Same Time Next Summer by Annabel Monaghan Book Review

“If you’ve loved someone your whole life, it kind of makes sense that you’d love them forever.”

(pg. 94)

About

Author: Annabel Monaghan

Genre: New Adult Contemporary Romance

Click to buy book here

Click to read other book reviews

Synopsis

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

Spoilers Contained Below

To all those first heartbreaks,

Same Time Next Summer was not at all what I thought the book was going to be about, but I enjoyed how this book pleasantly surprised me.

Same Time Next Summer definitely had summer vibes with a Long Island beach house and a treehouse being the main setting of the book. I felt like I was with Sam at the beach with how Annabel Monaghan brought to life such a significant part of Sam’s childhood. I also loved the treehouse as a setting as an ode to youth and how when you’re a kid, you want a safe space that feels solely your own because you feel like everyone is watching you. I remember I always wanted a fort, a tent, a secret closet, to hideaway so I could just be a kid without expectations, and I liked how the treehouse represented that. What surprised me the most about this book was following two adults navigating what their first heartbreak meant to them.

I have read about childhood friends to lovers who broke up because of something serious or a misunderstanding, and in those books, yes, I have seen those characters navigate their relationship to their ex, but with Same Time Next Summer I never felt the effects of what heartbreak meant or how it can effect who you are as you grow up. Not even just heartbreak in the romantic sense, I feel like every relationship or experience you have growing up, shapes who we become—who we close ourselves off to, who we open up to, what pieces of ourselves we choose to shed, what pieces of ourselves we grow into, and the choices we make to protect our heart.

Sam grew up next door to Wyatt—her first love.

Sam’s family moved into the beach house next to Wyatt’s family who had owned that house for a long time. In the beginning, Wyatt never really took notice of Sam, mostly playing with Michael (Wyatt’s brother) and Travis (Sam’s brother)—they were the three amigos. Wyatt’s gaze shifted to Sam, a natural inclination of a boy starting to figure out who he liked. I like the gradual attraction that Wyatt felt towards Sam because his attraction coincided with how when most boys are younger, they don’t think much about girls, but suddenly, that’s all they can think about and more. I liked how Sam and Wyatt slowly became a unit rather than Wyatt with his three amigos. There was such a childlike spark when she touched his lips and he felt drawn to the way her fingers laid there.

Ever since that moment in the shed, Sam became Wyatt’s favorite person.

“‘Sam, you know I was going to come talk to you. I always come talk to you . . . you’re my beach person.'”

(pg. 47)

They had many sweet moments from Wyatt teaching Sam how to surf. I loved how patient he was with Sam and how he had such unwavering belief that she could stand up and catch a wave. I loved the way because Wyatt had infallible belief in Sam, she felt like she could do anything—that she was much stronger and braver than she gave herself credit for. How special it is to have someone who sees the best in you when you don’t see it in yourself. I also loved how Sam shared part of her world with him whenever they would meet in the morning and swim out to the cove/cave where she showed him her shell collection. I felt her shell collection was a sacred entity of Sam’s where she let herself feel like she had control, so letting Wyatt into her controlled bubble was her trusting him to not judge her. They also had the inevitably cute treehouse moments where Sam drew Wyatt a picture of him playing his guitar, and Wyatt was so adamant about hanging the picture up in the treehouse even when Sam wanted to frame the picture. They truly inspired each other—Sam with her art and Wyatt with his music.

You know, I think Annabel Monaghan is onto something about an artistic boy playing a guitar in a treehouse 😂.

Nothing says serenade me or more romantic than a boy with his guitar, strumming tunes in front of a girl he was falling in love with.

With the treehouse symbolizing childlike youth, I thought stylistically it was purposeful that they shed their childlike innocence in that treehouse, if you know what I mean 😅. Haha, they had a special relationship that was built on years of learning each other and getting to know each other’s personal lives.

Wyatt grew up in a heavy family.

His parents were always fighting, Michael was constantly getting into trouble, and Wyatt tried to escape it all through music and not being at home often. As someone who grew up in a household where my parents always fought, it truly is one of the most uncomfortable, disheartening feeling in the world. As a child, watching two people you thought were supposed to love each other, not, it makes you look at the world differently—like maybe things aren’t as perfect. It’s also hard to hear such anger and hate and feel like you can do nothing to stop the way they fight. Michael most likely acted out because he wanted his parent’s attention. Wyatt withdrew inward because processing his emotions were difficult and he probably felt that sense of helplessness I felt. Or a sense of knowing that inevitably your world was crumbling down and there was nothing to do but weather that storm, not really sure when things would finally break. Because when your parents argue that much, there’s only so much you can disillusion yourself to that you know that they are not going to make it through whatever storm they started.

