I wish I had known about the trigger warnings that are littered throughout this book. I had originally thought that this would be a summer mystery/thriller read but it turned out to be a devastating story about a woman, Rachel, being led on and used by an unsuspecting employer.

The first half of the book seemed repetitive and it took everything in me not to DNF. The chapters were so long that I kept losing focus and skimming through a chunk of the middle because I lost all interest.

I felt like the cliff hangers left readers wanting more but they weren’t explained until much later in the book, and even then, it felt dull. I felt no emotions while reading this book and I’m honestly glad that I finished it so that I can move onto a better book.

While the narration in The Girls of Summer: A Novel by Katie Bishop is absolutely top-notch, the execution of the story leaves a lot to be desired. I was expecting something way more fast-paced than this, not a breakneck thriller spread, but it shouldn't take half of the book for the reader to have any real idea of what is going on and what the mystery is. I need any thriller, mystery, or suspense novel I read to grab my attention in the first 20% of the book, and unfortunately, this one just didn't do that for me.

This book which does clearly state the triggers and the comparisons to My Dark Vanessa ish. The story was dark and compelling dealing with rape and trafficking.
This story was done well and started off very captivating and interesting. But the triggers were too strong. I had to dnf.
This will definitely resonate and be enjoyed by many.

The Girls of Summer is a haunting story. It's a dark tale of men manipulating young girls in Greece. The naive are lured easily into the glitz and glamour, and pay the ultimate price with their youth. The characters and story are intoxicating as I deciphered exactly what was happening, but the angst of "why" couldn't these girls figure it out kept me hooked!

Not gonna lie, this is an uncomfortable read. The exotic location, complex female friendships and first love grabs you from the beginning to the vengeful conclusion.

Thank you St. Martin's Press for the complimentary copy.

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Summary: Rachel has been in love with Alistair for fifteen years. Even though she’s now married to someone else. Even though she was a teenager when they met. Even though he is twenty years older than her.

Rachel and Alistair’s summer love affair on a remote, sun-trapped Greek island has consumed her since she was seventeen, obliterating everything in its wake. But as Rachel becomes increasingly obsessed with reliving the events of so long ago, she reconnects with the other girls who were similarly drawn to life on the island, where the nights were long, the alcohol was free-flowing and everyone acted in ways they never would at home. And as she does so, dark and deeply suppressed secrets about her first love affair begin to rise to the surface, as well as the truth about her time working for an enigmatic and wealthy man, who controlled so much more than she could have ever realized.
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Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
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My thoughts: wow this one was a DOOZY 😬I loved it even though it was just so dark. It reminded me of my Dark Vanessa, but on a larger scale if that makes sense without spoiling it! I think it was just so deep and dark, there were times when I almost put it down but I’m so glad I didn’t. At times Rachel drove me crazy with how self destructive she was and how much she idolized Alistair but I just needed to remind myself that it was all part of the trauma she endured. Overall a fantastic read but really heavy on every trigger under the sun. This was such a hard book to give a rating to. Thank you @netgalley @stmartinspress for the advanced copy this came out earlier this month!
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The Girls of Summer by Katie Bishop
Published: June 6, 2023
St. Martin’s Press
Pages: 314
Genre: Psychological Thriller
KKECReads Rating: 4/5
I received a copy of this book for free, and I leave my review voluntarily.

Katie Bishop is a writer and journalist based in Birmingham, UK. She has written for The New York Times, The Guardian, Vogue, The Independent, and other publications. The Girls of Summer is her first novel.

“Not all secrets are good, after all.”

Rachel went on an adventure as a young adult that changed her life. What she experienced was cruel, though, to her young mind, she thought it was love. Now, the past comes crashing against her present, and this time, she sees everything.

This was told through alternating timelines, which painted the picture of this story uniquely. We get to know the characters, the plot, and the drama by bouncing between the then and the now.

Rachel was a complicated character. She was naive in so many ways, but she was also stubborn. Her journey was told in a way that allowed the reader to see things that her character didn’t, which was interesting.

The scenery descriptions in this book were beautiful. The island is such a vibrant character throughout this novel. The undertones of this book were powerful, and the way they were woven throughout the story was well done.

