this book captures very well what it feels like to be young and full of hope and longing, in this case for an older man who ultimately betrays her and the other young women who work for him. And how much it takes to really break through that romantic haze and see what the truth is. well written

This book was fine, not my favorite but not horrible. I had a hard time connecting with Rachel and found her attitude to be a bit grating (which makes me feel bad knowing she is a trauma victim). I also have a hard time reading about cheating so this might’ve always been a poor choice for me.

4.5/5 Thank you to Net Galley and the author for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

An interesting & unsettling coming of age story told in two timelines: Then & Now – 16 years apart.
Then:
Rachel and a friend spent a summer in their late teens travelling around Greece taking in the sun, sand, young fun and parties at the beach. That summer changed her life. She was young and naïve; perfect for Alastair, a controlling man 20 years her senior. She was convinced that it was love and didn’t see the controlling, abusive man grooming and trafficking her.
Now:
The manipulation, control, and sexual abuse by Alastair were so well done that the young, gullible Rachel didn’t even comprehend his betrayal years later. As the past informs the present, Rachel is having difficulties in her current relationship with a husband who is pushing to start a family. After searching him out and restarting an affair with Alastair, it takes some prodding from friends for Rachel to reappraise her first love. As the rose coloured glasses are removed and she looks at it from a middle-aged adult’s point of view, she reassesses the people and events from her past and struggles to accept the truth.

The writing is very fluid. Rachel’s thoughts and motivations are very well described; her youth, his power, and the manipulation of her consent. The reader follows along and it is easy to understand how Rachel feels and what she believes. This is a dark and cautionary tale all about perception and hidden betrayal.

This is a story that has stayed with me, well past the completion of reading. I recommend this book to women everywhere.

This was a no for me, I didn't love it. It's not one I would recommend and I didn't finish. 1.5 stars, it just didn't work for me.

𝑾𝒆 𝒂𝒍𝒍 𝒕𝒆𝒍𝒍 𝒔𝒕𝒐𝒓𝒊𝒆𝒔, 𝒋𝒖𝒔𝒕 𝒍𝒊𝒌𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒚 𝒅𝒊𝒅 𝒃𝒂𝒄𝒌 𝒊𝒏 𝒂𝒏𝒄𝒊𝒆𝒏𝒕 𝒕𝒊𝒎𝒆𝒔. 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝒕𝒂𝒍𝒆𝒔 𝒘𝒆 𝒘𝒉𝒊𝒔𝒑𝒆𝒓 𝒕𝒐 𝒐𝒖𝒓𝒔𝒆𝒍𝒗𝒆𝒔 𝒋𝒖𝒔𝒕 𝒃𝒆𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒆 𝒘𝒆 𝒇𝒂𝒍𝒍 𝒂𝒔𝒍𝒆𝒆𝒑 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒔𝒐𝒏𝒈𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒔𝒕𝒓𝒖𝒄𝒕𝒖𝒓𝒆 𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒍𝒊𝒗𝒆𝒔. 𝑾𝒆 𝒎𝒂𝒚 𝒏𝒐𝒕 𝒃𝒆𝒍𝒊𝒆𝒗𝒆 𝒊𝒏 𝒈𝒐𝒅𝒅𝒆𝒔𝒔𝒆𝒔 𝒂𝒏𝒚𝒎𝒐𝒓𝒆, 𝒃𝒖𝒕 𝒘𝒆 𝒎𝒂𝒌𝒆 𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝒍𝒊𝒗𝒆𝒔 𝒑𝒂𝒓𝒕 𝒇𝒂𝒊𝒓𝒚 𝒕𝒂𝒍𝒆 𝒂𝒍𝒍 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒔𝒂𝒎𝒆. 𝑺𝒐𝒎𝒆𝒕𝒊𝒎𝒆𝒔 𝒘𝒆 𝒏𝒆𝒆𝒅 𝒕𝒐 𝒓𝒆𝒎𝒆𝒎𝒃𝒆𝒓 𝒘𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒊𝒔 𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒍.

I'm not sure how to classify this book, but it doesn't really matter. I pulled in by both the lush descriptions of Greece and the heightened sense of nostalgia for a place I've never been but can recall just the same. Memory is a tricky, slippery thing. Do we romanticize the past, remembering it with a fondness that it doesn't deserve?

This certainly seems to be the case for Rachel, who visits the Greek Islands as a 17-year-old with friends and ends up staying, altering the course of the rest of her life. She falls in love with Alistair, a man 20 years her senior, and spends her days on the sun-soaked beach and her nights working at a bar. But her fond memories are tinged with the inkling that something was wrong the entire time. She remembers being asked to do favors for Alistair's boss, and she remembers the haunted expressions on her friends' faces after doing the same favors. When she returns home, humiliated and alone, she tries to forget Alistair and moves on, marrying another. Fifteen years pass before Rachel reconnects with her friends from that summer, and when their recollections don't match hers, she becomes obsessed with finding out just what happened on that island.

