This book was so engrossing, I read it in basically two sittings. (I get interrupted by family and life, ya know?)
The author deals with hard topics in a manner that is just enough to get the point across, but in such a balanced way. I’m definitely recommending the book and looking forward to the next one by Katie Bishop! Well done

TOUGH subject matter, dealing with consent, coming of age, and emotional trauma. Well-written and not as "light" as I thought it would be. I enjoyed the jumps between "Then" and "Now" and how the author unfolded Rachel's story. What I thought would be a perfect summer lighthearted read was really quite different than that. I enjoyed this novel!

I like the cover.
I thought Rachel was a liar and unable to be truthful in any of her relationships with men.
I felt the sorriest for Tom and was glad he got a good ending. But Rachel did to him was just sneaky, dishonest, and I can’t condone it/
It’s an ok read, but I liked the peripheral characters better than the main ones.

3⭐️
- not a light summer read (darker themes)
- started out great with the girls on their backpacking trip before college
- island vibes🙌
- slowed down in the middle and then dragged
- seemed like some of the side characters were too detailed for no reason (Aka the whole storyline w Tom)
- would try another book by this author in the future

Here’s some takeaway from this story… Greece is beautiful, older men like taking advantage of young vulnerable girls, and Rachel (our MC) is not a relatable or likable character.

The Girls of Summer follows Rachel, a 17 year old who has moved to a small island in Greece. She meets an older man, Alistair who works for a mysterious, even older, man. Rachel and several young girls that are also working on the island take up jobs working for Alistair and his boss, entertaining men during lavish parties. What I thought would be more of a storyline that follows young adults having a wild summer in Greece, was actually more of a depressing tale on how older men with bad intentions take advantage of young, vulnerable women.

The story jumps between Rachel at 17, to Rachel as an older, married woman. While I can understand that young Rachel was young and naive, older Rachel is equally as naive and overall an unlikable character.

The storyline is pretty straightforward and predictable. The characters are quite flat with no differences in personality. The plot feels more like a series of events rather than a story. There is a slight buildup towards the end, but ultimately there are no twists or any shocking plot points. The book was written well, but I found it just OK; entertaining enough to keep reading but not super memorable.

Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin's press for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed this! It’s a slow burn, but I enjoyed the story and seeing it unfold. The obsession was deep and seeing her ignore the red flags was a bit heartbreaking, but also understandable. I felt satisfied at the end and I just enjoyed my time reading it. I would read more from this author!

Now I want to book a trip to Greece!!! Such an interesting read. I wasn't a big fan of Rachel. Her character just wasn't likable to me. And Allistar just seemed to be bad news. But the setting was to die for and the back story was pretty interesting. Definitely didn't give me thriller vibes.

*Thank you @stmartinspress for the copy in exchange for an honest review. Review not posted to Amazon/Goodreads because less than 4 stars or DNF.*

☀️ This story is an unflinching look at how easily vulnerable young girls can be influenced, manipulated, and exploited, and how the consequences of that can have life-long impacts.

☀️ Rachel, the MC, was young, naïve, and super frustrating for me as a reader on the outside looking in. As a teen, she was blinded by what she thought was true love, and her conscious choice to ignore the terrible things that were happening during her time in Greece was really getting to me. I wanted to scream at her to OPEN HER EYES!! This is exactly why predators choose to prey on young girls – because they know they typically do not have enough life experience to understand what is happening and they are easy marks. But even years later as an adult, Rachel was still naïve and still justifying her feelings and everything that happened in Greece. I believe the author was likely providing an example of prolonged trauma response here, but Rachel’s actions in the present still frustrated me.

☀️ Parts of the book were heartbreaking and hard to read. There are trigger events in the story, but they were handled delicately.

☀️ The author did an amazing job setting the scene in Greece. From the landscape to the mood, it was exceptionally done.

☀️ Overall, I thought this story was emotional, heartbreaking, and quite heavy… and impressive for a debut author.

Thank you @NetGalley and @stmartinspress for an eARC of this book, which I have reviewed honestly and voluntarily.

This book took me a long time to get through - and as a result a long time to review.

The Girls of Summer by Katie Bishop is a darker read than I usually reach for. It covers the darker sides of beautiful places in the summer and how someone can be manipulated.

Rachel met Allistar (20 years her senior) had a summer love affair over 15 years ago when she was a teenager. For years she has romanticized their summer together and has been in love with him ever since. Now, returning to that island - she is obsessed with re living that amazing time in her life. Unfortunately, when she starts revising the sites that once held fond memories, she realizes that she might have been wrong about the summer that she had so long ago.

I want to emphasis that this book deals with themes of self realization, grooming, and manipulation.

Thank you to the author and the publisher for the arc!

The title of this book makes one expect that it is going to be a breezy summer read; however, that couldn't be farther from the truth. This novel contains some dark and, at times, upsetting content. It begins with a group of high school girls on a trip to Greece, which is quite surprising alone, but there is so much more. The main narrator, Rachel, is looking back to when she was there and became attached to an older man, Alastair, and fell madly in love. The writing captures the setting really well. Some might say it takes too long to pick up speed, but I liked the pace. It gives you time to really feel the sense of foreboding as she also gives a "present day" account of going back to Greece with her current husband, Tom. This structure provides a build-up to discovering what happened back then. As the stories alternate between then and now, we learn shocking details that explain why she still has unresolved issues from that summer.

