The Summer of Songbirds
Author Kristy Woodson Harvey
Available now!

Thank you, @uplitreads, @kristywharvey, and @gallerybooks, for my #gifted copy! This is my first read by Kristy, and I loved it!

The Summer or Songbirds is filled with summer camp nostalgia, lifelong friendships, first loves, real- life challenges, character growth and development, and nothing but amazing women loving, supporting, and raising each other up. It felt so good to read a novel that had so many genuinely wonderful characters who gave the best versions of themselves to each other, which allowed for growth, respect, and discovery within them all. We all should be so lucky to have a Mary Stuart in our lives!

Camp Holly Springs is a magical summer have that June More created for her niece, Daphne, and so many other young girls to experience childhood's blissful connections, friendships, and to make lasting summer memories. But now, June is in financial trouble and may be forced to sell their beloved Camp Holly Springs.

Daphne and her two best friends, Lanier and Mary Stuart, forever "songbirds," are determined to figure out how to save the camp. Despite many personal :hard things"; secrets, substance abuse, and more - the three eventually face their struggles together and allow for their inner beauty, their bonds, and their futures to unfold in the most satisfying ways.

The Summer of Songbirds is an absolute summer must- read!

4.5 stars!

⛵️The Summer of Songbirds - Kristy Woodson Harvey

5 ⭐️- OMG what a sweet, lovable, nostalgic story. It has summer fun, family relationships and struggles, friendship and found family, and so much more. I grew up going to “the lake” and this book felt like home. I too have a bestie that I’ve had since I was 6 (Hi Laur!) that feels more like a sister and I felt the characters were easy to identify with. As predicted, this book now holds a special place in my heart.

Four women come together to save a summer camp that changed their lives while also discovering themselves in the process. June Moore bought Camp Holly Springs 30 years ago amid some traumatic life events. Now, June is in danger of losing the camp she knows and loves. Her niece, Daphne, met her two best friends, Lanier and Mary Stuart, at this camp when they were 6. They grew up helping each other with life’s “hard things” - heartbreak, substance abuse, unplanned pregnancy and familial struggles. When big secrets are brought to light at the campfire, will the girls be able to work together to discover themselves, solve hard problems, and save their beloved camp?

I loved this book. Plain and simple. It was such a heartbreaking yet heartfelt story of self discovery, self love, defining the word “family,” and so many nostalgic stories. It has changing POVs and some past and present timeline moments that help keep you invested in the characters lives. If you’re looking for a summer, easy, lovable book, this is it. Definitely recommend. I am so grateful to Kristy Woodson Harvey for writing this book and to NetGally and Gallery Books for the ARC copy. This one’s out now so definitely go read it before summer ends!

The Summer of Songbirds has been at the top of my list to read since Kristy announced the book! And it was just as dreamy as she described. I love books about

Daphne thinks of Camp Holly Springs as some of the best time of her life. She has a rough upbringing and this camp is one of her only happy memories. Her aunt June bought the camp when she also needed something to ground her. She’s been running it successfully for over 20 years, but it’s been hard to rebound after the pandemic.

Daphne met her two best friends in their songbird year and they have remained friends for over 25 years. They help each other in many ways and they know all each others secrets. After the girls find out the camp is in danger of closing, they spark a campaign to raise funds. They work together well, but they still have their lives to lead. They are also following their heart and trying to make careers. It’s hard when you are trying to do the right thing when it might hurt one of your best friends.

This is the perfect book for the summer time. It reminds you of the freedom of school and being a kid. When hanging out with your friends was the most important activity and just having fun was the goal. I grew up on a lake and went swimming my every single day. I remember riding my bike to my friends and getting ice cream from the truck together. Kristy has such a way of writing it feels like you are another camper with the girls. It’s an absolute must read.

Thank you to @uplitreads @gallerybooks and Kristy for my gifted ARC, finished copy, and fun swag from Camp KWH! Songbirds is out today!

