Tag: summer romance

Book Review: This Summer Will Be Different by Carley Fortune

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Rating: ★★★★
Audience: Contemporary Romance
Length: 320 pages
Author: Carley Fortune
Publisher: Berkley
Release Date: May 7th, 2024
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

This summer they’ll keep their promise. This summer they won’t give into temptation. This summer will be different.

Lucy is the tourist vacationing at a beach house on Prince Edward Island. Felix is the local who shows her a very good time. The only problem: Lucy doesn’t know he’s her best friend’s younger brother. Lucy and Felix’s chemistry is unreal, but the list of reasons why they need to stay away from each other is long, and they vow to never repeat that electric night again.

It’s easier said than done.

Each year, Lucy escapes to PEI for a big breath of coastal air, fresh oysters and crisp vinho verde with her best friend, Bridget. Every visit begins with a long walk on the beach, beneath soaring red cliffs and a golden sun. And every visit, Lucy promises herself she won’t wind up in Felix’s bed. Again.

If Lucy can’t help being drawn to Felix, at least she’s always kept her heart out of it.

When Bridget suddenly flees Toronto a week before her wedding, Lucy drops everything to follow her to the island. Her mission is to help Bridget through her crisis and resist the one man she’s never been able to. But Felix’s sparkling eyes and flirty quips have been replaced with something new, and Lucy’s beginning to wonder just how safe her heart truly is.

HIGHLY FRUSTRATING.

This started off really strong. I was hopeful, and even with a one night stand trope I was okay with the initial chemistry between the main characters.

What bugged me was the fact that it felt like the story was more focused on the best friend. The way she kept dragging out her *secret* drove me up a wall. It didn’t add intrigue, it just upset me. And the third act??? I literally shouted ARE YOU KIDDING ME when it happened.

I will say there’s good swoony moments that I did enjoy, and I loved Felix the most. The summertime vibes are there at least and the audiobook production is solid.

Overall audience notes:

  • Contemporary Romance
  • Language: moderate
  • Romance: 4+ open door and fade to black

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ARC Book Review: Seashells and Other Souvenirs by Rachel Lawrence

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Rating: ★★★
Audience: Contemporary Romance
Length: 322 pages
Author: Rachel Lawrence
Publisher: Quill & Flame
Release Date: June 24th, 2025
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

When Alex’s idyllic past starts to slip like sand through her fingers, will one summer be enough to calm the waters of her unsettled heart and bridge the ocean between bygone days and the present?

Alexandria Henry’s childhood was nothing short of a dream—a huge extended family, three best friend cousins, and a yearly beach vacation filled with family Olympics, crab hunts, talent shows, and tiny boxes of cereal. It’s no wonder then, that at twenty-one, she’s struggling to let go of the past.

Desperate to preserve her family’s history and sort through unresolved feelings for a boy she hasn’t seen in years, she packs up for the summer to document the island she and her cousins grew up on together.

But when she runs into Jude Alford—a long lost friend and the quiet younger brother of her teenage crush—and starts recreating her childhood traditions with him, she begins to wonder if what lies ahead could be as beautiful as the memories she holds so close. Will a handful of sunny weeks, a Carolina beach, and a friend with a past he’d rather forget, be what Alex needs to make peace with the future and finally move forward? Or will she remain stuck on an island of her own fear and loneliness?

Thank you to the author for a gifted copy.

LACKED SUBSTANCE.

I was trying to explain the issue I had with this book to my husband so let me see if I can break it down here. You know how in romance books there’s usually some kind of romantic element that usually needs a bit of realistic suspension? But that makes the book feel swoony and charming? This book didn’t have those elements for me. I’m not even sure there was a true plot. The FMC ran into her childhood friend and they said I love you after one date.

There’s some cute traditions and moments between Alex and Jude. And I liked the reconnection between Alex and her cousins. And it definitely holds all of those summer vibes. The poems were a nice addition too and I liked the author’s note about how she connected to the story. The mental health moments for Jude were easy to connect to and I liked seeing those expressed emotions and conversations.

