Loved the eerie island vibes and multiple POVs. The mystery kept me hooked. Only downside, the middle dragged a bit and some twists were kind of predictable. Still a great read if you like slow burn thrillers!
Posted on Goodreads as well.

You can't always hide from what is bad in the world

Hadley Island off the coast of New England is home to two types of people, those who were born there and have yet to escape and those who have enough money to own and maintain a summer "cottage" there. David Clarke's family is in the latter category, owning a home reminiscent of the extravagant summer places of the Gilded Age, and he has invited his new girlfriend Faith to spend the summer there with him. Faith, whose background is far more humble than David's (not that he's aware of that fact, Faith has kept things vague in that regard), is thrilled to be granted entrée into the inner Clarke circle and suspects that a proposal is imminent. Geoffrey, David's father, is less than pleasant but she had expected that; his reputation as a bully in professional circles and a philanderer in his domestic life has preceded him. Orla O'Connor is arriving on the island at the same time, someone who summered there with her family for years until ten years earlier, when her best friend Alice disappeared under mysterious circumstances and is presumed to have drowned. Orla's career as an artist has recently tanked; she is on the island to get her family's property ready to be sold, and all manner of painful memories are flooding back, exacerbated by the presence of her teenage crush David and his glamorous new girlfriend. Watching the goings on from the Rock, a house perched on a pile of rock off the shore of Hadley, is Henry, a reclusive local who rumor has it was involved in Alice's disappearance years earlier and who has stayed away from Hadley ever since (though he keeps an eye on the goings on through his telescope). With David caught up in his family's business dealings Faith is at loose ends, and when she becomes intrigued by the mystery of Alice's disappearance she starts poking into the matter. When another young local woman named Gemma goes missing, Faith as well as Orla and Henry are drawn into the island's dark side, where secrets are held closely, corruption runs deep and betrayals are just around the corner. What happened to Alice all those years ago, and is history repeating itself with Gemma?
There's something about small communities with their gossip and secrets that is universally intriguing, and when wealthy elites make up part of that community the intrigue is further heightened. With the plot's brisk pacing and the novel's short chapters, Dead of Summer is a classic beach read, While it is not exactly a unique concept....rich people behaving badly, people returning home to face traumatic past events, young woman from the wrong side of the tracks endeavoring to snag a rich husband...it is an entertaining read that weaves in a bit of social commentary (abuse of power, wealth inequity, sexual violence), a solid 3.5 ⭐️ rounded up to 4. Readers of Lucy Foley, Riley Sager and Megan Miranda are likely to appreciate the story, as might anyone in search of a quick, twisty book to toss into their beach/pool/lake bag. My thanks to NetGalley and Atria Books for allowing me access to author Jessa Maxwell's latest in exchange for my honest review.

This was an interesting slow burn, summer thriller. It took me a little bit to get through this one I think because I didn’t really connect or like any of the characters. I liked the concept and enjoyed the different POVs and flashbacks to bring the story full circle. But, I did feel that it was a bit unrealistic and rushed at the end when it felt like it took awhile to get to the heart of what happened. Overall I liked the book and would read more from this author!

Thank you Atria for the ARC!

An easy summer thriller, perfectly bingeable and ideal for beach/poolside reading on your vacation!

I really enjoyed the premise of this book. Multi-pov, rich people and their secrets, uncovering an old mystery. This story follows Faith, Henry, and Orla. Orla, best friend of Alice who disappeared a decade ago as a teenager. Faith, girlfriend of the rich David, who happens to be Orla’s childhood crush. and Henry, the man who was ostracized and accused of murdering Alice. I really think that’s all the information you should have going into this story.

I love thrillers with multiple povs, and ones where the main mystery has already taken place in the past as I feel that those are the least likely to scare me if I read before bed at night! While Dead of Summer does follow that premise, I got really spooked towards the end of the book which was a plus! My main gripe with this book was that it felt slightly convoluted and hard to follow and was incredibly predictable in my opinion. I had a theory about 20% in and I ended up being completely correct, so there was no “gotcha moment” for me unfortunately. I still enjoyed my time reading despite this, and do recommend if you’re in the market for a thriller this summer!

A huge thank you to Atria Books and Netgalley for the opportunity to read this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Old money, summers at the mansion on the beach, and a mystery that haunted the island for years. Had some major Revenge vibes! A summer read mystery that’s perfect for the beach.

While the mystery kept me going, I felt like the story was slow, made slower with the multiple viewpoints and flashbacks. I found myself wanting to read more about Faith and Orla and just pushed through Henry (though by the middle, I was starting to get really curious about what was going on there). I do wish there had been less hopping around in storylines. I wanted to love it because I LOVED Revenge and those types of stories. But it was just a little harder to get through.