5 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The Summer of the Songbirds is such a fun book! I admit that it took me a little bit to get into the story, but after a couple of chapters, I couldn't put the book down. I was reminded of my own summers at camp, and I was fully invested in whether or not the plan to save Camp Holly Springs would be a success.

The main characters were fully fleshed out, with completely different personalities, so it was easy to keep track of them. I liked that we got to see many different sides to the same story WITHOUT it being two sides of a romance. An inexperienced author would have confused the reader with three points of view, but Harvey masterfully juggled the storylines while making sure the reader can see troubling issues from multiple angles. When Lanier's fiance Bryce starts acting strangely, the reader has already seen from Daphne's perspective what's going on. We see Daphne's internal struggle between being a loyal friend to Lanier, and attorney-client privilege that she owes Bryce.

There was, of course, an element of predictability involved. You put two exes (from long ago) together in a novel like this -- especially when one is starting to see cracks in her "perfect" relationship, and the other is still hung up on the first -- there are bound to be sparks. But I still thoroughly enjoyed the journey, and there were still quite a few surprises along the way.

The blurb from Emily Henry on the front cover of this book summed it up perfectly:

“𝑷𝒖𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒊𝒏 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒃𝒆𝒂𝒄𝒉 𝒃𝒂𝒈 𝒊𝒎𝒎𝒆𝒅𝒊𝒂𝒕𝒆𝒍𝒚.”

I honestly couldn’t have said it better myself. The Summer of Songbirds truly is the perfect summer read! The summer vibes and nostalgia are endless! It’s the perfect mix of juicy drama, family dynamics, female friendship, and a dash of romance. The characters are all dynamic, the plot is steady, and the summer camp setting will take you back to your childhood.

READ THIS IF YOU ENJOY:

- Summer camp
- Friendship fiction
- Second chance romance
- Multiple perspectives & timelines
- Friends becoming family
- Warm, wholesome, and feel-good reads

I’ve read a small handful of Kristy’s novels, and this one is by far my very favorite. It’s best enjoyed at the beach, lake, or pool! The cover screams SUMMER, and the inside most certainly delivers. The Summer of Songbirds is out TODAY, so please listen to Emily Henry and put it in your beach bag immediately!

Another perfect summer read from Kristy Woodson Harvey. The Summer of Songbirds will have you wishing you were at summer camp with your best friends. I loved the elements of female friendship, found family and second chance romance. If you are already a KWH fan I think this one will give you similar vibes to the Peachtree Bluff series. I also enjoyed the subtle cross over mentions to Under The Southern Sky. Thank you to NetGalley at the publisher for an advanced copy.

The Summer of Songbirds is an homage to summer camp memories, childhood joys and forever friendships. The setting is Camp Holly Springs where three little girls, now three young women, have returned to relive their childhood summers and try to save the beloved camp from developers.
Kristy Woodson Harvey tells the story from four points of view. The three campers who are now grown: Daphne-a lawyer, Lanier-a bookstore owner, Mary Stuart- a master at public relations and the Camp Holly Springs owner, Daphne’s Aunt June. KWH’s vivid descriptions of the camp, cabins, dining hall and all the daily activities will rekindle readers’ memories of campouts, talent shows, friendship bracelets, and stories around the campfire. Friendship dilemmas now involve career crossroads, trouble with a fiancé, a wedding rendezvous with an Ex, and family secrets between friends. KWH creates anticipation, disappointment, and finally hope surrounding each character. Her prose includes a poignant analogy that the river is like humans, carrying secrets, scars, joy, and hope. Added is the wisdom that we can’t control the wind, but we can adjust the sails. Readers are reminded of joy and sadness; You cannot have one without the other. This is “a book to lose yourself in, then find yourself again.” Welcome to Camp Holly Springs and The Summer of Songbirds. As Kristy Woodson Harvey says, “It’s always summer somewhere!”

