I enjoyed the small island, closed mystery vibes. I loved the plot twist as I could not figure it out until the end when it was revealed.

💕I absolutely loved this book!💕 I recently finished reading Pineapple Street, which focused on the one percenters…well…Bad Summer People… focuses on all of their friends!

It is tradition for these affluent people to escape to Fire Island every summer. Ripe with infidelity, drama, backstabbing, cliques - popular kids versus those that are not.

I loved the tennis pro storyline. It had elements, that reminded me of dirty dancing - everyone swooning over the hot instructor.
Best friends spending the summer together - loving each other and hating each other - all the same

This book has the tennis elements of Carrie Soto and the wealthy of Pineapple Street all blended up with summer nostalgia - sunset drinks at the park and kids playing in on the beach watched over by nannies.

Oh and there is a dead body!

QOTD: Do you have summer traditions?

May 23
Bad Summer People
Emma Rosenblum
Macmillan Audio

The title really sums up this book. Bad Summer People is about a bunch of terrible people spending the summer together even though they hate each other. I wasn't quite sure what I expected when I started listening to this audiobook. I really like the narrator's voice. She was my favorite part. It was hard to get into this one because there was not a single likeable character for me to latch onto. I usually like multiple povs but there was just so many characters with so many secrets it was hard to keep track of. This one definitely wasn't the thriller I expected but if you enjoy a story about infidelity with complex characters and several scandals I'd recommend giving this one a try.

Thank you to netgalley and the publishers for this audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

I thought this was going to be more of a murder mystery but when I hit the 70% mark and there still wasn’t a body, I thought maybe I read the description wrong. This was an interesting story about the rich behaving badly and how it affects the various friendships in their lives. It was a quick, easy read but didn’t give us anything new and different. None of the characters were particularly likeable, which I think was the point, so you don’t feel bad when things don’t go as they planned. The narration was excellent as is the par for January LaVoy.

Bad Summer People is the perfect title because they characters are in fact, bad summer people. Well some are just bad people. I should have thought harder before I hit request, because I do not typically care for stories about rich people acting like asses. The story is set in a summer vacation home town and the same families have been coming for years. I didn't really find many of the characters likable (maybe the point). Definitely recommend this if you like stories of rich people, dead body found, summer homes, beach atmosphere, etc. I would recommend the audiobook for those that like to listen.

This book is for you If you like Succession, the Kardashians, Selling Sunset, or Soap Operas with rich people.

This book is AMAZING!

In Bad Summer People, Rosenblum tells the story of 4 absurdly rich couples who spend summers in Fire Island. Except all these people secretly hate each other. They are so petty and they resent each other for things that happened years and years before.

The writing is soo enticing I couldn’t stop reading. I just had to know who was gossiping about whom and who had seen what happened. I love that each chapter gives the perspective of a new character.

There are soo many twists and turns up until the last sentence!!!

I honestly could read a bad summer people 2 with the story of the kids of these people.

My tip for audiobook readers is keep a pen and paper at hand just to keep track of all the character names in the beginning.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early digital copy in exchange for my honest review.

This book was definitely not what I was expecting. Rather than being a mystery/thriller or novel about summertime shenanigans, it is more of a soap opera. The f bombs and other expletives were a bit hard on the ears right from the start. Too many characters to follow from the start despite being described quite well. A lot of yuppies with attitudes being obnoxious and unfaithful over a summer with more detail than is expected from the description. Not really my usual genre of reading. Narrator does a good job. I was provided an advanced reader copy and was under no obligation to provide a review. The opinions expressed are my own.

3/5 stars

Thank you Macmillan Audio for the advanced listening copy!

Jen, Lauren and their husbands have been summering on Fire Island in Salcombe -- "b" NOT pronounced -- for years. The husbands, Sam and Jason, have been coming here since childhood, and Jen and Lauren have quickly taken to being the queens of their small, summer town. Every summer churns up a new batch of drama and deceit, and this year is no different. With hot new tennis pro, Robert, and single-girl Rachel Woolfe on the island to stir up trouble, this year is proving to be a bit more complicated than ever before.

First things first, this should NOT be labeled a mystery or a thriller. This is much more domestic suspense and you should go into it knowing that. That being said, I enjoyed this one! I love January LaVoy and felt she did a great job capturing the essence of each of these characters. Each character had complicated relationships with the others and their inter-woven dynamics were fun to read about! I love a gossipy, drama-filled story, and that was definitely this. I was never quite sure where things were going to end up, especially with the promise of murderous intrigue. The end dragged on and on for me -- this probably could have stopped a good 30 pages earlier -- but, beyond that, no major issues in this one. It was a fun listen and I'd recommend it if you're here for some very big drama.

WOAH the affairs. this was a crazy twist of a book. there were a bunch of characters, at one point i did get confused on who was who. but this was all around a good read. i enjoyed it. thank you to netgalley for allowing me to read early !

Fun, albeit disturbing, beach read with truly despicable characters 3.25. If you like slightly disturbing books, that are jot high intensity, this one strikes a nice balance

Bad Summer People is listed as a mystery/thriller but it is more a chick lit, domestic mystery, than a full blown thriller. If you are looking for a book where infidelity's run wild and a death happens at the very beginning but then you almost forget about it until the very end, you've found the book.

