Take a photo of a barcode or cover
lovereadingxo 's review for:
Same Time Next Summer
by Annabel Monaghan
emotional
lighthearted
relaxing
fast-paced
Loveable characters:
Yes
When we meet her, she’s 30, engaged to someone else and looking into getting married on Long Island. But coming back to the beach brings up a lot of old memories, and maybe, just maybe… It reminds Sam of who she really is.
Annabel Monaghan’s ‘Same Time Next Summer’ is a friends-to-lovers-to-nothing-at-all novel that aches like these kinds of stories are wont to do, and while it’s not reinventing the wheel (there’s so many of these books making the rounds lately), I really enjoyed the layers the author incorporated into it to make it feel brand new.
The narrative flashes back and forth between Now and Then and between Sam and Wyatt, and takes the reader right back to when the two were teens and how it all felt, but the pacing is a bit weird. We spend about 80% of the novel building this world and then the last 20% feels so rushed, like the author ran out of time…? I wanted more of a fleshed out ending, and I think the reader deserved to see more of the reality of Sam basically blowing up her whole life.
It also feels utterly improbable that Sam would have refrained from Google’ing Wyatt over the years, or that she wouldn’t have some inkling that the song could possibly be about her.
Dr Judy’s addition also felt… lazy. The situation wasn’t handled with enough tact to make it feel real. Instead, the therapist’s advice felt like a means to an end to propel the story in the direction Monaghan wanted it to go.
But with that being said, I was completely swept away to Long Island and really loved the characters. A good, easy read that I devoured over a weekend. Would definitely recommend.