This book is about Cassie as she goes to live with her grandmother in Avalon Bay before her grandmother sells her house. Cassie was born there and lived there until her parent's divorce when she was ten. Then, she lived with her narcissistic mother in Boston. Her father still lives in Avalon Bay with his new wife and twin six-year-old girls. Cassie feels like she doesn't belong anywhere and pushes all of her feelings down in order to avoid confrontation.
She goes to a party her friend invited her to to find that her friend isn't there and she is accidentally hearing a couple break-up. When she tries to sneak away, the guy hears her, and they begin to talk. Tate is the most handsome guy she has ever seen. She is determined to lose her virginity and have a fling this summer. Is Tate her guy?
What ensues is a wonderful story of finding your voice and doing what is healthy for you, even if society tells you you're wrong. I really enjoyed this book and definitely recommend it!

3.5 ⭐️ rounded up.
I should start this review by noting that I have not read the other books in this series. Overall I did enjoy this book and it was a quick read for me, but it wasn’t my absolute favorite. Even though the characters were adults, it felt like a much younger book. It read almost as if these characters were in high school, and that’s not usually something I would pick out to read.

I enjoyed watching Cassie’s character develop throughout the book, and I enjoyed most of the side characters, but I’m still debating whether I enjoyed it enough to read the other books from the series.

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher and Elle Kennedy for my free copy in exchange for my honest review.

I'm surprised to see that this is the first book I've read by Elle Kennedy, as she's written quite a few. I enjoyed this one, so I hope I get a chance to read more by her. The romance was fun and the characters in Avalon Bay came to life.

The Description:
College student Cassie Soul hasn’t spent an entire summer in Avalon Bay in years, not since her parents divorced and her mother spitefully whisked her away to Boston. Now that her grandmother is selling the boardwalk hotel that’s been in their family for five decades, Cassie returns to the quaint beach town to spend time with family, ring in her twenty-first birthday… and maybe find herself a summer fling.

On her first night in town, she finds the perfect candidate: Tate Bartlett, Avalon Bay’s fun-loving golden boy.

Tate, sailing instructor and lovable player, is no stranger to flings. In fact, he’s always down for a good time. But the moment he meets Cassie, he knows she’s not the girl you play games with. Cassie is gorgeous, hilarious, and, frankly, the coolest person he’s ever met. The last thing he wants to do is risk breaking her heart, and so he reluctantly puts her in the friend-zone… only to realize he made a huge mistake. Soon, his attraction to Cassie becomes impossible to ignore. He wants that fling now. Big-time.

And maybe even something more.

As Cassie and Tate walk the line between friends and lovers, they’re about to discover that their situation is the least complicated part of this equation. Because Avalon Bay is full of secrets—and their relationship might not survive when those secrets come to light.

My Thoughts:
This would make a great beach read. Cassie is a great character. She's smart, considerate of others, and has been faced with some difficult issues. Tate, Cassie's romantic interest, is also a great character: good-looking, responsible, fun-loving and has good character. Cassie's mom, Victoria, is an evil person who is easy to dislike. Cassie's Dad is much easier to like. The setting, Avalon Bay, seems like a picturesque beach town and I liked all the sailing adventures. The Beach Games were just pure fun. This book dealt with relationships and secrets and their effects on others.

Thanks to St. Martin's Press through Netgalley for an advance copy. This book will be published on July 18, 2023.

Thank you so much for the opportunity to read this ARC!

Once again Elle Kennedy delivers with the Avalon Bay series. I've really enjoyed this series and this set of characters. The spice in The Summer Girl is on point! Probably the best in the series for me. I also really liked that this book was low angst. Parts of the first two books that made me anxious so I appreciated not having that this time! I really loved Tate and Cassie's chemistry.

Sometimes I feel like the college romance genre is oversaturated with sports romance (which I love, when it's done right!) so it is kind of refreshing to have a non-sports college romance series.

If you liked the first 2 books in this series I think you'll really enjoy this one!

the perfect beach read! enjoyed the characters and the story line. the ending was so cute also. i love elle kennedys books. so glad i got the opportunity to read this early. thank you to netgalley as always !

I don't know why I do this to myself. I keep going back to her books to give them another chance. But each time, I'm disappointed. The synopsis sounded so good. I did Cassie as a character, I liked how she grew into her self. But, for the most part she was very cliche. There were way too many side friend characters and relationships to try to keep up with.