The first 3/4 was awesome! I really enjoyed it. But once you found out what happened, it fell a bit flat in terms of plot. However, the narrator on the audiobook did very well and I was impressed that she was able to voice so many character's dialogue.

If you're looking for a book full of very unlikable characters doing bad things on an island of privilege, look no further! This reminded me of Gossip Girl for adults, minus the digital blackmail, plus in person blackmail. It was a wild ride.

I received an advance audio copy. All thoughts are my own.

The upscale community of Salcombe on Fire Island is full of the typical wealthy elite in the summer. They play tennis, gossip, brag about their jobs, and plot murder. Oh wait, did that last one take you by surprise? Well, maybe they don't plan murder every year, but this year, someone turns up dead and it doesn't look like an accident. Who had motive? Was it one of the (many) cheating spouses? The jealous ex-lover? The thief? The cuckold? Or was it really just a terrible bicycle accident?

Bad Summer People was not quite what I expected. The genre is more suspense than thriller or mystery, as the murder doesn't happen until late in the story and it doesn't honestly even play much of a role in the overall plot. I lost track of the number of POVs in this book — 15? 20? It was hard to remember who was who and what they did without writing things down, so I think a lot of potential impact was lost through this parade of characters.

Many of the observations are hilarious and most of the things these people do are absolutely inane, so I did enjoy the ride. However, I was disappointed in the "reveal" of the murderer and truthfully in the story itself. The suspense was minimal and it was more an exploration of the terrible things people are capable of, so I think the synopsis is misleading. But if I had gone in knowing that, I might have enjoyed it more.

Thank you to Emma Rosenblum, Flatiron Books, Macmillan Audio, and NetGalley for my advance audio copy.

I love a summer murder novel about the 1% with alternating perspectives!! Such a fun listen, I really enjoyed it. My only critique is that a lot of the dialogue seemed very fake/forced, but fortunately there wasn't too much of it. I think this book deserves a lot of buzz!

Bad People Summer is not so much a thriller but more like a domestic suspense with a lot of messy drama. I really wanted to like this book but there were so many characters that it was hard to keep up.
This story takes place in Solcumb, a town in Fire Island, where the characters have been visiting every summer since they were kids, and now in their 40’s they are bringing their own families. Tennis is story line bc one of the main characters is a tennis instructor who loves to brag about who he’s trained and also like to bill for lessons he didn’t give. Solcumb is a very wealthy town similar to the Hamptons. It open with a dead body being found, then comes more drama, scandal, secrets, and a whole lot of he said/she said. It’s told from many different POV’s so you can get everyone’s side of the story.
This book was narrated by January LaVoy who I think did a phenomenal job. As much as I wanted to like this book it wasn’t one of my favorites only bc it felt like there was too much going and too many characters.
I wanted to give a special thanks to Net Galley for letting me read this ARC in exchange for my honest review. I hope I get to do more in the future.
#NetGalley #BadPeopleSummer #EmmaRosenblum

Fire Island, summer, affluent people, beautiful people, affairs, betrayal, lies, and a dead body all make up the perfect suspenseful beach read.

Thank you Netgalley and the publishers for the audio ARC for an honest review.

I really wanted to love this one. I loved the combination of Elin Hilderbrand vibes and Lucy Foley. A little romance, a little murder, and lots of rich people. I would say I enjoyed the first half of this audiobook a lot. However, it lost me in the second half. I can handle messy and complex plots, but this felt drawn out and overly complicated. What resulted was unclear motivations and honestly, I liked none of the characters. I wasn't rooting for anyone to be happy in the end.

This may be right up someone else's alley, but it was just an ok read for me. I will happily read more by Emma Rosenblum. I think her writing style has a lot of potential. I just needed a tighter plot.

A huge thank you to MacMillan Audio for granting me access to the audiobook!

To start with, the narrator was absolutely fantastic, I really enjoyed it.
This will be an enjoyable summer family drama full of rich families, affairs, and lots of tennis. I listened to this in one sitting. It’s a super fast read and keeps you on your toes. Don’t be expecting any twists or turns. If you liked the book Big Little Liars, then you will love this one!

Scandal. Affairs. Frenemies. And tennis. As Summer approaches, the four couples descend to Fire Island to escape the misery that they live the other 9 months out of the year in New York City. With all the gossip and secrets flying around this island, we get the point-of-view of all characters. With all the many stories and characters to follow, this got really tiring for me and I lost interest halfway through.

There was a lot to keep track of. Regrettably, I did not take "good" notes while listening because, by the time I realized I needed to take notes, I was also 40% in.

There are side stories and conflicts within the friend group to distract you from what's going on but, I felt that those side stories made it harder to follow. Toward the end, I felt like I needed a dry-erase board of all the characters and a red string connecting them and their affairs.

A few things were mentioned to further the drama of the story but didn't really push the plot forward, so very "meh".

Final thoughts: Cool, I guess. I could see where some would peg this as a Pretty Little Liars or Big Little Lies vibe, I can see it. To ME it just didn't come off as "good" -- very lukewarm.