of becoming camp counselors. Then, Hillary chose a different path; the two haven’t spoken in a decade. Now the camp director, Jesse has devoted her life to the camp but the owners recently passing away and their children have decided to close the camp and sell the land. That’s when Jesse chooses that this last summer will be dedicated to one last farewell for all the adults that attended as kids - ADULT SUMMER CAMP! Thousands of alums are set to return, including Hillary. As Jesse and Hillary spend the summer repairing their fractured friendship, Hillary finds herself in a very stringy no-strings-attached situation with Cooper, the camp chef. At the same time, Jesse keeps trying to deny her attraction to Luke, the grumpy author renting a cabin for the summer.

If you’ve ever been to summer camp, you will want to read this one. Brady gives us all the feels of childhood - games, pranks, swimming, campfire songs - but with grownup attendees. She also miraculously gives us four complex main characters, two rich romances, one life-defining friendship, an epic found family, and a cause they all rally behind - and does so in a way where you feel like they each get plenty of development. I loved that each of our main characters (Jessie, Hillary, Cooper, and Luke) had reasons that drove them back to camp, and the others at camp helped them work through them. There’s also a fun back-story to one of the characters that nods to a beloved character in another book, thus connecting them into the same fictional universe. I just loved it.

On top of this being a great book, it is co-narrated by 2 of my favorites - Brittany Presley and Karissa Vacker. They are perfect.

💥 Happy Pub Day!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5/5 (rounding up)

• summer camp setting
• female friendship & found family
• dual POV

I really enjoyed spending time with these characters who all captured my heart... down to the oldie Goldie (that's what I call a senior golden retriever). The nostalgic vibes are SO good! The romantic relationships are sweet & steamy. I loved being at Camp Chickawah!

🗣 Thank you to Berkley and netgalley for the opportunity to read and review this book via gifted eARC! All opinions are honest and my own.

UNTIL NEXT SUMMER is such a fun book! It's funny and sexy and heartwarming and absolutely everything you want in a summer read. I was fully invested in the dynamic between Jessie and Hillary, and also in the romances. (Team Cooper!) Loved this book.

Until Next Summer was another delightful read by a Ali Brady. I love their previous books and this was no exception. In fact, this might be my favorite book yet.

Until Next Summer takes place at Camp Chickawah. For those who have read The Beach Trap, it might sound familiar. One of the main characters from that book even makes an appearance in this story, but this book tells the story of Jessie, the current camp director and her estranged best friend, Hillary.

Jessie has been at the camp ever since she was camper. She came back as a CIT and as a counselor and eventually joined the staff full-time. This summer is going to be her last as the owners are going to sell the property. So, for a final hurrah, Jessie decides to host adult camps for former campers. And Hillary out of the blue applies to be the arts and crafts director. The former friends haven’t seen each other in years. Will they be able to make up for hurt feelings and lost time? Or will they fall even further apart?

Overall, I loved this story and it’s focus on healing - long lost friendship. I also liked that both characters had a romantic interest (moody writer Luke for Jessie and camp chef Cooper for Hillary) but that it wasn’t the main focus of the book. I also liked how the two friends finally came together in a last ditch effort to save the camp. The ending was superb and left me feeling very happy and optimistic for the characters and their futures. All in all this was an amazing summer read that I’d highly recommend. Growing up, I always went to 4-H Camp and now I go back as a chaperone, so this book also brought back a lot of fond memories for me.

Rating: 4.5/5 stars

Jessie and Hillary were best friends at camp until life pulled them apart—but the impending closure of the camp brings them back together for a summer, and may just offer each of them a new chance for friendship, adventure, and love.

I’ve never been to camp (hopefully Dot would not consider me pond scum, iykyk), but some of my all-time favorite pieces of pop culture have camp storylines/aesthetics: the Lindsay Lohan Parent Trap is in my top five favorite movies of all time, I watched Camp Rock so many times when I was young I could perform any of the songs word for word from memory (honestly could possibly still do this), and there is something about a camp-based thriller that just hits different to this day (this book is not that, to be clear). My point being: there is something so warm and cheerful and NOSTALGIC about summer camp *even if you didn’t go to one* and this book brings that feeling to life in all of the best ways.

The premise here is truly so good—a diehard camp kid turned camp director reunites with her rule following former best friend for an “adult summer camp” where they both find love (with TOP TIER book boyfriends, I honestly couldn’t tell you which one I loved more), rekindle their friendship, and fight to save their beloved camp (you’ll have to read the book if you want to know whether they succeed). It’s a love letter to camp, but also the perfect book to curl up with on a summer night even if your only experience with color wars and campfire singalongs comes from the other side of a screen. I truly enjoyed immersing myself in this one!

