Same Time Next Summer by Annabel Monoghan
Beach Rules:
Do take long walks on the sand.
Do put an umbrella in every cocktail.
Do NOT run into your first love.
Sam’s life is on track. She has the perfect doctor fiancé, Jack (his strict routines are a good thing, really), a great job in Manhattan (unless they fire her), and is about to tour a wedding venue near her family’s Long Island beach house. Everything should go to plan, yet the minute she arrives, Sam senses something is off. Wyatt is here. Her Wyatt. But there’s no reason for a thirty-year-old engaged woman to feel panicked around the guy who broke her heart when she was seventeen. Right?
Yet being back at this beach, hearing notes from Wyatt’s guitar float across the night air from next door as if no time has passed—Sam’s memories come flooding back: the feel of Wyatt’s skin on hers, their nights in the treehouse, and the truth behind their split. Sam remembers who she used to be, and as Wyatt reenters her life their connection is as undeniable as it always was. She will have to make a choice.
Review: Sam is happily engaged to Jack and has a great job in Manhattan. But on a visit to her parents' Long Island beach house, she comes face to face with her first love, Wyatt. Her first love and the boy who broke her heart as a teenager. Their connection is still undeniable.
This was a cute second chance romance that is the perfect beach, summer read. I listened to the audiobook version, and it was well done and a quick listen. However, this didn't feel that original or captivating to me. The plot of this reminded me a lot of Carley Fortune's Every Summer After, but I enjoyed the writing in this one more. Additionally, in this book, Sam and Wyatt break up as teenagers but the reason did feel like a legitimate one, unlike in Carley Fortune's book. In fact, the breakup (which stems from secrets surrounding their parents), reminded me of Husbands and Lovers by Beatriz Williams. And similarly, Wyatt's career path mirrored that of the main love interest in William's novel.
This ostensibly could be considered a love triangle, with Sam torn between her successful and handsome doctor fiancé, Jack, and her first love, Wyatt. However, Jack is really never much competition as he is a walking red flag from the first page. He is controlling and incapable of compromise when it comes to Sam. I am glad Sam eventually comes to see the ways in which she is not herself in this relationship, but it frustrated me that it took others pointing it out and her having feelings for a former love interest to get to that point.
One final note, well into the book, Sam finds out Wyatt is actually successful and well known in his career. I found it highly improbable that she wouldn't have already known this fact! She never googled him? Never saw him in the news?? I'm not buying it.
Stars: 3
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