This book is one of those books you’ll spend a lot of time thinking about afterwards and is so relevant right now. It centers around Rachel remembering the summer she was 17 years old and fell in love with an older man. I love the dual timelines and the characters are so multi-dimensional and real. It’s not a ‘feel good’ book, it’s a ‘make you think and feel’ kind of book. It addresses so many of the complexities of rape, human trafficking, suicidal, emotional manipulation, and toxic relationships that aren’t ever just black and white.

Be warned, there is a lot of trigger warning so check those out first before reading.

DNF at 37%. Going into this I expected there to be grooming based on the synopsis. I did not however expect there to be r*pe while plying underage girls with drugs and alcohol, and sex trafficking of said underage girls?? And for the MC to still be so clueless years later? Not to mention the MC cheating on her very kind, doting husband and letting him think they’re trying for a baby while she’s still on the pill 😬
Some of the purple prose also felt unnecessary and didn’t fit with the teen voice.
I hope the publisher adds a TW to the beginning because I wouldn’t have read this had I known going into it. It’s just not for me. Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to review this book.

This book is about Rachel who still pines for Alistair, the much older man she had a brief fling with when she was 17. Even though she is now married, she reconnects with Alistair after a trip to Greece.

I DNF'd this book at around 40%. Even though she is in her late 20s/early 30s, Rachel still acts like a teenager. She's off-putting and childish. It's like she's permanently stuck in the mind of a 17-year-old girl, and I didn't like that. I also just didn't find this book gripping or fascinating, so I decided to let it go and move on to something else.

This was a pretty gripping and intense book. I was not expecting the content as I went into this one blind. Katie Bishop is certainly a great writer!

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for my ARC!

I should have paid more attention to the description of this book. It was a little too literary for me. I wanted more intensity, and I didn't get that. I don't think it is the book's fault though.

When I received this digital copy to read, I assumed it was a lightweight summer read, timed for the vacation season. I could not have been more wrong about it.

Rachel is in her thirties and married to a very steady, nice man who wants children. But Rachel has a dark past, going back to the summer when she was seventeen years old and working on a Greek island. This is where she begins working at a bar owned by a notorious millionaire named Henry Taylor, who always seems to have a bevy of beautiful, very young girls at his villa to "entertain" his many male friends and acquaintances. Rachel has a passionate affair with Henry Taylor's employee and right-hand man, Alistair, who is mysterious, sexy and much older than Rachel. That summer has dramatic consequences for Rachel and her friend circle on the island. Years later, Rachel and her friends come to some startling realizations about that summer and how Henry and Alistair capitalized on their youthful exuberance and inexperience for their own dark purposes.

This was an engrossing read and I stayed up past my bedtime to finish it. Given the revelations of the #metoo era and recent media stories about figures like Peter Nygard, this story is timely and feels like something ripped from the headlines. I also liked how the book made me think about tricks our memory plays on us and the way your mind captures the past, sometimes blurring the negative memories and romanticizing people and moments in time. The flashbacks of the Greek island setting feel dreamy and idyllic contrasted with the rainy and dreary present day English setting.

My only criticism would be that Rachel's continued defence of Alistair and rationalization of his actions into her thirties were difficult for me to believe in and accept. A certain amount of denial about the extent of his involvement and culpability is acceptable but I felt her continued naivety was a stretch. Nevertheless this was a very enjoyable and engrossing read! Many thanks to St. Martin's Press for the copy to read.

I think debut author, Katie Bishop, provides a very captivating read with her first novel. Seventeen year-old, Rachel and her best friend, Caroline, decide to take a vacation to Greece before they begin their further education endeavors. Their plan was to party and stay in hostels. Rachel is shy, awkward and is not the social butterfly that Caroline is. An older man, Alistair, takes an immediate interest in Rachel and begins asking Rachel to bring her friends to parties at his wealthy employer's home. I knew exactly where this story was headed. This is a very good coming of age book with a lot of things going on. By the end of the book, I did not like Rachel at all. Overall, this is a very good book.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the ARC of this very interesting book.