CW: Pet death; mentions of divorce; mentions of death of parent; mild misogyny & mild fatphobia

I have never been to a summer sleepaway camp, but the setting and the idea of an adult camp in this book still brought back nostalgic memories of childhood summers filled with days at the pool, bike riding with friends, and hours spent in the shade reading. I really enjoyed that at the heart of this book was the theme of friendship and second chances in life, love, and friendships. It emphasized how friendships fill us up and touch us in a way that completes us. This book made me smile and was a great way to kick off summer reading.

After a long estrangement, two former friends reunite to save their beloved Summer camp. As old friends are reunited, new relationships are formed, creating for both, the Summer of a lifetime.

This is the Summer read for those of us unlucky enough to have experienced sleep-away camp, and for those who have, the perfect nostalgia to bring back those cherished memories.

Ali Brady always write the most well developed characters, who by books end, you feel you know like the back of your hand. Their relationships are slow burn, in the very best of ways, and keep you coming back for more. I absolutely devoured this story, and while I loved both MCs and their counterparts, dare I say I held an extra special place in my heart for Jesse and Luke and his sweet fur-legged friend. 💕

Read if you like:
• women’s fiction
• summer nostalgia
• found family
• dual romances
• camp hijinks
• Jewish rep
• LOL moments

This book is Chick-amazing my friends!

This is one of those mixed bag reads that's hard to categorize. I grabbed it because the premise was about rescuing a summer camp, with romance. And the camp part was everything I could have wished for, evoking fond memories of summer camps when I was a camper and a counselor. I loved the enthusiasm, and the banter--and the way that pranks can turn sour quick, which is also a strong memory. The idea of a summer camp for grownups is an awesome idea! And I loved the execution of that aspect.

Alas, the relationships were disappointing, making that aspect of the story drag and drag, yet nothing could quite paper over the big, sucking energy-vacuum of what Jacob Proffitt calls Negative Motivation.

The story begins with Jessie's beloved camp being on the brink of being sold off for condos, but what she misses most is her old camp bestie, who walked away from their friendship years ago, for no reason that Jessie could figure. Then we switch over to Hillary, said ex-bestie, who is sorely missing her single good friendship, yep, with Jessie... and why didn't the two ever talk it out? Though I dislike that premise very much I can forgive it if the two clear the air the minute they see each other. But nope. They don't talk, and don't talk, then part in a snit, and I was counting the pages until that thread would be over. I no longer cared what had happened--these two were emotionally teenagers, apparently.

That sucking black hole even drained the romances, which felt like checkmarks. I wonder if the two authors suspected that as they added a subplot with an elderly dog that I think could have been handled much better. It, too, felt tacked on for the pathos.

Still, the camp does get saved, yay! But I closed the file feeling that the book was 100 pages longer than it needed to be--mainly all the negative energy wasted on maundering over that total lack of motivation for resolving an issue that ought to have been half a chapter of intense talk, then maybe rebuilding trust. But mileage varies, and I hope the book finds its fans in summer camp nostalgia readers!

I’m being kind and giving this book its average rating, as I had to put it down because there was no content warning for the death of an animal and I was caught off guard. Had to put down the book and haven’t gone back since.

Please consider including content warnings for future publications.

5 Going Back to Summer Camp Stars!!

My first book by this author duo and I absolutely loved it. Growing up I only went to sleepaway summer camp a couple of times, but they were some of my favorite summer memories. So when this book popped up I felt like I HAD to read it. This book is about friendships that are rebuilt and possibly finding love.

Jessie followed her lifelong path of becoming a Camp Director at the camp she spent all her summers growing up. The one person she thought was on the same path, her bestie Hillary, doesn’t take that same path and it has created a rift in their friendship. When Camp Chickawah goes up for sale, Jessie does something I think all of us that have gone to camp as children, she invites all the same people she spent summers with who are now adults for a last hurrah at Camp and maybe they can come together to prevent the sale; especially when Hillary comes to “adult” camp and a deep friendship that has drifted apart all these years, is as strong as it once was.

I loved how the authors literally made me feel like I was at camp! I could smell the fire from the firepit, the coldness of the lake that as children didn’t affect us but as adults, we’re thinking there’s no way I’m swimming in that lake, and the mass amount of mosquitos that no amount of bug spray kept me from getting bitten all over my body IYKYK!

I especially adore how Jessie and Hillary found their friendship again. Proving that when you know someone as well as these two used to, it falls in place to be those girls that were once joined at the hip once again. Along the way, there’s some love happening between Jessie and the Chef for the camp and a rather grumpy camper and Hillary. There are true moments of hilarity when adults visit a camp that is built for children LMAO!

Overall, this is a perfect summer read and provided moments of levity for me when I most needed it and I relished in feeling like I too was at Camp Chickawah!

I loved Ali Brady's last book so I was excited to dive into their latest and it didn't disappoint. Very much enjoyed two fully fleshed out yet intertwined story lines. I do think it would have been a five star read if I was a "camp person"!