The writing was solid, the pacing balanced, and the storyline arched perfectly. This was not the typical thriller, but I enjoyed how this played out. As a debut novel, this was smooth.

Wow! I wasn’t expecting to resonate with this book at all. I felt for Rachel so much throughout the book but got so irritated at her as well for the lack of awareness of reality even into adulthood. What moved me the most was how the book shines light on the ease of which a person can manipulate and control others in unthinkable ways to get what they want out of a situation. I very much enjoyed this book.

This is sort of a hard book for me to rate. I personally wanted to read it because the idea of a summer spent in Greece sounds amazing to me. Unfortunately, for most the characters in this book, it was not amazing at all, but instead, rather tragic.

I don't know a lot about Jeffrey Epstein or his island, but many parts of this book had me thinking about Epstein and the life he led, and I suspect a lot of that is paralleled in this story.

If you are looking for a fun, light, beach read - this is not it. This story is dark and tackles issue like rape and trafficking.

White it's hard to imagine actually making the choices that Rachel did, I can understand the confusion, excitement, etc. that a 17 year old girl might feel when she goes to a Greek island with a friend and catches the attention of an older man. How that relationship progresses in Rachel's adult life is a little harder to understand. I understand the naivete of a teenager, it's just surprising that as an adult, she doesn't see how messed up her relationship with Alistair was.
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The story wasn't bad, but despite how dark and awful parts of it were, I struggled to feel any strong emotions while reading it. Even with how it wrapped up, I felt like I wanted more from it. There were also aspects of Rachel's story that felt really unlikely and unbelievable to me (towards the end), that it took away from the story for me. I don't want to explain the specifics here as I don't want to include any spoilers - but the story lost a little bit of believability to me towards the very end of the book.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the earc of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Interesting page-turner that's perfect for a summer read - this will be an easy one to recommend to patrons looking for an exciting beach read.

THE GIRLS OF SUMMER is a dark and alluring novel that absolutely pulled me in from the start. The writing, setting and complex story transported me to Greece and into Rachel’s life as she lived a life-changing summer as a teenage and then found herself revisiting that time though a new perspective fifteen years later.

At 17, Rachel and her best friend Caroline planned a backpacking, island hopping summer across Greece. When they find themselves on a small island, Rachel is immediately taken with the beauty and doesn’t want to leave. Beaches. Parties. Dancing. Endless nights and long days in the sun. New friends and new adventures.

And then Rachel meets Alistair. She’s drawn to him even though he’s twenty years older. It’s easy for Rachel to romanticize her time with Alistair and she shines under his attention. But the summer didn’t end the way Rachel expected or planned.

Told in dual timelines we meet Rachel fifteen years later, still in love with Alistair. Even though she’s been married to someone else for the last ten years. When she and her husband take a vacation back to the Greek islands where Rachel spent that fateful summer a chance encounter resurrects long suppressed secrets and memories.

The story unfolds slowly through beautiful imagery and intoxicating writing. But be assured that the slow unfolding was for me very much a compulsive read. With echos of MY DARK VANESSA this book is weighty and uncomfortable, but also something I found I could relate to in parts, in words, in emotions.

Rachel’s story is haunting and heartbreaking and does an incredible job portraying how our memories can play tricks on us, how we see what want to see and is an interesting commentary on the gap between what we choose to remember vs. what really happened.

While Rachel’s story is not my own, I could very much relate to the dynamic with Alistair and what it’s like to be involved with someone who is manipulative. I could also understanding her draw to him and how her perception was so specifically crafted by Alistair.

I also felt a complete understanding of her complex relationship with Caroline and the other girls on the island. What it’s like to feel like the shadow friend. Female friendships, particularly at that age, can be filled with jealousy and insecurity, and the desire to fit in and to feel like part of the group.

The book seduced me from the first pages with its picture perfect description of summer in Greece. It drew me in with the complicated and complex nature of female friendships. With the confusing lure of first love. And with Rachel, who is being forced to revisit the story she’s been telling herself all these years later and perhaps face a truth that’s been there all along.

THE GIRLS OF SUMMER is a must read. Huge thanks to NetGalley and St. Martins for the gifted ARC.