You know there’s a break.

Divorce is like tectonic plates.

Divorce doesn’t know it’s divorce until it breaks. Divorce starts as all that messy arguing, fighting, the late night behind closed doors, hoping no one can hear how loud you are yelling at each other as if speaking louder will make your argument better or more heard. Divorce is the tension building and the plates pushing against each other with each passing day. There is no reverse. There is no stopping the plates from pushing and pushing and pushing until the tension has built itself up so much that the fault line inevitably snaps.

Disaster strikes.

Destruction is the aftermath.

And being the child in that situation is knowing all along that you were going to be sitting front row to that disaster, and being the first one to fall to the destruction.

I had the utmost sympathy and understanding for Wyatt and what he was feeling.

Because sometimes disaster can mean the final argument, the last straw, or it can be another person—disaster can be cheating.

Wyatt walked into his mother kissing Sam’s father, Bill, in Wyatt’s kitchen. He was just going to fill up some water bottles and wanted to use his ice machine because the day was particularly hot. It’s a wonder what fate makes us discover sometimes.

Like new pieces of ourselves, new people, and hurtful revelations.

Seeing a parent cheat is watching that parent fall from grace.

They are no longer perfect in your eyes—they are human. They are imperfect. They are disappointing.

Wyatt had the front row show and he was the first person to fall.

That must have been absolutely painful to watch someone he respected, suddenly be someone he couldn’t even look in the eye. I think it hurts more when people disappoint you then when they actually hurt you—the way you thought them to be someone else and they turn out not to be. I admired that Wyatt knew he had to tell Sam because what happened effected both of them. I felt like what sucked was that Wyatt was even put in this position to tell his girlfriend that her dad smacked lips with his mom. He knew his mom was not in a healthy place with his father, but to see her actually kiss someone else was a whole new level of betrayal and fighting. The kiss was a bomb.

I don’t blame Wyatt for also being angry at Bill for breaking his family even more. I would have been furious at Bill too for going around kissing his mom because doing so was every bit of his fault. None of this was Wyatt’s fault or Sam’s, and it’s not like they asked to part of their families drama. But they were.

My heart ached with how Wyatt could not separate his anger and hurt at Bill from his anger and hurt at Sam; because her father cheated with his mother, he was mad at Sam too. That sucks. That’s difficult. Also, with Wyatt growing up with uncommunicative parents who always fought, it’s hard not to feel angrier at people whose lives seem perfect or who have it better because you want them to understand how rough you have it or to hurt too. When my parents divorced, I remember feeling lost and a bit angry if I can admit that to myself. I don’t think I admitted it to myself then, but I was a bit angry at the way that all my friends had normal parents who looked like they loved each other enough to stay together and that they had normal families that never fought. I was mostly jealous though that they had something I didn’t. I also felt a bit like a fish out of water with the only parents who were divorced. Growing up with divorced parents is a lot like battling complex emotions you never had to navigate yet.

“Even the sound of his I love you lost its tenderness. He said it in the way you said goodbye.”

(pg. 134)

Saying Sam and Wyatt’s relationship was wasn’t strained was like saying a colander didn’t have holes.

Sam’s dad and mom went to couple’s therapy to get help, while Wyatt’s dad stayed in Florida and the mom and him were getting a divorce. Her family was trying to fix a fractured relationship while his family was finally breaking. I could understand how that felt unfair in the sense that Sam’s dad kissed Wyatt’s mom, so Wyatt wanted Sam’s family to experience the same pains as he did. I don’t think he intentionally wanted Sam to feel pain if her family went through something similar to his, but I think he just wanted to not feel like he was the only one who was truly hurting by his parents inaction/actions.

I will say, I agreed with Wyatt with how it was sort of weird that Sam’s parents were now having another child after the dad cheated. The reason I say odd was because I don’t feel like having another baby was the way to fix their relationship 😥. You know like when people say you shouldn’t have a baby with someone if you’re already having relationship troubles—like a baby isn’t going to fix your problem. That sentiment was what ran through my mind. I mean, I liked that Sam’s parents worked through their issues, but I also didn’t like how they covered their issues with a baby. I mean, I loved that they had another baby, Gracie, because she was a blessing, but I didn’t think having a baby was the right move per say. I could feel why Wyatt pulled even further away from Sam because her parents were “starting over” and they were happy, and his family was broken.

