I have to say, from the cover, I felt like I was getting a summer thriller right off the gorgeous backdrop in Greece, but this was more of a slow burn grooming story that was similar to My Dark Vanessa.

I paired the book and the audio together, and it definitely helped to have both formats so I could r was on the go. I liked the narration, but the characters were unlikeable which made it a tough read for me.

*many thanks to St Martins Press, Macmillan Audio and Netgalley for the gifted copy for review

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the gifted e-book.

I started listening to this on audio, but in all honesty, I was very bored and unengaged. I made it to 15% and had to DNF (did not finish). It wasn't for me, but I say still give it a try.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for giving me the opportunity to read this before publication date.

I can’t get into this one, and am marking it as did not finish. I’m not following the plot & don’t find myself wanting to pick it up.

Thank you NetGalley for gifting me an advance copy in exchange for my honest review and opinions. I greatly enjoyed this novel.

I went into reading The Girls of Summer knowing nothing, not even really reading the synopsis. As a result, I think I’m less disappointed in this than many other reviewers seem to be. This is an atmospheric slow burn drama, not a thriller and not a jaunty summer book.

The story goes back and forth in time, telling what happened to Rachel sixteen years ago and how it has affected her present day life. The pace is slow but I liked that. It felt to me like it was mimicking the gradualness of how someone is drawn into the situation she was in. She’s not particularly likeable as an adult and although some reviewers have commented on her lack of maturity, that’s actually what happens to some women who were groomed, traumatized and abused in their teens; their maturity level can get stuck at the age they were when the trauma occurred.

Overall, although the content was heavy, I did enjoy this and look forward to seeing what Katie Bishop writes next!

I first want to thank Katie Bishop and NetGalley for this ARC eBook edition.

I struggled with this book, I was branching of into a genre I don't read a lot of. I hated the characters but the plot was good. The book was fast paced but during some parts of the book i felt that it was hard to continue reading

A disturbing tale of power imbalances, consent, and the how our memories can reveal shocking things as we grow older. A summer on an idyllic Greek island seems like paradise, but for the girls who crossed paths with Alistair, the dream quickly turned into a nightmare. Reminiscent of "My Dark Vanessa", many of his victims only began coming to terms with what happened on that island decades later. Bishop crafts a story that has her characters not only coming to terms with their trauma, but reclaiming their stories as their own.

I did not finish this one, it was not for me, I couldn't relate to the characters, and just did not care for the story.

Thank you @netgalley @stmartinspress for the #gifted copy!

Oh this was a tough read. The initial chapters gripped me strongly, especially with the troubled protagonist Rachel. However, her self-sabotaging behavior & treatment of her poor husband Tom left a bitter taste. She did not deserve him 🥺.

The 'instant connection' & age gap with Alistair early on were also discomforting & gave me the ick 🤢 . It made me want to shake Rachel to see what she saw in him! 😡 her naivety drove me a little nuts.

I did enjoy the narrative structure of 'Then & Now' chapters, it was a highlight, providing insights into the past & present seamlessly.

Overall, the writing was skilled, vividly depicting scenes, but the plot & subject matter just weren’t for me 🤷🏼‍♀️. Sadly, I also saw the ending and 'big twist' coming, which slightly diminished the impact.

⚠️ TW: scenes of rape & sexual abuse

Katie Bishop's debut novel explores the theme of a May/December romance within the constructs of the #metoo movement. The primary relationship has a ton of "red flags" that the audience can see but the characters are simply none the wiser, leaving the reader to wonder where the plot was going at times.

In The Girls of Summer, Rachel spends one beautiful and reckless summer with Alistair when she was 17 years old. Now older and married to another man, she is on holiday returning to the Greek islands. Rachel is trying to remember the wonderful feelings of that summer, but slowly realizes her memories and the reality of what happened are not the same.

This novel was an interesting read in that it was nothing like what I had expected when I picked it off the shelf. The cover evokes the warm breezes and colors of Greece, while the themes of the novel are must darker and more sinister. It was a mismatch all together.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the opportunity to read this novel.