Thank you Netgalley for an early copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.*

This book really made me think and left me with all sorts of emotions. It reminded me of "My Dark Vanessa" which is one of my favorite books of all times. "The Girls of Summer" had fantastic imagery and really pulled me into the story of youthful girls, islands in Greece during the summer, falling in love, heartbreaks, and learning hard things about life and the people we chose to love. The writing was excellent. I really felt like I was in the story with the characters, sitting at the table talking with them. I could feel the emotions of each character pouring out of the pages. This was a hard read because the characters are going through and realizing difficult things, but the story is so good and important. I look forward to getting a hard copy in my hands. I will be telling my friends all about this one.

In The Girls of Summer by Katie Bishop, we are introduced to Rachel, who, at the age of seventeen, spent the summer in Greece and had a love affair with Alistair, a man twenty years her senior. Flash forward to the present day. Rachel is married to a different man but still obsessively thinks about Alistair. I enjoyed this dual timeline book. Katie Bishop is a beautiful writer.

"𝑯𝒐𝒘 𝒄𝒂𝒏 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒔𝒕𝒐𝒑 𝒍𝒐𝒗𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒔𝒐𝒎𝒆𝒐𝒏𝒆 𝒂𝒇𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒂𝒍𝒍 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒕𝒊𝒎𝒆? 𝑯𝒐𝒘 𝒄𝒂𝒏 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒍𝒆𝒕 𝒈𝒐 𝒐𝒇 𝒂 𝒅𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒎 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒍𝒆𝒕 𝒅𝒆𝒇𝒊𝒏𝒆 𝒚𝒐𝒖, 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒚 𝒄𝒐𝒏𝒕𝒐𝒖𝒓𝒔 𝒐𝒇 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒍𝒊𝒇𝒆, 𝒉𝒐𝒍𝒍𝒐𝒘 𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒈𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒕 𝒔𝒑𝒂𝒄𝒆 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒐𝒘 𝒊𝒕 𝒕𝒐 𝒆𝒙𝒊𝒔𝒕."

Rachel has been in love with Alistar since she was seventeen when they met while she was vacationing on a remote island in Greece. She had the time of her life that summer partying with friends. Now she's in her thirties and married but she can't forget her past. When she reconnects with some of her old friends, including Alistar, it seems that the past might not be quite what she remembered.

First of all, major trigger warnings for this book. Mentions of suicide, drugs, alcoholism, SA, men exploiting and gaslighting women. While it was a challenging read, I also feel like it was well written and really did a great job of showing PTSD, trauma and how powerful men exploit and gaslight vulnerable women. It reminded me of books like My Dark Vanessa and Grown. It's told in dual timelines giving us small pieces of the past and how it connects to the present time. My heart broke for the characters in this book. While it was a difficult read, I also couldn't put it down. It's one that will sit with me for a while.

Rounded up to 3.5 stars… The Girls of Summer was exactly what I needed heading into spring. I soaked up the descriptions of Greek island life and felt myself escape whenever I picked this book up. However, even though I did enjoy the story, this was just an okay read for me. Though I knew that there was some edge to the story based on the description, it was a lot more dark than I expected. Without giving too much away, some may really find the story very triggering.

That being said… It was an interesting storyline that kept me reading and towards the the last quarter of the book, I couldn’t stop reading until I was done! This book did keep me up at night - wondering what would happen with Rachel & Alastair, knowing there was some kind of twist coming at some point.

Rachel was also a bit of an unlikeable character for me. I’m not really sure exactly why, but I just found her to be a bit selfish and difficult to empathize with. Even though The Girls of Summer certainly wasn’t a favorite, I’m so happy for the chance to have read it. Many thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for gifting me an ARC in exchange for my honest review!

A well=written novel with great character development. This book had me engaged from beginning to end, although it was not what I had expected. A worthwhile, engrossing read.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to Katie Bishop, St. Martin's Press, and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of a digital advanced reviewer copy in exchange for an honest review!

PLEASE CHECK TRIGGER WARNINGS PRIOR TO READING.