Knowing Sam’s family was fairing better than his, was the final straw for Wyatt.

I didn’t like the way Wyatt spoke to Sam or pulled away from her towards the end of their relationship when they were teens. I didn’t like it, but I understood it. He just had a lot of anger and hurt he needed to work though and have space to process. Wyatt was just so close to the situation and every emotion felt like people were pushing down on his wounds, that I knew he was only hurting.

“It was as if everyone around him had let him down, so he’d figure he’d finish the job.”

(pg. 145)

He left Sam. He never went back to the beach house the following year. He never showed up to Sam’s graduation. Instead, Wyatt moved to L.A. to finally start his way into music and make a name for himself. He worked at a gas station and stayed in basically a broom closet. He attempted singing at a bar once in front of this big music producer, Carlyle, who proceeded to tell Wyatt he was a good song writer but didn’t have a great voice. So when Wyatt called Sam after a year of not talking to her or being there for her, and he had the AUDACITY to say he needed someone to talk to because he felt alone in L.A. and that he wanted her to forgive him because he needed her?????? TREASON 👏🏼!!

I’m sorry, I know he had a rough year and a rougher childhood and I don’t blame him, but he doesn’t just get to call Sam after cutting her out of his life, and then expect that she would drop everything to suddenly be there for him when he needed her and that she needed to suck it up and forgive him because he really needed her. **scoffs** Yea, it’s a no from me.

I don’t care if he was feeling at an all time low in L.A. because he suddenly heard from a big-shot record producer that he wasn’t good enough to make it—although I felt for him—he wasn’t there for Sam either. So to ask her to be there for him and to forgive him? No. Sam had every right to be peezed off at him and never speak to him again.

Not with the way she had been hurting from his inaction too.

Can I just say what everyone was thinking, but this Dr. Judy needs to go back to therapy school or whatever because she was absolutely the worst therapist for Sam 🙃. I mean, minimizing Sam’s emotions from her heartbreak and then invalidating Sam by chalking up her feelings as being addicted to Wyatt was AWFUL. I mean, where did she get her degree again? I don’t know, I just don’t think any therapist would have made Sam feel so small for how she felt. Heartbreak is real and valid. Heartbreak is like grieving. I mean, I wouldn’t fully know what Sam was feeling, but gosh, even I am not a certified therapist and I would have validated Sam’s emotions and given her ways to cope by focusing on herself or finding closure or healing. Not freaking telling Sam that her relationship was basically toxic as heck because she was obsessed/addicted to Wyatt. WHAT IS THAT 😡?!?!

Dr. Judy? More like Dr. You-Don’t-Know-What-You’re-Talking-About.

I liked how we followed Sam through all stages of her heartbreak. There was one conversation before Sam and Wyatt actually broke up where the dad saw Sam curled up, crying on her bed.

“‘I don’t know how I’m ever going to make this up to you.’

‘I don’t either,’ Sam said, and turned over.

‘I was desperate, Sam. It was so selfish.’

‘It really was.’

‘You’re going to have to forgive me sometime.’

Sam turned over to face him. ‘Actually, that’s one thing I don’t have to do.'”

(pg. 142)

This whole conversation broke my heart in how Bill’s action hurt his relationship with his daughter, and indirectly hurt her relationship with a boy she really loved. She was angry at her dad as she was warranted.

To be quite honest, I agreed with Wyatt and Sam with how Bill cheating felt like a poor excuse for saying he lacked creativity. Bill kissed Wyatt’s mom because Wyatt’s mom was in the kitchen and he was in an artistic dry spell, and something came over him and he just kissed Wyatt’s mom to feel something or to see if he could get out of a creative rut. That’s an absolutely dumb reason and unbelievable to use your artistic pursuits as a reason to cheat. I don’t know, Bill’s reason felt cheap, ingenuine.

Sam would sometimes swim or do homework for however many laps or however many minutes as if she was making a deal with a higher power that if she did this much, Wyatt would call her. I wanted to hug Sam 🥺. No amount of whatever she did would compensate and suddenly Wyatt would reach out, and I wanted to feel like a best friend and tell her that. I felt like Sam conditioning herself as so was her way of trying to move on, but not really–within bounds. I felt sad for her that she felt so hopeful that Wyatt would reach out if she did accomplish what she wanted–like she would get rewarded for doing more. But she slowly gave up hope.