The Summer Girl by Elle Kennedy was a good book! I loved Cassie and Tate with their amazing chemistry. This is the third book in the Avalon Bay series, so I recommended reading them all in order. They have characters from previous books sprinkled throughout. This was a super fun and spicy read perfect for summertime!

This was meh for me. The writing was ok. The characters were ok. The plot was ok. It was VERY spicy. The phrase “my dick weeped” will be forever stuck in my mind. I don’t know if I’ve ever laughed in pure disgust before, but I did when I read that. Maybe it’s just me, but I just didn’t love any part of it. I also felt like there were wayyyyy too many side friend characters and relationships to try to remember. But maybe that’s because this is a series, and I’ve only read this book? There was a lot of telling and not as much showing as I would’ve liked. Felt a little juvenile. I DID like how Tate helped Cassie become stronger, and vice versa. Good emotional growth.

3/5 for me.

First and foremost, thank you so much to Netgalley, St.Martin’s and author Elle Kennedy for letting me read an ARC of “The Summer Girl”.

This book was so much more than what I could have ever expected!!

The summer girl is book number 3 part of a series that take place in Avalon Bay. Book 1 is Good Girl Complex and book 2 is Bad Girl Reputation. You don’t have to read them in order, but I decided to anyway because why not?!

This story follows Cassandra Soul who’s grandmother recently sold their family hotel to Mackenzie Cabot from book 1 “Good Girl Complex”.

Cassie is back in Avalon Bay for the summer and is looking for a summer fling when she meets Tate (aka Gate 😆). Cassie and Tate are immediately attracted to each other which should make it easy to have a summer fling with each other but it gets complicated when Tate’s friend Mac “Mackenzie” asks Tate not to mess around with Cassie.

After some thought Tate realized that flings can get complicated because of a pervious experience he had in high school.

As attracted as he is in Cassie he ends up friend zoning her and becoming her wingman.

The attraction never really stops and there is some subtle not so subtle flirtation which leads so some spicy 🌶️ things. At which point Tate and Cassie come to the conclusion that this fling they had put on the back burner was way to hot to ignore.

Favorite book of the series for sure ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

3/5⭐️
1/5🌶️

thank you netgalley and st. martin’s press for this arc! this book will release july 18, 2023.

i am normally a lover of any book by elle kennedy and the previous two books of this series i have given a four star rating, but unfortunately i did not enjoy the summer girl in the same way i enjoyed good girl complex and bad girl reputation. my biggest issue with this book was the characters were very one-dimensional which is not at all like elle kennedy’s normal writing style. by the end of this book, i felt like i really only knew that cassie has giant boobs, rambles too much, and is a copper not a ginger and that tate is supposedly super respectful of women but is consistently labeled a player throughout the book. the spice was lacking and a bit disappointing, there’s only 2-3 scenes and several fade to blacks. i was really excited about the overall atmosphere of the book. i love the avalon bay world, the small town beach vibe and everything that elle kennedy has delivered on in previous books, but i desperately wanted more depth to this characters. also, the dialogue was very cringy in several instances. the story itself was decently constructed and did provide a plotline that i didn’t see coming which was nice, but could not make up for the fact that this characters just didn’t do it for me. overall, it was a good summer read but i would encourage anyone wanting to read this to reconstruct this standards before diving in.

“it’s not always about the destination. sometimes it’s all about the journey.”

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the opportunity to burn through this ARC from a world I am already familiar with.
This next installment of Elle Kennedy's Avalon Bay world tells the tale of friends who could maybe become more with Cassie and the famous Tate. Tate is known for his reputations- a good guy who enjoys getting to know all the ladies. Cassie is a Boston resident who returns home to Avalon Bay for the first time since her parents got divorced. Their worlds collide when they realize they can give each other what they might be looking for during one hot summer, no strings attached.
While previous Avalon Bay book characters make appearances here too, I found myself a lot more attracted to both the relationship and motives of Cassie and Tate as opposed to the other main characters from the series. They seemed a lot more down-to-earth and appreciative of all the beauty around them instead of unrealistic. Sure, there were parts of the novel where Kennedy goes way too far, including cheesy pieces of dialogue and pointless scenes just to re-introduce previous characters back in to the series. Overall, Kennedy shares Cassie and Tate's friendship in a kind, loveable way that makes you want nothing more than to have them end up together.
This might be my favorite of the series because Kennedy is now an expert at knowing what she's creating: something fun, flirty and a sexy beach read that you just want to fly through.

