A teenage Rachel finds herself dazzled one summer on a Greek island. Among the company of other young girls, strangers turned friends, she decides to stay on the island and not go back to the life waiting for her. She doesn’t want to leave this life. She doesn’t want to leave Alistair, a mysterious and charismatic man twenty years her senior with whom she’s had a secret affair.

More than a decade later, Rachel is married to someone else, but a holiday brings her back to that same island and the memories that plague her. Her departure from the island was not a happy one and as she revisits that summer years ago and reconnects with some of the woman she once knew, Rachel comes to realize that dark secrets lurk under her sun filled memories and she must confront what really happened all those years ago.

Marketed as a thriller, this story reads more slowly with the reader becoming aware of what is happening well before the narrator. As a teen, Rachel is so intensely naïve and vulnerable, ripe picking for a man like Alistair. As an adult, she is so deep in her own denial, refusing to see that summer and that man for what they really were… and what he continues to be.

The setting of the past part of the story in the Greek island is captivating and it’s easy to see why Rachel was so drawn to stay, even without the influence of Alistair. It reminds me of the time I spent in the islands of Thailand. The natural beauty of the island, the vibrancy of the lifestyle, it’s all easy to immerse yourself into and not want to go back to the reality of your life.

I found the overall plot somewhat predictable and I felt sad for Rachel and the other girls who fell prey to men who abused their power. In terms of it being thriller, I was rather let down. There are definitely multiple trigger warnings, so take that into consideration before reading.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the e-arc in exchange for my honest review.

The Girls of Summer is a powerful story of awakening, reconciliation, forgiveness, and healing in order to move forward, told through alternating first-person narratives from Rachel. In one, she details the events of the summer when she was seventeen years old and permitted by her parents to go on a seven-week, island hopping vacation with her best friend, Caroline, before returning home to continue her education. They end up on an idyllic Greek island where they join a group of girls living and working together in a local backpacker bar. Rachel has never been among the most popular girls at school and has no dating experience. Innocent and gullible, like most teenage girls she is insecure about her appearance and desirability. So when the handsome bar manager, Alistair, turns his attention to her, she instantly knows that the moment he asks her name is one she will never forget. She is flattered, enchanted, and secretly satisfied that the attention Alistair showers on her appears to make Caroline jealous, as she “nurses the special secret glow that had taken root when Alistair had touched my arm, his fingers hot against my skin.” In subsequent chapters, Rachel describes her interactions with the twenty years older Alistair, who insists that they keep their relationship a secret to avoid the bar’s owner finding out about Alistair’s fraternization. Alistair’s employer is a mysterious, wealthy businessman for whom Alistair performs a variety of duties, including serving as the caretaker of his large villa to which he invites Rachel for clandestine sexual rendezvous. Rachel quickly falls desperately in love with Alistair and, eventually, decides that she will remain on the island with him rather than return home to resume her studies, believing everything he tells her. And willing to do anything he asks of her.

Rachel’s present-day narrative is brutally emotional and heartbreakingly honest. Now nearing her thirty-fifth birthday, her life appears to all outside observers to be settled. She had no other boyfriends after Alistair until she met Tom, and Rachel just fell into their relationship and marriage, which has proven comfortable and provided her with stability. She enjoys her career. But in actuality, she is deeply unhappy. She has never been able to move on from what she fondly recalls as a magical summer and is, according to debut author Katie Bishop, caught up in her memories of it. There are two painful aspects of it, however, that haunt Rachel, remaining unresolved in her mind and preventing her from moving forward in her life with Tom.

On vacation, Rachel returns to the island with Tom. She seeks out Helena, who was one of the girls with whom she lived and worked during that fateful summer, and now owns and operates the bar. She implores Helena to tell her how to reach Alistair, with whom she has had no contact since the traumatic morning when Rachel woke to find he had fled the island without her. Helena provides the information, along with a stern warning. “You should be careful. I’m just not sure you know quite what you’re getting yourself into.” But Rachel’s “need for him feels primal and urgent.” When Rachel hears that Alistair is, like she and Tom, living in London, she works up the courage to contact him, but is disappointed by his initial reaction: “How did you find me?” Soon, though, she is again ensnared by Alistair’s charisma and their passionate sexual relationship.

