The Summer Girlfriend Summary: Fake Dating by the Sea
The Summer Girlfriend: A Hired Romance on the Jersey Shore
Noelle Lewis is three credits and one tuition payment away from finishing college when the bookstore job that funds her dream disappears.
On her last shift, a wealthy stranger walks in with an unusual offer: pose as his girlfriend for one family weekend, and he will pay off the rest of her degree.
The Summer Girlfriend by Kristina Forest opens the Heart Beach series with that arrangement.
What begins as a signed contract between two practical adults unfolds across a historic Black beach community in New Jersey, a family cookie empire, and four generations of summers in one ocean-gray house.
TL;DR: The Quick Book Summary
- The setup: Noelle, 27, loses her job and needs tuition money. Jeremiah Smith II, heir to Smith’s Sweets, needs a girlfriend to cover a lie told to his mother.
- The deal: One weekend for $3,500 becomes four more weekends for $15,000 when his family insists she return.
- The turn: Shared weekends, boat rides, and late-night conversations push the arrangement past its contract terms.
- The break: A brother’s surprise visit exposes Noelle’s invented librarian job, and the truth comes out at a family dinner.
- The core: A story about grief, class difference, second chances, and the difference between performing a relationship and choosing one.
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Who Is Who in Heart Beach
| Character | Role |
|---|---|
| Noelle Lewis | Twenty-seven-year-old protagonist who works multiple jobs, including professional bridesmaid, to save for her final year of college. |
| Jeremiah Smith II (“Miah”) | Twenty-nine-year-old director of business development at Good Boy, Inc., and grandson of the Smith’s Sweets founder. |
| Celeste Smith | Jeremiah’s mother and CEO of Smith’s Sweets, who insists he bring his new girlfriend to Heart Beach. |
| Percy Smith Jr. | Jeremiah’s older brother and VP of operations at Smith’s Sweets. |
| Robin Smith | Percy’s pregnant wife and a child therapist. |
| Harper and Ashley Smith | Percy and Robin’s ten-year-old twin daughters. |
| Amara Smith | Jeremiah’s younger sister, a graphic designer and oil painter turning twenty-seven. |
| Jeremiah Smith I (“Pop”) | Deceased family patriarch who bought the Heart Beach house in 1974 and built Smith’s Sweets. |
| Minnie Smith | Deceased grandmother whose name is carried by the family beach house and boat. |
| Tatiana (“Tati”) | Noelle’s best friend, roommate, and a hairstylist. |
| André | Tati’s boyfriend, a paralegal who drafts the fake-dating contract. |
| Danny Martin | Jeremiah’s childhood friend from Heart Beach, now a tech engineer in Philadelphia. |
| Harold | Owner of Hidden Gems Books in Jersey City. |
| Mercy Webster | Talkative family friend and boutique owner in Heart Beach. |
| Sheree and Justin | Noelle’s Bridal Bestie clients, an accountant and her fiancé. |
The Summer Girlfriend Summary: What Happens in the Story
Spoilers ahead. The following account covers the plot from opening to ending.
The book opens in March 1974. Jeremiah Smith I buys a house on Hawthorne Street in Heart Beach from Dr. Thomas so his wife Minnie can swim in the ocean whenever she likes.
Decades later, Noelle Lewis lives in Brickton, New Jersey, and works several jobs at once. She is saving for her last year at Riley University after losing a scholarship at the University of Maryland years earlier.
That loss came when her ex-boyfriend CJ hid alcohol under her dorm bed. Her mother’s serious car accident then pulled Noelle away from school entirely.
She is close to her goal when Hidden Gems Books lays her off. On her final shift, Jeremiah Smith II walks in looking for a vintage edition of Dracula for Amara’s birthday.
Jeremiah has been avoiding Heart Beach since an argument with Pop the night before the old man died two years ago. To dodge his mother’s questions, he invented a girlfriend.
Celeste demands he bring her to the party. Jeremiah offers Noelle $3,500 to play the role for a weekend, and she agrees after drafting a contract with rules about public affection.
At the Heart Beach house, Noelle meets Celeste, Percy Jr., Robin, the twins, and Amara. Overwhelmed at dinner, she invents a job as a public librarian in Brickton.
On Saturday night, the pair stage a dramatic breakup about long-distance strain so Jeremiah can return to being single. The plan fails.
