A harrowing and important story about trafficking. The narrator did an excellent job bringing the emotion to the story.

Many thanks to NetGalley, St Martin's Press and Macmillan Audio for gifting me both a digital and audio ARC of this debut book by Katie Bishop and wonderfully narrated by Annabel Scholey - 4 stars!

Rachel is 17 years old and on holiday on an island in Greece. There she meets Alistair, an older man with whom she quickly becomes obsessed. She abandons her plans to return home to university and stays working at the bar with a group of friends, who spend their days and nights drinking and going to parties. In present day, Rachel is married to Tom and they take a holiday on the same island, where a chance meeting with one of the girls from her past reignites her obsession with Alistair and makes her rethink her past recollections of that time.

This was a wonderful debut that explored really tough topics. I liked the "then" and "now" versions of the story so that we can see what happened and how it affected Rachel in her present life. This should definitely be a cautionary tale to young women, who can be so vulnerable and find it hard to say no. Rachel was not a real likable character - her behavior when she was young is understandable, but her experience seemed to keep her in that perpetual state of bad decisions. Anxious to read more from this author!

Thank you so much to Netgalley and the publisher for this ALC. Unfortunately it was a miss for me. I didn’t like the characters. The story was a little cringy. Narrator was good. Overall just ok for me.

I tried to listen to this and just struggled until I finally gave up at about 55 percent.

The story just wasn’t holding my interest and because of that I’d find myself missing large chunks of the story while I’d drift off thinking or reading something else before I’d realize I was still listening.

The story is told in two different timelines through Rachel's POV. The past where she is 17/18 and is feeling what independence feels like for the first time being away from home, school and everything else. She meets an older man who she falls in love with and she thinks hung the moon. The current timeline she is in her early 30s, married, but wishing she could go back to that one summer. The summer where she thought life was basically perfect. But sometimes we see the past better than it was.

This book was a debut....what?? I'll be honest, the first little bit of the book I was struggling with it. I wanted to shake the girls, especially Rachel, then I had to remind myself that they are young. At 18 years old you think you have everything figured out and when a cute boy comes along you become blind to everything else. It honestly made me think about a few things I did at 18 that I wish I never did. And I thought about one summer I think of more than I should, and questioned myself if it was really as prefect as I thought it was? Thankfully, it was nowhere like the summer they had. Once I got hooked in the book, I was hooked. I needed to know how the story ended. I don't want to give anything away but it made me think of a famous case that happened not too long ago here in the states. If you read the book you'll know who/what I'm talking about.

I listened to the book as I read. The narrator did a fantastic job!

All in all I thought this was a great debut. I am looking forward to what the author comes up with next. Thank you to NetGalley, Macmillian Audio and St. Martin's Press for the copies of this book in exchange for my review!

Overall, I enjoyed this dual timeline debut thriller set in Greece. Though, the present day storyline was pretty frustrating at times. I'm not sure that the main character fully comes around by the end of the story, in my opinion.

I really enjoyed the quality of the writing though.

3.5 stars.

1.5 stars, rounded up.

I really struggled with the main character, Rachel. At first, I was willing to forgive Rachel’s naïveté and stupidity because she is young, but when we get to present-time Rachel, she hasn’t changed. At 32 years old, Rachel is bratty and an all-around terrible person.

I found it extremely difficult to believe that Rachel could still be so obsessed with Alistair after 15 years. I can see the occasional thought popping up about him after so much time has passed, but the obsession that consumes her makes it impossible for me to believe that she could have fallen in love with Tom in the first place. Even if she truly did fall for Tom, she was very obviously in denial about their relationship during its entirety.

It’s very hard to root for such a self-absorbed main character who is so deceitful towards a man she clearly doesn’t deserve. I just felt that she should have known better by this age. Sure, if it had been a few years after Alistair, I would get it. The critical thinking that should have evolved with age doesn’t appear to exist in this timeline.

This book gave me “My Dark Vanessa” deja vu, where the main character concocts tainted rose-colored versions of their grooming by older men, while refusing to believe other victims that confront them. I don’t doubt this is something that truly happens.

I understand the author’s intentions behind writing this book - I just don’t think it was as well-executed as it could have been. There wasn’t really a conclusion to various plot points that are included, which bothered me. For example, it’s never explicitly explained why Rachel doesn’t appear to want children with Tom after agreeing to have them. I can only assume why Rachel decides she doesn’t want them based on the context of the story. It would have been nice to see if I had been right.

