Until Next Summer
By: Ali Brady
Published Year: 2024
Publisher: Berkley
Pages: 448
I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. This in no way shape or form influenced my opinion of this book.
Summary (Provided by Goodreads): Two former best friends each find love at an adults-only summer camp in this romantic and nostalgic novel that proves “once a camp person, always a camp person.”
Growing up, Jessie and Hillary lived for summer, when they’d be reunited at Camp Chickawah. The best friends vowed to become counselors together someday, but they drifted apart after Hillary broke her promise and only Jessie stuck to their plan, working her way up to become the camp director.
When Jessie learns that the camp will be sold, she decides to plan one last hurrah, inviting past campers—including Hillary—to a nostalgic “adult summer camp” before closing for good. Jessie and Hillary rebuild their friendship as they relive the best time of their lives—only now there are adult beverages, skinny dipping, and romantic entanglements. Straitlaced Hillary agrees to a “no strings attached” summer fling with the camp chef, while outgoing Jessie is drawn to a moody, reclusive writer who’s rented a cabin to work on his novel.
The friends soon realize this doesn’t have to be the last summer. They’ll team up and work together, just like the old days. But if they can’t save their beloved camp, will they be able to take the happiness of this summer away with them?
First Impressions
I went to summer camp for two years growing up and I absolutely loved it. I understand that desire to chase that feeling of the summer camp high and always found the idea of an adult summer camp to be so cool. I reach one of Ali Brady’s previous books, The Beach Trap, and found it to be an enjoyable for a summer read.
What I thought
Jessie and Hillary were best friends at summer camp until Hillary backed out on their promise to become camp counselors together. Then they never talked again. 10 years later, Jessie is running the overnight camp the last summer before it shuts down. For the final summer, Jessie had the idea to make it an adult overnight camp, with each week being for past campers who had come to Camp Chickawah as kids. Hillary applies to work as the Arts and Crafts director, making this the first time they have seen each other since their last summer at camp. Now they have to see if they can rebuild their friendship and possibly save the camp that means so much to them.
In theory, this book was super cute. In actuality, it was a little bit long and a lot bit cheesy. I liked the characters but I felt like the authors focused on the wrong things sometimes. I felt like their friendship resolved so quickly. I also didn’t love how immature Jessie ad Hillary both were. For example, Luke (a cranky writer who becomes a love interest for Jessie) pulls away from Jessie and says “I can’t get into a relationship right now”. Which, yeah, totally sucks, but also felt completely honest and not like it has anything to do with Jessie. Yet Jessie takes it personally and proceeds to get back at him by dumping an entire bucket of syrup on his head.
Hillary seems a little bit more mature, but she is also just dense. In the first few chapters, her boyfriend asks for them to take a break so that he can sleep around while she’s gone all summer and it takes her until she’s been at camp for a few weeks to realize that was a shitty thing for this dude to do. They were dating for 2 years! Of course it’s a shitty thing to do!
I liked the chemistry between Hillary and Cooper but I felt like I wanted more from Luke and Jessie. They had some decent banter but sometimes it felt a little forced. I think maybe I felt a little torn between the story about trying to save the camp and having an adult summer camp with building friendship and then the romances. It can be tricky juggling 3 separate relationships while also writing a save the camp plot.
It also was much too long in my opinion. This book was well over 400 pages and I think it could’ve been accomplished in about 100 less. It felt like it moved so slowly to me while they also frequently talked about how quickly life at camp seems to move.
Parts of this book were very cute, but it just never seemed to hook me fully. I found it to be long and slow and I just never connected with the characters. I did love the setting, so I think if you’re a summer camp person you might enjoy this. I also think if I had been a little younger when I read it I would’ve enjoyed it more. I’d be open to reading more by Ali Brady in the future, but this one was not my favorite.