Overall audience notes:

  • Contemporary Romance
  • Language: none
  • Romance: kisses

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Book Review: Summer Romance by Annabel Monaghan

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Rating: ★★★★★
Audience: Contemporary Romance
Length: 368 pages
Author: Annabel Monaghan
Publisher: G.P. Putnam’s
Release Date: June 4th, 2024
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

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

There aren’t enough labeled glass containers to contain the mess that is Ali Morris’s life. 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. She’s a professional organizer whose pantry is a disgrace.

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 in the same way he claimed his favorite of her three children: by peeing on him. Ethan smiles at Ali like her pants are just right—like he likes what he sees. The last thing Ali needs is to make her life messier, but there’s no harm in a little Summer Romance. Is there?

JUST WHAT I NEEDED.

I haven’t been getting along with contemporary romances lately and this was the gem I needed to remind me of the goodness they can bring. I loved this book so much!! It was full of heart and doing the hard things and breaking off what isn’t working anymore to find what could be.

The romance had me absolutely smitten. This is how you craft a summer romance. I loved Ethan, he was such a sweetheart and was so KIND. Gosh it was soul melting. And I loved seeing Ali grow and expand and realize how confined she had been for too long. I loved the motherhood aspects as well as the acknowledgement of what she needed as a person to be the best Ali.

There were so many lovely moments throughout. It’s a fast read and an amazing one. I think this is my new favorite from Monaghan. It is a must for summer TBRs!!

Overall audience notes:

  • Contemporary Romance
  • Language: low-moderate
  • Romance: fade to black
  • Content Warnings: loss of loved ones, depictions of grief, FMC is going through a divorce

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ARC Book Review: Every Summer After by Carley Fortune

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Rating: ★★★★☆ (4.5)
Audience: Contemporary Romance
Length: 320 pages
Author: Carley Fortune
Publisher: Berkley Romance
Release Date: May 10th, 2022
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

Six summers to fall in love. One moment to fall apart. A weekend to get it right.

They say you can never go home again, and for Persephone Fraser, ever since she made the biggest mistake of her life a decade ago, that has felt too true. Instead of glittering summers on the lakeshore of her childhood, she spends them in a stylish apartment in the city, going out with friends, and keeping everyone a safe distance from her heart.

Until she receives the call that sends her racing back to Barry’s Bay and into the orbit of Sam Florek—the man she never thought she’d have to live without.

For six summers, through hazy afternoons on the water and warm summer nights working in his family’s restaurant and curling up together with books—medical textbooks for him and work-in-progress horror short stories for her—Percy and Sam had been inseparable. Eventually that friendship turned into something breathtakingly more, before it fell spectacularly apart.

When Percy returns to the lake for Sam’s mother’s funeral, their connection is as undeniable as it had always been. But until Percy can confront the decisions she made and the years she’s spent punishing herself for them, they’ll never know whether their love might be bigger than the biggest mistakes of their past.

Told over the course of six years and one weekend, Every Summer After is a big, sweeping nostalgic look at love and the people and choices that mark us forever.

Thank you to Berkley and Netgalley for an eARC.

BINGE WORTHY.

These types of reads both haunt me and make me the happiest. Why? Because the format of dual timelines where you’re not quite sure what caused the fallout causes LACK OF SLEEP. I binged this in a day chasing down the reason Percy and Sam fell apart and hoping they’d find their way back together.

It was an interesting tiny tidbit that when they ran into each other again there wasn’t immediate animosity. I really liked that they were able to already find some common ground to reconnect and rehash what happened between them.

The trope of childhood friends to lovers was written beautifully. I loved the sweet friendship that started to become longing looks and brief touches to finally saying OH HEY I LIKE YOU. Ah, young love. Percy and Sam definitely get in their own ways sometimes, but somehow it was endearing. Fortune’s ability to craft this story was amazing. All the mess that can come with first love and rekindling that love years later had me glued to my book.

I do stand by that I just didn’t love the last big piece of information needed to answer why there’s been so many years apart. I AM grateful that it was handled really well. The drama had already been thrown down so at this point, I thought the characters all approached it in a realistic way. Which all led to a sweet ending.

Great read, highly recommend. Perfect for summertime!

Overall audience notes:

  • Contemporary Romance
  • Language: a little
  • Romance: multiple brief open door
  • Trigger/Content Warnings: loss of a parent(s), infidelity, on page panic attacks, anxiety

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