*Thank you @stmartinspress and @netgalley for the copy of this book*

At seventeen years old, Rachel and her best friend decide to travel before starting their college career. When they end up on a beautiful Greek island, Rachel wants to stay in this paradise beyond their intended travel date. The main impetus for this decision is largely due to the whirlwind romance she embarks on with a wealthy, much older, man named Alastair. Drawn into the party lifestyle of alcohol and drugs, her naiveté and the glamor of the picturesque landscape and lifestyle prevent her from seeing the reality of the situation. Fifteen years later she is back in London and married, but she can't help to think back on the glory days and her first love, Alastair. The events of that summer have completely changed her and prevent her from enjoying her current life. She is soon forced to face the facts of what truly happened that summer.

This story was very straightforward and alluded to a mysterious occurrence that changes everything. However, it was very evident what was happening from the beginning - there were absolutely no plot twists. This book was quite long yet felt like nothing of import really happened in the bulk of the story. It was very hard to champion for the main character - which left me so conflicted because she absolutely was a victim. I understand the reasoning for the portrayl of the main character - trauma rewriting memories to mask/protect from the truth - but I felt like her actions as an adult (and some during her young adult life) were quite unredeemable. I do think the author did a good job of depicting Alastair as an evil and conniving predator and how abuse, especially at that pivotal time from childhood to adulthood, can have lasting repercussions on the victim.

I am obsessed with this book! One of the best I've read in awhile. I have been pushing this book upon my family, and the ones that have read it, loved it too! I was totally engrossed in the story, and picked this book up every chance that I could.

i wanted to like this as I love thrillers, but at 15% I could not get into it. It was very slow, the characters and plot did not pull me in. Did not finish.

If you remember the feeling of foreboding isolation during the early covid lockdowns, then you have a good idea of the vibe of this book. In addition to that, we have a very skeevy older man hitting on a teenage girl vibe, with on-screen SA also included. I found this to be a heavy, hard read. The MC was hard to relate to. A lot of the things she did simply didn't make sense to me. I kept trying to find ways to understand why she made those choices, but I never quite made it there. This was a difficult, sad read.

A huge thank you to the author and the publisher for providing an e-ARC via Netgalley. This does not affect my opinion regarding the book.

"The Girls of Summer" by Kate Bishop is a beautifully written ode to friendship, growth, and the indelible mark of youthful summers. Bishop's prose is lyrical and evocative, perfectly capturing the bittersweet transition from adolescence to adulthood. Set against the backdrop of sun-drenched days and starlit nights, the novel explores the deep bonds between a group of friends navigating the complexities of life and love. It's a heartwarming and poignant story that resonates with anyone who cherishes the memories of summers past. A truly enchanting read.

This was a great read and will definitely recommend!! The cover is also so cute. Can’t wait to read more by this author.

This is a very well written book on a very sensitive topic and how traumatizing it can be to people for the rest of their lives.

This was a fun thriller. I enjoyed reading it. It was a good popcorn thriller. Great for summer reading

am impressed this was a debut novel! I thought the writing was beautiful. I loved how much attention to detail there were to the different characters. This story has multiple timelines which I thought flowed seamlessly throughout the story and kept me entertained as well. The story was hard to read at times as it deals with a younger women being controlled / manipulated by a much older man.

Ready if you enjoy:
• dual timelines
• coming of-age
• multiple POVs
• character driven

" I thought I knew what love was, what did I know? Those days are gone forever. I should just let them go"

Check trigger warnings for this one as it deals with many sensitive topics.

This book had potential, but then it wasn't bad OR great; it just was. It was compared to The White Lotus, and wasn't that at all. I feel like this could have been so much better; however I did mostly like Rachel's "voice" as she told the story. 2.5 stars

3.5 stars

The Girls of Summer was a slow burn, with main character Rachel that you just want to shake sense into. Every decision she made was hard to fathom, but her age in the flashback chapters made it somewhat understandable. However, once she was married and still torn up about her ex, her actions became inexcusable.

The writing was really good, I just found it hard to root for Rachel when it was so easy to see that Alistair was manipulating her. Still, I thought the storyline was good overall and a good Me Too reckoning. The story really picked up in the second half, while the first half had some very slow reveals. This would be a perfect read for a Greece vacation - it made me want to visit again!

I’m not gonna lie. This book pissed me off so many times. I really wanted to smack the main character Rachel sometimes. She was a very unlikable character in my opinion.

My biggest issue though was with the timelines. At times I couldn’t tell the difference between. I’m not sure if this is due to me listening to the audiobook or not.

Overall this was okay. It had a lot of important topics, it just felt way too long.

Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review. This explores a theme that needs to be discussed, where people of power have a hold over the younger and more vulnerable. It is a hard topic, but a lot of us could put ourselves in the MC's shoes, and I think that makes for a unique and well-told story.

This is a well written novel which is full of intrigue, suspense and tension and as you read on you feel a sense of dread at the callous disregard of lives. The growing menace is palpable with manipulation, control and ultimately betrayal which is heartbreaking and moving in places. The character of Rachel is very well portrayed, she’s not as confident or as worldly wise as some of the other girls she meets on the island which of course makes her “perfect“ in the eyes of some. This means it’s a disturbing read at times although the author is careful and sensitive in her treatment of the characters and the situation but it is inevitably uncomfortable on occasions. You see very clearly how the past impacts and informs the present leading to bad decisions and affecting current relationships.

As far as easy thrillers go, this one was ok. I think at the time I chose this one because it was likened to White Lotus but then it wasn't really like that at all.

this one fell a little flat for me. it was hard to keep up between the flashing back and forth between present and past. It was good but not the thriller I expected it to be.

The Girls of Summer is a then and now suspenseful novel about Rachel, a seventeen-year-old from London who takes the money she is saving for a car and uses it to travel during the summer to Greek islands with her best friend, Caroline. Rachel meets Alistair, a thirty-something year old financial manager for a wealthy tycoon. Even with the locals cautioning her, not to mention her friends and parents, Rachel decides to stay on the island with Alistair. That is the then. The now sixteen years later. Rachel is married to Tom who wants to start a family. Rachel is more interested in finding Alistair than having a baby with Tom. The novel contains little dialogue and many paragraphs with Rachel remembering and slowly revealing what happened on the island and then telling the readers about her separate lives with Tom and Alistair.

The perfect summer read! Definitely recommend reading this on vacation, in Greece, on the beach!! I will definitely be picking up more books from this author. The setting and the atmosphere of this story was great! Highly recommend,

Dramatic, full of suspense, predictable, but well written. Since I caught on fairly quickly to what was/had happened to Rachel there were parts (revelations) that weren't very surprising, but otherwise I think the story was powerful. Katie Bishop really seemed to push through the messaging that something that may seem innocent can turn a persons world around and leave them with a lifetime of scars. I really fwlt for the female characters, both in the then and now. I really felt how their confusion impacted their decision making and how it impacted their future relationships. I did enjoy how the novel embraced and supported strong female friendships that showed women who stick together and stick up for each other. I would probably give this a 3.5, but with no halfs I'm ok to round up instead or down here.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the the arc.

This is a dark, slow-moving tale of men manipulating women. While I had the ebook, I chose to listen to this on audiobook and I think it didn't allow me to connect with the characters as much as I would have liked. I very much liked the author's writing style and will look for more from her in the future.