I love young adult mystery thrillers. This one had a lot of twists and turns I didn’t see coming, and I loved the mysterious aspect.

This book had parts where I got really excited and then there were parts that didn't work for me at all. I also have to admit that I didn't like Olivia. When you combine normal teenage angst with teenage hormones and add a mental health crisis in a book, you get a weird read with a very unreliable and not very likable narrator.

Thank you, Netgalley, for a copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion!

This had quite a lot of potential, but unfortunately it wasn't always well executed. This book could have been one where I would find myself on the edge of my seat, but none of the scenes actually did this due to the way the story was told. All in all it was an okay story, I'm just bummed it wasn't more than that.

This title was not for me. Although the writing and story are great, I just couldn't seem to stay interested in it. It was easy for me to put down and forget about.

This was well written and gripping. I found it enjoyable as a quick fun thriller though the ending was a letdown to the rest of the book.

I found this to be an enjoyable read, keeping me on my toes throughout. The storyline was written well and flowed seamlessly. I look forward to reading more by this author!

This was a very fun thriller. It was fast paced and page turning. I really enjoyed the story and the characters.

The Summer I Drowned is an atmospheric read, very inclusive to readers, and a character- friendly novel. Taylor Hale is very good at story telling. The story is very thrilling, exciting, and empowering. It tailored lessons that will engage you for life.

This book was a surprising treat. I wasn’t expecting to like it as much as I did. There are twists and turns, relatable & deep characters. Overall an enjoyable read.

Thank you to the Publisher and Netgalley for the advanced e-reader copy. All opinions expressed are my own.

I was given this book by netgalley as an arc in exchange for my honest opinion. I wanted desperately to like this book and unfortunately it fell very flat for me. While the synopsis sounded amazing I just couldn't get into it and struggled to finish.

*I received a free copy of this ebook from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.*

I'm giving this book 2 stars simply because it wasn't the worst book I've read in my life. But I didn't like it, and the only reason I finished it was because I wanted to follow through in providing my promised review.

I can't think of a single character in this entire book that I actually liked. Olivia and all of her "friends" were selfish, reckless morons. I couldn't bring myself to care about any of them. Olivia's and Keely's parents were okay, and I sympathize more with them than I do with any of the other characters, but they still weren't my favorite people.

The last 20% of the book was better than the rest of it because it actually felt more like a thriller rather than a book about teens spending their summer being as stupid as they could be, all in the name of fun. I still wasn't a fan, though.

I suspect there were parts I was supposed to swoon over, but I just couldn't bring myself to. Honestly, I found it rather creepy when West suggested he could be Olivia's "first everything" after he found out he was her first crush and first kiss. If that wasn't a line intended to get her in bed with him, I don't know what was. I'm sure I was supposed to cheer for them, and I admit that I liked him sometimes. But his anger management issues really made me uncomfortable and should have been a huge red flag for Olivia (I'm sure her parents would agree if they knew).

As if that weren't enough, I quickly lost count of how many f words were in this book. It wouldn't surprise me if it contained more than Lone Survivor (and at least I can understand the use in that book). Huge turnoff to me.

Note: Swearing. So many f words I lost count at the beginning of the book. Stupid teens making stupid choices. One vague, fade-to-black sex scene. Lots of teen drinking.

****TRIGGER WARNINGS: focus on death, suicidal thoughts, drowning, PTSD/ phobias, paranoia, homicide, mental/ physical/ emotional abuse.

Five years after a terrible accident nearly killed Olivia, she returns to her childhood home to visit old friends, and to face her fears.

The Summer I Drowned by Taylor Hale weaves together elements of a mystery, a psychological thriller, and teen romance. I flew through reading this book, trying to figure out the mystery. Olivia really drew me in as well. Thanks to a near-death drowning, she understandably has PTSD, and (literal) hydrophobia, both of which can trigger panic attacks. Thanks to losing an eye, I lost my depth perception and have become legally blind. I have demophobia, or fear of crowds/being crowded and panic attacks can be triggered if I don't pay attention to growing anxiety. For that, I felt the novel was well-researched, as I did with other psychological issues presented.

I definitely grokked Olivia's feelings about how her friends had changed, even her closest friend, Keely. Five years gave her distance and perspective about all of them. It can be an eye-opening experience to realise you don't know friends as well as you think. These kids are all still so young. Haha, aging myself here, but it does make me shake my head at the foolishness of youth. And the drama! I certainly don't miss being that age. Recommended! I plan to keep an eye out for anything else written by this author.

