My Thoughts: Thank you to @letstalkbookspromo, Netgalley & @rektokross for a copy of Summer Rental in exchange for an honest review. If you’re looking for Slasher Vibes mixed with all the drama- look no further then Summer Rental! The author had me constantly questioning everyone’s motives and I was truly shocked when we met our serial killer. The author also brought bullying & toxic female friendships to light- something that so many people deal with. This is truly a fantastic summer thriller that you need on your bookshelf. Can I also ask for a sequel?! This one is out now so be sure to pick it up asap!!

Thank you so much Rektok Ross & @netgalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review 🖤

I was instantly intrigued when I saw that this book was Scream meets Mean Girls. Unfortunately it didn’t live up to either of those descriptions for me. It’s not Scream if you’re almost 70% done with the book & no one has officially croaked yet. I felt like I was skimming to get to some action. There was this horrible hurricane that was supposed to be happening but the worst thing that happened was the power went out. I was just hoping for more.

I also would give it more of a I Know What You Did Last Summer vibes if anything. It didn’t resemble Scream for me at all.

Super bummed because I feel like everything meaningful was smashed into the last 20% of the book. ☹️ This YA Thriller just wasn’t for me.

Summer Rental is the story of a group of friends partying for a week over July 4th, one year after the death of their friend. But things aren’t what they seem in this group. I thought this was a quick, beach read with a thriller twist. It didn’t really pick up and get exciting until about 3/4th of the way through though. I read almost exclusively thriller and mystery books so while this one was good, it wasn’t my favorite. The characters weren’t all that likable and the plot was a bit lackluster. Big thanks to IC13 books for the ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

This was a good book to read especially for summer. The writing was perfect. Thank you Net Galley for an advanced copy.

This was so fun, it definitely lived up to the Scream / Mean Girls comparison. A perfect summery/beach read and just what I was looking for when I picked it up.

Is it bad I want more Riri and Sebastian! This book will keep you guessing until the last chapter. I swore I had this mystery all figured out, I was so wrong. This book centers around five high school girls going on the Fourth of July vacation together, they get a perfect deal on their summer rental but little do they know something more sinister awaits them. I personally loved the book, the drama, the catty girls brought me right back to high school.

This book’s description of Mean Girls meets Scream in the middle of a hurricane had all the potential psychological thriller feels. As an added bonus there was a little I Know What You Did Last Summer feel as well. However, I was slightly underwhelmed by a few minor plot elements.

The dynamic of the pretty girl click was lackluster. Were they mean? Sure, but not in the typical “you can’t sit with us” way. Instead it was “we’re uber rich and stick to our own crowd”. No one was particularly cutthroat, but more not nice. The Scream vibe was also a miss in building enough suspense. Someone would end up missing and most of the group remained completely unconcerned. Even continuing to party and drink not wondering how the other person(s) in the group were going to make it back to the house without a car, money, or phone. If the group didn’t care about a missing character I as the reader was unconcerned as well…until all of a sudden they were found in a horribly gory murder scene.

Riley March attends the right prep school and has the right connections and friends, but she has a secret. She’s a scholarship student “faking it until she makes it”. The other girls in the group also have a secret, what really led Jordyn Chang to commit suicide last summer. Getting away from it all the close group of girls and guys escape to Palm Key Island where the girls rent a house with a history of murder. Several events including a hurricane occur and one by one their numbers dwindle. Is the killer in the house? Did they lure the group into a trap? Or is it related to their shared secrets and past?

This novel was an incredibly quick read. The YA thriller vibes may have been hit and miss, but I did find the story hard to put down. The twist in the end was equal parts surprising and over the top.

Title: Summer Rental
Author: Rektok Ross
Publisher: Ic13 Books
Publication Date: June 9, 2023
My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Many thanks to #netgalley and #ic13books for the opportunity to review this ARC!

Mean Girls and Pretty Little Liars meets Scream and I Know What You Did Last Summer! Riley March and her besties are headed to Palm Key Island for a 4th of July blow out party to say goodbye to high school and hello to college. There will be cool beaches, hot club nights and plenty of drinks to go around. However, every single person on this trip is hiding a secret. And someone is hiding what happened to Jordyn Chang, a classmate who died the previous summer. In the midst of a hurricane, one friend goes missing and a killer stalks them one by one. Who will survive the night?

