Same Time Next Summer

Same Time Next Summer is a contemporary romance novel. The narrative employs the “forced proximity,” “childhood sweethearts,” and “second chance” tropes characteristic of the genre. In the forced proximity trope, the main characters find themselves in the same location on repeated occasions. Over time, their proximity compels them into an intimate dynamic. In the childhood sweethearts trope, two characters who fell in love in their youth rediscover their connection as adults. In the second chance trope, former lovers who believed their relationship was over find that renewing their love is possible. All these dynamics converge in Sam and Wyatt’s love story. They fell in love as teenagers on Long Island. When they end up back in the summer homes of their childhood as adults, they discover that they still have “very real feelings” for each other (292). At the same time, Annabel Monaghan reinvents these genre tropes by embedding more complex emotional and interpersonal dynamics into Sam and Wyatt’s story. She backgrounds their romance with the characters’ familial complications, artistic pursuits, and attempts to discover and claim their true identities.