With the vivid descriptions of the setting intermixed with snippets of mythology, I was absolutely transported to this fictional world. My heart broke for Rachel when she realized that the past was not as she had remembered it: 𝑰 𝒂𝒎 𝒂𝒏 𝒐𝒓𝒂𝒄𝒍𝒆, 𝑰 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒌, 𝒂 𝑪𝒂𝒔𝒔𝒂𝒏𝒅𝒓𝒂. 𝑰 𝒄𝒂𝒏 𝒔𝒆𝒆 𝒑𝒓𝒆𝒎𝒐𝒏𝒊𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏𝒔 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒄𝒖𝒓𝒔𝒆𝒔. 𝑰 𝒌𝒏𝒐𝒘 𝒏𝒐𝒘 𝒘𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒊𝒔 𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒖𝒔.

I am so grateful to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for an early copy of this stunning debut. THE GIRLS OF SUMMER will publish June 6, 2023.

I requested a digital copy in order to sample the prose on my phone (since I don't have a eReader) before requesting a physical copy for review. My review will be based on the physical ARC I read (if I qualify)

I was excited to read THE GIRLS OF SUMMER based on the description, but unfortunately I DNFed at 30%. The premise itself is interesting, but the pacing so far has been incredibly slow. I also don't like Rachel -- which is fine, because not all characters need to be likeable, but the bigger issue is that I don't care enough about her to continue reading to find out what happened/happens to her. I will say, though, that the setting is really well-developed, and the "Then" chapters that take place in Greece were my favorites for that reason.

Readers who appreciate slower books might have more luck with this one than I did.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press for providing a review copy.

The Girls of Summer
Katie Bishop
3.5⭐️

Blurb: Rachel and Alistair’s life-changing summer love affair on a sun-trapped Greek island has consumed her since she was seventeen. But as Rachel becomes increasingly obsessed with reliving the events of so long ago, and reconnects with the other girls who were similarly drawn to life on the island, dark secrets about her first love affair begin to rise to the surface.

The Girls of Summer was Bishops debut novel although it didn’t necessarily read like one. I was intrigued by the premised and the island setting. The writing and characters were well done. I found Rachel incredibly naive (past and present) which made it a little hard for me to connect with her as much as I wanted to. The dual timelines kept me engaged even though there were a few times the story seemed to drag a little. I kept waiting for a twist that just didn’t happen. All in all it was a like not love for me on this atmospheric tale but I do look forward to more from Bishop.

Read if you like;
🇬🇷Now/Then Timelines
🇬🇷Dark Tales
🇬🇷Greek Island Setting
🇬🇷Mysterious Thrillers

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

The sub title of The Girls of Summer should be The Jeffrey Epstein Story. Swap Henry Taylor for Jeffrey Epstein and Greece instead the Caribbean, and that's The Girls of Summer. While the title conjures images of beautiful beaches, lazy summer days, and party-hardy nights (there are plenty of these), beneath the polished exterior is the dark secret of what is really happening at Henry Taylor's parties. Fortunately The Girls of Summer doesn't pretend to be something it is not-everyone, except for Rachel- (who needs this information more than anyone!) knows or suspects Henry and his enabler Alistair are grooming young girls for what is basically prostitution. Rachel is blinded by her "love" for Alistair to see what is painfully obvious. Years later Rachel still remembers that summer as a fairy tale and Alistair as her knight in shining armor. The Girls of Summer does have a few things going for it- Katie Bishop's descriptions of the remote Greek isle where Girls of Summer takes place are so vivid it feels like you're sticking toes in the sand and swimming in the crystal waters. But nothing glosses over the ugly truth, and it's hard to get past Rachel's oblivion. It's one thing for love to be blind, but for Rachel it is also deaf and dumb, and that makes The Girls of Summer a hard novel to like or appreciate.

This book took me forever to read and no matter how hard I tried I just could not get into it. I found the characters to be naive and unlikeable. I am actually relieved I finally finished it.

The Girls of Summer alternates between Then and Now. “Then” is set on a beautiful island along the coast of Greece, where 17-year-old Rachel spent the summer trying new things and making new friends. “Now” is set 16 years later, in London where Rachel lives with her husband, Tom and finds herself haunted by the events of that summer. Her inexperience, naiveté and lack of self-confidence allowed predators to coerce her into staying on the island past summer and led to traumatic experiences that have haunted her since.

Author Katie Bishop weaves a dark tale that shows how easily the lines of consent and coercion can be blurred. Her descriptions of the locations and events are impactful without being overly graphic and the tension she builds kept me wanting more. Except for Rachel’s friend Jules, there really was nothing endearing for me about any of the characters, but maybe that was intentional in order to demonstrate how people who lack direction and deep relationships can easily become targets.

