The Darkest Summer
by Ella Drummond
Pub Date: 18 Jul 2019
3⭐⭐⭐

It appeared to be more of a mystery than a psychological thriller that had me guessing throughout. I found it to be a little confusing with the story jumping all over the place from the past to the present , along with pov of Sera, Dee ,Henri,and mimi . It started off slow and stayed that way for over half the book. While i didn't hate this book I didn't like it either. The author does a amazing job describing the scenery, heat wave, drought, and fires. I could feel the heat coming through the pages. It was as if i was right there in the heat right along with them. There are many twists ,turns and secrets in this book that will keep you turning the pages to see what happens. This is my first read by this author and will not be my last. Thank you very much Netgalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for an honest and fair review.

I liked this book but I couldn't say I loved it. Very different writing style to what I am used to. I loved the plot which is what grabbed me in the first place.

This psychological summer thriller really kept me guessing until the end.
I appreciated the twists and turns but some parts seemed to drag out. I have never read anything from this author before and will definitely check out her other titles.

This book was fast paced. Hard to put down. It flowed well and it was very well written. It caught hold of me and had me hooked from the start . I was literally on the edge of my seat reading this book.

This is one of those that makes sure it slowly and continually builds the suspense, until it is so thick you can cut it! Well developed, both in plot, storyline, and characters, which moves in a gripping pace and rivets the reader. One I highly recommend!
Will make sure I recommend to many!

I didn't hate this or anything, it pleasantly killed a couple of hours but it was just very very samey as far as psychological thrillers go.

I didn't relate very much to any of the characters, they were all a little flat and the writing for me personally wasn't that great. Descriptively speaking it was a bit irritating.

On the other side of it, the story itself is quite intriguing if rather predictable by the time we got to the end and it was, as I said, a pleasantly distracting read that doesn't really take much effort. That will obviously appeal to some.

Not for me really.

The Darkest Summer is a great, slow building suspenseful book that will keep you guessing until the end.

Sera returns to her hometown, with her daughter, after her husband passes away. Soon after moving back, memories begin making their way back to Sera. She thinks about Dee, her childhood best friend, and Dee's family. Dee and her family disappeared one hot summer and she never heard from them again. All that changes when she sees Leo (Dee's brother). Leo and Sera catch up, and soon she sees Dee again.

Sera is quickly taken back at Dee's appearance as well as how she acts. This isn't the Dee she remembers from childhood. What happened that night all those years ago? Sera begins to unravel the mystery and it's apparent that not everything is as it appears. Sera finds herself inside a dangerous triangle and her only hope is to solve what went on back then and what is going on now.

Great mystery/thriller! There are quite a few twists and leaves the reader to wonder, "how well do you really know people"?

Thank you Netgalley and Hera Books for this ARC.

I really enjoyed this book. It was told in a twisted, engaging, way by the author (of whom I have not read a novel before but will certainly do so again in the future on the basis of this novel!). Great structure and story made it hard to set aside. Thank you!

Well this book was certainly a page-turner. With the tension really ramping up in the last quarter of the book, with twists and turns coming at you from all angles, it was a real eyebrow lifter!

Sera’s best childhood friend Dee and their family disappear out of the blue, and Sera is completely bewildered, disappointed and devastated (as you would be!) In her adult years, when she bumps into Leo, Dee’s little brother, she can’t believe that she might get to find out what happened after all.

From thereon in, the story unfolds with a web of lies that have been hidden for years, that could have devastating consequences for all concerned coming to the surface. Who knows what will happen.

This is a book full of layers, and secrets that are revealed one by one in the latter part of a book which is full of surprises and you can’t wait to get to the end of to find out the truth.

Sera and Dee were inseparable when they were kids. But one day at Dee and her family up and left without any notice and Sera was left heartbroken. Now Dee is back 15 years after the family’s mysterious disappearance, but she’s not how she use to be. She is withdrawn and timid, even scared. Sera needs to know what happened and she’s determined to find out just why Dee isn’t the happy cheery person she once was.

This was a really fun read, it kept me interested and wanting to know what was going to happen next. The characters all added something to the story making it a very well rounded out novel. I would recommend this book for sure!

Thank you to Netgalley, Ella Drummond and Hera Books for the e-ARC of this title in exchange for an honest review.