***Many thanks to Netgalley and Wattpad for providing an egalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Wow, this book was intense from the first page, to the last. There isn't a moment or word wasted, everything adds up to something, it is all important.

I love the representation within this book, of mental health, teen pregnancy, alcoholism, ageism and stereotypes. There is something that everyone can relate to within the pages.

Olivia is such a unique character, her struggles are heart-wrenching, but it is so incredible to see her find herself, to see how she battles against her mind and slowly come out the other side.

West, don't even get me started on West, he is exactly what this book needed. He is gentle and soft, but also a typical boy filled with testosterone and anger from childhood. But he is what ties this book together.

Well written, engaging and fast paced, this YA thriller is a gem.

A really enjoyable YA thriller, full of twists and turns. I really enjoyed it. Thanks to the publisher and netgalley for an egalley.

When I first saw this book, I loved the cover. It caught my attention right away. After reading the synopsis I knew that I had to request it.

We follow Olivia as she struggles with her PTSD from falling off a cliff into an ocean when she was 12. She almost died. After her fall, she and her family moved to NY to get away from Cadwell Beach and where she fell. Since being away she has dealt with a lot of trauma but sees a psychiatrist every week to help her. She has her moments of panic but she can usually talk herself down.

Olivia feels like she is healed enough to go back to the town she drowned and get over her fear. She gets to stay with her best friend. Before going back to Caldwell Beach strange things have started happening in the town, but she doesn’t pay it much mind. Once she gets there though she realized she may not be ready. On top of dealing with the anxiety of being around the ocean, it seems like someone is out to get her, Her best friend is not who she thought he was, and old feelings start to show themselves.

For me, this book started well, but some of the events within the book seemed out of place. I also got annoyed with the main character a lot. Some of her dialogue just ruined her character. Towards the middle and onto the end I just wanted to get the book read. I was interested in it enough to finish it, but this book wasn’t for me. It had some good reviews, so if you like this kind of book, I would give it a try. There are a lot of other people that seemed to love it.

The Summer I Drowned started off so strong and I was enjoying it so much that for the first half of the book I thought this was going to be a 4 star read for sure. From what I've seen this was originally published on Wattpad under the title "Sea Glass" but as I never read the original version I can't really comment on how much this differs. The book tells the story of Olivia, a teenage girl who used to live on a fairly small island until she fell of a cliff and very nearly drowned when she was around 10 years old. Afterwards, she was understandably traumatized and terrified of water so her parents packed up and moved to New York City to get away from the bad memories, etc. After the accident she developed PTSD and has now decided to go back to the island to confront her fear of water while reconnecting with some old friends, etc. Obviously things aren't that simple as people not only change over the course of 5+ years but also weird, creepy things keep happening around town and no one is sure what they mean/who is doing them.

The first half or so of the book was really enjoyable. I found it incredibly atmospheric and I thought it was well paced. A lot of the side characters were kind of obnoxious but honestly I feel like they were supposed to be? So I wasn't too bothered by that. And I definitely liked the direction the romance was going. I was pretty sure I knew where the story was headed, ie. who the bad guy was but I wasn't mad about it being (seemingly) obvious because I was just enjoying the ride.

Things definitely start to fall apart in the second half though. I don't know if the author maybe just had too many things happening at that point and couldn't keep track of them but it began to feel really choppy, as though the author wasn't sure what she actually wanted to do and just kept jumping to different things. The dialogue started to become more juvenile and borderline cringey. I felt like the author was trying to make some really good points but maybe didn't know how to best handle some of the more sensitive issues/complicated plots and in the end it just made everything feel really abrupt. I think the second half could have used some more edits/rewrites because it was a stark difference. It honestly felt like two different people wrote this book.

What I will say is that I appreciated the twists at the end of the book as I truly didn't see them coming and there were points where I didn't know where the author was going. At the time it seemed really random and messy but then as I thought about it more I realized that I liked the intention a lot, but the execution needed more work.

Overall, this was a promising debut and I'll definitely keep my eye out for future books from this author but the second half of the book was definitely lacking in structure and the whole book suffered as a result.