When Gracie was born, I understood how Sam was almost angry at Gracie—that she was born out of their parents rough splotch. I loved how Sam took in Gracie though and cared for her because she wanted to protect Gracie from anyone who would break her heart like how Sam’s broke. Gracie was like Sam’s heart in everything she wished she protected sooner. I liked how Gracie also brought love and comfort when Sam needed it most. When applying to college, Sam thought she would always go to UCLA or something in California. However, she told herself if she got into NYU, she would go there. I loved the moment she got into NYU because the moment felt like fate. I don’t think she was ready to go to California because she was still hurting and she wanted to be with Gracie. I also don’t feel like if she went to California she would be happy because California would hold all the memories of what could have been. Also, California was their dream, and Wyatt was no in California. If she ran into him, then what? Sam talked abbot fearing seeing Wyatt and how that felt weird because she always wanted to see him before. But I felt her fear came from not knowing Wyatt anymore or what they were to each other. So when she got into NYU, I felt like that was the right path. Life puts us down the path that we need at the time, and I never realized how much we should trust in that path.

The one thing that really left a mark on Sam was the way she closed herself off after loving Wyatt.

“I have in my mind the image of someone in a very long dress with buttons that go all the wya up to her neck. She looks regal and polished and she can’t quite breathe. I look down at my sandals and wonder if it’s okay to just undo the top button every once in a while, without your whole life falling apart.”

(pg. 205)

I loved the visual of this quote in how after Sam and Wyatt broke up, she drew a fort with a steel door around her heart; she traded foot flops for killer heels; she traded loose, flowy outfits for buttoned up demureness. Sam traded all the parts of herself that made her the most her for someone she didn’t love because she hurt for the teenage Sam who had her heart shattered and didn’t want anything to do with that version of herself.

Also, there’s a lot to be said about experiencing your first heart break and having that whole experience change you. When you experience your first heartbreak no matter the age, heartbreak is always going to feel like part of your heart broke off and left with that other person, in turn like pieces of yourself also left. Heartbreak teaches you all the things you do not want to experience in your next relationship—shapes how you perceive your next relationship. Sam didn’t want to go into her next relationship hurting the way Wyatt hurt her, and she didn’t want a relationship that had so much power to hurt her.

I understood that, but if we were all being honest with ourselves, Sam chose Jack because he was easy and she could just follow his lead. Jack was also stable with his routine of gym, doctor things, go home, eat, sleep, repeat. He was consistent and wasn’t going to cause her heartache because she didn’t really love him. Sam didn’t want to get married to Jack; heck, the fact that she wasn’t even an ounce of excited for her wedding was a flag within itself. It felt like Sam was letting the wedding happen to her rather than being involved in the wedding. Sam went along with what Jack wanted with a traditional wedding with white linens, boring invitations, a venue she didn’t like and he didn’t like until he heard one of his favorite tennis players played there. Heck, this was more of Jack’s wedding than Sam and Jack’s wedding and I felt sorry for Sam. I also felt angry whenever she did suggest something or wanting color and then thinking better of it because Jack wouldn’t like it, or worse when Jack made her feel childish for liking color. Well, sorry if not everyone wants a monochromatic wedding. Jack needed to compromise or at least ask Sam what she wanted. Heck, I don’t think Jack was even excited to marry Sam, just more excited to plan a wedding or check a box.

I didn’t like the way Sam diminished or hid herself for so long because hiding was comfortable and easy. Hiding in this orderly and buttoned-up persona wasn’t her, and she wasn’t living her happiest self.

Not being true to who you are to your core, isn’t going to make you your most happiest self.

You are not being honest with yourself.

You are not letting yourself live the life you want nor be the person you know you are.

