Rachel never really moved on from that summer. She was 18 and traveling Greece with her friend Caroline. They truly thought they were invincible. Then Rachel meets Alistair. Alistair is a grown up, a real man, and he is interested in Rachel. Usually the wallflower type, Rachel eats up the attention and finds herself staying on to work at the island, even after Caroline returns home. But life on the island isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, nor is Alistair, and now remembering it as an adult, Rachel must confront some brutal truths and unearth some secrets she’s kept.

Whew. “The Girls of Summer” by Katie Bishop was heavy. Rachel is a young girl who is basically traveling alone. She has been overprotected by her parents and minimally exposed to the life beyond her world, so this island feels like a no rules paradise to her. She is naive and immature. It basically spelled out danger from the beginning.

The plot was fairly predictable. Although I won’t give any spoilers, I’m sure you can guess. As you watch Rachel’s current life implode because of things coming back from the past, you almost want to scream- WAKE UP! Rachel does begin to piece things together, but the denial is strong.

Overall, this book leaned more drama than a mystery or thriller. I felt like it was a solid 3 star read, based on the pacing and overall plot. If you like duel timeline plots and reminiscent vibes, this is a great pick.

Thanks to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review!

This was a very well-written book that definitely hit close to home with my own personal experience. Travelling abroad and being faced with situations and experiences that are not ok, but are glazed over with the sheen of vacationing and other worldliness. The author did a fantastic job of setting up both the past and present with believability and really stellar character development. Only not a five because the premise was so heavy that I found myself not necessarily wanting to read it - I just wanted it to be finished.

This debut is atmospheric and dark. It showcases how teenage girls can be manipulated and taken advantage of.

Rachel and Caroline decide to go traveling the summer after high school. They end up on a small island in Greece. The author does a fabulous job describing the setting that it almost makes you feel as if you are there, too. Rachel meets Alastair in a dive bar. An older man who pays her lots of attention. They end up forming a relationship and Rachel stays on the island to work, while Caroline goes back home to go to Uni as planned. Rachel gets a job at this dumpy bar, and makes friends with the other girls who work there. They also work at parties for a powerful man named Henry Taylor, that Alastair works for. They are provided unlimited alcohol and drugs at this party, and their sole job is to entertain the men and make sure they are happy.

Unfortunately, this book became repetitive and it felt like there was a lot of repetition, not a lot going on at points in the plot. I felt slightly bored throughout it. All this said, I felt angry at the men in this book and how they took advantage of the girls. There were a few interesting parts that I had to see how they played out. It was an okay debut.

If you like atmospheric, contemporary fiction, this one would be a good one for you to pick up.

'The Girls of Summer' by Katie Bishop is hard to rate. It is well-written and timely (there is a very Epstein-esque situation happening in Greece). However, I don't love the main character. You just want to shake her sometimes! But, is that just he naivety so common in young adult hood well captured on the pages? There is a lot going on in this story and it isn't all comfortable. It is well-explored and definitely leaves you thinking about it long after you close the cover.

I’m not entirely sure how I feel about this one upon finishing. I don’t think this is really a thriller, but more of a contemporary fiction with a little mystery thrown in. The ending felt a little anti-climactic and I found myself skimming a lot towards the end. I do see how this may be a good beach read this summer.

The Girls of Summer by Katie Bishop is much more than a thriller. It definitely has the psychological side to it but it also hits on so many hot topics. Consent and the power dynamic in sex are a major theme. We get to see Rachel’s perspective from then and now and how the events of the past have affected her future. I found myself constantly wanting to find out more from the past and enjoyed finding out what happened, piece by piece. I really felt for Rachel and the innocence of what once was. Another thing that stood out was the backdrop of Greece. I don’t think I’ve read any other books that take place there and it was such an appealing place!

DNF @ 43% But this is a case of it's not the book, it's me.

If you like twisty, suspenseful thriller/dramas, this would be perfect as a summer beach read. But for me, cheating is a no-go, and when the wife decides to cheat on her husband with an old flame, and doesn't feel any remorse, it took me out of the story completely and I decided it wasn't worth the emotional energy to finish it. I was already on the fence because the wife was taking birth control and hiding it from her husband, while he was thinking they were trying to conceive. The cheating was just the nail in the coffin.

