Book Review: SUMMER ROMANCE by Annabel Monaghan

At the end of last summer, I saw an ad on my Insta feed for a writing bootcamp. I see things like this all the time and many of them look interesting, but not usually enough not to scroll past. This one caught my attention, though, because it focused on resistance to writing. I have done craft workshops and lots and lots of webinars about plotting and structure and character development, but this was different. It was not about craft—it was about the writing life and how to establish one that brings you joy and fulfillment and how to step out of your own way.

It was as though the Universe were guiding me to this.

I had just left a job to start the new one at the school, and I had a few days in between to actually participate in real time rather than watch replays. Stars aligned!

It is very cool when the thing you did not know you were looking for suddenly appears and now this community and the lessons shared have become a central part of my writing life. I have written more since August than I have in the last several years.

What does this have to do with SUMMER ROMANCE by Annabel Monaghan?

I’m almost there.

Along comes March and I see that Annabel is giving away a couple of advanced reader copies of her latest novel coming out on June 4. I loved her previous two, NORA GOES OFF SCRIPT and SAME TIME NEXT SUMMER, both of which I read on summer beach vacations, before handing them off to my sister across the sand for her turn. She also adores Annabel’s books.

Back to March.

I enter the contest; I really want to win the contest; I WIN THE CONTEST! My plan was: win the ARC (I did!), get this blog up and running again (I did!), review the book as my first on Please Just Let Me Read (Voilà!). 

That morning when I woke up and saw the post with my name as one of the winners, my first thought was, “The Universe is really showing up for me.” First, I find the writing community of my dreams and now this—message received, Universe! But my very immediate next thought was, “No, you’re showing up for you and that’s why things are coming into alignment. The Universe was always there for you.” As Adriene from Yoga with Adriene often says, “The Universe is for me and so is everything else.” 

And as Chirrut Îmwe says, “I am one with the Force, and the Force is with me.” (IYKYK.)

Okay, but will there ever be a book review?

Yes!

Annabel creates characters who are just quirky enough, just flawed enough, living lives that are just complicated enough to be utterly believable. And she writes them in a way—and this is the magic—so that you really care what happens to them. Her stories are a lovely balance of plot and character development—more magic. Even the unlikeable characters are perfectly unlikeable without being so unlikeable you’re, like, no one is that awful. They are just super-fun to loathe.

SUMMER ROMANCE is more than a romance (though Ali and Ethan’s is sweet and satisfying)—it’s about how a person can reclaim their old, best, most authentic self even when it feels lost and long-forgotten. And the story is set over the course of one summer and I love when a life change follows the contours of a seasonal one. I’m never not a sucker for that metaphor.

The thing I love most about her stories is that at the point when it seems all is lost, she fixes it—makes what seemed impossible possible and it never feels like a thing that could never happen in real life. And, sorry, I won’t apologize for or feel cheesy and uncouth for wanting the seemingly impossible made possible. Well, I just did, but you get it.

Annabel is also really fun on Instagram.

I’ll leave you with a lovely little quote from the novel: “Ever since I met him he has been calling me back to myself, reminding me that I matter.” But really he helps her remember what she already knew.

Ah, Universe…