Tom is a richly relatable and empathetic character. He loves Rachel deeply and is earnestly committed to the marriage, believing that they are united in their desire to start a family. But Rachel inexplicably rebuffs his suggestion that they seek medical advice when the months tick by and Rachel does not become pregnant. Tom does not know the truth or any of the details about Rachel’s past because she has never shared her experiences with him. He does not know that there is literally nothing he can ever do to make Rachel happy and their marriage a thriving union. He has no idea he is fighting a losing battle because, in Rachel’s mind, no man can or will ever measure up to Alistair . . . as she remembers him and persists in perceiving him once they reconnect. As the story proceeds, it becomes evident that Tom’s heartbreak is inevitable and will be emotionally wrenching.

Bishop’s choice to relate the story through Rachel is highly effective, and her use of the present tense in both narratives heightens understanding of Rachel’s thought processes and journey. Bishop says she wanted to illustrate that “even though Rachel is seventeen years older, and her life is in a very different place, in many ways she is still trapped in that summer, and she’s never really been able to move on. It still feels so present, so visceral to her, even though she is so much older and is in many ways in a different place now.” Indeed, Rachel’s reunion with Alistair opens a proverbial Pandora’s box of memories, emotions, and complications that ultimately lead to Rachel’s reckoning with the truth about that life-changing summer.

When Helena contacts Rachel to say that she is coming to London and would like to meet, Rachel is reluctant. Eventually, she relents but when she arrives at their appointed meeting place, she is met not just by Helena, but also three of the other girls who spent that summer on the island, Priya, Eloise, and Agnes. Rachel wants no part of the conversation Helena has secretly orchestrated. But is curious and persuaded to hear the women out by Helena’s shocking declaration that Alistair “lies. He always did. He still does. To both of us.” That meeting proves to be a milestone moment in Rachel’s life. Priya is now a successful attorney who has been retained to find answers about that summer by the parents of another girl who was there: “Kiera, who never came home.” The women confront Rachel with the truth about the events of that summer and the men who preyed upon them, including Alistair.

Initially disbelieving, Rachel gradually begins to recognize the truth. It is an excruciatingly painful ordeal, realistically portrayed by Bishop. She can no longer delude herself, instead struggling to reconcile her memories and beliefs about what happened with the facts and evidence supplied by Priya and the others. Back then, Rachel lied about a significant incident, but is forced to acknowledge that “perhaps I was protecting the wrong person.” Bishop explains that, in many ways, Rachel is still the seventeen-year-old girl she was all those years ago. She stopped maturing and, in critical ways, has been sleepwalking, mentally checked out of her own present-day life. Now, she starts to recall that summer differently, the filter of innocence, infatuation, and obsession finally torn away. Alistair asked her to keep his secrets, no matter what it cost her. “They feel like parts of the same puzzle, lines from the same song, chapters of the same story. Fragmented things that I had never thought to put together before, feeling suddenly sharp and solidified.” At last, she understands and is forced to accept that Alistair, his boss, and their business associates were predators, and must reconcile the ways in which she and the other girls were lied to, manipulated, and used . . . as well as her own blind culpability. She is forced to choose whether she will help Priya at long last secure justice for Kiera. And must discern how to heal and move forward with the knowledge she has acquired.

Bishop says that through Rachel, she “was trying to capture the experience that many people have with trauma.” A common theme is that they feel “almost stuck in that moment of trauma,” so Rachel is “still feeling those experiences that she had back then.” Victims of trauma also rewrite history, remembering people and events in ways that defy reality. It is a defense mechanism employed by the psyche as a shield from pain. Rachel exhibits both long-term effects of sexual abuse. Bishop credibly depicts the ways in which her vociferous denials eventually give way to realization. Her story is deeply disturbing and infuriating. It is at times tempting to lose patience with Rachel, viewing her as quite stubborn and unlikable, but Bishop conclusively demonstrates that she is merely reacting in a manner consistent with symptoms of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.

Ultimately, Rachel’s story is one of survival, redemption, and carving a path toward a happy, healthy future. Bishop’s goal in writing it was to help readers who have experienced trauma feel “less alone in the experience” through the experiences of a character to whom they can and perhaps have not seen represented in literature until now.

