The Summer Girl is the third installment in the Avalon Bay series following Cassie & Tate.

Cassie hasn't been back to Avalon Bay in years, and comes back for one summer to celebrate her birthday and to find a fun summer fling, Tate (who we met in earlier books briefly) is local to Avalon Bay and when he initially gets to know Cassie - puts her firmly in the friendzone. Throughout the summer they get closer and Tate realizes that he may have made a mistake putting Cassie in the friendzone,

This look has friends to lovers, some steam, coastal town vibes, and is definitely going to be a really popular summer read. If you like Elle Kennedy books, you will definitely love this one. It was my favorite so far in the series.

3.5 stars!

Thank you so much to Net Galley, St Martins Press, and Elle Kennedy for the ARC!

So so good! Perfect summer read. I enjoy all Elle Kennedy books that Netgalley has allowed me to read and this did not disappoint. 5/5 for sure. It is lighthearted, whimsical, and fun. Such a good summer romance book.

☀️Book Review☀️
The Summer Girl
Pub Date: July 18, 2023
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
🌶️🌶️

This was my first Elle Kennedy book, and I loved it! Although this is third in a series, it can be read as a standalone. I do want to go back and read the first two books to see how they tie together.

This was a slightly spicy friends to lovers slow burn with a bit of family drama thrown in. The writing was great, and I liked the characters. I’m looking forward to reading more by this author.

Thank you to @netgalley @stmartinspress @ellekennedy33 for the advanced readers copy.

I requested this one hoping for a light, beach read, not realizing it was part of a series. Despite going in blind, I really enjoyed the setting and characters! I'm sure readers looking for something fun to read this summer will be as delighted as I was with this one!

This might be my favorite of the three in the series. It is the perfect lusty rom-com for summer. I just LOVE this series. Tate is adorable and Cassie is so fun. I loved the added depth of the difficult family relationships. The only thing I have gotten a touch tired of is the rich girl saves the day trope in this series. Otherwise I loved. I’m not even usually one to enjoy sex scenes but these were good. I’m always hoping there’s more from this series!

The Summer Girl is my favorite Avalon Bay novel yet! Cassie is back in Avalon Bay to witness the reopening of her family’s former hotel. While there, she hopes to find a fling for the summer. Enter Tate, who has a reputation for it. When they first meet, they decide that it’s better if they just stay friends. The grand reopening of the hotel and the reappearance of Cassie's mom make things complicated enough. Tate jokingly agrees to wingman Cassie as she searches for the perfect summer fling and ends up taking it very seriously. As their friendship deepens, they must decide whether they want something more…

The Summer Girl is a sweet summer romance. It was so fun to be back in Avalon Bay! I loved the cameos of the Hartley twins, Mackenzie, and Genevieve. Tate is serious book boyfriend material and I loved his relationship with Cassie. Cassie and Tate initially have a slow-burn romance and then promptly descend into intense attraction. I liked how they challenged each other to grow in a positive way by having tough conversations with the people in their lives. I really enjoyed how Cassie’s relationship with her dad and stepmom deepened and she gained more insight about her mom. Readers who enjoy friends to lovers, complex family dynamics, and steamy romance will love this book. The Summer Girl is the perfect relaxing and lighthearted beach read!

Thank you so much to Elle Kennedy, St. Martin’s Griffin, and Netgalley for a free ARC in exchange for an honest review.

For publisher: My review will be posted on Instagram, Goodreads, Amazon, Storygraph, and Barnes & Noble etc

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin’s Griffin for providing the ARC for review!

This was my first Elle Kennedy book, so, needless to say, I haven't read the other two books of this series. Overall, I found this to be a fast, pleasant read. The writing felt pretty juvenile, so perhaps I'm not the target demographic (I'm in my early 30's). There were parts of the dialogue that made me outwardly cringe with how awkward/socially inappropriate it was, and some of the characters did feel a bit one dimensional (Cassie's mom in particular).

Again, perhaps I'm too old to appreciate this series, but I'm in no particular rush to read the other two. I'd give this 2.75 stars (round up to 3).

This was the third book in the Avalon Bay series and now I need to go read the other two books. I loved the beachy summer vibes. This was a very lighthearted and fun summer read. I love Elle’s writing and I can’t wait to read more!

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin’s Griffin for the arc of this book!

An amazing 4.25 read!!! I love Gate and ginger so much. Avalon Bay made me feel so warm and fuzzy inside. This was a really sweet Elle Kennedy read with such a natural and beautiful relationship development. Tate and Cassie were great together and I loved how lighthearted this story was. The only piece I didn’t love was the resolution to the ending conflict. I felt it happened too quickly and that we didn’t hear enough from Tate and Cassie during that time. Otherwise this was so so good. Thank you NetGalley!