The growth that Rachel sees at the end of the book is so quickly tossed in there that I’m not sure if there was truly any growth at all. I felt it should have been more gradual, especially since Rachel doesn’t really change during the whole book.

I also felt that the setting of Greece doesn’t play much of a part in the story, as it could have been any beachtown. There wasn’t really anything distinguishing about the setting besides providing a more interesting locale.

I think the book showed a lot of promise, especially since I found the beginning so gripping. I grew more and more annoyed at Rachel’s character, and then there was nothing redeeming about her as we got further along into the book. I think the writing is good, and I wish that I had enjoyed the story more. With this being a debut novel, I won’t completely write off this author.

I’ll be honest and say that the beautiful cover of this book drew me in, and I requested it without reading the synopsis. This book was not at all what I was expecting, but I thought it was written very well and touched on tough topics in a sensitive way.

I don’t want to say much about this book because I really do think it’s best going in blind. It is categorized as a thriller, but I’m not sure that’s the best genre to describe this book. It’s more contemporary fiction with a coming-of-age story. There is a bit of a mystery aspect to it, but I don’t think that’s the main focus.

I love dual timelines and books set in Greece (probably because that’s my dream vacation destination) so I was pleasantly surprised that’s where the past sections of the book were set. The present is set in London 15 years later. I preferred the past sections, although at times they were hard to read. Although this book won’t be for everyone, I enjoyed Bishop’s writing style and was impressed that this was a debut.

I listened along to the audiobook while I read the eARC, and enjoyed Annabel Scholey as the narrator. She did a great job of incorporating emotions into her narration which was definitely needed in this story.

Thank you St. Martin’s Press, Macmillan Audio, and NetGalley for advanced copies in exchange for my honest review.

Rachel is a teen on a summer backpacking holiday with her friend in the Greek islands. They arrive at a remote island and are encouraged by other teens to stay and work at the island bar. There, Rachel meets an older man who sweeps her off her feet. The story alternates between then and the present, a couple decades later when she returns to the island and begins to search for her first love. She still holds on to memories of that romance and hopes to rekindle it, even though she's been married for years.

While I can understand the naivete of that young woman, I find it a little hard to believe that she could still be so clueless about what really was happening on that island. For that reason, I kept shaking my head while listening to the book. I wasn't really prepared for that lack of maturity. The setting in the Greek islands was nicely described, however.

Thank you NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for sending this audiobook for review consideration. All opinions are my own.

Rachel never really left the island of Santorini where she worked for a summer and fell in love w/ Alistair. Even though she was only 17 at the time and he was at least 15 years older, she never quite got over the entire thing. As you read this book, it alternates between Rachel on the island then, working with other girls at the bar owned by Henry Taylor, a British businessman and Rachel in the present. You begin to see that Rachel was quite thoroughly manipulated when she was 17 and the bar and island take on an insidious air. Henry Taylor and Alistair were not good guys and once Rachel is in contact with some of the other girls on the island, she begins to see the horrible truth of their time there and that the past isn't quite as idyllic as she remembers.

*Special thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for this audio e-arc.*

Well written and thought provoking, this story is a great combination of some of the stories that have made headlines since the #metoo movement gained momentum. The way the author explains the mindset of a trafficking victim is raw and makes the reader feel that anguish and confusion that comes with the uneven distribution of power and manipulation. Definitely recommend.

This was a slow and atmospheric read. I wouldn't call this one a thriller but more of a suspense with some mystery elements. I felt like the dual timeline worked well for this book but found myself gravitating to the POV in the past because I wanted to find out what happened that had impacted the characters so much. You do have to read between the lines for a while before you finally start to grasp what is really happening but you have this building sense of wrongness as you read and the betrayal when what really conspired is revealed! Ouf! This book tackles some tough subjects and I appreciate what the author tried to accomplish with this book.

Content warnings: adult/minor relationship, rape, suicide, abortion, sexual content.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press and Netgalley for the ARC for review. All opinions are my own.

This was fantastic. Almost read like a thriller, where the suspense and tension was building. However, as a woman, I found this so relatable that it almost hurt. Most adult women will likely relate. I know I look back at things that went on when I was young, and while at the time it was cool, fun etc....I now realize that there were men in my life who were predatory. The narration was phenomenal, and the story was solid. Very well done, would recommend to friends!