Loved everything about this novel! Thank you to the author, NetGalley and the publisher for the advanced digital copy..

Absolutely loved this atmospheric summer camp novel by Kristy Woodson Harvey. The Summer of Songbirds is an ode to summer, to lifelong friendship, to friends who feel like family, and to places that make your heart soart...in this case, Camp Holly Springs. Three women who have been best friends since they met their very first year at summer camp are now dealing with some situations where they need each other more than ever. Add in some second chance romance and drama, and you are in for a real literary treat. I loved the way each of the women's stories are weaved together. I will definitely be picking up some of Harvey's backlist. Loved, loved, loved this story!

Thank you for the gifted copy! This was my first book by this author and it won’t be my last. Songbirds is perfect for a summer beach read! It follows three friends who met as summer camp as they were growing up. Their lives have all changed, they are older, they are working through adult problems, and the summer camp is now in trouble.

w h a t i l o v e d :
+ strong female friendships
+ found family
+ summer camp nostalgia
+ heartwarming moments
+ messy romance
+ second chances
+ heartbreaking choices

This book deals with some heavy issues, but it never felt overwhelming to me and remained a lighter read. I liked some of the characters more than others, but it worked well in the story. I would definitely recommend this book for a summer read!

June Moore is at risk of losing her beloved Camp Holly Springs after running it for the past thirty years. June’s niece, Daphne, and her two best friends, Lanier and Mary Stuart, started attending this camp for girls when they were 6 years old, and are now determined to help June save her camp. Meanwhile, Daphne and Lanier are both confronted with relationships from their pasts, so they must juggle figuring out their personal lives, while still prioritizing saving Camp Holly Springs.

This was a beautiful story of the bond of female friendship, built over a decades-long relationship. The story is full of camp nostalgia, memories, and “hard things” the women helped one another with over the years. While romance is an aspect of the story, this is first and foremost a book about friendship, and I loved that. Three of the four women serve as the novel’s POVs, and I appreciated their different perspectives and challenges they were battling. This was another wonderful book from Kristy Woodson Harvey, and I would definitely recommend!

Thank you to NetGalley for my gifted e-ARC, and UplitReads, Gallery Books, and Kristy Woodson Harvey for my gifted ARC + finished copies!

This is a fantastic book, beautifully written, and I was sorry it had to end. It’s women’s fiction at its finest, with romances included.

It’s set at a summer camp for girls where the three girls (Daphne, Lanier, and Mary Stuart) first met and made lifelong friendships. Now, they’re grown up and the camp needs money to survive.

There’s so much more to the book, of course. Their individual stories of hardships, first loves, and broken hearts are well told, but it’s the friendship that keeps them together and helps them to grow. I’m a little envious I never had this kind of ride or die friends since childhood!

I can’t say enough good things about this book, you have to read it.
5 stars.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed as in this review are completely my own.

A stunning story of the power of life long friends, and the challenge in seeing each other and ourselves for who we are, not who we once were.

For fans of Harvey's "Peach Tree Bluff" series, this book will be your new favorite!

I probably say this every time Kristy Woodson Harvey has a new book published, but I think her latest, The Summer of Songbirds, is my new favorite from her.

The story follows four women who come together to try to save the summer camp that made them into the women they are today. June Moore owns Camp Holly Springs and has been welcoming girls there for over 30 years. While it was a fun summer haven for the girls, over the years it has also become a haven for June to hide away from the world and her troubles. June’s niece Daphne and her two best friends, Lanier and Mary Stuart, met at Camp Holly Springs. The bond that formed between these three during their summers at the camp has only strengthened over the years and they are now like sisters to one another. When they learn that the camp is in trouble, it’s all hands on deck and what starts as a mission to save their childhood happy place ends up becoming an adventure that will change their lives forever.