The book is told in dual timeline of Rachel when she was 18 and living in Greece for a summer and then in her 30s, married to her picture perfect husband Tom. Rachel, along with her friends are given a place to stay in exchange for working a bar for the summer from Henry Taylor. Alstair, Henry's right-hand man, is tasked with ensuring the girls are paid and giving them "extra work assignments." Alstair and Rachel develop a sexual relationship and Rachel is quickly falling in love with Alstair who is almost twice her age. In the "Now" timeline, the girls are given the opportunity to ban together and speak out about the abuse they endured, in hopes of putting Alstair away for good.

This book was the summer read I was looking for! The slow-burn pace of this book will keep you turning the pages to find out what will happen next. The content is dark and disturbing and will show the reader just how easily predators can manipulate the innocent. This book is so well written that I ate it up. Anyone that enjoyed My Dark Vanessa should pick this book up. My only criticism is that the last chapter went on for too long, attempting to wrap everything up.

I had high hopes for this debut novel because of the atmospheric beachy location of Greece, and the dual timelines between present day and when the main character was 17 years old spending a gap year in Greece. However, the story really didn't keep me as interested and hooked from the beginning as I had hoped. I really did not enjoy the infidelity part of the story either, though it was probably needed to show just how severe the hold the older male character from her past still had on the main character's psyche and mental stability. I did like how the timeline went back and forth from present day to then, when the major plot points took place. It's worth a read, but not one that I will recommend for being excellent or highly engaging.

Special thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a free, electronic ARC of this novel received in exchange for an honest review.
Expected publication date: June 6, 2023
After taking a trip to Greece when Rachel was seventeen, she ended up staying on much longer than she originally planned when she met Alastair, the mysterious older man who made her feel special and loved. Twenty years later, Rachel still reminisces about her overseas fling, even though Alastair is long gone and the sand has long since been washed clean from her toes. But when she reconnects with old friends from that vacation, they force her to face her relationship with Alastair for what it was, and it upturns Rachel’s entire life as she knows it.
Katie Bishop’s debut novel, “The Girls of Summer” packs one heck of a punch. The novel starts going in one direction, with a gaggle of young teenaged girls traveling Europe before going away to school, full of hot summer nights and partying. But then, when you least expect it, it becomes something far darker and sinister. The relationship between Alastair and Rachel has creepy “My Dark Vanessa” vibes, and it won’t sit easy with readers, but if you can stomach it, you won’t soon forget this thought-provoking debut.
Rachel is the outcast of the bunch, the awkward seventeen year old who is trying to find herself by working overseas with her best friend. When the two girls get jobs at a bar on a Greek island, they are instantly smitten with the lifestyle and it doesn’t take long before Rachel falls for rich, entitled Alastair. Right away, readers will both understand the pull of Alastair, and will understand his despicable intentions while, at the same time, be rooting for Rachel, and screaming at her all at once. The characters are well developed, and the breathtaking scenery only slightly takes away from the destructive underbelly of the plot.
Each chapter is headed with “then” and “now”, putting the reader in the correct time frame. The entire story is narrated by Rachel, and told almost in reverse order, so the true details of her relationship only come to light when adult Rachel realizes them. Bishop telling the story in this way created a kinship with Rachel while building suspense through the slow burn of the plot.
“The Girls of Summer” is not the light, beachy read the cover and title implies. But it is also one that won’t be easily forgotten. Bishop’s debut has marked her as “one to watch”, and I’m eager anticipating her sophomore novel.

As a teenager, Rachel spent a summer on a remote Greek island. She soaked up the sun, made new friends, partied, and fell in love. Alistair was twenty years Rachel’s senior and worked for a wealthy businessman. Rachel and her friends were soon invited to parties at the home of the illustrious Henry Taylor and found themselves in a vortex of alcohol, drugs, and dark secrets.

Fifteen years later, memories of Rachel’s experience that summer are rising up and threatening to consume her. She finds herself increasingly turning away from her husband and obsessing about Alistair and what could have been. But with her memories of the time she spent with him, comes all the memories that accompany them—darker and more explosive things than Rachel ever imagined.

