I really struggled with this book. Jules was my favorite character (sadly, she plays a minor role) and the others I could've done without. However, after listening to the author's note at the end I realized that I truly liked the author's intention for the book and think it would've been a great story. Unfortunately, this execution wasn't that for me.
Not terrible, but not great either.
2.5 stars rounded up.

A book told with two timelines, "then" and 'now", this books explores the experiences of young women on a Greek Island and their encounters with men. And how each girl has a different perception of that summer. It tackles tough topics like sexual predators and illicit behavior. Sex, drugs and rock and roll. While I personally did not enjoy it. I do recommend for public libraries.

As the summary indicates this book is dark. Darker than I was expecting honestly! That said, I found it very compelling and thought the dual timeline was well-used as a strategy to show how the main character was abused and assaulted and the emotional strength required for her to finally come to terms with it in the present. I enjoyed the book and could not put it down once I started. Would recommend if you like a dark psychological book.

Personally, I felt like this title started off really slow. It definitely was an original storyline and had potential. Parts of it just fell flat to me and were really predictable. I wanted to love it, but I just wasn't pulled into it the way that I would prefer with a thriller/mystery.

I felt like Rachel was really naive, which I guess makes sense for a teenager. But reflecting back on her experiences, I was surprised that she couldn't see what was done to her.

There is something just a tiny bit too Jeffrey Epstein about this book. I mean I get it, but this is pretty cringey.

A young girl from the UK goes on a trip to Greece with her high school friend. She becomes entangled with other young girls in a sort of sex trafficking situation with a wealthy man and his charming assistant. She falls in love with the assistant and basically trusts that they are in love.

In present day London, she somehow gets pulled back into this mess. Because apparently you can get older but not everyone learns things along the way.

This is harsh. Sorry.

Basically this is the story of what happens to a young girl that is naïve and gets pulled into something horrible by a bunch of adults that should know better (and probably do) but do it anyway. From the girl's perspective.

I'm probably not going to be the person that recommends this one.

Rachel has been in love with Alistair for fifteen years. Even though she’s now married to someone else. Even though she was a teenager when they met. Even though he is twenty years older than her.

Rachel and Alistair’s summer love affair on a remote, sun-trapped Greek island has consumed her since she was seventeen, obliterating everything in its wake. But as Rachel becomes increasingly obsessed with reliving the events of so long ago, she reconnects with the other girls who were similarly drawn to life on the island, where the nights were long, the alcohol was free-flowing and everyone acted in ways they never would at home. And as she does so, dark and deeply suppressed secrets about her first love affair begin to rise to the surface, as well as the truth about her time working for an enigmatic and wealthy man, who controlled so much more than she could have ever realized.

Joining a post #MeToo discourse, The Girls of Summer grapples with themes of power, sex, and consent, as it explores the complicated nature of memory and trauma––and what it takes to reframe, and reclaim, your own story.

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First off- thank you so much to NetGalley & St.Martin's Press for my gifted copies of this book in exchange for my honest review.

I wanted to like this one so much more than I actually did.
First of all, I will say that I thoroughly enjoyed the atmosphere of this book. It's set in summertime in Greece, and it was definitely a weird cult-y environment, it did seem like all the girls there really looked out for one another and it became more of a sisterhood than anything. There were so many moments while reading this that I just wanted to reach through the book and give Rachel a hug. Save her from what was happening, because it directly impacted who she was as an adult.
The book is told in alternating timelines, Rachel and her time on the island, and then present-day Rachel as an adult, struggling through every adult relationship she's been in because of her past with Alistair. The fact that he didn't take any responsibility for his part in that, really irked me and had me livid during multiple parts of this book.
Overall, it's not the light beachy read that I feel like I've seen bookstagrammers market it as. It's much darker than that, and while the atmosp

What I liked:
Focused on me too

A bit of mystery

Women who worked together

What didn’t work for me:

MC did not mature at all

Overall, the book was ok and kept my interest. I was very disappointed that the MC was immature as an adult.

There was something about this book that just didn't quite click for me... And if I had to guess what it was it's that so much of this story just feels like it's coming out at the wrong time... Even I can admit that's not really a fair critique of the book.

It's told in two timelines, one set in the past where our main character, Rachel, is on holiday with her friend and gets pulled under the spell of a man a decade older than her and then Rachel when she's roughly a decade later back on the island with her husband. It's the way that the book is so short and bounces between these two points in time and the moments in each timeline that added to this mostly feeling like an incomplete thought. In the past the reader can clearly sense that Rachel is being abused in some way, but there's also a larger threat looming. Then in the present we see Rachel and her husband having troubles in their marriage and Rachel returning to the man that was clearly trafficking her in her youth. So in terms of making the reader feel ill at ease, the book succeeds...

The biggest issue is that the culmination of the novel feels very been there before and the journey to get to the conclusion already wasn't the smoothest. In the end it's not so much that the book is bad necessarily, but that it's forgettable, there's no way to sever this book from a book that covers similar ground because the characters themselves are so bland and the way that the book is written doesn't feel distinctly its own.

The writing might be decent, but the third act is clearly rushed. So much of the narrative eventually becomes montages, flashes of scenes that feel half finished when compared to what the book spent the early runtime lingering on. In the end it's hard to recommend this, not because of the subject matter, but because even without reading it the odds are most readers will have already consumed this very story and there isn't anything more added to the conversation by having spent time with these characters.