The bond of friendship between Lanier, Daphne and Mary Stuart was the major highlight of this book for me. From the time they were children, these women have been there for each other through thick and thin, and they truly take care of one another. Each of them is going through something throughout the course of the book and while the friendships are mostly beautiful and supportive, there’s also real talk when it’s needed, particularly when it comes to telling someone something they’d rather not hear. I really appreciated how authentically KWH portrays these friendships. It felt like I was reading about my own best friends and I just loved that!

The theme of second chances and forgiveness is also very prominent in The Summer of Songbirds. Daphne, Lanier and Mary Stuart value their friendship enough that they will always try to do what it takes to repair their friendship if things go wrong between them. Then there’s also the matter of second chances in love. Lanier met her first love through Camp Holly Springs, while Daphne met her first love through Lanier. Being back at the camp and seeing their first loves again makes both women realize that those feelings are still there and wonder if second chances are in the cards for them. I was fully invested in both of these romances as well and really enjoyed watching them reconnect while at the same time, revisiting the memories from their summers together at camp.

I don’t want to say anything else because you really have to experience it yourself, but it really is a beautiful story all around. Filled with nostalgic summer camp vibes, amazing female friendships, and more than one second chance romance, The Summer of Songbirds is the perfect beach read!

I have loved every book I've read by Kristy Woodson Harvey and The Summer of Songbirds was no exception. There were a lot of characters introduced in the beginning that took a few chapters to keep straight and towards the end, some of the chapters went from present to past and back to present that got a little confusing. Even though I never went to summer camp, I was obsessed with the Disney Channel shows about summer camps (anyone else remember these?!) and it was easy to get wrapped up in the memories of Daphne, Lanier and Mary Stuart. I really enjoyed the childhood to adult friendship these three have (I have had the same best friend since the second grade) and mixed in with with Daphne's story, this book is what summer reading is all about. If it's not on your TBR already, you need to add it!
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Thank you NetGalley, Gallery Books and Simon & Schuster for the advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

Kristy Woodson Harvey secured a place as a fave author a while back when I read a couple of her other books. I love the characters she creates and the way she weaves her stories together. I was very excited to receive an advanced copy of this one to read. Thanks to Uplit reads for sending it my way. It was the perfect summer read and exactly what I was in the mood for! It captivated me in the first few pages and I couldn't put it down.

I love books featuring strong friendships and found family. The three main characters - Daphne, Lanier and Mary Stuart were all wonderful and relatable. I loved how much they loved each other and stuck by each other no matter what. It really proved that family does not have to be blood, but people who care about you, love you unconditionally and are there for you no matter what. Sometimes those bonds are the strongest.

Besides friendship, there were so many types of relationships explored throughout the story. Relationships between parents and children, relationships between siblings, relationships with past lovers and even explored new relationships. The story had so many layers and at times, dealt with some sensitive subject matter that was handled with care.

I liked that the story was told with multiple points of view, each chapter alternating between the three women and June, owner of the camp where they all originally met. The secondary characters were pretty great too and fit into the story nicely. I also really liked the setting of the camp. It seemed peaceful and serene and the place where lifelong relationships were formed. I never went to a stay away camp as a child, but it felt like a place any kid would like and feel safe.

I love Kristy's writing so much! She always reels me in with her stories and gives me characters that are easy to love and root for. I would definitely add her books to your shelf! I can't wait to read whatever she comes out with in the future. Five big stars!

The Summer of Songbirds follows three women, Daphne, Lanier, and Mary Stuart, who grew up going to Camp Holly Springs together. Going to camp changed each of their lives in different ways, and when the camp director, Daphne's aunt June confides in them that this may be the last summer the camp can sustain, they resolve to save their sacred place. Along the way we learn about their pasts, secrets they are hiding, and how they discover that friendship and family is the most important thing in life.

This book is a near-perfect summer read. It has just the right amount of romance, nostalgia, and drama to keep the reader hooked--I read it in two days! The characters were well developed, but I wish we had learned more about Mary Stuart (the book focuses on Lanier and Daphne more). The descriptions of Camp Holly Springs are vibrant and made me feel like I was transported to the woods of North Carolina.