When she reunites with some of the other girls from that summer, Rachel is finally compelled to consider everything that happened that summer, and that some things may have happened differently than she recalls.

The Girls of Summer is the haunting debut novel by Katie Bishop. It’s a compelling exploration of youth, power imbalance, deceit, consent, and the subjectivity of memory.

Bishop has done an amazing job of drawing the reader into the story. The world is well-crafted and the emotional impact palpable. That said, for a while I felt as though there was a bit of an emotional detachment in Rachel, but given what she went through, detachment is completely understandable. Even with the emotional distance and ambiguity that Rachel seemed to have at times, there was a powerful emotional punch at the end of the book. This is a deeply sobering book and left an impact on me.

I highly recommend The Girls of Summer. It’s available 6/6/23.

*I received a copy of from St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review*

A little bit cult-like, a little bit coming of age, The Girls of Summer is a thrilling beach read that takes readers on a dual-timeline journey to a secluded Greek island where the escapades of young backpackers feel like both a dream and a nightmare. Rachel was just 17 when she visited the gorgeous escape for a week with her best friend on a summer trip before their final year of school. There she discovers she too can be the main character, as she forms new friends and catches the eye of mature, handsome Alistair, a wealthy man living in a party mansion. The summer ends in tragedy, but sixteen years on and now married, Rachel looks back on that time fondly, like a dream. A visit to the island brings back feelings both good and bad, and it takes her back in time to Alistair, the spark so vividly alive inside her still. At a crossway in life, Rachel chooses nostalgia and as she revisits the past she soon discovers that her rose colored glasses have been lying to her.

Rachel is like all young teen girls, unsure of herself and not yet comfortable in her womanhood, brimming with confusion as others step into the world with confidence. Even as an adult, parts of that youthful naivety still battles inside her as she looks back at her time on the island. Who would she have been had things gone differently? We all question our choices, the what-ifs, and wonder where our paths would have gone, but Rachel decides to actually find out. We see the island through Rachel's young eyes, the parties, the friends, the feeling of maturity and adulthood as a man sweeps her off her feet. We see the island through her adult eyes, recognizing the lies and secrets that swam beneath the surface, seeing the conductor pulling the strings. Yet, like Rachel, we all want to frame things positively, at least until the truth really comes out. Rachel clings tightly to what she remembers, to the lust and joy she believes she felt, but the island's tide washes it all away.

I truly enjoyed The Girls of Summer, it felt like a glimpse into the stories we see on the media regarding Epstein and other party islands. More so, I loved the dual-timeline that offered readers a fresh perspective on the events, those of a fun and in love 17 year old and those of a mature adult. It's a story of innocence and naivety, power and control, and the strength of women when they bond together. It joins several other novels that touch on the #metoo movement, but with a fresh perspective and a story that sweeps you up.

A slow burn that leaves you page turning…

Alternating between Then & Now this debut author left me feeling at first entranced much like our MC Rachel and then a sense of unease/dread started to creep in, a feeling of you want to look away but you can’t. I became invested in these girls of summer and the way Bishop delivered the feeling of your past haunting you and the power a relationship whether it’s friendly or passionate can have over someone and change them, for better or worse. Be aware there are some sensitive topics shared.

"That place has been my whole life. Everything I thought I knew about myself was constructed in those few months I spent within touching distance of the sea. Everything I am is because Alistair loved me."

A beautiful written novel!

Thank you St Martins Press for an advance copy!

A teenage Rachel came to a Greek Island with her friend and promptly fell in love with a twenty-year-old Alistair. A summer romance that she is still clinging to 15 years later.

When her partner plans a vacation to the same island, Rachel is not too happy at first, but then reconnects with other girls from that summer and an ugly portrait of what actually happened back then emerges.

With issues of memory, consent, metoo, this kept me interested until the end!

NetGalley/ June 6, 2023, St. Martin's Press

Wow!! I was utterly engrossed in this story from the very beginning. What starts off as a beautiful summer romance turns into essentially a nightmare. I could really empathize with the main character despite the fact she was so blind and naive in her youth, who isn’t? I devoured this book and really enjoyed it.