I really enjoyed this one. We follow Tansy who is an academic counselor at a college, who has a mysterious visitor in her office - her friend from nearly twenty years ago Selene. And Selene calls in a favor, because Tansy owes her from something that happened when they were still friends. Selene's daughter Jupiter is in a relationship with Colton, who Selene swears is abusive and wants Tansy to break them up to protect Jupiter.

We see this complicated friendship in bits and pieces of information throughout the novel. Selene has this magnetic personality, and for better or worse, her friends and family get pulled into it.

We slowly find out what happened all those years ago, how their friendship fell apart, and how that impacts the current relationship.

Tansy gets pulled deeper into Selene's family, and we see her own motivation for wanting to help Jupiter.

Once you think you have everything figured out, a request from a friend and the last truths come out. I definitely wasn't expecting those last few twists!

I received an ALC from Netgalley in exchange for my honest opinion.

Thank you to the publisher and Net Galley for the audio version of this book! Truthfully, I did not finish this one. I got a little past the halfway mark before I abandoned it. I just didn't care what happened. there wasn't any suspense or intrigue, it was just an endless discussion of the same things. It might really pick up at this point I had to set aside for other stories I'm more excited about.

I thought the narrator did a good job. I was able to speed the recording up to 2.0 and still understand everything.

There were a few twists I did not see coming which kept the book interesting. Selene is very narcissistic and it makes it hard for the reader to like her or have any compassion for her. Tansy is a bit of a push over and you just want to shake her and say "seriously, what are you thinking? It won't end differently this time?" The book was written well enough that I had strong feelings about most of the characters.

I’m on the fence about my review for this audio. I definitely liked the narrator, so that’s not the issue. I think I just felt there was something missing from the plot. The author makes Selene out to be this scary person with super dark secrets, but she doesn’t quite live up to those standards. And the “plot twist”, if that’s what you want to call it, really wasn’t that twisty or big. I wish the author would have given us a deeper dive into Selene’s persona to help us understand a little better why she was like she was. She touched the surface, but I felt like something was just missing. The story wasn’t bad by any means, it just wasn’t great either.

***thank you Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC copy in return for an honest review***

Unfortunately I had to DNF this book about 50% through. The title and cover are what originally stood out to me, but the story didn't seem to be going anywhere. I didn't love the narrator's voice, and the main character often said things that were SO cringe-worthy! I just couldn't bring myself to keep listening.

This unfortunately was not for me. it was being pushed as a mystery thriller and it was missing the thriller part and the mystery was just.. ok. The characters were pretty unlikeable and Tansy had a whole story line that had no pay off and added nothing really to her character that couldn't have been build in a different way. I really enjoyed the narrator for the audio book I could tell who each character was as they made each different and that's something I enjoy in my audio books

The Summer We Buried was a great read by Jody Gehrman. Tansy was drawn to Selene twenty years ago. She finds herself in a confused tangle of guilt for covering up a murder that shattered their friendship. Tansy has never been able to come to terns with what happened that night. Selene is now back and demanding her old friend to repay her. Selene's daughter, Jupiter, attends the college that Tansy is a guidance counselor at. She is convinced that Jupiter's boyfriend is abusive and wants to see Tansy intervene. Tansy discovers the ugly truth about Jupiter's boyfriend, but she suspects there much more to the story. I enjoyed reading this book and can't wait to read more by the author.

I like mystery’s and secrets that complicate situations, which this book is full of. This really had potential but a few odd things happened that left me thinking maybe I heard this wrong. Let’s just say you were conceived 2 days after your dad died. That doesn’t work. There was a double murder but the way these people died and how they were dealt with was a head scratcher. I think with a little tidying up this book could be a possible be a 4.

This is an unbiased review
Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC

A good read albeit predictable. I predicted every single reveal which I found super annoying and yet the book was well written, making me wanna keep listening. Loved the narrator and the diversity of the characters. Found most of the main characters to be unlikable to the point of eyeroll. Triggers: domestic violence, rape, drugs, alcohol, blood, abuse, PTSD, anxiety.

I loved the mystery side of this!
Tansy is successful and she has an amazing career! While she did have a rough time about 20 years ago, she has definitely made lemonade out of the lemons she was handed.
20 years ago something happened and while she didn't know how to handle it her best friend Selene helped her out, and because of what happened Tansy moved away and went to college never looking back and never contacting Selene again. Back in the present time, Tansy was having a normal day and Selene just shows up at her office out of nowhere and is basically blackmailing Tansy to interfere with Selene's daughter Jupiter's relationship with a boy named Colton.
Tansy does not want to get involved, but since Selene is blackmailing her she sets up an appointment with Jupiter and things go on from there. Tansy gets more involved with Selene's family including starting to date her brother along with getting more twisted into Selene's life and her dramatic antics! If you are looking for a twisty thriller that deals with dysfunctional families then this is definitely your next read! I listened to the audio provided by Dreamscape Media and Netgalley and this was definitely a treat! In the last quarter of the book, I was on the edge of my seat! You will definitely enjoy this thriller mixed with the dysfunctional family! The narrator was amazing and she fit the book and the characters! She made the audiobook!