The perfect summer read. The vibes of this whole book were so lighthearted and chill that it makes you never want to put it down. I loved the friends to lovers aspect of this one and I think it was done really well! As always another hit from miss Elle Kennedy

Thank you Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!

In fairness to this book, I was in the biggest reading slump of my life when I started reading it. But this book did absolutely nothing to pull me out of that slump and instead dug me in deeper. So do with that what you will.

I'll start with what I liked:
- the spice is goooooooood. like really good. (not that much of it, but quality over quantity sometimes ya know?)
- there's an interesting little plot twist at the end that I wasn't expecting and sucked me into the story more
- very little angst and easy to read

But overall this book was simply boring. The first half of the book absolutely dragged for me and I really struggled to get into it. I think part of that problem was that both main characters are just blah... I wasn't invested in either of them.

I'm literally the biggest Off Campus/Briar U fan so its never fun for me to write that I didn't enjoy an Elle Kennedy book, but this one just missed the mark for me. I enjoyed it well enough at the end, but already forgot everything that happened .02 seconds after turning the last page.

If you're looking for an EK book to start with... don't start with this one.

I love Elle Kennedy, but this series just isn't for me. I didn't like the first two so I was happy to get an ARC of this one so I didn't have to spend money on it. I love her hockey romances and I am even loving the prep school series, but this one isn't doing it for me.

Yes, yes yes! If you haven't already picked up one of the books in Elle Kennedy's Avalon Bay series, run, don't walk to the bookstore! This one (and the others) can definitely be read on its own, but there are little mentions and details throughout of the characters from past books and I enjoy those connections. An excellent read, just like the others!

This was perfect!!! I loved Cooper, Mac, Evan and Gen, but I love Tate and Cassie even more!!! This was the perfect summer romance, and I cannot wait for everyone to read it. Tate is so much more than he appears once you get to know him. He was perfect for Cassie, and I loved watching Cassie grow and confront her mom and dad. I was NOT expecting the third act issue at all and was so shocked, but I loved it! I love all these characters and the topics of found family and friends. I never wanted this one to end.

Thank you SMP Romance and Netgalley for my gifted arc in exchange for an honest review!

I'm going to start out by noting that I haven't read a romcom in years and very rarely read contemporary romance. That being said, a friend was raving about this series when I spotted the third book on NetGalley. Did I know it was the third? No. Do I ever read series out of order? Also a no. I also forgot it was the third book by the time I could slot it in.

Basically, I'm hardly the target audience for this book, but I picked up two heavy fantasy series at once and needed something lighter. And this totally fit the bill. It was cute and light, pretty low stakes, and as a result I completely screwed my sleep schedule this week, clinging to the warm fuzzies.

I find most fmcs in romcoms to be somewhat vapid, but I enjoyed Cassie a lot and related more than I would like to admit. I'm also not into the surfer vibe but I found Tate to be very likeable.

Ultimately, this was a fun, light read and now I have to go back and scope out the other books in the series. Oh darn.

I received an advanced copy from netgalley/ the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

This is a cute summer romance book that can be read as a standalone or as part of the Avalon Bay series. I really enjoyed the relationship in this book, and I liked that Cassie and Tate were genuine friends. I usually don't like the family drama stuff that Elle Kennedy includes in her books, but the family angst in this one was so interesting to read, it was so angsty.

Taking one star off because I wish we could've seen more of the main friend group in the story, there was too much talk about Cassie's big boobs, and the third act break up occurred like 98% into the story so I just wish it would've not happened at all.

But overall I really enjoyed the story and I look forward to the next book in the series!

This was such a great summer read!! I loved the small town beach feel and how everyone knew each other. I liked the character depth with Cassie and Tates parents. It wasn’t just about Cassie and Tate. Great book! I hope there will be more books in this series in the future. Loved it!

This book was pure fun and I enjoyed it even without having the opportunity to read the earlier books in the series. The characters are believable and it's a light frothy romance.