It was a good reminder as to why I mostly read romance. I love those happy endings.

The writing was good! I liked the dual timelines. The format of the story was interesting, and the plot was well-paced. The audiobook narrator's performance was fantastic. There were enough hints and foreshadowing to keep me interested and guessing as to what would happen next, but I just didn't care enough about the ending to put up with the infidelity.

Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for my advance review copy in exchange for my honest review.

Rachel and Caroline are off on a summer adventure. When they arrive at one of the Greek islands, Rachel quickly falls in love with Alistair, who is considerably older than her.

Told in a then and now format with the details of "that summer" slowly being revealed. What really happened that summer depends on who's point of view you listen to. All of the characters views of that summer are not the same. The book makes you realize that your memories of a certain time may be different than other people who were there at the time.

I didn't agree with the girls choices, but felt for the young and naive teenagers.

The title The Girls of Summer may sound like a fun summer read, but it is not. It is interesting but not what I would call a fun and relaxing read. There are many important topics discussed at length throughout. I was very interested to see how it would all play out and was satisfied with the ending.

Thanks to netgalley and St. Martin's Press for the arc.

A great beach read for the summer. Loved the story and fished it in an afternoon. Thanks for the opportunity to read.

This is the story of Rachel and several others girls who start off taking a fun summer abroad in Greece which then turns into them being pulled into a horrible life of prostitution, human trafficking, and drugs. This was an easy read that I was able to finish in 2 days. It was a dark topic but it was eye-opening (and scary) to see how easily these girls are drawn in by people they love and trust. I'm sure it was a difficult book to write but it is something that people should be aware of to warn the young people in their lives.

🇬🇷 A summer in the Greek Islands, a whirlwind love affair and tarnished experiences that will stick with you FOREVER, “The Girls of Summer” by Katie Bishop is a completely engrossing story of manipulation, twisted secrets and cruel intentions!

BOOK REVIEW: 🖤🖤🖤🖤/5

Two 17 year best friends, Rachel and Caroline, go to Greece for their summer break before entering college. During their travels they meet a group of girls who have taken jobs on the island at a bar with a reputation. One night at the bar, Rachel meets Alistar who is 20 years older than her and falls into complete infatuation with.

When Rachel and Caroline’s trip has come to an end, Alistar invites Rachel to stay and offers her a job at the bar and a place to live nearby. The thought of leaving him at this moment is nonexistent and Rachel stays behind on the island. This decision and the events that follow will haunt her forever.

15 years later, Rachel is happily married and visits Greece with her husband. They visit the bar she once worked at and all sorts of memories flood her. She cannot stop thinking about THAT summer and of Alistar. She runs into one of the girls she met that summer and asks for Alistar’s contact information. Now that Rachel knows where to find him … what does this mean for her, her marriage and the new life she has created for herself?

This book is HAUNTING, uncomfortable and twisted. There are a lot of triggers in this book. If you have read My Dark Vanessa then you will understand what I mean. This book is important to read as it covers topics of grooming, manipulation, being a victim of sexual assault, mind control and much more! I will be thinking about this one for a long time … 🤯

Thank you kindly to @katiebishopwrites @stmartinspress @netgalley for my advanced digital copy in exchange for my honest review! This book releases on June 6, 2023!

Overall I thought this book was ok. I wasn’t a fan of the main character and I had a hard time understanding her actions at points in the book. I thought that the writing styles was good but I did think it was off to a very slow start. I did like reading it but it wasn’t my favorite!

The Girls of Summer is a novel that will stick with me. Dark, compulsive and atmospheric, I didn't want to stop reading. I struggle sometimes with coming of age stories that deal with grooming, consent, trauma and other sensitive issues because I feel authors try tend to gravitate to a gratuitous overplay of sexua descriptions to simply shock the reader. I don't need that. I think Katie Bishop does a great job at threading that needle of bringing the reader into that predatory space. I think this novel will make for a great pick for book clubs, a lot to discuss.

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for an opportunity to read and review honestly an advanced digital copy.