I think if you have to advertise that the book is "A totally gripping psychological thriller" then it's probably not. Alas, that was the case for this book. I just couldn't get into it. I also do not enjoy books set outside the US, which Is probably my fault for picking this book.

Thank you Netgalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

For me this was a 3.5 rounded up to a 4. It did take me a while to get into this one. I almost gave up around the 30 percent mark and I didn't really feel like the story took off until the 70% mark. I will also mention that I wouldn't classify this as a psychological thriller it was definitely more a standard mystery. I wasn't able to guess the twists in the book so that was why this was review was bumped from a 3 to a 4.

This book was excellent! Totally kept my attention and I wanted to find out what would become of the main characters. Highly reccomended.

This book moved at a pretty decent pace and I really enjoyed it. I liked the writer’s style, and I think that it was an excellent dark psychological thriller.

Thank you Netgalley and publisher for this advanced Ecopy.

This was the first book I have read by Ella, and it was a great quick summer read.

Sera's best friend disappeared when she was a teenager and they got reacquainted later on in their lives and the mystery of their past is then discovered. I did find it slow to start and the last quarter of the book was better. I like how the author brought the story together by linking different storylines. There are some parts I would have liked more information on for example their mothers story but an okay read.

Review posted on Amazon Stowv55

I have to start by saying that I loved Ella Drummond’s previous novel My Last Lie and The Darkest Summer is even better! I could not put it down!

The Darkest Summer follows Sera as she’s trying to rebuild her life after her husband’s death. She’s living with her mother and five-year-old daughter in her childhood home and can’t help but think back to years gone by and her best friend Dee whose family disappeared suddenly one summer day. Then one day she thinks she spots Dee’s brother in the street and her life is about to be turned upside down all over again.

I was gripped from the very start of this book and I just didn’t want to put it down for a second. It’s one of those books where you say just one more chapter, then one more, and one more and before you know it you’re turning the last page and it’s way past your bedtime!

The Darkest Summer is mainly set in the present day but it also flashes back to fifteen years ago in the lead up to when Dee and her family disappear. We also get a few chapters from the early 1980s following Sera’s mum, Mimi. I loved this way of telling the story as I was equally invested in all three timelines and this kept me flying through the pages as I wanted to know how the past fitted with the present and where Dee’s family had gone, and why they left without trace!

I love books that explore female friendship, it’s endlessly fascinating for me to read books like this. I really enjoyed seeing Dee and Sera as girls on the cusp of being teenagers where they still loved running wild and swimming in the lake, but were also becoming aware of their own bodies and the power they might possess. It was really interesting to see how they related to each other on meeting up again years later, and how different it can be to how you imagined it might. It was the same seeing Sera’s mum when she was a young adult finding her feet in London and trying to make it as an actress. Her friendship back then gave her an unbreakable bond to someone because of what happened but still life pulled them apart, and yet not quite! The women were so believable in this book and I keep thinking of them all, especially Sera, and wondering how she is.

I loved the setting of this book, and the way the heat of the summer emanated from the pages. I could envision it all so clearly as if I’d been there. Ella Drummond really is a great writer who writes such beautiful, evocative paragraphs. She brings her books to life and it makes them so memorable.

I was curious by what might have happened to Dee and her family, and was shocked when we finally find out. I had worked out elements of it but I couldn’t put it all together to figure it out fully. I was also intrigued by what Mimi’s story from years earlier had to do with the present day and didn’t figure that out either. I love when a novel keeps me guessing, it’s a rare thing for a book to do that but this one did!

The Darkest Summer is the perfect summer thriller read! It’s gripping, mysterious and it will keep you up way past your bedtime! I loved it and highly recommend it!

EXCERPT: 'They've found a body.'

What did he say? I stared at him, stunned. 'Who has? Where?'

ABOUT THIS BOOK: One hot summer, Dee disappeared. Now she’s back…but she’s not the girl you knew.

Sera and Dee were the best of friends.

Until the day that Dee and her brother Leo vanished from Sera’s life, during a long hot summer fifteen years ago.

Now Sera is an adult, with her own child, five-year-old Katie, and has returned to her childhood home after her husband’s death.

While she grieves, the past haunts Sera at every turn … and then Dee and Leo return to their small Hampshire village, along with Dee’s young daughter.

