I really enjoyed this book! I loved the way it was written and really kept your interest throughout. I would recommend it to put on must read list.

This is a well written story, I quite enjoyed the setting and the atmosphere, the island being isolated and the locals being insulated from the outside world gave it a real creepy feel. Hadley Island is an isolated island, only accessible by ferry, there are some locals that live year round, though there are many visitors that arrive for the summer and stay in houses that, in one case, is a mansion. Orla used to live on the island, she moved to New York for art school and briefly became somewhat popular, before fading away. She decides to return to the house owned by her parents and where she lived when younger to clean it out and prepare it for sale. Faith is also from New York, her and her boyfriend, David, who she soon hopes to be engaged to, have come to spend the summer at the house his father owns, a mansion really. At first Faith is excited, a huge house, everything she could want, except that David is busy with his father, working all the time, with no time to take her anywhere. An incident had happened a number of years in the past, a young woman had drowned in the sound, the blame for the incident fell on an oddball man who liked to watch others through his telescope. David's father decides to hold a fouth of July party at his house, something that hasn't been done since the girl had drowned. Things from the past start to come forward, and that's where the book really comes together. Overall I enjoyed and would recommend. Thanks to #Netgalley and #Atria Books for the ARC.

a very fun, fast thriller with mega billionaires, creepy ex boyfriends and a wonderful, quirky cast of characters! The first 15% was slowwwww but after the 40% mark I feel like I couldn't put it down. A bit predictable but enjoyable in every way, Dead of Summer will be a wonderful July read.

Note: I wish the ending was less rushed and the "aha!" moment was a bit more pronounced - it felt rushed and less exciting once the pieces fell into place. Otherwise, great mystery!

Dead of Summer by Jessa Maxwell was an intricately woven psychological thriller. I appreciated how well she portrayed the characters in this book. As time went by and truths behind the cover-ups became more and more apparent, the author showed how all this affected each person in the community. I was captivated by the story.

Unfortunately this thriller missed the mark for me and I’m sad that it wasn’t as good for me as the golden spoon by the same author. But I would definitely pick up her books in the future!

A quick read but not very interesting. Not much really happens. And the ending was felt quite rushed. Thanks to NetGalley and Atria Books for the ARC.

Dead of Summer is a quick and easy to follow read set on a remote New England island during the summer. It is atmospheric and mysterious with a “money is power” dynamic. It is a slow paced, popcorn thriller that keeps you engaged with 3 different POVs that flow well together. Although it has some predictability, it still keeps you wanting to know what will happen next. This will be the perfect summer/beach read!

Thank you Jessa Maxwell, Atria Books, & NetGalley for the advance review copy. All opinions are my own.

Dead of Summer is a story of how wealth and power can hide devastating secrets. Hadley Island has long been a popular tourist destination. It is also where the wealthy spend their summers. When Orla O'Connor goes back to her childhood home on the island she is faced with memories of her best friend Alice who disappeared years before without a trace. She also has to deal with seeing her old crush David, whose famously rich family has a summer home on Hadley Island. Her arrival coincides with the disappearance of another young woman. Did this woman suffer the same fate as Alice? The police once again suspect Henry, a lonely older man who hasn't left his house since he was accused of killing Alice. The book features three POVs and each chapter slowly reveals the truth about Orla, David and Henry and what really happened to Alice. The story moves along at a decent pace but the ending seems kind of rushed. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

This one felt like a cozy-meets-creepy murder mystery. Set at a cooking show competition, it had all the right ingredients: drama, secrets, and a killer on the loose. I enjoyed the behind-the-scenes food show vibe and the tension between contestants. The reveal was a little rushed, but it was still a satisfying whodunit.

This book was pretty slow. It seemed to drag on until it seemed to end abruptly. It almost felt like the author knew how they wanted it to end but didn’t know how to get there.

For me the story was pretty slow and then had a rushed ending. At some points the mid chapter time jumps would throw me off and I’d get confused. The reveals were predictable and I had wanted the Karma to play out longer. The resolution wasn’t very satisfying because it was so quick and then the book ends.

Dead of Summer is a multi-perspective summer thriller set on a remote New England island. There's billionaires, power plays, dark secrets and cover-ups, and a cast of interconnected characters.

Orla, who hasn't been back since her best friend disappeared as a teenager, returns to sell her family's beachfront property only to collide with her high school crush. Faith arrives with her wealthy boyfriend, David, to stay in the sprawling Hadley estate for the summer, thinking that he's soon to propose. Meanwhile, Henry, a local, hasn't left his home since Alice disappeared years ago in the hopes that the accusations swirling about him will die down. When another young girl goes missing, the three of them are yanked into the eye of yet another dark and stormy mystery.