Celeste liked how Noelle fit into the family and insists Jeremiah reconcile and bring her back. He offers $15,000 for four more weekends, enough to clear Noelle’s tuition and debt.
The following weekends shift the arrangement. They go parasailing, ride Jet Skis, and get caught in a rainstorm on Pop’s boat.
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Late at night they trade histories. Noelle describes the scholarship she lost and her plan to become a librarian; Jeremiah admits his guilt over Pop and his insecurity beside his high-achieving siblings.
At the annual Smith Foundation Gala, Noelle pushes Jeremiah to stop punishing himself and stay with his family. Back in Brickton, he transfers the remaining money early, ending the contract so a real relationship can start.
Then Percy Jr. tries to do something kind. He visits the Brickton public library to take Noelle to lunch and learns she never worked there.
During a tense family dinner about warehouse distribution problems, Percy exposes the lie. Noelle admits the truth to Celeste and explains that insecurity drove her to invent the job.
She also defends Jeremiah’s worth and urges him to talk to his family. Jeremiah confesses his guilt about Pop and admits the fake-girlfriend scheme began as a lie.
Fearing she could lose herself in the relationship or drift from her academic plans, Noelle asks for a few days of space. She takes an Uber back to Brickton.
During the week apart, Jeremiah tells his family the full truth about his feelings and his old insecurities. He also introduces Harold to the Smith Foundation, which offers Hidden Gems Books a Black business grant.
Noelle fixes her advisor scheduling problem, takes an assistant job at a real estate firm, and talks with Tati and with her client Sheree. She recognizes that old shame has been steering her choices.
She decides to drive to Heart Beach for the twins’ talent show. At that same moment, Jeremiah arrives at her building with his whole family, heart balloons, hydrangeas, funnel cake, cookies, and a boardwalk teddy bear.
They confess their feelings, and Noelle returns to Heart Beach with the Smiths. The epilogue, set ten months later on Memorial Day Weekend, shows the family gathered for the candle-lighting memorial honoring Pop and Minnie.
Noelle has graduated from Riley with a 3.8 GPA and a merit scholarship for Rutgers’ MLS program. She and Jeremiah are planning a trip to Scotland, and she is part of the family.
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Book Details at a Glance
- Genre and Subgenre: Contemporary romance; beach romance and fake-dating romance.
- Core Tropes: Fake relationship, wealthy hero and working-class heroine, forced proximity, summer vacation, second chances.
- Tone and Atmosphere: Warm, witty, and summer-infused, with emotionally grounded stretches around grief and family.
- Primary Conflict: Jeremiah’s unresolved guilt over Pop and Noelle’s fear of losing her academic focus, complicated by the deception they maintain with his family.
- Pacing Style: Character-driven and medium-paced, structured across a multi-week summer timeline.
- Book Structure: Dedication, a 1974 prologue, thirty-two chapters, an epilogue set ten months later, acknowledgments, and an author note.
- ISBN: 978-1420539417 (large print edition); ISBN-10: 1420539418.
- Series: Book one of the Heart Beach series.
Lines Worth Marking
“A house like that deserves to be kept in a family for generations.”
“You look so much like him,” she said. “Sometimes it throws me.”
“I think maybe the key to lasting love is making sure you really like the person before you fall in love. That at the end of the day, they’re your friend first.”
“You’ve had some setbacks, but that’s more to do with the fucked-up distribution of wealth in our country than anything.”
“When you walk into a room, I feel like the sun is shining right on me. And you don’t even have to do anything; you’re just being yourself.”
“I know it’s only been one summer, but you live deep in here now, Noelle.”
Heart Beach has a way of making summer feel endless.
If You Liked The Summer Girlfriend, Try These
The Neighbor Favor by Kristina Forest — Set in the same fictional universe, with a bookish heroine, a hidden-identity correspondence, and the same warm emotional register.
The Partner Plot by Kristina Forest — A second-chance romance by the same author, built around career sacrifice and long-standing personal history between the leads.
Seven Days in June by Tia Williams — A Black contemporary romance about reconnection and healing, with two writers revisiting a shared past.
Every Summer After by Carley Fortune — A lakeside summer setting, a multi-year timeline, and a romance shaped by an old mistake.
Beach Read by Emily Henry — Two writers in neighboring beach houses, a professional bargain, and a bookish small-town backdrop.
The Proposal by Jasmine Guillory — A public, high-pressure romantic situation between a woman and a man from a very different world.