Thank you to Atria and NetGalley for providing this read!

ARC Review: Dead of Summer by Jessa Maxwell ⭐️⭐️⭐️.75

Thank you to NetGalley and Atria books for the opportunity to read this e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was a dramatic read - great for summer! It had the classic elements of a juicy mystery; small New England town, old money, a local tragedy and buried secrets. I enjoyed that the story was told from 3 different POVs, it added depth and intrigue to the mystery by giving us more background but also more opportunities for twists and turns. Though I did feel the plot was a bit predictable, it was well written and had good pacing so I wasn’t bored or annoyed by the predictability. I wasn’t necessarily satisfied by the ending, but I can be hard to please with mystery novels 🤣

Dead of Summer was releases July 22nd 2025!

I really enjoyed Jessa Maxwell’s debut mystery The Golden Spoon so I was excited to receive an advance copy of her latest book. Dead of Summer is an atmospheric mystery that follows the povs of Orla, Faith, and Henry. Orla is back on Hadley Island to clean out her childhood home. Faith is new to the island, visiting her boyfriend’s mansion for the summer. And Henry is a recluse who never leaves his house after he was the prime suspect in the disappearance of Orla’s best friend Alice. When another teenage girl disappears, all three are pulled into the mystery.

Dead of Summer is the perfect summer popcorn mystery. The setting is unsettling, the characters all have secrets to hide, and even though I guessed part of the twist, there was still some surprises! This book is perfect for fans of atmospheric mysteries or of Maxwell’s previous work.

I had the opportunity to read an advanced copy of *Dead of Summer* by Jessa Maxwell, thanks to Atria Books and NetGalley. This novel follows three different characters whose narratives slowly intertwine as the mystery of Hadley Island unfolds—an island haunted by the disappearance of Alice.

This is a layered story about privilege, deception, and hidden motives. Maxwell does a great job exploring the contrast between the haves and the have-nots, and while some elements were a bit predictable, the journey was still gripping. I appreciated the simplicity of the character portrayals paired with the deeper revelations that emerge over time. Maxwell continues to shine as a storyteller, and I’m already looking forward to her next book.

I enjoyed this one! It was a quick read and had perfect summer vibes. Although somewhat predictable, it was perfectly fun summer reading and I loved all the island descriptions. I wish we had more wrap up with the character of Orla, but I enjoyed how the book concluded and the arc of redemption for certain characters.

Thank you for the advanced copy of Dead of Summer. While I was very hooked by the beginning of the book and the 3 points of view of our main characters, by the time we got to the climax...I thought it was quite a dud. The build up to the climax was more intense than us finding out that Alice is still alive.

Dead of summer by Jessa Maxwell is her third thriller and a true summer read. Alternating between past and present, the story follows orla o,Connor, returning to the island she grew up on, Hadly, after she left as a teenager when her best friend Alice disappeared.

Orla and Alice’s other friend, David, also returns to bring his fiancé faith with him to meet his family. Faith has never been around luxury and wealth like she has now with David and is growing accustomed to that lifestyle-as well as to the secrets of the island and her soon-to-family.

Watching this unfold is a recluse, harry, who was accused of Alice’s disappearance and exiled.

When another girl disappears from the island, orla, David, faith, and harry will all collide again as truths from the past emerge finally and not everyone will survive this summer.

While I don’t know that maxwells follow-ups have ever lived up to the hype of the golden spoon, this is an enjoyable summer thriller. I could predict the twists coming, but it was a mindless thriller for the dog days of summer.

Thanks to the publisher for providing this arc via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to Simon and Schuster for allowing me to read a copy of Dead of Summer. I am a fan of Jessa Maxwell and enjoy her books. Jessa Maxwell books are a perfect read for the summer they are short and intense. I run a Facebook group and will be using this book for one of the quarterly bingo prompts either begins with D or Summer in the title. Dead of Summer involves a restaurant, story set in New England and mystery,
A girl disappeared as a teenager and as adults they come back to solve the mystery.

Suspenseful, mysterious, and dark, the story alternates between a loner living on an island and Faith and David’s visit to his father’s mansion. The plot was easy to follow, with well-written prose and a few intriguing twists that kept the reader engaged.

My review is voluntary and all comments and opinions are my own.

💬┆𝐓𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐬
• I really thought I was going to love this one. I was hopeful because it started out so strong, I was locked in. But it ended up being too predictable, a little cheesy, and full of plot holes.

