I enjoyed this book for the most part, and liked the dual-timelines. However, found myself getting more and more frustrated with the main character though, as I felt she was just too naive to be oblivious to all of the things that went on both when she was 17, then later throughout her adult life as she looked back on that time. The book had a lot of potential, but really drug on at the end without any major twists or excitement. And to top that off, I didn't get a sense at all of what the main character's life would be like by the end. Very unsatisfying ending. Trigger warnings: trafficking, rape, abortion.

The cover is 5 stars.

The beginning through about 1/3 of the way through the book was amazing. Totally binged and hooked me. Then I just lost interest. It never held my attention past this point.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the copy of The Girls Of Summer by Katie Bishop. From the title you would think this is a beach book, but you couldn't be more wrong. This is an intense book about alcohol, drugs and abuse, so don’t expect a light read. Rachel is vacationing on a Greek Island when she falls in love with Alistair who is 20 years older than she is. Fast forward to almost 20 years later and Rachel is married to Tom. She has never forgotten Alistair and jumps at the chance to see him again.
I found it implausible that Rachel didn’t realize what was happening on the island. We ‘saw’ what was going on through her POV and it seemed pretty obvious. She was either really naive or in denial. Then as an adult she deceives her husband which made her a really unsympathetic character. The other ‘girls’ felt really interchangeable, any island could have been anywhere because I never felt a Greek vibe. This was not the book for me, but if you’re interested in a #MeToo reckoning, it might be the book for you!

Thank you NetGalley, St. Martin's Press & Katie Bishop for this e-arc in exchange for my honest review.

I really enjoyed this book at first. It pulled me in right away and I was really interested in the characters and her story, .but as the book went on it didn't hold my attention quite as much as before but I still wanted to find out what happened and did enjoy this book and I'm glad I stuck with it. I also feel like this is one of those books that you will think about long after you finish it.

3.5 stars for me but rounded up to 4.

This was a powerful story about girls who are 'coming of age', feeling free and powerful, yet have so much to learn about the world. It touches on dirty power, trying to understand right from wrong even if you feel like you are in control, and gives insight to the inner narrative of victims we read about too often in the news. Very Epistein-ish and tragic and even though I felt sick reading about the actions of these powerful men, I enjoyed the story all the same.

While it took me a little longer than I had initially expected to get into this one, I am so glad that I pushed through! I loved the setting and the ominous tone throughout the book. The dual timelines were done really well.

Initially I was really sucked into this book. The scenes were outstanding and I was intrigued by the then/now timelines. The characters were a little annoying but mostly they were young and stupid and it was forgivable.

However, by the time I was 50% into the book I began to lose interest. The main character was insufferable and hard to connect with, and I felt like everyone in the book was in on some secret except me. I felt annoyed and left out by all the characters. I was halfway in and had learned almost nothing!

From there the book was just hard to get into. I wasn’t interesting anymore. The ending did pick up, but by that point I was skimming a lot of the chapters just to get to the end and find out what happened.

I loved this book so much! I really didn’t know what it was about when I started reading it, but I quickly was obsessed! The characters are well developed, and I couldn’t help but love them all!

This book is one of those books you’ll spend a lot of time thinking about afterwards and is so relevant right now. It centers around Rachel remembering the summer she was 17 years old and fell in love with an older man. I love the dual timelines and the characters are so multi-dimensional and real. It’s not a ‘feel good’ book, it’s a ‘make you think and feel’ kind of book. It addresses so many of the complexities of rape, human trafficking, suicidal, emotional manipulation, and toxic relationships that aren’t ever just black and white.

Be warned, there is a lot of trigger warning so check those out first before reading.

DNF at 37%. Going into this I expected there to be grooming based on the synopsis. I did not however expect there to be r*pe while plying underage girls with drugs and alcohol, and sex trafficking of said underage girls?? And for the MC to still be so clueless years later? Not to mention the MC cheating on her very kind, doting husband and letting him think they’re trying for a baby while she’s still on the pill 😬
Some of the purple prose also felt unnecessary and didn’t fit with the teen voice.
I hope the publisher adds a TW to the beginning because I wouldn’t have read this had I known going into it. It’s just not for me. Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to review this book.

This book is about Rachel who still pines for Alistair, the much older man she had a brief fling with when she was 17. Even though she is now married, she reconnects with Alistair after a trip to Greece.

I DNF'd this book at around 40%. Even though she is in her late 20s/early 30s, Rachel still acts like a teenager. She's off-putting and childish. It's like she's permanently stuck in the mind of a 17-year-old girl, and I didn't like that. I also just didn't find this book gripping or fascinating, so I decided to let it go and move on to something else.

This was a pretty gripping and intense book. I was not expecting the content as I went into this one blind. Katie Bishop is certainly a great writer!

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for my ARC!

I should have paid more attention to the description of this book. It was a little too literary for me. I wanted more intensity, and I didn't get that. I don't think it is the book's fault though.

When I received this digital copy to read, I assumed it was a lightweight summer read, timed for the vacation season. I could not have been more wrong about it.

Rachel is in her thirties and married to a very steady, nice man who wants children. But Rachel has a dark past, going back to the summer when she was seventeen years old and working on a Greek island. This is where she begins working at a bar owned by a notorious millionaire named Henry Taylor, who always seems to have a bevy of beautiful, very young girls at his villa to "entertain" his many male friends and acquaintances. Rachel has a passionate affair with Henry Taylor's employee and right-hand man, Alistair, who is mysterious, sexy and much older than Rachel. That summer has dramatic consequences for Rachel and her friend circle on the island. Years later, Rachel and her friends come to some startling realizations about that summer and how Henry and Alistair capitalized on their youthful exuberance and inexperience for their own dark purposes.