But Dee is silent and haunted by her demons; no longer the fun-loving girl that Sera loved. And when Sera uncovers the shocking secret that Dee is hiding, it’s clear that the girl she knew is long gone – and that the adult she has grown into might put all of them in danger…

MY THOUGHTS: We all occasionally wonder what happened to people who have disappeared from our past, but they don't usually disappear in the dramatic way Hazel, Dee and Leo did. I love a good mystery. I loved the premise of The Darkest Summer but, unfortunately, the execution leaves much to be desired.

The story is told over multiple timelines, from the points of view of Mimi, Sera's mother, as a young woman; Sera as a teenager; and Sera as a young widowed mother back living with Mimi.

It took a good two thirds of the book before I really became interested. I never quite became involved or fully immersed in what was happening mainly because the author tells the reader what is happening, rather than letting us experience it. The writing is often awkward and ungainly and is littered with inconsistencies, e.g. Sera goes downstairs and makes coffee and then says Leo has made it; Henri shows Sera the puppies and invites her in for a beer and she feels that 'he's in a bad mood'.....

This could have been a really good read and, with a little work, still could be. I would love to see this rewritten.🤔🙂🤔

THE AUTHOR: Ella Drummond is a pseudonym of author Deborah Carr. She recently signed with HarperCollins' romance imprint, HarperImpulse, to write an historical romance to commemorate the centenary of the end of the First World War and also writes romance series as Georgina Troy.

DISCLOSURE: Thank you to Hera via Netgalley for providing a digital ARC of The Darkest Summer by Ella Drummond for review. All opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own personal opinions.

Please refer to my Goodreads.com profile page or the about page on sandysbookaday.wordpress.com for an explanation of my rating system.

This review and others are also published on Twitter, Amazon,Goodreads.com and my webpage

Excellent psychological thriller! It moved at a fast pace with twists and turns throughout! Well-developed characters and plot. Highly recommend!

Ella Drummond deftly and expertly notches up the tension and keeps readers on tenterhooks with her second breath-taking thriller, The Darkest Summer. Terrifying, engrossing and absolutely heart-pounding, readers looking for a captivating chiller need look no further than The Darkest Summer.

Fifteen years ago, Sera and Dee had been the best of friends. They told each other everything, had no secrets from one another and had a rock solid bond which nothing and nobody could tear asunder – until Dee had disappeared alongside her brother, Leo. While the passing of time waits for nobody, Sera has been forever haunted by her best friend’s disappearance when they were children, so when she returns to the childhood home she grew up in with her young daughter after her husband’s death, echoes of the past and dark shadows are reverberating all around her. The past refuses to stay dead and buried and there are further shocks in store for Sera when out of the blue Dee, Leo and Dee’s daughter make their return to the village as well.

Dee is not the girl Sera had known and told her every secret to. The past fifteen years and the mysterious way she had gone missing had obviously left its mark on her, but Sera cannot shake off this dangerous feeling that Dee has got a secret. A secret so dark and devastating that it could have serious repercussions for all those around her. As Sera begins to dig deep and uncovers her childhood friend’s shocking secret, she realizes that her childhood friend could well end up putting all of them into the most acute of danger.

With darkness closing in around all of them, nobody is safe anymore. Will shadows from the past finally wreak the revenge they’ve waited fifteen years for? Is Sera going to end up paying the ultimate price for her curiosity about her friend’s disappearance? And will Dee turn out to be a friend? Or the most dangerous foe of all?

Ella Drummond stirs a pot spiced with intrigue, secrets and deception in a phenomenally gripping thriller that is packed with shocks, surprises and twists and turns. The Darkest Summer is a fiendishly gripping and sinister tale of lies and loyalties that is brilliantly plotted and wonderfully suspenseful and will leave readers gasping and with their jaw on the floor as terrifying revelation after revelation comes to light.

The Darkest Summer is another fabulous read from Ella Drummond that is sure to go down a treat with fans of Big Little Lies, Gone Girl and Behind Closed Doors.

Good domestic thriller! It started slow for me, but after the first third, I was drawn into the story and particularly Mimi and Hazel's past. I would have loved to learn more about Mimi's life. Sera was a good connecting character between the past and the present and helped give the story heart and tie things together. I would have liked more background on her friendship with Dee and more info on the pathology of Dee and Leo and what made them into the people they became (why did she steal a baby? Why did they kill? Is Hazel still alive?) Great concept, engaging read, but I would have liked more depth and backstory. I could use a full novel of each of the characters and their pasts!

Thank you to NetGalley and publishers for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for my honest review.
3.5 STARS