The Girls of Summer is a stunning debut. Bishop’s characters are fully developed and multi-dimensional. Her prose is evocative, often chillingly straightforward and lacking surplusage. She keeps the story interesting not just by alternating the two narratives, advancing the action incrementally in each and building the dramatic tension at a steady pace, but also by injecting a compelling mystery involving Kiera’s fate. The story is a contemporary, yet also timeless cautionary tale about innocence, sexuality, awareness, and female empowerment and autonomy. The Girls of Summer is a provocative and absorbing. story that continues to resonate long after reading the last page.

I must admit, I struggled with this one! It’s a difficult topic definitely, but this combined with the main character, well, it put me on the struggle bus.

Rachel is a very difficult character to find any purchase with. While I enjoyed the essence of the story and the strong message it carried, I just couldn’t find any solid footing with Rachel. This is more of a me problem since I’m strongly character driven. Maybe it was her absolute denial, even as an adult with far more perspective that just didn’t vibe with me.

My thanks to St. Martins Press for this gifted DRC.

This book was described as The White Lotus meets My Dark Vanessa, and while I could see the similarities for the two of those, I thought the similarities were pretty scarce. There was a foreign country aspect of it and an inappropriate exploitative age gap relationship, and that's where the similarities stopped.

I thought that the first person narrative was an interesting choice, because as a reader, I could see how icky Alistair was, but it was interesting to see her naivety when it came to him and their relationship. At times it annoyed me how naive she was, but I understand that that was the point of the story.

This book was also marketed as a thriller, but I would consider this much more of a slow-burn; it didn't really give thriller vibes.

Overall, I thought this book was very well-written and I especially liked the dual timeline aspect of the story, but the execution fell a bit flat to me.

I'd like to thank Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for gifting me this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Have you ever read a book and you just see how naive the main character is and it just makes you shake your head. I feel like Rachel's life is like a train wreck that you can't stop watching. This story goes between Then and Now and I just don't feel that main character grew or matured throughout the story. Rachel was pretty frustrating between both timelines and I had a hard time even liking her.

This book does deal with some strong story lines, such as teen trafficking, drinking and drug use, older men and young women, abuse, grooming, etc. So maybe making Rachel so naive was on purpose but for her to still be in denial years later and even self destruct her life as an adult and 20 years later was just sad.

This book is supposed to be a thriller/mystery but I didn't really get that vibe from it while reading it. It's more of a slow burn and slow build which made it feel like it was dragging at some points.

It did pick up toward the end when Rachel finally faces what happened to her and her friends. I liked the setting of this story and would love to see the island.

Rachel Evans and her friend Caroline decide to spend the summer before her final year at school vacationing in the Greek islands. A chance meeting with Alistair an older man under the employ of an affluent businessman, marks the beginning of an affair, with Rachel. Rachel and the other girls she befriends on the island, spend their days working in the bar Alistair manages, attending parties at the mansion of his employer and Rachel begins to dream of a future with Alistair. But the summer ends in tragedy and scandal, with Alistair abandoning her and leaving Rachel shattered. Fifteen years later Rachel is married to kind and sensible Tom and on a trip back to the same island and the combination of their strained marriage and her feelings for the man she can't let go have Rachel reeling. But when a group of her old gal pals runs into her and deliver some news about Alistair, everything she thought she knew about the 'soulmate' that got away is about to change. I

Happy 2nd week of summer! I've been saving this thriller for the perfect time of year and, unfortunately, it didn't quite get me in that ideal summer mood. Less thriller, more slow-moving contemplative dramatic story that didn't keep me captivated. We move back and forth through two time periods with Rachel, one is her at 17 in Greece during her gap year where she falls in love with the almost-40 year old Alistair and gets ensnared in his boss' sketchy bar and escort service.

The other is present day, where Rachel goes back to Greece with her husband and begins a set of events that makes her face her past and what really happened 20 years earlier. The plot description promised a look at your, obsessive love rediscovered and while it does that to an extent, it wasn't fun, sexy, or introspective. It was sad, sometimes boring, and often confusing. Can't recommend this as a fun summer read, unfortunately!