Summer Rental is one of those books you just have to call in and cancel all your plans for, because you will not be able to put this YA thriller down! I love how the character development did not take away from the fast-paced progression of the story. Everything comes together seamlessly and with plenty of spooky and chilling moments that will have you looking over your shoulder. There were key moments that provided creepy thrills and kept me up turning pages late into the night. This was my first Rektok Ross thriller, but definitely will not be my last! Five stars all the way!

#booktok #thrillertok #psychologicalthriller #bookrecs #bookreviewer #fyp #fypシ #thebookishbitch #summerreading #RektokRoss #SummerRental #NetGalley #yathriller

I absolutely loved this book. It was exactly as described being a mix of Scream and Mean Girls. The nods to horror slashers were there as was the environment which I loved so much. I posted my full review on GoodReads below with the link. Apologies on being late on here. I could not find the area on Net Galley to be able to submit this info. Thank you so much for the opportunity to read and review this.

Thank you NetGalley and IC13 for the eARC in exchange for my honest review.

If you loved I Know What You Did Last Summer and Scream, you’re going to LOVE this book!
Rektok Ross kept me engaged with all the crazy twists, the side mystery of the 10-squad’s Jordyn Chang, and a killer out to seek revenge. The whole book is told from Riley March’s POV, which I really enjoyed. Riley is down-to-earth and trying to navigate life within her rich circle of friends from high school. Rektok Ross touches on bullying within the characters of this story and how the effects of bullying can take a turn for the worse.
I really loved all the aspects of this book. Great character development, the setting, and the major twist at the end was amazing!
Start your summer off right with reading this thriller that you won’t want to put down!

Five best friends rent a house on the water for the 4th of July weekend after their High School graduation. The listing was too good to be true! The entire island seems to know that something happened in this house, but all they will say is that it is just an urban legend. Riley is the main character, and the story is written from her point of view. Her friends are all very wealthy and she is the only one who couldn’t afford the resort the rest of the girls wanted to stay at, which is how they ended up in the rental house.

After a fun night out of dancing and drinking with the four guys from their high school who were also staying on the island, two of their friends don’t come home. Everyone starts to worry when they aren’t responding to calls or texts and Liv’s phone is found back at the house on the charger with Liv nowhere in sight. Liv is an influencer and all about social media so it is concerning that she would leave it behind, so the girls go to the police to make a report. When there isn’t any urgency since it hasn’t been that long and Liv is an adult, the police suggest they give it some time and the girls agree to head back home. Once Tyler reaches out to one of the boys to say that he and Liv are together and will come back once things cool down.

The warnings keep coming about the impending storm set to hit the island, businesses and homes start to board up and people begin to evacuate the island, but the friends refuse to leave until Liv and Tyler are back and they can all leave together. When the police officer that caught Riley’s eye the night before pays a visit to the house to encourage them all to leave the island, the group realizes just how serious it is and begin preparing for the storm and its aftermath. As the storm begins to wreak havoc on the island that is when reality sets in and the nightmare begins.

If you are looking for a book that will keep you on the edge of your seat and unable to put it down, then this is the book for you. This was one of the best books I have read in a long time! The characters are relatable, the writing is so detailed you can see what is happening and the anticipation you feel for what is coming next makes this a must read!

Thank you for the ARC of this book.

It sure lived up to the Mean Girls meets Scream description.

As a YA librarian, I am always on the hunt for the page turners and this was definitely a page turner. I kept holding my breath and talking to the book when I thought I had it figured out. The book is fast paced and keeps you guessing as to what is happening to everyone. It also reminded me of I know what you did last summer. Definite Lois Duncan vibes. LOVE.

This is a great YA thriller and I will for sure buy it for our library.

So I completely agree with the comparison of mean girls and scream. I could see both with the twist as well as the fickle friendships between the girls.

I loved the last weekend for friends before they all go off to college it’s always a fun trope like campy with friends and a little murder sprinkled in. Btw the murder I didn’t guess it at all which is not a typical thing for me so I loved that

I will completely recommend this to any and everyone

A summer vacation in a lovely rental turns deadly. All because mean girls go too far. There’s a lesson to be learned in
this horror / slasher.

Very good, I recommend. I will be looking into her other books. This has made me a fan.

This book was given to me to read in exchange for my truthful thoughts and unbiased opinion. Thank you NetGalley.