The Girls of Summer by Katie Bishop is a compelling debut with an especially gorgeous and enticing cover. This book explores our protagonist Rachel’s experience living in Greece as a young woman and the relationships that she had there. Using duel timelines, the present day in the US where Rachel is married to a good man, and the past in Greece where Rachel is falling in love with Alistair. I won’t go into more detail to avoid spoilers but overall this is a very timely book that explores consent, power, and lust.

I zoomed through this one, it was highly readable and I wanted to learn more about what was happening. I felt disappointed by the ending, it fell a little flat for me and I hoped for more exploration of the central topic but overall this was enjoyable and the perfect read this summer.

Annabel Scholey was an incredible narrator that added dimension to an already dimensional story!

Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for the ARC - Girls of Summer will be out 6/6/23!

What I liked 🖤:
•Dual timeline
•Rachel’s growth through the book
•The story itself is very interesting and I couldn’t pinpoint how it was going to end.
•The setting. I have always wanted to go to Greece. You can see also the freedom Rachel finds there and why she’d make some of the choices she does.

What I didn’t like 😕:
•The pacing of the story. The story itself is interesting but it is super slow paced. I think without audio to pair with my physical copy it would have taken me a long time to get through.
•At times I was so frustrated by Rachel but I also know she was processing things in her own way because of the past.

The Girls of Summer is a hard one for me to review. I went in thinking it would be more mystery but it more about trauma and our main character, Rachel, coming to terms with her past. While I think the story is told well and is an important theme, I also found it really slow. Because of that, it made the book just alright for me. 😕

Thank you @stmartinspress and @macmillan.audio for my advanced copies.

The Girls Of Summer comes out June 6th, 2023.

Yes, this is a slow burn at first, but wow.

I’ve read a lot of people comparing it to My Dark Vanessa, which I personally wasn’t the biggest fan of, but I absolutely loved this one. I thought it a better version of MDV. The multiple timelines were easy to follow and I found the “then” portions way more fast paced. However, I will say it took a little to remember all the character names and at times I did question who the narrator was speaking about. She made the story so intense at times. I loved her.

There are some trigger warnings, IE rape, grooming, suicide.

All in all, better than I expected, given the reviews. Huge shoutout to Macmillan audio and NetGalley for the ARC!

Thank you to NetGalley and Katie Bishop for an ARC in exchange for my honest feedback and review.

Rachel and her friend Caroline are able to go to Greece without parents their senior year of high school. The pair end up on a party island where drinking and partying are the norm. Rachel falls for a man named Alistair even though he is 20 years older than her. 16 years later Rachel still dreams of her first love despite being married to Tom. We travel with Rachel back and forth in time as she remembers the summer she found herself in love for the first time.

I DNF'd around 50%. I tried this as an audiobook as well thinking it would grab my interest a little more as I am an audio-visual person. Unfortunately it did not. Just to give as a trigger warning there is rape. Which I do not like in books as a means of character progression. I felt it was unnecessary. I gave up then and there. If you don't mind triggers feel free to check this book out. It just was not for me personally.

The Girls of Summer is not a light read, but I did really enjoy it. The dual timeline kept the pace moving for me, and I found that I appreciated both the past and present narration equally. My heart broke for Rachel and the other girls in the story, and I really appreciated the growth I saw in Rachel by the end of the book. The ending was very satisfying to me, though it was hard to get there due to the heavy subject matter of the story.

I know what The Girls of Summer was trying to be. I don’t think it worked for me. So many things were overly written and they added nothing to the plot. The younger version of Rachel was just naive while the older version was just unlikable. Literally in the first present day chapter she complains about her husband being too compliant and making her go somewhere she doesn’t want to go. Then she leaves him to find a gross old guy who was never in any way someone anyone should be looking for. These books written as if love, romance, and even lust, have to be these all consuming things that make you act stupid are really kind of part of the problem this book tries to address.

The Girls of Summer is a coming-of-age story that bounces from current-day to teenage years of the main character Rachel. Set amidst an Epstein-esque Greek resort town and bar, Rachel struggles to find her way, falling in amidst crowds of girls in very #metoo moments. Full of heartbreak, cringeworthy behavior from much older men in power, and the quest for love and validation, we follow Rachel as she begins to discover who she really is. I highly recommend this title!