This is not a thriller. This is an exploration of the predatory behavior by evil men who exploit young vulnerable women. The topic is timely and I feel this author did a good job with a very disturbing subject. I just want to be clear that I would not recommend it for just anyone.

I enjoyed the setting of this book so much. Reading about the vulnerability and exploitation of a 17-year-old girl, not so much. I know this happens; just watch the news, but for me, this wasn't a book I enjoyed. There are sensitive subjects covered and the cover and title of the book was misleading for me. This is not a light read.

Rachel thinks her trip to Greece was a love story... but years later, now married, she discovers that what she thought was a romantic summer may not have all that romantic. This is a story about how a young girl gets caught up in a situation where she feels like she has the love and appreciation over an older man and therefore his requests are done out of love. After a trip back to the place where she had her "summer of love" with her husband makes her reminisce about that time and all that happened. She works through her memories and discovers that she was manipulated by a man that only pretended to love her.

I love when a debut comes out with a bang!!

Synopsis:
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.

Please note before going into this book that this does deal with some darker subject matter as it explores exploitation of women, grooming, and manipulation.

Overall I really enjoyed this one. This book may not be your typical beach read but it was definitely powerful. I was hooked the entire time.

I also want to give a big thank you to Netgalley for the audio and e-book copy, as well as St. Martins Press for the super fun PR box! This one was a great summer thriller and I can't wait to see what Katie Bishop comes up with next!!

The Girls of Summer deals with #MeToo themes, as we follow Rachel's summer love affair with Alistair, a man 20 years her senior, in the idyllic Greek Islands. In the present day, Rachel is still obsessed and struggling with the events of her past.
I found this novel to be slow moving, without any real character development or revelations. Katie Bishop's writing was easy to follow and continue through the book (I loved the imagery), but the overall plot fell flat for me. I didn't feel any tension, or the thrilling aspect. I struggled with the main character, because in the past scenes, her naivety makes sense because she is young, but when it continues throughout the book, it felt like come on Rachel!
Overall, I would check out Katie Bishop again as I believe it could have just been this storyline that wasn't for me and not necessarily her writing.
Thank you St. Martin's Press for the copy through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

⭐️⭐️

𝙅𝙤𝙞𝙣𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙖 𝙥𝙤𝙨𝙩 #𝙈𝙚𝙏𝙤𝙤 𝙙𝙞𝙨𝙘𝙤𝙪𝙧𝙨𝙚, 𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙨 𝙗𝙤𝙤𝙠 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.

I struggled so much getting into this book and caring for the story. This is definitely a great summer read, but I don’t think I would consider it a thriller.

I haven’t read Dark Vanessa yet, but I’ve heard it’s quite similar to this (in a way). I can’t confirm the similarities, but this one definitely did have some difficult topics discussed.

There’s no doubt this book is beautifully written, but it was so slow and I just couldn’t get into it. I liked the duel timelines, but I didn’t personally care for any of the characters.

I do think the setting was my favorite part of the book. I loved that the past took place on a Greek island.

I did enjoy the second half of the book a lot more, that’s when the suspense was starting to kick in. However, there was never a time when I actually cared for the story.

Overall, this book wasn’t for me. It would definitely be a great summer read for certain readers but don’t expect this to be too much of a thriller. It’s definitely more character-driven. I can see why others will enjoy this one, but it wasn’t for me, unfortunately.

Thank you so much NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the review eARC in exchange for my honest review!

Honestly this book was just a little too slow for me. I have adhd and I just couldn’t pay attention like I should have.

I was so frustrated with Rachel throughout the whole book. I was more frustrated with adult Rachel than I was with youth Rachel because adult Rachel knew better and she just made bad decision after bad decision even after everything she went through. I understand that the mind plays tricks on you and lets you remember things through rose colored lenses when in reality, horrible things were happening and that’s exactly what Rachel went through.

I did appreciate the alternating timeline but I just wish it didn’t alternate every chapter. I would have liked a little more from each timeline at a time before switching. I do think this is a very poignant novel dealing with some heavy topics so please make sure to read the trigger warnings before starting.


Thank you publishers and @netgalley for this eARC in exchange for my honest feedback.

When Rachel was 17 she spent a summer in Greece with some friends and met an older wealthy man who she fell for. Years later, she revisits the past and finds some dark secrets about that time and that man who she thought she loved. Things are not what they seem, and there are some tough truths revealed.

"I've never smoked much before, but it feels easier out here to simply do the things you are offered than to say no."

This is an incredibly well-written book, about an incredibly horrible subject.

"There is a discordance in the realization that we can never know when we meet somebody exactly what part they will play in our lives."

Rachel is backpacking through Greece with a friend when they stumble upon a small Greek island. At 17 Rachel feels awkward and lonely and lost. And then she meets Alistair, a much older man who works for the wealthiest man on the island. She becomes wraps up in his world of parties and drugs and alcohol and falls in love. From the outsider's perspective we can all the see the writing on the wall and how bad this situation actually is. The story is told by Rachel both in the past on the island, and in the present in London, and neither Rachel gets what happened to her that summer was bad.

I really loved My Dark Vanessa, and even though this story occupies some of the space, it didn't feel as impactful to me. I had a hard time connecting with Rachel and overall the story just didn't make the same kind of impression. I will say that the writing was excellent though, so I will 100% be picking up whatever Katie Bishop writes next.