Bestselling author Rektok Ross returns with this heart-pounding psychological thriller that combines Mean Girls with Scream about a group of friends stranded on an island with a serial killer on the loose.

Summer Rental is such a great mystery. I had no idea who the suspect was until the very end. I was completely blind sided and I loved it. If you love a good mystery that you can't solve please read this book.

Thank you to @netgalley and @rektokross for letting me read this book.

Riley is headed to a beach party weekend with her friends, who is struggles to fit in with. The weekend takes a turn as a hurricane hits and a body shows up.

This is a great summer beach read! It is fast paced, exciting, and a very quick read. There’s some major drama with some majorly dramatic characters; many of them quite unlikeable. It unravels fast. You don’t have to wait long for the action to begin.

Summer Rental is a fast-paced slasher thriller that's hard to put down. Described as 'Mean Girls meets Scream', this book has you jumpy from 1/2 of the way through, and the description is 100% accurate. We follow a group of teens off to celebrate July 4th at a summer rental house at Palm Key Island. Riley (Rhi Rhi) is our protagonist and is unnerved from arriving at the house for various reasons. Each character is keeping secrets,some way bigger than others. A hurricane is headed their way, and with two of their friends missing, the group don't want to leave until they return. They hole up in the house to wait out the storm, and soon, a body turns up. Tensions rise within the group, and nobody knows who they can really trust. I loved the vibes of this book - nostalgic Screem vibes, and Rektok Ross did a fantastic job at making this book visually come to life, and I could see it playing out like a film! If you love Scream and Mean Girls you really don't want to miss this book!

I absolutely loved this book. When I started it, I wasn't so sure how I was going to feel about it. It was giving me similar vibes to Five Survive by Holly Jackson, which I wasn't a big fan of because I just didn't care for any of the characters. It didn't take long for me to be hooked, though, and I ended up reading this in two sittings. This book definitely did what it set out to do. It is marketed as Mean Girls meets Scream, and I don't think there is a better description for it. This is the perfect angsty slasher book, and I would highly recommend it if you're looking for a really fun, fast-paced horror slasher book. This is definitely for fans of Scream and other classic slashers.

So, if you are looking for a gory, spooky and bloody mystery, then this is the book for you. When this group of friends rents a summer rental to spend the Fourth of July weekend and honor, a friend who died the year before they come in they had no idea that the house they were renting, was a haunted, or that some thing was terrible was waiting for them. This book is certainly not for the faint of heart, because it is gory and scary.

Summer Rental by Rektok Ross is a summery YA thriller. If you’re a fan of locked room style mysteries (especially if the characters are locked in a house together during a hurricane) then this would be a good book to choose! Overall, I liked this book and read it in nearly one sitting. It definitely has those mean girl vibes, and the killer was unexpected. However, it didn’t have much buildup in terms of the suspense for a murder mystery; everything happened so fast. One minute everyone’s drunk and the next minute they find a dead body. THEN they end up at the hands of the killer right after. It felt like there were missing pages. When I read a thriller book – doesn’t matter if it’s YA or not – I want to feel some sort of tension and I just didn’t feel it while reading this one. The only tension was between the characters because they were clearly all backstabbing each other. No matter, it’s a good book but was definitely missing something for me. I do plan to read the author’s previous novel though and look forward to seeing how she deals with a snow themed mystery.

𝗣𝗘𝗥𝗙𝗘𝗖𝗧 𝗙𝗢𝗥 𝗙𝗔𝗡𝗦 𝗢𝗙
❥ YA Thrillers
❥ Locked Room type thrillers/mystery
❥ Summer/Vacation reads

𝗠𝗬 𝗥𝗔𝗧𝗜𝗡𝗚: ⭐⭐⭐

Riley and her friends are going on a beach trip for July 4th. They need to escape from their lives as college looms and the anniversary of a friend’s death is coming up. Unfortunately, their fun is interrupted by a hurricane. When it’s time to evacuate though, some of their friends aren’t answering their phones, and they can’t leave without them. Forced to ride out the storm, they try to make the most of their situation with partying, haunted house stories, and an Ouija board. Then more of their friends go missing, and they start to wonder if the those stories may be real after all. This was a YA mystery/ thriller reminiscent of Christopher Pike and R.L. Stine books. Readers will not be able to put this book down until the last page, and while some questions are left unanswered, the ending is mostly satisfying.