Title: Summer Romance
Author: Annabel Monaghan
Publisher: G.P. Putnam’s Sons
Publication date: June 4, 2023
Length: 368 pages
Genre: Contemporary romance
Source: Review copy courtesy of the publisher via NetGalley
Rating:

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?

Summer Romance delivers on the promise of its title, but with so much more. And it’s really no surprise — this 3rd book** by author Annabel Monaghan is just as delightful as the previous two, Nora Goes Off Script and Same Time Next Summer.

**3rd adult novel — she has earlier YA and non-fiction books, according to her Goodreads profile.

In Summer Romance, the main character is Ali, whose life is incredibly messy despite her professional role as a home organizer. It’s been two years since her mother’s death and one year since her husband Pete decided he wanted out. Ali’s pantry is overflowing with unneeded items (who needs four boxes of corn starch?), her sweatpants have seen much better days, and her counters have piles of paper everywhere. Just keeping her three children going takes all her effort — and yes, she’s a terrific mom, but her emotions are a mess and she’s just so, so worn out.

When Ali’s best friend Frannie pushes her to make a change and at least put on a pair of “hard pants” (i.e., any that don’t feature an elastic waist), Ali thinks Frannie’s probably expecting too much, but a trip to the dog park leads her to a very attractive man with a cute dog and a sense of humor. He’s new to their small town — Ali would definitely know if he were a local — and he seems to like what he sees when he looks at Ali. For the first time in years, Ali feels a bit of joy. Maybe a summer romance with a visitor to town will snap her out of her funk.

Of course, the mystery man — Ethan — has more to him than meets the eye, but Ali is drawn to him, and their chemistry is terrific. Plus, he’s kind and considerate and funny, not to mention hot, and with very specifically appealing features, such as his “shouldery shoulders” and:

His hands are the hands of a man who works construction all day and then races home to perform a piano concerto.

As they spend time together, Ali starts to get a new sense of energy for the rest of her life too, and starts to realize that the line from her high school graduation speech (which gets quoted back to her at a key moment) about being “the architect of your own experience” might be more relevant to her today than it was all those years ago.

Without going too far into the plot, I’ll just talk about some of the elements you might not get based just on the synopsis. The central theme in Summer Romance is not just the love story, but Ali rediscovering herself and finding a way to live through and past her grief. Her mother was her touchstone, the one constant in her life, the person who was there for her even when her marriage wasn’t going great and she started feeling like she’d lost her way. When we first meet Ali, she talks to her mother in her car whenever she’s alone, and hears her mother’s responses — not in a “oh my god, she’s hallucinating” sort of way, but more like she’s soothing herself by imagining how her mother might talk her through any of her fresh challenges.

And it’s in this moment that I understand my mother’s love for me. I can still feel the intensity of that love and the way she walked into my home, bright as the sun, and blinded me to all the shadows.

The depiction of Ali’s life as a single mother feels realistic. She loves her kids and is wonderful with them, but she’s also tired. Her ex can’t be counted on — he’s the type of clueless ex-husband who still just walks into the house when he arrives, and changes plans on a dime when he’s supposed to have the kids because something else has come up. Ali is the anchor, the one who can be counted on, and it’s clearly exhausting to have to be the one responsible person in all of their lives.

I really appreciated how well the author shows Ali’s return to hope and joy over the course of the summer. It’s not just about having a new man in her life — it’s about recognizing her own worth, finding purpose, and recommitting to all the messiness that emotional involvement can bring, even knowing that sometimes there will be loss down the road, but getting involved anyway.

As with her previous books, the author excels at writing clever or funny lines that capture something true beneath the wittiness:

When I stopped working, I started making the coffee to suit Pete. He liked me to add cinnamon to the grounds, which I think completely ruins the taste of the coffee, but I made it that way because he was the one going to work. It seemed like his coffee moment mattered more than mine. 

One of Ali’s big epiphanies over the course of her summer romance is that love and beauty and joy need to be embraced, even if there’s sorrow inevitably coming later. Whether it’s befriending the old woman next door despite knowing her time is limited, or getting a dog who in the natural course of things she’ll eventually see die, Ali learns that her life is richer when she accepts the joy in the moment — even if, like a summer romance, it has a predetermined end date.

Summer Romance is a wonderful read — the romantic elements are absolutely great, but the family dynamics, the memories of Ali’s mother and how Ali processes her grief, the appreciation of the connections of life in a small town, the depiction of how sexy kindness can be — all of these really make this book something special. Don’t miss it.

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