I can relate to Sam on this level so much with how I grew up as the most diminished person because I never felt good enough based on what others told me. I tried to hard then to fit into all these different boxes of who they wanted of me, and I was never being who I was because I wanted other people to love me. Changing all the time and making myself feel small because I felt awful that no one loved me as I was, truly left me feeling drained. I felt unhappy. How could I be happy when I never felt like I could be myself? It wasn’t until I was older and learned the hard way that no amount of changing or stuffing yourself into a box is ever going to make someone love you the way that they should have in the first place; that if they don’t already love and accept you for who you are, they are not the right person for you. It wasn’t until I feel like this past year that I really stepped into who I was always hiding underneath this hurt girl who hated who she was because others made her hate every part of her. It wasn’t until this past year that I felt like I knew who I could be my truest self around. It wasn’t until this past year that I felt remotely, dare I say, happy, that I wasn’t hiding parts of myself I never thought I couldn’t hide.

And it’s such a liberating and terrifying feeling.

But I think of Sam and how I hurt for the way she didn’t want to be herself because who she was when she was sixteen hurt. And, yes, we are all not who we were at sixteen because we change, but I don’t think we change so much that our core values and beliefs alter us completely. I don’t think we change so much that we don’t know in our heart who we are.

Sam wasn’t some strict, frigid organizer. She was a go with the flow gal. She wasn’t someone who loved wearing heels and buttoned up outfits, she was someone who liked to let loose and have her toes touch the sand. Even when she first got to the beach house with Jack, I could tell that she wanted all her natural instincts to come back and how much she wanted to let loose this stringent personality, but never allowed herself too. Instead, she tamped down any positive feelings she had and turned them into shame–like she was ashamed for being who she was or who her family was. Sam never deserved to feel ashamed for loving to lay out in the sun, swim until her bones turned to liquid, or catch a wave until her laughter mingled with the waves. She deserved to live at her fullest. Not her quietest.

I didn’t like how even when Sam tried to be honest with Jack about who she was or wanted to be, he pushed aside her dreams or comments as if Sam wasn’t serious. I mean, he did know Sam in a different way that wasn’t true to who she was, so I understood that Jack couldn’t reconcile the Sam he met and the Sam she was, but still. If he truly did love her, he would have at least gave Sam a shot in knowing who this real version of her was. He never did want to learn who Sam was, he wanted her to stay the same. I also didn’t like the way Jack never believed in her from her new aspirations of wanting to be an art teacher. He didn’t even believe for a second she wouldn’t get fired and that she should start looking for a new job. What kind of person just believes you are getting fired without hyping you up that you are not? 😅 Your fiancé no less.

Wyatt saw Sam. Wyatt believed in Sam.

I could tell the minute Sam knew Wyatt was at the beach house that year, that she still loved him. I was on the same wavelength as the grandma who also kept giving Sam knowing looks 😂. I do believe it is true that when you love someone, it’s hard not to love them in whatever capacity still. I felt like Sam wasn’t even bothered about what happened all those years ago, but more so regretted that all this time had passed without them ever talking because she still loved him. Just the way her body reacted or reached for him was a tell. I respected the way Wyatt tried to respect Sam and Jack’s marriage and that he didn’t touch her back in a telling way or initiated anything inappropriate. I do feel like deep down he still loved Sam too because that was his first love, but he also knew he lost her a long time ago and maybe he felt like it was too late or like he didn’t deserve her. I liked how in the end, Wyatt admitted that the real reason he returned to the beach house that year was because he heard Sam was getting married and he wanted to make sure she was happy and marrying a good guy. He was still looking after her all these years 🥺💛. He still cared.

Because as much as what he did when he was seventeen was wrong and hurtful, I understood he only acted from a place of hurt. He was going through a lot.

You can’t hold something someone did at seventeen for the rest of their life.

I loved when Wyatt apologized to Sam and Sam apologized too. They needed to have this conversation to push forward into whatever their relationship looked next. I also liked how Wyatt owned up to how he felt at the time and how he regretted pushing her away.

“‘I’m really sorry I hurt you,’ he says finally.

I don’t say anything.

. . . ‘I would have pushed you away. I was reeling, and so angry with your family. I couldn’t control it. The only thing worse than losing you would have been unleashing that on you.’

(pg. 225-6)

When a person can openly talk about a difficult situation, means they moved on from that situation enough where it doesn’t hurt anymore.

I truly understood that Wyatt needed to do what was best for him at the time because it was better than hurting those around him. Again, it was a complicated situation.

I liked how they slowly became friends again when that wall of hurt was broken down. I loved the way they fell back into being best friends with texting each other and asking each other anything and everything. I loved how they surfed and swam together. I loved how he went with her to the cake tasting and decor shopping. I loved the way he was just there.