The Girls of Summer by Katie Bishop
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Rachel is vacationing in Greece with her husband. She is remembering her time in Greece when she was young and her first love that summer. When she runs into someone she knew that summer, she looks into reconnecting with her lover. But this will bring her to face everything that happened that summer.
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What I liked:
-I love a good past/present storyline. Girls of Summer delivered. I was invested in knowing every detail of that summer the story was slowly doling out to me.
-Every story needs a good bestie and Rachel’s grown up bestie delivered, despite the less than stellar decisions Rachel makes.
-This made me want to go back to Greece.
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What I didn’t like:
-There are some triggers here to be aware of, and some of the plot was a mature topic. Not an easy breezy summer read, for sure. Very serious, and I needed a happy read after this one.
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3⭐️⭐️⭐️

Less a thriller, this was more a coming of age, reckoning with your past, #MeToo story that sees a woman returning to the Greek island where she had a love affair with an older man to join in those who are testifying against him. While there she has to reexamine the summer she's always glorified and look at it from all new eyes.

This wasn't a bad story, it just wasn't the one I was expecting and I really didn't love the narrator which likely didn't help with my overall enjoyment. Just a 3 star read for me unfortunately. Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early digital copy in exchange for my honest review!

Rachel and her best friend Caroline are off for a summer vacation in Greece. Rachel met Alistair, who is twenty years older than Rachel, but Rachel didn’t care. The book is a slow atmospheric read. The story unfolds over dual timelines with Rachel as the MC. I like this type of writing. The plot isn’t clear cut, and it isn’t until past the half way mark, that I slowly began to understand what was happening.

# netgalley

This book was somewhat mis-marketed. I had requested it under the assumption that this was a thriller. However, another reviewer had warned me that this was actually more of a literary mystery. Rachel and her friends are having the summer of their lives living in Greece, bartending and partying the summer away. Rachel also meets Alistair and falls desperately in love with him, but everything falls apart when one of the girls ends up dead.

Katie Bishop delves into the dark secrets and obsessiveness, blurred lines, power and manipulation that can happen between teenage girls and older men. I enjoyed this read on audio (Annabel Scholey does a fantastic job narrating), but would suggest avoiding if you have any triggers relating to #MeToo.

Thirty-something Rachel feels stuck; bogged down in a life that is beneath her. She knows she should be married to handsome and sexy Alistair living a carefree and sensual life. Instead, she is married to handsome and supportive Tom whose main focus is starting a family. Sex is a duty dictated by her fertility cycle unlike the passionate, spontaneous love making she had with Alistair. Blue skies, warm weather, and adventure is what she is due; not the gray skies, rain, and predictable life she has with Tom. However, Alistair is from 15 years ago; last seen on a sun-drenched Greek island. What would Rachel do if she had the opportunity to see her first love again?

Rachel has an image of herself as she was when she was 17: fresh-faced, expectant, and in love. She fails to see she was also inexperienced, petulant, envious, and impressionable. Now at 33, she still thinks and acts like an adolescent incapable of seeing past her own wants and needs. She is stuck in the past. Her idyllic recollections of the past consume her every thought and action (Rachel: “I’m so caught up in remembering the past that I’ve barely noticed the present”). The story—which had me in suspense--is told in alternating chapters of “Then” and “Now”: as I read, I awaited the inevitable crash to occur when her past begins to catch-up with her.

Rachel is a highly unlikable character, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. She is manipulative, selfish, and unsympathetic. She is telling her story, as it affects her. For example, she sees her lies to her husband as a way to avoid conflict, not as manipulation, However, she never gains any insight until…

This book has elements found in the thriller, suspense, psychological, and coming-of-age genres. Katie Bishop does an outstanding job showing who Rachel is through her internal dialogues. She is a complex character able to be naive and manipulative at the same time.

I would like to thank NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the opportunity to read and review this debut novel.

While this book might be generating buzz as "the book of the summer," sadly, it's not my book of the summer. I found the first 20% of the novel to be super strong. I was hooked. I loved the alternating timelines and the voices that they were written in. However, I found myself losing interest in the story about 30% in. The story started to get repetitive. The suspense started to feel a bit stale since nothing was happening. The book got super slow. The ending, which the whole book leads up to, felt super rushed. I wished the trial at the end took up more of the book. I liked the vibes of this book, but the execution wasn't done super well.

What a dark tale of a young girl’s coming of age journey. I enjoyed how the author went back and forth between the past and the present, while still only revealing a little bit of the story at a time. It was a great way to show how Rachel’s choices as a teen effected her life.