This was an engrossing read and I stayed up past my bedtime to finish it. Given the revelations of the #metoo era and recent media stories about figures like Peter Nygard, this story is timely and feels like something ripped from the headlines. I also liked how the book made me think about tricks our memory plays on us and the way your mind captures the past, sometimes blurring the negative memories and romanticizing people and moments in time. The flashbacks of the Greek island setting feel dreamy and idyllic contrasted with the rainy and dreary present day English setting.

My only criticism would be that Rachel's continued defence of Alistair and rationalization of his actions into her thirties were difficult for me to believe in and accept. A certain amount of denial about the extent of his involvement and culpability is acceptable but I felt her continued naivety was a stretch. Nevertheless this was a very enjoyable and engrossing read! Many thanks to St. Martin's Press for the copy to read.

I think debut author, Katie Bishop, provides a very captivating read with her first novel. Seventeen year-old, Rachel and her best friend, Caroline, decide to take a vacation to Greece before they begin their further education endeavors. Their plan was to party and stay in hostels. Rachel is shy, awkward and is not the social butterfly that Caroline is. An older man, Alistair, takes an immediate interest in Rachel and begins asking Rachel to bring her friends to parties at his wealthy employer's home. I knew exactly where this story was headed. This is a very good coming of age book with a lot of things going on. By the end of the book, I did not like Rachel at all. Overall, this is a very good book.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the ARC of this very interesting book.

Thank you Netgalley for an early copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.*

This book really made me think and left me with all sorts of emotions. It reminded me of "My Dark Vanessa" which is one of my favorite books of all times. "The Girls of Summer" had fantastic imagery and really pulled me into the story of youthful girls, islands in Greece during the summer, falling in love, heartbreaks, and learning hard things about life and the people we chose to love. The writing was excellent. I really felt like I was in the story with the characters, sitting at the table talking with them. I could feel the emotions of each character pouring out of the pages. This was a hard read because the characters are going through and realizing difficult things, but the story is so good and important. I look forward to getting a hard copy in my hands. I will be telling my friends all about this one.

In The Girls of Summer by Katie Bishop, we are introduced to Rachel, who, at the age of seventeen, spent the summer in Greece and had a love affair with Alistair, a man twenty years her senior. Flash forward to the present day. Rachel is married to a different man but still obsessively thinks about Alistair. I enjoyed this dual timeline book. Katie Bishop is a beautiful writer.

"𝑯𝒐𝒘 𝒄𝒂𝒏 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒔𝒕𝒐𝒑 𝒍𝒐𝒗𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒔𝒐𝒎𝒆𝒐𝒏𝒆 𝒂𝒇𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒂𝒍𝒍 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒕𝒊𝒎𝒆? 𝑯𝒐𝒘 𝒄𝒂𝒏 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒍𝒆𝒕 𝒈𝒐 𝒐𝒇 𝒂 𝒅𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒎 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒍𝒆𝒕 𝒅𝒆𝒇𝒊𝒏𝒆 𝒚𝒐𝒖, 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒚 𝒄𝒐𝒏𝒕𝒐𝒖𝒓𝒔 𝒐𝒇 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒍𝒊𝒇𝒆, 𝒉𝒐𝒍𝒍𝒐𝒘 𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒈𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒕 𝒔𝒑𝒂𝒄𝒆 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒐𝒘 𝒊𝒕 𝒕𝒐 𝒆𝒙𝒊𝒔𝒕."

Rachel has been in love with Alistar since she was seventeen when they met while she was vacationing on a remote island in Greece. She had the time of her life that summer partying with friends. Now she's in her thirties and married but she can't forget her past. When she reconnects with some of her old friends, including Alistar, it seems that the past might not be quite what she remembered.

First of all, major trigger warnings for this book. Mentions of suicide, drugs, alcoholism, SA, men exploiting and gaslighting women. While it was a challenging read, I also feel like it was well written and really did a great job of showing PTSD, trauma and how powerful men exploit and gaslight vulnerable women. It reminded me of books like My Dark Vanessa and Grown. It's told in dual timelines giving us small pieces of the past and how it connects to the present time. My heart broke for the characters in this book. While it was a difficult read, I also couldn't put it down. It's one that will sit with me for a while.

Rounded up to 3.5 stars… The Girls of Summer was exactly what I needed heading into spring. I soaked up the descriptions of Greek island life and felt myself escape whenever I picked this book up. However, even though I did enjoy the story, this was just an okay read for me. Though I knew that there was some edge to the story based on the description, it was a lot more dark than I expected. Without giving too much away, some may really find the story very triggering.

That being said… It was an interesting storyline that kept me reading and towards the the last quarter of the book, I couldn’t stop reading until I was done! This book did keep me up at night - wondering what would happen with Rachel & Alastair, knowing there was some kind of twist coming at some point.

Rachel was also a bit of an unlikeable character for me. I’m not really sure exactly why, but I just found her to be a bit selfish and difficult to empathize with. Even though The Girls of Summer certainly wasn’t a favorite, I’m so happy for the chance to have read it. Many thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for gifting me an ARC in exchange for my honest review!

A well=written novel with great character development. This book had me engaged from beginning to end, although it was not what I had expected. A worthwhile, engrossing read.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.