ARC Review: Summer Romance by Annabel Monaghan

Benefits of a summer romance: It’s always fun, always brief, and no one gets their heart broken.

Ali Morris is a professional organizer whose own life is a mess. Her mom died two years ago, then her husband left, and she hasn’t worn pants with a zipper in longer than she cares to remember.

No one is more surprised than Ali when the first time she takes off her wedding ring and puts on pants with hardware—overalls count, right?—she meets someone. Or rather, her dog claims a man for her...by peeing on him. Ethan smiles at Ali like her pants are just right—like he likes what he sees. He looks at her like she’s a younger, braver version of herself. The last thing newly single mom Ali needs is to make her life messier, but there’s no harm in a little summer romance. Is there?

Title: Summer Romance

Author: Annabel Monaghan
Publisher: G.P. Putnam's Sons

Expected Publication Date: June 4, 2024

Review:

Thank you to NetGalley, Edelweiss, and G.P Putnam's Sons to providing me with an egalley of this book to read and give an honest review. The opinions expressed here are my own.

This is my third book by Monaghan and I swear each book I read gets better than the last. A few months ago I picked up Nora Goes Off Script, because all my book buddies in my book groups told me it was fantastic. And guess what? They were right. I loved it and tore through it and ended up picking up Same Time Next Summer and liking just as much if not more. So, given the chance to read this one early, I jumped on it and I'm so glad I did.

Monaghan has a way of taking her stories and infusing tension that pulls you along and makes you feel like you never want to stop. I feel this often with Christina Lauren books. Like something heavy is sitting on my chest waiting to burst and it won't happen until I get to the end of the story. I love a story with this type of tension. It makes me want to keep reading. I really give a lot of props to the author that she can keep this up throughout the entire book. There was not a point that I wanted to put this book down. The pacing was that good for me. I ended up reading it in less than 24 hours!

This is women's fiction at it's finest. Monaghan chooses to write to a certain age group with her adult fiction and it just works. While I'm older than her characters, I still find them immensely relatable. They bring me back to that time in my life and that feeling of nostalgia is so soothing and right.

The book also infuses one of my favorite tropes, which I'm not sure I even knew about going in: best friend's brother. But unlike some books I've read where there is a hard line that cannot be crossed, this one is more blurry. The characters are older than what I usually see for this trope, mid to late thirties.

This book is a closed door romance. I do love my spice but sometimes it's nice to just have the story be the story and not worry about all the sexy scenes. I think this plays well with the single parent vibe Monaghan sets up. And it allows the characters time to get to know each other without worrying about always being naked together.

Ali never had a chance to find true love. Pregnant within a year of dating her boyfriend, they end up married. But after three kids and moving back to the town where she grew up, Ali loses herself in the marriage and becomes complacent with what she has been handed. She loses who she is. And she is still grieving the loss, even after two years, of the one person she had counted on to make her feel grounded, her mother. Add to that an ex who continues to step all over her and always put his own needs first and you have a recipe for someone who loses their self-esteem. Plus, she's now a single parent because her ex doesn't make his kids a priority. Juggling all of this takes it toll on her mentally. When she's presented with a chance at Summer romance, something that is fleeting and will give her just what she needs, she jumps in without hesitation. She craves to feel that feeling of romance and being cared for. I loved the growth this character went through. I love how she was able to find herself again and start to see all the parts of her she had buried deep for someone else. I also love how she can see that even though she was close with her mom, there were things her mom did to keep her complacent in her marriage. 

Ethan, aka "Scooter",  has so many fabulous elements as a MMC. He's a bit younger than Ali, but not by much. But it's his own life experience that has shaped him into a loving and caring human being. I love how Monaghan made him so involved in his community. At the same time, you could see he was running away from trauma he experienced as a teen. He has his own issues with understanding his own self worth and, like Ali, has to work through them. What I think I loved most about him was his compassion and ability to just listen, even if that listening was to silence. He was able to be in the moment and express his own wants and needs easily. He also has the best sense of humor and uses it to break up a lot of tense moments in this book that would otherwise have sent Ali off the rails. Above all, he shows Ali that she is a strong and capable woman who has so much to give the world if she would just be her true authentic self.

I do wish this book would have been dual point of view. On the one hand, I understand Monaghan's choice to really tell Ali's story. I can see she didn't want Ethan's to get in the way. At the same time, I wanted to truly see Ethan in his own element: interacting with his family, interacting with his community, making life decisions. And I didn't get that as much as I would have just seeing him through Ali's eyes. But I also know this is women's fiction and Monaghan for sure wanted to give Ali a true and honest voice without having it overshadowed by anyone else.

My favorite quote in the book: "And now I can never un-know the truest thing - the intensity of the love you feel will match the intensity of it's loss."

Monaghan is quickly becoming one of my favorite authors and her books will automatically be added to my TBR before I even know what they are about. As soon as I was done with this one, I wanted to go back and be able to read it again for the first time. She makes me laugh, and cry, and clutch at my heart and then gives me everything I want in the end. I'm looking forward to what she puts on paper next!

Author:

Annabel Monaghan is the bestselling author of SAME TIME NEXT SUMMER and NORA GOES OFF SCRIPT. She is also the author of two novels for young adults, A Girl Named Digit and Double Digit.