Same Time Next Summer

Annabel Monaghan’s contemporary romance novel Same Time Next Summer was originally published by G. P. Putnam’s Sons in 2023. As Monaghan’s sophomore novel, it’s preceded by her 2022 publication Nora Goes Off Script and followed by her subsequent 2024 publication Summer Romance. Same Time Next Summer combines romance genre tropes with Monaghan’s characteristic emotional insight to tell the story of Sam Holloway and Wyatt Trope’s protracted romance. Sam and Wyatt spend every summer together on Long Island as kids. When they’re teenagers, they fall in love. However, unexpected family complications soon draw them apart. Fourteen years after their breakup, they find themselves back on Long Island. This time, Sam is engaged, but seeing Wyatt again challenges her to confront her past and reexamine what she wants in the present. Sam and Wyatt’s forced proximity at the beach inspires the novel’s themes: The Challenge of Navigating Past and Present Relationships, The Enduring Impact of First Love, and Journeys of Self-Discovery and Personal Growth. The novel alternates between the first- and third-person points of view and toggles between the past and present tense.

This guide refers to the 2023 G. P. Putnam’s Sons paperback edition of the novel.

Content Warning: The novel discusses learning differences and mental health concerns.

Plot Summary

Sam Holloway is 30 years old and engaged to her orderly, predictable fiancé, Jack. They live together in Manhattan, where Sam works for an HR firm called Human Corps and Jack is a doctor. Everything feels under Sam’s control until she makes a mistake at work and her sister, Gracie, invites her and Jack to Long Island for a long summer weekend. Jack’s parents have booked a wedding date for Sam and Jack at their Connecticut country club, but Sam’s family hopes she’ll get married in Oak Shore, Long Island, where she spent all of her childhood summers.

Sam and Jack drive to Long Island together despite Sam’s reluctance to spend time with her family. Throughout the visit, she tries to ignore the ocean waves and sea air. When she’s outside, she can’t help remembering all the time she spent there as a child. Sam feels even more unnerved when she learns that her first love, Wyatt Pope, is spending the summer in his mom’s house next door. Sitting on the porch listening to Wyatt play the guitar in his childhood treehouse quickly plunges Sam’s mind into memories of the past.

Sam and Wyatt met when they were children. Their parents owned beach houses side by side in Oak Shore, and the two grew close over their summers together. Sam feared that her friends were growing up faster than her, and Wyatt often felt left out of social dynamics because he had learning differences and enjoyed making music. When they were together, however, Sam and Wyatt felt at peace. They swam and surfed together every day and soon fell in love. They had sex in Wyatt’s treehouse one night, professed their love, and promised to be together forever.

On Labor Day weekend that same summer, Wyatt found his mother, Marion Pope, kissing Sam’s father, Bill Holloway, in the Holloways’ kitchen. Bill and Marion revealed their affair to their respective spouses, Laurel Holloway and Frank Pope, the next day. However, Wyatt was still reeling from the discovery. His dad moved back to Florida, where the Popes lived full time, and his mom stayed in Oak Shore. The Holloways returned to their Lower East Side apartment in Manhattan early before the end of the summer.

Sam and Wyatt tried to stay in touch over the following months. However, Wyatt got angry every time their parents came up in conversation. Wyatt got particularly upset one night when Sam revealed that her parents were staying together and her mom was pregnant. Wyatt’s parents were getting divorced, and he felt angry and bitter. He decided not to go to Long Island the following summer and moved to Los Angeles immediately after graduating. Sam was heartbroken when Wyatt stopped contacting her. She changed her plans to follow Wyatt to LA and decided to go to New York University instead. Over the following years, she pushed Wyatt out of her mind and adopted a more orderly, controlled way of being.

In the present, Sam and Jack arrive on Long Island, and Sam and Wyatt start to run into each other around Oak Shore. Sam tries to ignore how she feels in Wyatt’s company. One day, Laurel suggests that she talk to Wyatt about what happened between them so she can move forward with Jack. After she and Wyatt make amends in the treehouse one night, Sam feels glad that they can now be friends. Sam, Jack, and Wyatt attend a local music festival, where Wyatt performs a song. Sam realizes the song is about her and feels overwhelmed by emotion. Afterward, Wyatt tells her he’s been writing for the pop star Missy McGee for years and that all of his lyrics are about his and Sam’s relationship. He still loves Sam but mainly wants her to be happy.

After booking the Old Sloop Inn on Long Island for their wedding, Sam and Jack return to Manhattan. Sam meets with her boss and is relieved to discover that she isn’t getting fired for her mistake as she expected. When she returns to Long Island for a long weekend to finalize some wedding plans, Wyatt resurfaces in Oak Shore, too. He tries to help her with the wedding preparations but soon gets overwhelmed. He confronts Sam, admitting that he still loves her and insisting that Jack doesn’t know the real her.

Sam feels torn and confused on her way back to Manhattan. When she reports to work, she realizes she hates her job and quits. That night, she makes a celebratory dinner and tells Jack she’s leaving HR to pursue a career as an art teacher. Jack argues that this is a ridiculous idea, and Sam realizes he doesn’t understand her at all. She returns his ring and breaks off their engagement. She spends the night at her parents’ apartment but takes the train back to Long Island a few days later.

Over the course of the following week, Sam settles into her new single life at the beach. She takes a job working with kids at the library and rekindles her youthful sketching hobby. While she’s drawing in the treehouse one night, Wyatt unexpectedly returns. He tells Sam he decided to leave his life and work in Los Angeles to start over on Long Island. They have sex, profess their love for each other, and decide to give their relationship a second chance. Sam’s family is thrilled to hear the news and to see Sam and Wyatt back together when they return to Long Island a few months later.