A year ago, Nora Goes Off Script was all over the place, so of course, I jumped at the chance to snag an early copy of Annabel Monaghan’s 2023 release, Same Time Next Summer.

Same Time Next Summer [Buy Bookshop Amazon LibroFM] is about Sam and her first return to her parents’ beach house in years. She’s not exactly thrilled about it, but she and her fiancé Jack or going to check out a wedding venue in the area to appease her mother. Jack is… a bit stiff, and doesn’t quite love the whole artsy vibes of her family… or the beach.

Making things more complicated for Sam because the boy who broke her heart when she was a teenager. That boy, Wyatt, is now a grown man with a guitar. He plays it every morning from the treehouse where they used to hang out. He’s helping with a music festival in town, so he’s not going anywhere. Of course, her family loves Wyatt, so he keeps getting invited over and forcing her to confront what went down in the past, (Which is juicy!) and what she really wants for her life.

This story is a great exploration of how your past can affect your future and learning to love toxic people at arm’s length. It was a slow start for me because it had so many similar plot pieces for Kismet that it kinda got me in my head for a minute. Once I got more into the story, I flew through it and enjoyed it throughly. I can’t say why, because spoilers, but I appreciate how certain things were handled.

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