Many thanks to NetGalley and Atria publishing for the advanced digital copy. Dead of Summer is your next beach read. The plot brings three point of views together and the character development is strong. This is a quick paced story, that can be a predictable at times but is a solid mystery/thriller set in a small coastal town.

I genuinely did not want to put this book down. If you're into clausterphopic, everyone is hiding a secret type vibe, this is the book for you! The book follows Faith into her new relationship with David, a wealthy man whose family (of course) has secrets. Faith embarks on a summer trip to David's family summer home and learns a lot about the history of this mysterious place. What happened to Alice all those years ago? Why did David bring Faith, the spitting image of Alice back to the island with him, and how shocking is being reuinited with his old pal, Orla? Henry, an island local knows everyone's secrets & watches from his perch through a telescope. Who is to blame for Alice's supposed drowning? Is it Henry the watchful eye, David & Orla he old besties....or someone else? HIGHLY RECOMMEND.

Wonderful thriller. Atmospheric beach town setting with interesting characters with many secrets. Kept me guessing and turning the pages.

“Dead of Summer” is a great binge read! I read this in two days while staying at Disney’s Vero Beach, and it was a great book to take on my vacation—enough captivating elements to keep me going but not overly heavy on the details to slow me down while pool lounging and occasionally chatting.
A page-turner with lots of twists and turns, revealing of secrets, friendship building and a love story. I particularly enjoyed the way the writer talks about the island.

I you’re looking for you next vacation read, “Dead of Summer” is a MUST!

Fun, quick read with a decent twist. I write haiku reviews on Instagram but am happy to provide more feedback, if you would like.

This was so engaging and suspenseful, I love how it was told through different perspectives, which made it at times a little hard to follow, but still love the different POVs. The creepy camp setting and slow-burn tension made it a fun and chilling read overall. Would recommend

Dead of Summer is dead on arrival. This slow burn mystery from Jessa Maxwell moves at an obnoxiously glacier pace unfit for a novel with the word “summer” in its title.

This multi-POV story follows three characters who are directly and indirectly to the death of Alice Gallo over a decade ago. From there, readers are tasked with the Herculean task of caring about these characters and pretending to be surprised when mysteries are revealed. Seriously, the big twist, if you can even call it that, can be spotted from a mile away. You won’t need Henry’s telescope for it, I assure you.

The one redeeming quality here is that Maxwell has successfully created terrible rich people. You would be remiss to root for anyone. This ARC was provided by the Atria books, the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

P.S. Loved seeing my last name throughout the story. I hope the next time, though, it’s in a better book.

On Hadley Island, no one has truly forgotten the disappearance of a young girl several years ago. Certainly not Henry, a reclusive elderly man who has been found guilty in the court of public opinion. Nor Orla, the missing girl’s childhood best friend who is returning to the island for the first time in years. And then there is Faith, who arrives at the island for the first time only to find that her boyfriend has a strong connection to the missing girl as well. When another girl goes missing, everyone’s secrets will be revealed.

Let me start by saying that I have really liked this author’s other books. I was excited to read this one, and recommend her books in general to mystery lovers. That being said, I struggled with this one. There’s very little dialogue, which makes the book move quite slowly, and I had a hard time connecting to any of the characters. While the author does try to weave some twists and turns throughout the book, I found none of them surprising. I was able to call most of them several chapters ahead. I hope others truly enjoy this book, unfortunately, it just wasn’t for me.

Thank you to the author, publishers, and NetGalley for allowing me to read this ARC.

As a fan of Maxwell's previous books, I was delighted to get the opportunity to read an advance copy of this book. I appreciate that each of her books has a unique scenario- nothing cookie cutter about them! In this book, I liked how the alternating narrators each have secrets in their pasts which impact the current story. I empathized with many of the characters, and I enjoyed the twists and turns in the plot. I think this will be a great vacation read. I look forward to reading more from the author.

This was a quick and entertaining read. But it was also so stupid. And there are two people in this book who are terrible friends. I guessed a twist pretty early on. It was a sad one, not a shocking one. I'd recommend this if you just want a ridiculous beach read.

This was a slow burn, sultry mystery steeped in money and secrets. It did feel like a disproportionate amount of the teasers, red herrings, and action came in the last 25% of the book, so you definitely have to stick around to get to the meat of the story. It probably wasn't as big of a hit for me because I didn't really connect to or relate to any of the characters, but the mystery kept me guessing and reading. A great summer read, as the title suggests, but didn't love it quite as much as Jessa Maxwell's first two stories.

Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for an eARC of this book!

At no point did I know where the book was going. It was full of emotion and great writing! Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this ARC in exchange for my honest review!

Thank you to Jessa Maxwell, Atria Books, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read the eARC!

Dead of Summer is a slow-burn thriller told in multiple points-of-view with somewhat predictable twists and a few red herrings along the way. I enjoyed the atmospheric setting, and New England vibes. While I wanted to know what happened, none of the characters had me invested in their outcome. The characters were super wealthy, insufferable, with really no relatable qualities. The end wrapped up super quickly, but I feel like it appropriately concluded the novel.

This is a quick, summery thriller perfect for the beach or pool when you're not looking for something too daunting or heavy to read.

Sadly this one didn't work for me.

I wanted so badly to love this - it had all the right elements, but it was just so slow and never captured my full attention.

This was a slow burning story for me. It didn’t get super interesting until the very end when everything was explained. I did like the story, but felt the pacing could have been different. I would recommend this to others. Thank you for the ARC.

Thank you NetGalley and Atria books for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Want something you can whip out at the beach or lounging by the pool? This is one you should consider it's a fast read with good albeit sometimes predictable twists. Easy to fall into while catching some rays.

3.5 ⭐️

A new favorite! What an amazing mystery thriller. Each POV was fascinating - I loved the many mysteries woven into this story and the island setting.

Thank you Netgalley for the ARC! All reviews are my own.

Will review in my upcoming reading wrap up video and thriller recommendation videos! Loved it.

I had such a great time reading this book!
It was so hard to put it down, it was fast paced, had some very sketchy characters that was guilty in some form of way and I just couldn’t get enough of it. I think the only issue I had with the book is that I read it in my house and not in a beach somewhere.

Thank you NetGalley and Atria books for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I really enjoyed the setting of this novel. It was very vibrant, and though fictional, definitely seemed inspired by various Rhode Island locales in many ways. With its descriptions of white sands, rolling waves, and gorgeous ocean views, this is a perfect beach read for the summer.

This is definitely not a cozy mystery, but nor is it pulpy and hard boiled. It falls somewhere in the middle. Not terribly scary, but definitely following a bunch of characters, all with something to hide. I found some the twists quite predictable, but I read a lot of mysteries and thrillers. This would be a good read for someone fairly new to the genre. It’s not creepy or gory, and it’s interesting to follow along and see the three narratives come together.

I’ve enjoyed this book and the author’s two prior releases. I look forward to seeing what she will write next!

Thank you to NetGalley and Atria for an ARC of Dead of Summer.

I enjoyed Jessa Maxwell's previous release "I Need You To Read This" so I was surprised and disappointed in how little I enjoyed this newest book. It is a quick read but I realized I was at 70% in the story and absolutely nothing interesting had happened yet. The characters ranged from uninteresting to insufferable so by the time things picked up I wasn't very invested. I think most experienced thriller readers will find the twist obvious. Sadly, I didn't find much to like in this book but will give the author another try in the future.

2.5 stars