Based on the cover, one might think The Girls of Summer is a fun beachy read, but it's not. It's a dark and disturbing tale of sexual exploitation, rape, and trafficking. The Girls of Summer has many trigger warnings, so I would advise readers to check for them before starting the book.

At times, I struggled to read it because of the subject matter, but the writing style was engaging, and the story kept me interested. Also, I was often frustrated with our main character, Rachel. I could understand why she was infatuated with a much older Alistair when she was seventeen. But as an adult, Rachel's obsession with him, her inability to see what was wrong with their romance, and the summer they spent together annoyed me. There was almost no character development or emotional growth from her teen years to her thirties.

Overall, The Girls of Summer is a well-written debut that deals with some heavy but relevant topics. This book would be a good book club pick.

This is a hard one to rate. I went into this expecting a breezy summer read. This was anything but. Told in duel timelines of Rachel now struggling with her marriage and the banality of it and the Rachel of the past that she yearns to get back to. A time in her young days when she spent a summer on a Greek island and fell in love with an older man. The writing was atmospheric and well done but I found the main character boring dull, and hard time feeling bad for her and her bad decisions. This story was much more about trauma and the way it can stay with us.

When Rachel arrives on the Greek Island at 17, she’s ready to go home, that is until she meets Allistair and falls head over heels, all consumed in love with him. Allister is twenty years her senior and works for a wealthy and powerful man so they have to keep everything hidden.  Even after all that time and being married to a wonderful man, she’s still madly in love with Allistair. When she reconnects with a few women who were on the island at that time, she’s left questioning everything from that time including the love her and Allistair shared.  
 
The Girls of Summer alternates timelines between present day London and 15 years ago, Greece. I wouldn’t really classify this book as a thriller more of a slow burn drama. It was an interesting book that covered many difficult topics well. However, I’m still conflicted, I enjoyed parts of this book and didn’t enjoy other parts. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not a bad book, I’m just someone that would have appreciated the trigger warnings as it was hard to read at times. The last 25% really hooked me, I think it ended well.

Thank you St. Martins Press for this ARC in exchange for a review.

The Girls of Summer follows a group of girls as they recover for a traumatic summer in Greece. It was interesting to see how abuse can be perceived from a teenage girl’s point of view. How even after 15 years, abuse can be perceived as love. While the narrator was unlikeabke and unreliable, it was still a good story.

When sun-soaked summer days meet deceptively dangerous summer nights, you get Katie Bishop's debut novel, The Girls of Summer. This intoxicating novel follows seventeen-year-old Rachel on a summer trip to Greece and shows how she gets entangled in a web of manipulation and deceit at the hands of an older man. For fans of My Dark Vanessa, this unconventional coming-of-age story will bring all women back to that vulnerable age of the late teens; a time when you think you are strong and invincible, but in fact are prime to fall victim to seduction and exploitation.

The Girls of Summer takes summer lovin' and wraps it up with a nefarious bow. Unsettling, yet timely, this novel will reverberate with anyone who has spent time in a toxic relationship. Told in both past and present by teenage and 30-ish Rachel, The Girls of Summer examines how we rewrite our personal narratives to make them more palatable, shying away from the glaring truth until something forces us to face it head-on.

Spoilers Ahead ... Going into this novel, I knew that there would be some version of a sex scandal, as this book is described as being post-#MeToo. I found The Girls of Summer to be inspired by Jeffrey Epstein's sexual deviances, told through the eyes of a naïve young girl unaware of what exactly she has stepped into ... or, at least, blindly refusing to call it for what it is. An important novel of the times.

The synopsis of this book intrigued me. The MC Rachel spends a summer on a Greek island at 17 and has a love affair with an older man Alistair. Flash forward 15 years and she's still in love with him even though she's married. Her husband Tom and her return to this same Greek island and as Rachel connects with other girls she knew from that summer, she finds that her memory of things might be skewed.

I appreciate the way in which this topic was addressed and handled with care. Being able to relive the summer nights from the other perspective was enlightening as a reader and for Rachel. Throughout the book there is suspense, curiosity, and tension. While reading parts of the book you definitely get an ick-factor and at times it can be difficult to read, but Katie Bishop did a great job of being sensitive towards the characters. I really loved how the story was woven together between the different times.