A fun, atmospheric beach read. At times the writing is a little juvenile but the emotional core was the strongest of the series.

Thanks to Net Galley and the publisher for this eARC!

I really enjoyed this one! The atmosphere of a beachy summer romance is so fun! Some more serious topics were tackled, especially parental relationships, but overall it was a lighthearted read! I also liked how it ties back to the Briar U and Off-Campus series by having Cassie as a student at Briar U. I thought that was a fun detail added in there! I look forward to the rest of the books in the series.

Thank you, Net Galley and the publisher for an ARC of Summer Girl by Elle Kennedy. This book is the third book in her Avalon Bay series and I was lucky enough to get it right after I finished the two previous books so the characters were all fresh in my mind.

Cassie has come to Avalon Bay for the summer to spend her last summer in the family home with her grandmother and help her pack up the house before she sells it. Cassie is extremely close with her grandmother. The same cannot be said for her mother or father. Her mother is a typical narcissist and her father, who lives in Avalon Bay year-round, has a new wife and daughters and Cassie feels abandoned by him and replaced by them. On her first night there, she meets Tate, a handsome local who she instantly has a connection with, and who she decides she wants to have a summer fling with.

Tate has an extremely close relationship with his parents and comes from two parents who are deeply in love. He works with his father and they have a lot in common and he considers his mother his best friend. The two try to fight their mutual attraction but fail, and then try to stick with the concept of a fling but also fail, both falling for the other.

Enter family drama, entertaining storylines, the old characters from other books making appearances as well as previous storylines continuing through the series and you’ve got yourself a great book!

Both Cassie and Tate grew emotionally and socially, standing up for themselves against what held them back. The only thing I felt the book was missing, and maybe it is just me, is I would have loved to see a conversation between Cassie and her father explaining his side of what happened post-divorce and why he didn’t make more of an effort to see her. Her step-mother and grandmother explained some but nothing is the same as hearing it straight from the horse's mouth. All of the other conversations about important issues that arose (don’t want to give too much away) occurred but I felt like this was a conversation that the reader should have been privy to.

5/5 ⭐
3/5🌶

The summer girl is the third book in Avalon Bay series by Elle Kennedy and it's probably my favorite in this series. I was blown away by it.

Cassie Soul is in Avalon Bay for the summer visiting her grandmother who has sold the Historical Inn and she's helping her go through things and prepare her grandmother for the next stage in her life. They have an amazing Bond grandmother and granddaughter bond is solid strong and beautiful and I absolutely love their interactions. Cassie is also on a mission to ditch her v card this summer.
Tate Bartlett is a fun loving non-monogamous Ladies Man of the small town. He has a great chemistry with everybody but he also has this live life to the fullest attitude. And when he meets Cassie it's not in his greatest moment. He was just dumped by the woman he was very casually seeing and Cassie got to experience that in the shadows. It was an extremely embarrassing moment for her and she was hoping that he didn't see, and it was equally embarrassing for him although he played it off really well.

When they realize that they live next door to each other because Tate is house sitting for her grandmother's neighbor they form a pretty good friendship. She was very flirtatious and determined to lose her vCard and who better than Tate the player. But when he turns her down for his own reasons they form a friend zone relationship that is absolutely comical and angsty. His idea is to help her find the perfect guy for her to complete her mission if you will. And it is just a comical dumpster fire. Tate gets jealous Cassie is not having any type of connection like she had with Tate and so as you watch all of this play out you get the laughs you get the emotions you get the swooning and you can't help but feel for both of these characters.

When they realize the chemistry between them isn't going to go away they play on it, they act on it, and it is phenomenal. However we get the twist and the suspense and the craziness that we all love from Elle Kennedy and Cassie's mother comes swooping into town. And it is almost crazy reading everything that transpires. You can feel the tension between Cassie and her mother. You can feel the heartache and the insecurity that Cassie has anytime she's around her mother and it's heartbreaking


Then twists and turns keep on coming. Family secrets are let out and boy are they dozies which puts Cassie and Tate's relationship smack dab in the middle. Your heart will ache and break seeing this happen because you love these characters so much. The summer girl is by far a must-read I absolutely loved every single moment and I wanted to be able to go into that book into that world and comfort Cassie so much.

5 swooning summer Stars!

**I would like to thank NetGalley, St. Martin's Press, Macmillan Audio, and Elle Kennedy for an ARC of this book! This will be available on 7/18/23!**

To start, I haven't read the first two, but after reading a few reviews, I was told it wouldn't effect this book. I totally agree! There were moments where I could tell that there were characters that probably had more back story, it didn't impede on the experience at all. This can definitely be read as a standalone.

This book was so lighthearted and fun. It had some deeper aspects, but the whole thing totally captured the "summer-fling-in-a-small-beach-town" aspect. It had the pining, some unrequitedness, and a little bit of spice.