This timely book kept my interest and had me invested in the outcome. If #MeToo stories appeal to you, add this one to your TBR.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

When Rachel was 17 she spent a summer on a Greek island where she met Alistair, her first love, a man that would come to define almost everything in her life since then. Now, grown and married to someone else, she still cannot stop thinking about Alistair, 20 years her senior, and that summer that brought them together. She travels back to the island with her husband and finds one of the other girls she met that summer, She's forced to recall the events that occurred there differently than how she's romanticized them to be for all these years.
This was a good story although I really didn't like any of the characters. Maybe we aren't supposed to tho? It's a heavy read, with disturbing topics and even though I wanted to sympathize with Rachel and the other girls, I couldn't as much as I would have thought I would. It's still a good read but just be warned that it hits very deep.

The months Rachel spent on a small Greek island 16 years ago when she was 17 years old completely changed her life. Rachel and her best friend decided to backpack the summer before finishing up school, and their travels landed them on this island. They end up making friends with other girls, and Rachel ends up staying past the summer. However, a body ends up washing ashore and the whole trajectory of Rachel’s plans change after that.

Current day Rachel is married and living in London. Rachel and her husband, Tom, decide to go back to the island that Rachel hasn’t seen in 17 years. While it has transformed and became more touristy, she is surprised to see one of the girls she was friends with that original summer. This brings back the flood of emotions and memories regarding the man, Alistair, she fell in love with that summer all those years ago and gets his number from her old friend. This then sets into motion something she can’t stop and upends everything she thought she knew. This starts a slow burn of what happened in the past and current day.

This book flips between current and past each chapter. You feel the emotions of what Rachel was feeling when she was 17 as well as the feelings and understanding that progresses for Rachel as an adult. This book delves into the complications of being a teenager in love and not fully understanding a situation once sucked into it, even years later. I did not see where this book was going for a while until it all made sense. This book has more substance and heaviness than I realized, since I thought this would be more of a light, beach read so it was okay I didn’t read this in the middle of summer. Overall, this is a really strong debut novel that did not disappoint. I would definitely read the next book (hopefully) by this author.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press, Katie Bishop, and Netgalley for allowing me to read an advanced reader’s copy.

Thanks to Netgalley and St. Martins Press for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review..

Rachel is in her 30’s and married but she has never gotten over a summer romance she had with Alistair, a much older man, on an island in Greece when she was 18. On a current day trip to that island with her husband, she meets someone she knew back then and gets Alistair’s contact info. It turns out he is living in London, same as Rachel, and once she knows this, she can’t stay away.

3.5 stars.

I believe I was offered this ARC from the publisher based on some other novels of theirs that I had liked. I admit I was sucked in by the Santorini looking scene on the cover. I didn’t stop to check the genre. Women’s fiction is tolerable but I much prefer a mystery/thriller. This book was well written and it was a pretty good book, it just didn’t have the surprises and twists I normally like in a book. It was basically a woman coking to terms with her past. The ending kind of dragged for me and i skimmed the last 15%. Definitely not a bad book just not my thing.

I could not put this novel down. The Girls of Summer follows Rachel who goes on a trip with a friend, an innocent escape before the start of college. But what started as innocent turned dangerous, hurtful, and created a lifetime of pain. This book was engaging, surprising, and had me at the edge of my seat.
Thank you, NetGalley, for an advanced copy of this book.

This one reminded me of a book that I read last year, that I can’t remember the name of, because this is one of those overdone tropes. The writing was okay, but holy wow are there some heavy trigger warnings.

I received an ARC of this book from Netgalley in exchange for my honest review.

REVIEW TO FOLLOW.

Rachel spends a summer in Greece thinking Alistair is the love of her life - years later she is married to someone else and still thinking of him and the summer they spent together. As her memories come back to her, she realizes it wasn't all she thought it was. This was a good story told in alternating times between the present and past. It has themes of abuse, grooming, trafficking, etc. Rachel's decisions were infuriating but you also realize she was a naive 17/18 year old who was manipulated. I would recommend if you like these types of stories!

At first, I was really drawn into the story and wanting to know what had happened on the island all those years ago. Unfortunately, the main character, Rachel, is just so unlikable and her actions become more and more unbelievable. There is zero growth or maturing from seventeen to being a woman in her thirties. I also found something to be very upsetting and wish there had been a warning about it before I read this book.

Overall, this was an average read that started out great, but didn't live up to its potential for me.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for access to this arc.

I have started this book so many times. I nearly didn't even finish but when I request/receive an ARC I feel I must own up to the agreement. This is the one that nearly made me break my word. It's so slow. I mean so so slow. Rachel's character wasn't one I was drawn too, nor did I care to know how her story unfolded. I enjoy past/present stories but I never fully was able to enjoy this book in its entirety.