However, Sam and Wyatt’s relationship did feel borderline like Sam was emotionally cheating because she clearly did want more with Wyatt. I didn’t think it was fair she led Wyatt on while Wyatt was trying to respect her relationship. I don’t blame Wyatt for popping off on Sam with being furious at her for hiding who she really was. He knew Sam better than anyone and I bet that must have been difficult to not say how he could tell she wasn’t letting hurls truly live—not getting the chocolate cake she wanted, not talking about the colored calligraphy she liked, etc. I think he was angry that he wanted to be with her but she was married but giving him signs of wanting more but he didn’t want to cross any lines. Again, mad respect.

“‘Was it worth it?’ I ask.

‘Absolutely not. I was using Marion as a bridge to someplace else, someplace where I would feel like a different man . . I didn’t become a new man, I just hurt everyone I loved.’

. . . ‘You cheat because you think it’s going to make you someone else, that it’s going to save you from your own damn misery. And that’s the lie you’re telling yourself. I guess that’s the point, Sam. Another person is not going to turn you into anything but who you already are. Make sure your’e not trying to turn yourself into someone else for Jack.'”

(pg. 236)

One of my favorite conversations in the book was between Sam and her dad later on.

The dad knew; Billy knew how much Sam and Jack still loved each other. I low-key laughed when he was in the car for the awkward conversation that was Sam figuring out Jack ghostwrote music for a famous artist named Missy. I mean, how could she have not known Sam-I-am was about her when Wyatt would call her that all the time. I guess, when you’re hearing a song on the radio like that, it’s hard not to feel like the song is about anyone, and not you. But Sam-I-am, really? That was never a coincidence.

What I loved so much about this conversation was how much I related and understood what Billy meant. I know cheating well, and I would say that people do cheat sometimes because they feel like it will help them out of a situation they don’t want to be in anymore. I do think people kind of lie to themselves when they think that cheating then is okay because they are doing it for a greater good or that it’s going to make them someone else. You are who you are already, and cheating doesn’t change that. Sam was lying to herself but not being honest with Jack about who she was and also lying to her heart that said it wanted to be with Wyatt.

It’s interesting how Billy was part of the reason for Sam and Wyatt’s fall out. But Billy was also the reason for Sam and Wyatt getting back together. If she never had a conversation with her dad about being honest with herself, she would have never had all these revelations of how she was living a lie, which wouldn’t have led her to ending things with Jack.

Gosh, when she took off that ring and told him she couldn’t do this anymore, I was like, ‘LET’S GO!!!!!!” 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼

“Sometimes you have to walk away from all the things you don’t want to make room for the future. A blank canvas.”

(pg. 258)

Walk out that door, Sam-I-am!!

I was so proud of her for finally being honest with her heart.

I loved how being at the beach house for the last week and other days truly reconnected her to her roots and who she always was. I loved how much she realized that she didn’t want a life working the same old boring job in a stiff pencil skirt. I loved how much she realized she didn’t want something monotonous and lackluster with Jack when she could have something in full color with someone else.

“I don’t know how I’ve moved so backward in my life that I am sharing a room with Gracie, and I don’t know how I ever got so far from having a life that feels like mine.”

(pg. 262)

I hurt for Sam 🥺.

That had to be a rock-bottom moment to feel like she should have been so ahead in life with a family, a husband, success, but to know she was going backwards and didn’t have her own family, a husband, no job yet. Like she was at ground zero, back in her childhood bedroom where she wasn’t really wanted. Sam must have felt torn with how much time she wasted from not living life as herself and feeling lost at starting over. Starting over is like having been nearly to the top of a mountain only to fall to the bottom, gazing at the top and wondering how you’re ever going to get there. Starting over is carrying the bruises and scares with you, hoping that you have some strength to keep going.

I don’t think people talk that much about what it means to be older and starting over. It almost feels like you have failed if you haven’t met certain goals at a certain age. But growing up should never feel like you have to hit certain marks at a certain age—it should never feel like shame to start again. Sometimes that’s the best way to start.

So I loved how Annabel Monaghan took this character who experienced such heartbreak that shaped the very essence of her, and made her someone so entirely human, someone who dared to begin again.

I loved when Sam returned to the beach house alone to have time and space to gather herself.