I loved the emphasis on female friendship and how important having good friends was. It's a really sweet book that I think a lot of people will like.

I loved this book from start to finish!! Every character was woven together so perfectly that you couldn’t help but fall in love with everyone (except for one)! I don’t even like the outdoors but all of a sudden found myself wishing I had a camp to go to or send me kids to like this! The whole story felt like it could be real and I did not want it to end. I truly hope this one becomes a movie!!!

Perfect summer read filled with stories from summer camp. While I never attended summer camp myself, I felt lost in the story of these women who developed their friendships and made memories together. This story touches on how complicated relationships truly are. I enjoyed how this story explored the effort it takes to sustain and grow friendships throughout the years as we all grow and our lives change. Sweet read.

Master Southern storyteller Kristy Woodson Harvey (a favorite) returns following The Wedding Veil and the Peachtree Bluff series with her latest summer sizzler, THE SUMMER OF SONGBIRDS —a perfect beach read! Four women come together to save a much-loved and memorable summer camp.

June Moore has some difficult decisions to make. She is about to lose Camp Holly Springs. The camp has been her life for over thirty years. She sacrificed for the camp—her business, and her home.

Her niece Daphne loved the camp where she met her best friends Lanier and Mary Stuart. She spent every summer here with her aunt. The girls (The Songbirds) are now women in their thirties. She must tell them the news and knows they will be devastated.

When they were six, Daphne, Lanier, and Mary Stuart met on the first day of Camp Holly Springs. Their friendship continued over the years, and later worked as counselors.

Daphne is a single mom of four-year-old Henry. Steven is a large part of their lives, a great dad and friends, but never married. Huff is the love of her life, but they are keeping it a secret for now.

When Daphne learns of her aunt June's financial situation and possibly the loss of the much-loved camp, she is ready to help. Her aunt June was there for her when he mom was not. The camp meant so much that she rallied her friends for assistance.

Lanier is to be married, but her fiancé is not the man she thought, and then an old flame surfaces, her first love, and she is torn. Then a secret comes out, which causes problems with her best friend.

Mary Stuart is getting married, and they plan a bachelorette party at the camp. This brings back a lot of memories and first loves.

The three women decide they will use their skills to raise money to help save the camp for Aunt June and hold a special camp weekend for all the families and friends of those who attended camp over the years.

Daphne is reconnecting with Huff, the love of her life. Huff is Lanier's brother, and the two friends are upset that Lanier is about to marry the wrong man. Hopefully, at the bachelorette camp, they will convince her otherwise.

No matter their problems, nothing is more critical to the songbirds than Camp Holly Springs!

Kristy Woodson Harvey dazzled us with her debut and every single book since. A huge fan, she again pens a beautiful, compelling, nostalgic, charming summer read of friendship, love, loss, romance, sisterhood, family, self-discovery, healing, and second chances.

THE SUMMER OF SONGBIRDS is essential for your summer reading. Rich in setting, place, and character with loads of charm, heart, and essential takeaways. If you ever attended summer camp (or your kids), you will adore revisiting those memorable lazy summer days when things were simpler —nature, first loves, friendships, and good times.

A summer delight and an ideal book club pick! For fans of Jennifer Weiner's Golden Hills.

As I mentioned years ago, the author is a mix of Emily Giffin and Dorothea Benton Frank and is well-deserving of the title with her signature voice as the top Southern author of today. Every book is 5 STARS! Do not miss this one.

Special thanks to the author and Gallery books for the beautiful print copy, and truly honored to be included with her long list of supporters and the beautiful swag - I love the KWH fanny pack put to good use. Also, thanks to NetGalley for the e-ARC.

Blog review posted @
JudithDCollins.com
@JudithDCollins | #JDCMustReadBooks
Pub Date: July 11, 2023
My Rating: 5 Stars +
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