This book did not disappoint. It was well written and a compelling read.
I almost read the entire book in one sitting - I couldn’t put it down

I enjoyed the writing and was intrigued as the events unfolded but it left me feeling kind of underwhelmed. TW: abuse, rape

The Girls of Summer is a post 'Me Too' movement story that promised feminist revenge and Greek Island vibes. What I got was a very uncomfortable read similarly cringe-worthy to My Dark Vanessa but with less of an impact. The naivete of young girls being prayed on by older, powerful men is a story that deserves to be told- but an MC who can't understand why the things she did as a 17-year old weren't kosher as a 30-something year old woman lives on a river called denial. A large dislike for the characters in the story and too many bad choices made this a lackluster read for me.

Thank you St. Martin's Press for the opportunity to read an eARC in exchange for my honest review.

This was a well written, intensely sad and heartfelt story about a difficult subject. Katie Bishop did an excellent job of showing how everyone reacts to and carries trauma differently. I felt many emotions as I read this book even as I was pretty sure about where the plot was headed. I think the characters were complex and reflected human behavior well. Thanks #NetGalley#StMartinsPress

Since this book was based on a difficult subject matter it was. a very tough book to read. On top. of that I found the main character, Rachel, to be very unlikable in both timelines. In the then timeline where she was 17 Rachel was naive, selfish and terrible to her friends. In the current timeline she was just simply annoying, lies to everyone and cheats on her husband. I honestly wanted to rate this book 2 stars but rounded up to 3 because it did lead to some meaningful conversations with my college age daughters.

(I as provided this ARC by Netgalley and St. Martin's Press. This is my unbiased review).

Katie Bishop's freshmen novel The Girls of Summer is a novel that does not shy away from difficult topics. From coming of age, consent, emotional trauma, suicide, female friendship, and sex trafficking the Girls of Summer pursues them all with a candid and captivating tale.

Rachel has been in love with the same man since she was 17 years old. Shortly after setting foot on the Greek Islands she discovers not only a new group of friends but a love interest. A much older love interest. However, this doesn't seem to stop Rachel from pursuing a secret romance with Alistair. Despite the secrecy things seem perfect and they seem so in love.

However, there come warnings that Rachel refuses to see. From the pleading of one of the girls for them to leave the house of the wealthy older man that Alistair works for, to the stay away from that place warning of her friend Jules, all the signs are there. Sadly Rachel is lost in her delusion of young love.

The Girls of Summer jumps between chapters of 'Then' and 'Now' where we experience all Rachel experienced on the Greek Islands to her present life as she struggles in her marriage to her husband Tom. Honestly there was truly nothing wrong with Tom... but to Rachel he just wasn't Alistair.

As the story unfolds the dark truth that Rachel refuses to see unfurls for the readers. The bitter pill of all that a women can potentially be exposed to and victim of is all thrown into the mix. Despite this all I never got the reaction of 'oh here we go again another #MeToo' story. Sure... it is that but to me it is so much more.

I have seen the other reviews and while I understand the mindset of many that reviewed the Girls of Summer, many failed to see the true depth of the story and perhaps maybe forgot what it was to be a girl on the cusp of adulthood.

Yes Rachel was naive. Yes Rachel was delusional in her blinding love and devotion to Alistair. Still... can a reader really blame her? It is one thing to scoff at the 'weakness' and foolishness of a woman that fails to see red flags. For me The Girls of Summer served as a reminder of just how growing up can hurt. How the freshness of what we believe to be our 'true love' is lust or something far more cruel.

The Girls of Summer may have its #MeToo and its sex trafficking theme but it also is the truth exposed of what it is to grow up as a girl becoming a woman. Bishop portrays the bond, struggles, and nature of the friendship between girls and women so well. Not only that but the emotion, pain, and misguided feelings that all of us have experienced at some point or another. Trust me if you are thinking 'oh that's not me,' well you're lying to yourself.

There is always going to be an 'Alistair' in our life at some point or another. They may not be to such a level and nature of Alistair but there will be one... or for some of us... more.

To me Bishop's freshmen novel was a promising starting point and I look forward to seeing what she comes up with next. Until next time, Happy Reading!