*I have received this ARC from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review*

⭐⭐

Let's talk about it.
I requested this book because the description was completely intriguing for a new thriller. I also received this copy in audio.
This was the slowest burn. Too slow.
It was a good story but It didn't reach my expectations in the least bit. 🤷‍♀️ I had to stop myself from putting this one in my DNF pile countless amounts of times.

I gave this 2 stars because the author definitely is a talented writer but this book wasn't it for me. Great writer, bad story line.

I appreciate the ARC of this, and hope you appreciate my honesty.

#bookstagram #bookstagrammer #bookstagrammers #bookreview #bookreviewer #Netgalley #audiobook #ARC

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for this audiobook in exchange for a fair review.

3.5

I literally just got this book and wanted a fast paced thriller. It's not a thriller (slow burn) it but it was an enjoyable read with a steady pace. I think I would have liked to see more depth of Selene's character but no can do as it is told from Tansy's perspective.

I imagine it would be a great summer read.

Narration and voices were excellent

If you are judging a book by it's cover I think The Summer We Buried has a rather attractive one. However I should not (as always) have judged the book by the cover. This is definitely a slow burn and when I say slow.. I mean it. The plot slowly unfolds but there's no big climax or shocking twist. The characters weren't my favorite but the narrator did a great job and made it an easy listen. If you enjoy a slow burn dramatic story then you may enjoy The Summer We Buried.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a copy in exchange for an honest review.

I think I would have enjoyed this book more if it wasn’t on audio. Only because I probably would have gotten through it faster had I read it myself but I still really enjoyed the plot and characters. I will more than likely reread it as a physical book later.

Thank you Netgalley and Dreamscape Media for this advance listener copy in exchange for my honest review.

I really liked this book. It had a unique plot, it did start out a little slow but the end made up for it. It does contain flashbacks to when Tansy and Selene first started their friendship. I know some don't like that, but this helped to get a true understanding of what exactly Selene was like and how twisted she could be.

I also enjoyed the observation of an abusive relationship and felt it portrayed how difficult it can be for some women to escape those holds. Overall it was a good read, I can't say that I'll reread but I would recommend!

I still feel a little on the fence about this book. Which I decided, is maybe the whole 'problem' with this book. It wasn't bad, not really, but the things that stuck out I couldn't let go of.
Other reviewers pointed out the same, but here we go...
Was Selene supposed to scare me? Were we supposed to be shamed, baffled, disgusted with this 'secret'? Sure, it was dark but it wasn't anything mind blowing and in the end, she (Tansey) didn't do anything wrong at all? It would only incriminate Selene? This whole tension the author tried to add to the book was not satisfying and felt very unbelievable. The awkward balance between 'this is my best friend' or 'I'm sorry I stopped talking to you' to 'I'm so scared of you' - didn't hit well. Maybe I just don't have as a variety of emotions with my 'friends' who 'blackmail me' for a 'crime I didn't commit' .... but the entire friendship (which one could say was the whole basis of the book) was all over the place.
The sex scenes were gross, out of place and felt like filler. It was unnecessary and made me feel uncomfortable with my audio book on speaker. Sure, if I were expecting a little sauciness, I would have expected it .. but again, they didn't fit.
In the end, not a horrible book. The things that bothered me, bothered me too much to consider this a book I'd recommend to friends though.

This was a bit off an odd book for me. The writing was nice though the story is a bit slow. The characters are well done and I liked most of them. What threw me off is that the secret was a bit of a let down. Sure its a dark secret you wouldn't want to keep hidden but it wasn't really enough to justify the paranoia that the main character felt. I also wasn't sure how to feel about the ending. I'm still not sure.

This one was a sloooooow burn. Because it’s classified as a thriller, I kept waiting for some suspense or plot twists but they never really came. There wasn’t anything I particularly disliked about the book (except for the daughter’s name 🤪) but it didn’t really live up to my thriller-loving expectations.

Here’s a summary of the plot:
It’s been almost 20 years since Tansy saw her former best friend Selene. The summer they spent together, they were inseparable. But all that changed when a terrible crime occurred. Now Tansy works as a counselor at the local college. Selene reappears and demands Tansy meets with her daughter Jupiter (that name 🙃🙃). She wants Tansy to break up Jupiter’s relationship, and if she doesn’t the secret they buried almost 20 years ago will come out.

I appreciate being given the opportunity to review this book but I could not finish it.
I found that the characters are extremely unlikeable and the tone of the novel was not to my liking.
I only made it about half way through the audiobook I don't have many DNFs but this was not an enjoyable listen sorry

I loved this book. It definitely didn’t go the way I expected AT ALL. Each character was so well written and I loved how they all went together.

Terrific narrator!!!