I loved how the tree behind her bed became a sort of metaphor before our eyes in the way the tree was rugged painted lines, to slowly wanting to add texture—to add more—to the tree, and then to taking off the sticks so only glue and a messy tree was left. The bare tree was the freeness Sam felt growing up—her spontaneity; the textured tree was her tapping into the part of herself that didn’t want to feel so bare anymore—wanted more to this life with Jack; and taking off the sticks was her recognizing that she did want more and it wasn’t just with adding something, it meant shedding what she was hiding underneath—going back to her roots. But now the tree had glue residue—the tree was messy–and that was much like her life now and that sometimes life is messy.

But the best part of a mess isn’t how you clean it up, it’s knowing that there is something better after you clean up the mess.

I loved the way Sam took time to surf, swim, create, work with kids, again because she no longer lived trapped under this idea of who she needed to be. I loved how free and honest she felt—like the Sam I read in the beginning was only written at half volume, but now she was living loud. I loved how happy she was 😊. Great job to Annabel Monaghan who shifted the tone and mood of the story to match the characters arc.

Wyatt came to visit Sam at one point and found her in the treehouse like after all this time, he was meant to find her there. I loved how they were taking things slow except when they didn’t 😅, but I guess with all this time in between and knowing that they loved each other, why waste more time. Haha. Wyatt quit working for Carlyle and Missy and launched his own EP with the drawing Sam made him all those years ago. How sweet how he always had hope that they would work out 💛. He was inspired again because he had Sam in his life. I loved how much Sam’s family knew that Sam and Wyatt were going to get back together and that they were meant to be; they accepted Wyatt back into the family like he always was there.

Life has a way of working out.

“‘There are no straight lines, just connections, hinges, where we reach for each other and pull each other up.'”

(pg. 284)

As much as Billy was not my favorite character in the beginning, he grew on me in the sense that he knew what he did was wrong and he was trying to do better. He knew what he did hurt others around him and wasn’t hiding behind the fact that he cheated, which showed character. I don’t know, he was just a human who was hurting and made a terrible mistake. But that’s not something that we should ever fully hold a grudge over for the rest of our lives. Sometimes it takes years to forgive, but there comes a time when it feels like you are ready to forgive and move forward. I don’t know, after everything with my parents, I had time to process and understand, which led to me forgiving one of my parents for the hurtful things that parent did. Did that excuse the way that parent treated me or others at the time? No. But did I understand why? Yes. Was I angry at the time? Yes. But am I angry now? No. Because that person that needed to be angry, had her time to be angry. And now this person that I am now, needed to move forward. I forgave her a few years ago and it mended a lot of hurt I didn’t know I was holding onto until I let go. So I was happy the dad found inspiration for art at the end.

Life truly is not straight lines. It’s curves, dips, twists, smudges, dotted lines, it’s a mess. But what makes life beautiful is the connection we have for how we lift each other up at our lowest—how we reach out in times of darkness. That’s what makes life so beautiful—connection.

I loved the prose of Same Time Next Summer because in no way did I feel like this book was a lighthearted read 😅. But in the best way! I admired the detailed literary feel of getting to grow up with Sam and Wyatt as they fell in and out of love and in love again after so many years. I do believe that life is a series of moments that shape us and how heartbreak can break us to form new versions of ourselves, but never too far to not know who we are. Also, there is so much power in being our truest self that there truly is no other way to be. As someone who had hid for most of my life, trust me when I say, own who you are without abdomen. Laugh so loud that others stare and cringe. Smile at the clouds or the grass even if you look like a maniac. Take the darn picture and let others look at you remembering every beautiful moment while they regret not having a single photo to encapsulate that memory. Eat the food you want because it makes you happy. Do what makes your heart sing and dance even if it doesn’t pay well or isn’t the traditional job. Do what makes you happy.

 What was your favorite part of the book? Least favorite part? What did you think of the book? 

What is something that makes you feel the happiest?

Let me know below in the comments as I love hearing from you all 💕

I hope you have a beautiful day whenever and wherever you might be reading this 😊.

And as always, with love,

Rating

4.44 Full Bloom Flowers

Characters: Sam is a lot more than she seemed once she opened herself up. I thought Wyatt was a great character who was going through a lot, but would have liked to know more about him personally.

Plot: I liked following Sam and Wyatt through significant part of their formative years and what that meant to them growing up. I also loved seeing them reconnect, and Sam reconnect with herself.

Writing: What a beautiful story told in the most beautiful way 💛. Annabel Monaghan knows how to take you through an experience and a feeling.

Romance: Oh, the trials and tribulations of old and new love.