Balancing romance and thrillers as a mood reader is not an exact balance, but The Girls Of Summer by Katie Bishop had parts falling into both categories and neither of them all at the same time.

This dark book came to me exactly when I needed it. It’s like kicking off your shoes on the shores of a warm beach, only to feel how sharp the sand is on your soles; that moment of pain and pleasure combined.

It's told from distinct time lines: then and now.

Then: when there's that feeling of invincibility: you can stay up all night, drinking the whole time only to bounce right back from it all by the next morning; when your body is still new and exciting; when experiences still heighten all your senses and you just want to feel important and part of an older society.

Now: when there's that feeling of reality: your life is settled, suddenly becoming routine and there's never a sense of excitement; you long to have the younger version of yourself once again, if only for a fleeting moment; you try your hardest, searching for thrills that bring it back - even momentarily.

This book begs the question: when we look back on our past, and romanticize our younger selves, are those experiences how we initially thought them to be?

I don't want to say too much about this novel as I think it's best to go in blind, but both timelines have a sense of foreboding. Both have the sense that a train wreck will happen at any moment, and I could not tear myself away for it.

A real, powerful and raw book - especially after knowing the authors thoughts on creating it. This one is for fans of My Dark Vanessa, with nods to The Last Housewife.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the complimentary copy to read and review.

As a teen, Rachel went traveling before taking her exit exams. When she started a relationship with Alistair, she decided to stay on his island and build her life around him and his employer, Henry Taylor, among with a group of other girls around her age.

Fast forward two decades and Rachel is married to someone else, working a normal job, and only thinks about that summer in passing. When she bumps into one of the other girls and gets Alistair’s number, she starts up an affair with him.

Told in Then and Now, the reader begins to slowly understand that Rachel’s summer want the ideal time she likes to think it was. And with the help of the other girls, she is finally able to face the tragedies that happened to her then, and Alistair’s role in them.

I loved the premise and overall plot of the book, but for some reason it still fell flat for me. I never felt compelled to finish, and instead dragged out reading this one. I did finish it, but I wouldn’t say this one had me hooked or anything. I understand that Rachel is designed to be a flawed character, but I still didn’t really care enough about her to get invested.

This wasn’t for me. Far too slow and wordy. Plot crept at a snails pace and found myself uninterested. Topic is very overdone and didn’t come at it in a unique way. Hardly a mystery/thriller. Did not enjoy.

This is not it for me. I get the point of it is to show a teen get manipulated by an older man. I just did not connect to this at all. I was expecting more.

Stolen straight from the headlines of the #metoo movement and Jeffrey Epstein scandal, I found the book too long and too wordy. Read the papers instead. Get the condensed version.

The Girls of Summer follows Rachel's journey to come to terms with her past. The chapters alternate between then and now, giving the story some dimension as it follows two timelines. While I enjoyed the story of Rachel's long lasting love for Alistair and her slow uncovering of different views from that summer, I did find it to be just that, slow. I found the beginning started off strong, but the majority of the book was a slow pace and glossed over many of the parts that would have made the novel more gripping or impactful. Rather, I felt the parts of the book that should have been the most important, were brief and vague.
I would be hesitant to recommend, as this would not be one of my first picks after having read it.

katie bishop's debut is just one of the many books on power and exploitation that came out in light of the #metoo movement, but it does not feel any less important. the story follows rachel as she reminisces about her vacation to greece fifteen years ago, and the relationship/mutual infatuation she had with alistair.

bishop does a great job of tackling such heavy themes with three dimensional characters and nuanced perspectives.

I really wanted to love this book. I feel like I have been reading the same mundane, #MeToo, predictable thrillers lately. The one good thing about this book was the setting. The frustrating thing about this book is the main character acting like a moron and making several bad decisions and believing it is ok. I also felt the ending did not wrap up the book well.

Another no for me. Disappointing. Cannot recommend.

Thanks to Netgalley, Katie Bishop and St Martin's Press for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Already available

This one wasn't particularly for me, as far as "tropes" go. #MeToo can be written about, but this wasn't my favorite way. Thanks for the opportunity to read and review