The novel's major strength was its atmospheric setting. Maxwell did a good job of giving the island a close-knit yet cloistered feel, with gossipy whispers and suspicions about the past crashing like waves that built with intensity the further the plot progressed. The multiple narrative perspectives made for a propulsive pace, but I think it detracted from the characters making more of an emotional impact. I almost felt as if I wanted more time and depth from each of them. That said, it was still an enjoyable read. Perfect for a beachside escape.

Special thanks to NetGalley and Atria Books for the ARC in exchange for my review!

Dead of Summer by Jessa Maxwell is a stylish mystery thriller about the wealthy and the power of money to hide deep dark secrets.

Faith is spending the summer with her billionaire boyfriend David Clarke on his family's estate on a remote New England island. She suspects he is going to propose to her, but things take an unsettling turn when David seems preoccupied with his father's demands, distancing himself from Faith on what was supposed to be a romantic getaway. Orla O'Connor returns to the island to sell her family home when secrets from the past pull her back into the shadowy mystery that links her to David. Meanwhile, Henry, a reclusive elderly man, spies on the islanders with his telescope, spotting an impossibility that connects David, Orla, and the tragedy that embroiled him in a sinister plot involving the secrets of the island.

Dead of Summer was a page turner, a propulsive thriller that had me guessing until the very end. The glamorous setting and peek behind the curtain of the wealthy pulled me into its pages. There was a sense of foreboding that the author created with a Hitchcock inspired mystery pulsating throughout the story. The characters were messy and the author did a great job at eroding their perfect veneers. The twist at the end with its big reveal was well done and one I didn't see coming.

I recommend Dead of Summer by Jessa Maxwell for fans of Jaclyn Golden mysteries and for fans of stylish suspenseful thrillers.

What a great read! Thank you for the arc!!
I loved the way the book and characters pulled me in and keep me compelled to keep reading. The plot twists had me by surprise, I didn’t have them figured out at all.
Will highly recommend to friends!
Thank you again

Thank you, NetGalley, for this uncorrected eproof ARC of 'Dead of Summer' by Jessa Maxwell - expected release date of 07/22/2025

ARC was provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Typical trope...A well-off teenage boy commits a crime, daddy saves the day but son comes home as an adult, with a girl the family doesn't like/trust, and the son's skeletons come out of the closet. Pretty predicable but a quick read, wasn't drawn out, and it was well-paced. Nothing too exciting happened but it wasn't a terrible read.

Suspenseful and engaging. While the ending felt a bit childish, I would still recommend since it kept me guessing throughout the book.

I thought this was a good read, centered on Orla, who returns to the remote island where she grew up to clean out her parents' house to be sold. Orla hasn't been back to the island since she was in high school and her best friend Alice disappeared. Meanwhile, her childhood crush, the very wealthy David, is also back for the summer with his new girlfriend Faith. Told in both past and present tense, the book sets out to delve into what really happened to Alice all of those years ago and what is going on with the inhabitants of the small island.

The author did a great job at making me feel like I was right there with these characters; the descriptions of the mansion, the isolated home where Henry lives, Alice's abandoned home, are very atmospheric without being so detailed that they take away from the action. I really liked seeing different perspectives of the same situations from the various characters in the book- this added to the mystery. There were some genuinely creepy parts as both Orla and Faith try to figure out the mysteries that the island has been holding. I liked the end of the book and thought it contained some good twists, albeit some causing me to have to suspend my disbelief a bit.

Overall, this was an engaging read that I'd recommend to those who like psychological thrillers, not to mention reading about remote islands. Thanks to Netgalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Jessa Maxwell has fast become an automatic read author for me, and this title did not disappoint! I absolutely love her writing style, it’s the perfect pace for me. I couldn’t put this one down, I loved the alternating points of view AND timelines. I was very surprised at the end, I didn’t see any of the twists coming. Great book, absolutely recommend.

Shady rich people! Small town secrets! Intersecting stories!

Dead of Summer was a perfect summer read. It has all the elements to keep me reading. I wasn’t a fan of the authors last book but tore through this one in 2 sittings.

I have somehow read several books in a row about girls with shady pasts marrying into messed up uber rich families but this one is the one I enjoyed most.

I enjoyed the interspersing of different timelines and POVs. I felt it was somewhat predictable but it took nothing away from the enjoyment of reading it. I think some of the plot lines got a little murky sometimes and I felt like I maybe missed something earlier on — so I think those could be a bit more fleshed out. That being said, the short chapters and cliffhangers kept me wanting to read on to see what happened next.

The author really knows how to play tug of war with your head about how you feel about certain characters. Makes for a fun ride. 10/10 would recommend as a light popcorn thriller read.

Told from multiple viewpoints, this dark thriller by Jessa Maxwell was a quick read and kept me guessing until the end!