2.75* overall

I was really excited to read this one but unfortunately I just found it way too unbelievable. It's well written and I liked the main character. I felt like the representation of PTSD was also well done. But that is the end of things I liked. *Spoilers Ahead* I could not fathom parents that let there daughter who can really barely function on her own, go to spend the entire summer in the town she almost died in. No way. Then there's the animal killer around town that no one seems to have any information on. Ridiculous. I couldn't believe her relationship development with West. She's super sheltered, seems to have never had a relationship and now shes suddenly sleeping with a 19 year old who has a toddler? Then her parents, who have serious money issues can suddenly rent a house near the beach and stay in town? also shes in the hospital like three times in the span of a few chapters. Her parents would have taken her home long before they did in the book. I also found the end to be unsatisfying. Overall I do not recommend this one.

I’m so happy to take part in the blog tour for this suspenseful YA novel: The Summer I Drowned by Taylor Hale. This was one I could not put down. You know I love a good YA suspenseful mystery!

Fun, fun, fun! I always like a book with a strong, female, teen protagonist. If I could have changed anything, I would have had less focus on the romance piece and more on the action. I also had a chuckle in that every character seemed to have a unique “smell” that I really haven’t found in real life, something like “He smelled like balsam and cinnamon”. “She smelled like vanilla and lavender”. “He smelled like ocean breeze and hickory”. Things like that. In real life I’m more inclined to say, “Mmmm – what’s that smell??”

Thank you for my copy and for having me as part of the blog tour! I would recommend this book for older YA readers due to sexual content and “heavy” content or potential triggers (e.g. drowning, relationship abuse, animal abuse, parental neglect, teen drinking, drinking and driving, sexual assault, etc.).

full review at www.drbethnolan.com Beth's Book-Nook Blog

*Received an ARC through netgalley. All opinions are my own.*

I really liked the idea of a story about a girl who went back to her childhood home to face her fears. Then it went in a completely different direction. I liked the mystery aspect, and I think it was poorly executed. Most of the characters were not developed and very annoying. Olivia's mental health issues were pretty realistic and then it started going downhill. West is the only character I really liked and once he started hanging out with Olivia more, his personality went downhill too.

There was a lot going on in this book. I see three main plot lines, 1. Girl facing fears, 2. Love triangle/story, and 3. Mystery. These three plot lines made the story hectic and overwhelming. There also wasn't a lot of direction. The story would be going in one way and then do a complete 180 and start heading in a different direction.

When I was reading, I was captivated and interested in what was going on. However, half way through, the book reminded me of a Wattpad book (don't get me wrong, I love the cliche, all over the place books on Wattpad). It was originally on Wattpad. I feel that this book should have been seriously worked on to get rid of the major Wattpad vibes. So while I would have seriously liked this book on Wattpad, for it to become a published book fell flat for me.

Disclaimer: I received this e-arc and book from the publisher. Thanks! All opinions are my own.



Book: The Summer I Drowned



Author: Taylor Hale



Book Series: Standalone



Rating: 2.5/5



Recommended For…: thrill seekers



Publication Date: July 7, 2020



Genre: YA Thriller



Recommended Age: 15+ (mental health, almost drowning, violence)



Publisher: Wattpad Books



Pages: 336



Synopsis: Five years after almost drowning, Olivia Cathart returns home to Caldwell Beach determined to face her fears and take some risks―not just by swimming, but by opening her heart. Hoping to rekindle her friendships, she’s excited about a carefree summer with her best friends Keely and Miles. But life in the sleepy town has changed, and no one and nothing is as it seems.

When a series of startling crimes threaten Olivia’s fragile state, she is plunged into a terrifying game of cat and mouse. Her only solace from the chaos is West, Miles’s disowned and ruggedly handsome brother, but even he can’t answer the question on everyone’s minds―is Olivia really in danger or is it simply all in her head?



Review: Overall, this is a pretty good book. The book has a good plot for most of the book and the book does well world building wise and character development wise.



However, there are a lot of problems with this book. The book needs another round of editing in my opinion because there were a lot of adjectives and clunky writing. The book was also not written the best. The book is really hard to get into and is even harder to stay into. It takes a lot of focus to make it through this book and honestly, my interest in the story dropped off at about 70% through. Also, I have a quip about some of the mental health aspects of the book. In short, the author needs to research hallucinations and mental health more to make it more realistic instead of a barely passable lie.



Verdict: It was good, just needs more work.