Rachel and her best friend Caroline are innocent 17-year-olds that decide to take a backpacking trip across Europe before starting college. They land on an unnamed Greek island and Rachel is pulled into the orbit of an older man Alistair who hires her to work in a bar and attend parties hosted by his employer Henry. The author does a great job of creating and describing the summer world of the island and all of the girls who work at the bar. The story jumps back and forth between the island of the past and present day London where Rachel is in her thirties and married to Tom. The story was a slow burn as it established what had happened on the island that drove Rachel into thinking of that period as a defining one in her life. It was a little hard to understand at first how it had arrested her development. It was understandable how the naive Rachel was pulled into the orbit of the manipulative Alistair but less obvious how in her mid thirties she was still obsessed with her love for him. The story was ultimately a rather dark tale with some subject matter that would be upsetting to some.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC in return for my honest review.

This book is deeply atmospheric and delightfully dark. It takes you on a captivating emotional journey as Rachel struggles to be honest with herself and heal.

3 Stars

To its credit, The Girls of Summer is a quick read. I found myself staying up late two nights in a row, eager to keep going. The problem is that my main motivation was to get to a big “wow” or “aha” or even simply a “yesss” moment that sadly never came. Katie Bishop writes some pretty scenes and sentences, but the story arc as a whole just didn’t work for me.

The Girls of Summer is billed as a psychological read (maybe even a thriller, although it is in no way thriller-y) that enters into the #MeToo discourse, so I was extra intrigued, as that’s my area of study in grad school (it’s literally my dissertation topic).

In this story, we meet Rachel, a thirty-something British girl who still longs for the totally screwy summer she spent in love with a man twice her age while she lived in Greece. Within a few chapters, any reader with a teaspoon of common sense will recognize that it’s a problematic dynamic that only gets worse as the story progresses, but nope, not our girl Rachel. So, in short, the entire story is about our narrator finally coming to terms with the fact that the man she thought was so great was in fact a total creep who used her for his own gain. Throw in some Jeffrey Epstein party vibes and yeah…you can see whether it’s going.

For me, personally, this novel offered nothing new. You want the creepy teen/adult abuse/grooming dynamic? Read My Dark Vanessa or The Last Housewife. Each one had its own issues, but they fleshed out the characters more substantially so at least I felt a bit of emotion as I followed their narratives. Here, I truly couldn’t bring myself to care with any of the (unsurprising) revelations, and I found myself frequently frustrated by the degree to which Rachel was either willfully ignorant or totally oblivious.

If anything in the realm of MeToo is triggering for you, I’d steer clear of this one.

A slow burn with some hard subject matter but overall a great read. Young protagonist was written very emotionally and you could feel the angst through the pages. The older version of herself was more hardened and evoked the sense of the traumas that she had endured had indeed affected her story even if she didn't see it as such at the beginning. It's easy to fall but getting back up unscathed is more challenging than some realize.

Thank you Netgalley for this arc

I was really drawn in by the starred review saying this book was similar to White Lotus had me intrigued. This is definitely a slow burn more than it is a thriller. With alternating timelines from the past to the present, you get to see the story lead up to the incidents against women on the island and some of the aftermath. Please make sure you check the trigger warnings before reading this one as there is some darker stuff covered. While the story is beautifully written, I really struggled to stay invested through out the whole book.


Thank you to Saint Martin's Press for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

I received this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

The book is a bit slow- moving for me, so I found it hard to sustain my interest. I kept on looking for the twist of a typical thriller, but this book is more of a women's novel, than a mystery/ thriller.

The Girls of Summer was one of my most anticipated reads for 2023. The hype for it was. there. I actually snagged a copy before I started seeing it show up all over my Bookstagram feed! Unfortunately, this book missed the mark for me. I think some will describe it as a slow-burn, and it is. However, I never felt like it got exciting or had me on the edge of my seat.

I switched to the audiobook in the hopes of staying more invested, but even after I hit the 60% point, while things burn a little more, it really doesn't pick up enough for me. I will say the audiobook narrator was great and I feel grateful to @MacMillan.Audio for granting me access to the audiobook. An amazing narrator can't makeup for a meh plot though. So even at the end I was left wondering what genre I would shelve this book into, because I don't think it's a mystery nor a thriller. Perhaps general fiction?

I liked the plot and it definitely made me want to travel to an island minus the horrible things that happen to the women. That being said, this book was a reminder of staying vigilante, trusting your gut, and keeping an eye out for red flags

Thank you to @StMartinsPress and @NetGalley for granting me access to that title!