A pure escapist summer read about a summer camp that is being sold so for the last summer they are offering week-long adult summer camp sessions. For anyone who loved summer camp (or dreamed about loving it), this should be fun. There is a pretty decent plotline so it isn't total fluff and romance.

I wasn't a sleepaway camp kid but reading 𝗨𝗡𝗧𝗜𝗟 𝗟𝗔𝗦𝗧 𝗦𝗨𝗠𝗠𝗘𝗥 made me wish I was.

The cover and tagline suggest this book is a romance and while there are romantic subplots, it's really a love letter to camp, to friendship and to found family. I read it in one sitting, a huge smile on my face the entire time. With multi-dimensional characters, a fun sense of nostalgia and some emotional moments, this is the perfect summer read and my favorite from Ali Brady yet.

4.5 stars

Thanks to Berkley for the copy to review.

I’ve never been to summer camp, but I gotta say, this book gave me major nostalgia for the summer memories I never even made 😂 The authors did a fabulous job bringing summer camp and all that comes with it to life. I loved the found family (of course) and what Jessie and Hillary’s friendship stood for - the genuine relationships that will always find their way back together despite different life experiences that we go through that change us and influence us.

“But if we knew the ending before we started, we’d cherry-pick our way through life, only doing things that are guaranteed to work out.”

As kids, Jessie and Hillary met and became best friends at Camp Chickawah. Instantly inseparable, the plan was for the girls to grow up and become counselors together. But at the last minute, Hillary not only bails on the plan, but on the friendship, too.

In present day, Jessie has stayed true to her calling- happily serving as the camp director for several years. Meanwhile Hillary’s life has ventured down a more traditional path. The former friends haven’t spoken since their falling out, though each still thinks of the other often.

Then Jessie gets devastating news-the camp is on the verge of being sold. With one last season remaining, Jessie hatches a plan to have an adult camp for alumni for a summer filled of bittersweet memories, sickly sweet s’mores, and maybe even a little bit of romance. With Hillary among the returnees, can these former besties stop pitching a fit long enough to pitch a tent?

Until Next Summer is as advertised adventure- a book about camping adults for adults that want to relive their youth. Although much about this story makes it firmly rooted in grown up territory, it still manages to evoke enough nostalgic, childhood vibes that reminded this reader of the type of books I devoured growing up. And for adults who loved summer camp (of which there are many) this book is sure to be even more of a delight.

Gaining traction in the summer fun niche, writing duo @alibradybooks is sure to have a lot of happy campers after reading their latest seasonal adventure.

Ali Brady has done it again: penned the most delightful story of friendship with a large side of romance that should be in everyone's beach bag this summer. I was so vested in both Hillary and Jessie's individual stories, their summer "flings" and their friendship. I laughed (hard at times) and cried. The balance of friendship and romance combined with the camp and summer vibes make this book a must-read for 2024!

I love both of the authors. I love how the female relationships are just as important as the romantic relationships. To the point where they refer to each other as platonic soul mates. However, it could be argued that this would be better described as a women's fic instead of a romance. While there were two romantic relationships, they seemed to take a back seat to the female friendship and the drama at the camp.

That being said, I will 100% continue reading everything they put out. Just manage your expectations about romance going in.

Thank you to Netgalley, Berkley, and the author for an advance copy of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review.

4 stars
2 spice

REVIEW

A huge thanks to #partner @berkleyromance for my #gifted copies,

Until Next Summer
Ali Brady
7/9

📖 Two former best friends each find love at an adults-only summer camp in this romantic and nostalgic novel that proves “once a camp person, always a camp person.”

💭 Until Next Summer is a jubilant celebration of love, friendship, self-discovery, and summer camp! The nostalgic vibes are fierce with this one... it brought me back in time to swimming in the lake, late-night stargazing, and ghost stories by the campfire.

Equal parts women's fiction and romantic comedy, this high stakes, dual-perspective story blends a light, humourous read with the right amount of substance and complexity. At its core, this is a story about finding (and keeping) your happy place, and surrounding yourself with those who bring you joy. 💗 Pick this up if you're seeking the perfect summer escape!

📌 Out Tuesday 7/9!

#berkleyig #berkleypartner #penguinrandomhousepartner

° ° ° ° °

A beautiful story of a friendship being mended and each of them finding love and an adult summer camp .. How fun!

When Jessie hears this will be the camp's (where she grew up going and is director over now) last summer, she decides to do an 8 week adult camp. She reluctantly hires her ex-friend, Hillary, as an arts & crafts facilitator.

I love these two friends and loved to see their friendship repair and grow even better. I like how they work together to try and keep this camp running and going against the Valentines. I like to see them each find a summer love that turns to more with Conner and Luke. I love all the other side characters, they felt like family to me when the story ended and I hated to let them go

Full of nostalgia for summers as a kid and the fun of a camp and learning about yourself..... I'm not a camper anymore but I would go to this adult camp!