Camp People is a warm, heartfelt romance that blends nostalgia, humor, and emotional depth. The summer camp setting feels vivid and inviting, making it easy to get swept up in the story.

What I loved most was the character work. Paige and Oliver share a connection that feels genuine and earned, built on understanding, growth, and plenty of chemistry. Their relationship develops naturally, and the quieter moments between them were often the most impactful.

Beyond the romance, the story offers a thoughtful look at healing, change, and finding the courage to move forward. A charming and impressive debut that left me smiling long after I finished.

Talk about an absolutely *perfect* summer read. I’m a little sad it’s not being published until August.

This is a summer camp rom com with a lot of heart. Camp director Paige has one summer to figure out what’s next after being forced to leave the camp she’s called home for the last eleven years. Her determination to have the Best Summer Ever is quickly derailed by the arrival of her roommate for the season, Oliver, who just happens to be her former camp crush and sort of nemesis.

There was a lot I liked about this book. The main characters are well developed and have great chemistry. The plot is well paced, the love story is sweet without laying the cheese on too thick. It’s evocative of a place (summer camp in the Catskills) and time (your late twenties), and the resolution is satisfying. What is especially refreshing is that Camp People feels grounded in reality - the story doesn’t rely on ridiculous situations or unrealistic plot twists. Camp Mirror Lake feels like a real place I could visit, and Paige and Oliver are real people I might meet there.

I would absolutely recommend this to fans of Emily Henry (seriously, I enjoyed Camp People more than Funny Story). I cannot believe this is a debut. I cannot believe it is self-published.

Today's rose is this book, today's thorn is that it's over. This is too cute, truly funny, and just a joy to read. Perfect little cozy campfire book. The Wet Hot American Summer meets Emily Henry tagline brought me in and delivered, but it has so much more heart than that. This is one of my favorite feel-good books I've read in ages.

This is a romance with a lot of ramped-up tension and sweet moments with extremely endearing characters. Once I settled in (I was unsure at the beginning but at some point I found myself enamored with the setting and the vibes) I had a hard time putting it back down. Really great debut.

Thank you so much to the author and to Netgalley for letting me have the opportunity to read the eARC!

Camp People by Liz Vidulich is a nostalgic, heartfelt, and beautifully atmospheric summer romance that perfectly captures the magic and melancholy of a place that feels separate from the rest of the world.

Paige Schilsky is 27 and still living full-time at Mirror Lake, the summer camp that became her home after tragedy left her alone in the world. Camp is not just her job; it is her safe place, her identity, and the life she has built around avoiding the harsher edges of adulthood. But when she learns this will be her final season as camp director, Paige is forced to confront what she has been holding onto — and what it might cost her to finally let go.

Then Oliver Trevenen returns. Paige has never exactly been his biggest fan, and his arrival threatens to complicate the one last summer she wanted to control. Their history, banter, and forced proximity create such a satisfying romantic tension, but what I loved most was how gradually the story reveals the vulnerability beneath Oliver’s irreverent charm. His relationship with Paige grows in a way that feels tender, funny, and emotionally earned.

This book has pure summer romance vibes in the best possible way. Mirror Lake is vivid and immersive, full of camp traditions, late-night conversations, boathouse intimacy, old grudges, new realizations, and that bittersweet sense that summer is both endless and already ending. The setting does so much emotional work, and Vidulich captures the nostalgia of camp without making it feel overly sentimental.

Paige’s arc is especially strong. Her fear of adulthood, her grief, her attachment to camp, and her uncertainty about who she is outside of the place that saved her all feel deeply human. The romance is lovely, but the emotional heart of the book is Paige learning that leaving a place does not mean it mattered any less.

Warm, funny, romantic, and quietly moving, Camp People is exactly the kind of summer read I want: escapist on the surface, emotionally resonant underneath, and impossible not to devour.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.