TW: themes of power, sex, and consent

Thank you St. Martin’s Press for the ARC!
Young Rachel is backpacking during a summer in Greece when she meets the charming Alistair and is introduced to his lavish lifestyle. She’s head over heels for this man, not taking off her rose colored glasses for a second.
Fast forward to 16 years later, she’s married to Tom-a safe, secure spouse for her that is ready to start a family. However, when Alistair comes back into the picture she can’t let him go, but will she see him in the same light she did 16 years ago?

This story is told over to two time periods, then and now, and is so atmospheric. You’ll feel transported to Rachel’s adolescence as she explores the beaches of Greece while her naive self learns about the real world. The writing is very well done, dark, and moving.

“𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝒊𝒔𝒍𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒉𝒂𝒔 𝒄𝒉𝒂𝒏𝒈𝒆𝒅, 𝒃𝒖𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒏 𝒔𝒐 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝑰. 𝑴𝒆𝒎𝒐𝒓𝒚 𝒊𝒔 𝒇𝒖𝒏𝒏𝒚 𝒍𝒊𝒌𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕. 𝑰𝒕 𝒘𝒆𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕𝒔 𝒑𝒍𝒂𝒄𝒆𝒔 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒂 𝒔𝒊𝒈𝒏𝒊𝒇𝒊𝒄𝒂𝒏𝒄𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒔𝒍𝒐𝒘𝒍𝒚 𝒈𝒂𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒔 𝒑𝒂𝒄𝒆 𝒐𝒗𝒆𝒓 𝒕𝒊𝒎𝒆.”

I was attracted to this book from its cover right away; any time that I can escape to an island location in a book, I’m sold.

Katie Bishop’s writing is intoxicating; she describes the beauty of the island and its pull over Rachel super well. The past and present timelines are both quite interesting, where I was quickly turning pages, as the things Rachel experience in the past catch up to her in the present. Bishop touches on teenage infatuation, the way travel has you forming attachment to strangers over a period of a few days, and the way it is hard to recapture old feelings, as much as we may want to. The chaos of the island and the way Alastair was able to manipulate teenage Rachel was infuriating; it is clear Bishop did her research as she writes unflinchingly about grooming and sexual exploitation. I struggled with Rachel in the present however; she shows as much maturity as her teenage self, especially as she pines for Alistair from her past and ignores Tom, the man she married. I found her to be very selfish and hard to empathize with, partly with how she treats Tom and partly how obsessed she still is with Alistair (although it does show the continuing effects that grooming can have on women as they age). The story is pretty linear too; you have an idea where it’s heading about a third of the way in, which in itself isn’t a bad thing but it didn’t leave for a lot of surprises.

The Girls of Summer is a story of secrets, omissions, the loss of innocence, manipulation, and confronting the past. Although a straightforward plot, it is still a powerful read and Bishop shows a lot of promise in her writing. I’ll be looking for more from her in the future. Thank you to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for the ARC!

This book was definitely not what I expected. I thought it was going to be all about a girls adventure on a Greek island, but it was definitely not that! It was much much darker. I didn't expect it in any way, shape or form. The sexual crimes that were committed in this book kind of leave you in a fog, just like our main characters felt. It definitely was not the cute summer read I was expecting!

Katie Bishop has written the most intriguing book that I have read yet this Summer. The Girls of Summer is a non stop whirlwind of a ride that she brings to the most shocking finish! It is a fabulous summer read, actually an all year read. When I started the book, I had a pit in my stomach, simply from her writing with such an indelible tension..I almost knew what was going to happen. It was as if I had my hands over my eyes, and peeked out at intervals. What a story! It could be true, but I won't mention any spoilers or names that have been in the news in recent years.
Ms. Bishop writes with such a beautiful prosaic vernacular..that I had to write down some of her sentences so I never lose them. This is a must read, and especially a must read for any young girl who thinks she owns the world and goes off to places in the world with simply a backpack. I love this book because it is an eye opener, even as a fictional story; every young woman needs to read this book in preparation for a world they do not want to be part of. Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin' Press for the ARC in exchange for this very honest review....I could not put this book down.