Just for the Summer

What Readers Say

The premise is what hooks people: two perpetually unlucky-in-love people discover that whoever they break up with always finds their soulmate immediately after. So they make a deal — date each other just for the summer, let the curses cancel out, and move on. It's a bonkers setup, and what readers consistently say is that Jimenez actually delivers on it. The chemistry feels natural, the banter earns its laughs, and the emotional beats hit without feeling manipulated.

What surprises readers is how much more there is underneath the romcom surface. Emma's toxic mother shows up. Justin has to assume guardianship of his three siblings. Suddenly the light summer fling is navigating real family trauma, and Jimenez handles both registers — the funny and the serious — without letting either undercut the other. Several readers describe it as "the most purely fun read" they've picked up in a while, which is high praise for a book that also makes you cry.

It was an instant #1 New York Times bestseller and a Good Morning America Book Club pick. Harper's Bazaar named it one of the top ten best summer romance books of all time. The commercial success tracks with the reader response: this is one of the rare romances that people recommend across gender lines without hesitation.

Who It's For

Anyone who wants something light and clever without feeling like they're reading a fantasy of physical perfection. I'd specifically hand this to readers who've bounced off romance before because of love triangles, manufactured misunderstandings, or protagonists whose only flaw is being too attractive. Jimenez writes adults who behave like adults, and the conflict is earned rather than engineered. It's also a strong entry point for the romance-curious — particularly readers coming from fantasy or sci-fi who liked the relationships in their favorite books and want to try something where the relationship is the book.

Reading Context

Just for the Summer is part of Abby Jimenez's interconnected universe of rom-coms, which also includes Part of Your World and Yours Truly. They can be read as standalones, but characters cross over. Readers who finish this and want more in the same vein go to Beth O'Leary's The Flatshare (cozy, slow-burn, epistolary-adjacent) or The Bromance Book Club by Lyssa Kay Adams (meta, funny, sincere). For readers who want the emotional depth turned up, The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller is the common next recommendation — it's a completely different genre but delivers the same gut-punch of a love story that earns its ending.