I had some problems with the writing. The number of times it was mentioned that Cassie is just "so short and small and lanky with the biggest boobs ever and omg they're just so big" really distracted the story. While it is mentioned that being told by her mother about a breast reduction was a major insecurity for her, it could've been fleshed out in a much more mature way. Tate was also very flatly written as a playboy but somehow no bad blood with anyone. I wish these two had more depth to their characters other than the little we were given. Granted, I haven't read the other books so I can't speak to any background provided in those.

While I love a good camp-esque theme, this was a little overdone. Beach Days was such a fun concept, but I didn't need multiple chapters to read about it. It didn't progress the story or the characters at all, except for us to have another "i know my knockers are so totally big, but believe it or not, I'm still really good at balancing" moment and an excuse for her parents to be in the same place at the same time.

I loved the way the family drama came together. I felt so mad on Cassie's behalf. The author worked through the miscommunication really well. Her mom really was the villain and was written in such a believable but heartbreaking way. The twist at the end literally made me gasp.

Was this the best book I've read? No. frankly the writing and character building felt very amateur. Did I still read this in a day? Yes. It was light, fluffy, and good to read after a book hangover. This is my first Elle Kennedy novel I can definitely see myself reading more by her.

The Summer Girl is by far my favorite of the Avalon Bay summer series!! The Good Girl Complex is a book I devoured in one plane ride so I knew I would really enjoy the rest of the series. I loved this friends to lovers neighbor romance between a curvy virgin and the townie playboy. The chemistry between these two was exactly what I needed, it was GREAT. It was their honest friendship! Steamy and heartfelt and full of complex family drama. I truly loved every second of it! Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for early e-reader copy in exchange for my honest review!

Just like when you are in the mood for a cozy holiday romance, there comes a time in the year when you are ready for a hot summer fling and Elle Kennedy is the perfect author to turn to when that time comes, especially her Avalon Bay series.

Book three of the series, The Summer Girl, introduces a newcomer, Cassie, to the regular cast of characters as the FMC. She is visiting her grandmother, the previous owner of The Beacon Hotel, and Cassie brings her own backstory that highlights themes of body image, negative self-talk influenced by a narcissistic mother, and navigating as a child of divorce.

Like the first two books, it is primarily a summer fling with another hot Avalon Bay local, which of course begs the question, what are they putting in the water? Tate, the MMC, is the highlight of the book and his wholesome relationship with his parents is very endearing but don't let that fool you, Elle Kennedy knows how to make a good boy a little bad.

To nitpick, this book felt like a backslide on the maturity scale in this series of books, which may be in part due to having a 20 y.o. FMC and there were some cheesy lines and moments that were borderline cringe. However, this book delivers as a quick, easy-to-read summer romance that entertains you from start to finish. I will surely be adding any new additions to this series to my TBR.

Thank you to Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for an arc.!

Thank you to NetGalley, Elle Kennedy and the publisher for allowing me to read an ARC copy of this book! This story is very fun, addictive and perfect for the summer time. I would highly recommend this as a book to read by the pool or beach to really get into the vibes Elle Kennedy has created with this series.

This is the 3rd in the Avalon Bay series and another fun one, but can be read as a standalone. Cassie spent summers on Avalon Bay for years but after her parents got a divorce she had not been back. Now as a college student she returns because her grandmother is selling the hotel that has been in their family for decades.

She wants to celebrate her twenty-first birthday and have a summer fling. She meets Tate Bartlett who is sailing instructor and adorable, but is not looking for anything serious. Their attraction is instant and they try to keep things casual.

They come from very different backgrounds which could make it challenging. Another fun one. Cassie is naïve and sweet, but unsure of herself. She is trying to navigate her relationships with her parents and stepsisters.

There are some steamy and graphic sex scenes, so be prepared. This story is about several kinds of relationships and a fun and quick read.

I really enjoy this Avalon Bay series, and The Summer Girl is #3. Hopefully there will be more! The narrator switches between the two main characters, and the setting, as always, is *chef's kiss*.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

I am obsessed with Elle Kennedy’s writing and story telling. I really enjoyed the first two books in The Avalon Bay series. I was extremely excited to read The Summer Girl and finished it in one sitting. I was hooked from the beginning that I couldn’t stop reading. The Summer Girl follows Cassie as she spends the summer in Avalon Bay looking for a summer fling. Cassie and Tate have great chemistry and angst together. I enjoyed the appearances of the other characters from the previous novels. This is the perfect summer read and Elle Kennedy did not disappoint. Overall, The Summer Girl is a fun and spicy novel about a summer fling that turns into romance. Thank you to NetGalley and Elle Kennedy and St Martin's Griffin for this ARC. I can’t wait to purchase a physical copy.