Thank you to @netgalley and @Stmartinspress for a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. Thank you to @macmillian.audio for a free download of the audiobook.

I really wanted to like this book more. The mystery of a secret past was intriguing and who wouldn’t want to read about Greece. Older men taking advantage of younger, vulnerable women just didn’t play for me. Also, the threat of infidelity is not something that I enjoy.

Thanks to the audio, I did finish the book. I see lots of 4-5 star reviews, just not for me.

3 stars

#books #bookishlife #booklover #readingisfun #iowabookstagrammers #iowabookstagram #netgalley #stmartinspress #macmillianaudio #ltbreaderteam #thegirlsofsummer #katiebishop #smpinfluencers

I really enjoyed The Girls Of Summer. It wasn't exactly what I was expecting when I picked it up but still an overall good storyline and fun read! Visiting Greece has been on my bucket list. Who wouldn't want a love affair on a Greek Island. Thank you to St Martin's Press and NetGalley for this title.

I was immediately interested in the travel aspect of this book. It took a very interesting turn that I wasn't expecting. I loved learning about the characters and their relationships. I'd recommend this book to friends for sure. It was thrilling and engaging.

I am all about the dark reads and this one delivered. I have seen many readers comparing it to My Dark Vanessa which is a favorite of mine. A thought provoking read that I really enjoyed. I am looking forward to more from Katie Bishop.

I enjoyed this book and I could not put it down. I really enjoyed the characters and the writing was really well done. It made you want to keep reading.

“The weight of words can be astounding sometimes. You can never really know the power they have, how long they will follow you for.”

“You can be whoever you like when nobody is looking at you particularly closely.”

The Girls of Summer, told in dual timelines, Then and Now, follows Rachel, who has been in love with Alistair for 15 years -- even though he's twenty years older than her, even though they they were only together for one sun-drenched summer on a remote Greek island, even though she's now married to someone else. As she becomes increasingly obsessed with the events from that summer, she reconnects with the other women who were there, and the dark secrets about what really happened with Alistair and the enigmatic and wealthy man who employed them all.

3.5 stars rounded up! I went into this debut novel expecting a beachy read..but it was NOT that. This book has a heavy and dark subject matter. It is a slow burn and I’ll admit I was a little skeptical for about the first 1/3 of the book because I wasn’t sure where the storyline was going. But once it took off it was quite a ride! I was feeling some My Dark Vanessa vibes, which is one of my favorite books ever.

If you have ever wondered how young girls are groomed, how men sometimes use their power to manipulate, and how memory can skew the truth…read this book. I listened to most of this book on audio and really enjoyed it. The narrator has a dreamy accent which just added to the enjoyment of the story for me.

Thank you to Netgalley, Macmillan Audio, St Martins Press, and the author for the ARC and ALC in exchange for an honest review.

I loved this book! It was an interesting story with a few extra layers, told between the present day and 15 years prior from the point of view of the main character Rachel who summers in Greece at the end of high school and subsequently from what happened that summer, has some trauma and denial. It was a commentary of #metoo as well.

Rachel is in her thirties, married and coasting along in her mid-life. Her and her husband visit an island in Greece that has significance to her past. She's still feels the connection to a relationship that keeps its claws embedded long after the real connection has gone. What’s different is that Rachel’s big romance began when she was a seventeen-year-old on a Greek island whilst on a holiday with her friend, and it was with a thirty-something male who is involved in running a local bar. It all came to a sudden end.
This is troubling and thought-provoking story of manipulation, teen girls, and abuse. The story can make you uncomfortable; it can feel problematic. But it's an important read and very well written.

Rachel vacationed on a small Greek island in her youth and what happened there is reaching forward 15 years to her “happily” married present. This one was definitely a twist on a modern day Me Too movement throwing it back to what happened to Rachel and other girls on the island.

I really liked a lot of this storyline, but Rachel did annoy me with some of her character flaws (which I won’t spoil for readers). Overall, I thought it was a solidly good read.

Rachel is in her mid-30's now, employed and married. Her husband is stable and sweet and she likes the life she's built. But a vacation she takes to an island she hasn't been back to in over 10 years sends her stable life tipping because she bumps in to a girl she knew so long ago. The summer she was 17 and freshly turns 18, she's backpacking with a friend and she bumps in to a group of girls. She meets an older man that introduces her to the world of money, drinking and travel.

This story is a bit dark. The age gap of the MC and the man she's seeing is eye-watering. The timeframe jumps between two - the Then and Now. The then being 18 year old Rachel and friends. The Now being adult Rachel, as her life tailspins as she tries to reach Alistair again, after all this time.

The creep factor jumps off the page. The Then chapters are just full of foreboding and are hard to read at times. Knowing this is a book written during the lockdown and Pandemic feels fitting, that feeling of isolation is a constant undercurrent. There's SA in this book, so tread lightly and make sure to check Trigger Warnings so you know what this story holds. I like how it concluded but I found the MC really frustrating at times. I tried to see her POV, her obsession and her struggle but I had a tough time really getting to know her and understand the why. I did find the story compelling and heartbreaking.

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

I hate admitting this but I wasn't able to connect with this one as much as I hoped.  Even though I didn't connect, I still felt it was a well thought out novel on grooming and the way different people experience trauma and their perspectives on memories.

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. Congratulations Katie on a fabulous debut