• I think when it comes to thrillers I’ve become such a picky bitch that I’m heard to please now. I wanted to be shocked at the twists and turns, I didn’t want to be able to guess every one of them.

• I will say this; the book does get 5 ⭐️ for the setting. The coastal, dreary, secluded New England island was the perfect atmosphere.

• The biggest issue I had was continuity issues. Sometimes the names would get mixed up, the author would refer to a character the audience was already introduced to as “the man” or “the woman.” I’m not sure if this was because it’s an ARC and didn’t get the final proofread? But it left my brain hurting over something so stupid, wondering if I had missed something.

This is the juicy summer thriller I’ve been waiting for! I typically like to take notes for my reviews while reading but with this one I could not tear my eyes away from the page long enough to do so. I have enjoyed Jessa Maxwell’s two previous novels and I think she’s really hit her stride with this one.

Orla O’Connor, Alice Gallo, and David Clarke were inseparable every summer on the island of Hadley, until the summer that changed everything. When Alice starts to grow up more quickly than Orla, jealousies flare up and the girls’ plan to move to New York together and become artists starts to seem like it may not happen the way they imagined. Of course, when Alice goes missing, those plans never materialize. Orla eventually goes to the city by herself and has brief success as an artist, but at the start of this story, she’s returned to Hadley after a failed gallery showing in order to get her family home ready to sell. As it turns out, this will be another summer that changes everything.

David Clarke and his father Geoffrey are the affluent owners of an estate on the island of Hadley, where everyone knows one another and shares a general distrust of the Clarke family. David brings his girlfriend Faith to the island for the summer. As Faith navigates the world of the obscenely wealthy for the first time, she soon discovers her boyfriend’s family may be hiding their involvement in the disappearance of Alice years ago. Of course, she has a few secrets of her own.

Watching over all of this drama, literally, is Hadley’s recluse Henry with his telescope up on his own rocky island. When Alice disappeared, fingers were pointed at him and while he was never formally charged, the suspicions against him have persisted.

Alternating between Faith, Orla, and Henry’s points of view, the reader begins to sift through the layers of truth about Alice’s disappearance as well as the more recent disappearance of another young woman. I loved the way certain things were held back while others were hinted at and revealed early on- it felt like the perfect way to build suspense while still giving plenty of clues to the reader throughout.

This thriller was so atmospheric and absolutely overflowing with secrets and suspense. I loved the island summer setting and the way the past and the present were intertwined until the whole truth was revealed. At the end, I thought one of the big reveals was a bit coincidental (one of my pet peeves in a thriller), but overall I thought it was such an original concept that was really well executed!

Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for the opportunity to be an early reader of this title, available now!

loved the last book I read by Jessa Maxwell, I Need You to Read This so I was delighted to receive a free digital ARC of her newest novel, Dead of Summer courtesy of Netgalley and the publisher, Simon & Schuster in exchange for an honest review.

I also love books set in vacation resort communities that feature the charms of the island as well as the conflict between the locals and vacationers and the haves and the have-nots. I also love a good mystery about a family with potentially dark secrets. Dead of Summer featured a lot of my favorite thriller ingredients and while I was able to figure out one of the smaller plot twists early on, it didn’t spoil any of the story for me and I still had a great time trying to solve the main caper and what motives were at play. Dead of Summer is the perfect mystery to read at the beach. Definitely grab a copy at your local bookstore or library and consider checking out Maxwell’s earlier books as well.

One of my favorite authors. Twisty, tense, and totally unputdownable. The setting, the secrets, the pacing—pure perfection. Jessa Maxwell does it again.

Set on an island off the coast of New England. Quick read with multiple POVs. Well thought out plot for a twisty suspenseful thriller. I really enjoyed the cliffhangers at the end of each chapter—made me want to continue onto the next chapter and then the next and then the next…..I didn’t want to put it down. Skillfully written with well developed characters. Wildly entertaining. So much drama. Very atmospheric. Layers of secrets. I was fully engrossed from the beginning to the end. Perfect beach read!

4 stars!! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Thank you NetGalley Jessa Maxwell and Atria Books for an eARC an exchange for an honest review.

Thank you for the opportunity to read this in exchange for my honest review.

This was more mystery than thriller, although it did have a few heartpounding moments. I liked the setting being in New England. The plot and prose were easy to follow, no obvious holes or confusing bits. I do wish the pacing was a bit more quick, but overall this was really good.

Thank you NetGalley for early access to this book in exchange for an honest review.

This was the first book I have read by this author and it definitely did not disappoint. This book was a quick read and I really enjoyed the ending and did not see the twist that came. Highly recommend.