If you’re looking for a scandalous summer read filled with infidelity, rich people problems, and murder…this should be your jam.

I’ve said in previous reviews that I absolutely am obsessed with sneaking a peak into the lives of the 0.1%. And Bad Summer People gives exactly that vibe. Seeing what the uber-wealthy are up to all summer on Fire Island is exactly what I expected them to be doing. Screwing each other’s spouses, sleeping with the tennis pro, drinking so many cocktails, getting into each other’s business, being vaguely polite but also hating each other, ignoring their “precious” children, and completely ignoring life off-island, despite being a mere ferry ride away from their lives in Manhattan. I loved every minute of this book.

The characters were surprisingly deep. Jen, Lauren, and eventually Sam especially. Robert? Hot, yes. Did I both love and hate the man? Also yes. Susan? Wow. Hated her, but every summer town has their own Susan. And how vicious these women acted about tennis and their tournament? I can absolutely believe it all.

Overall, this was a really fun and scandalous summer read!

Thanks to NetGalley, the author, and MacMillan Audio for a review copy!

Rich people behaving badly fans, this book is for you!!

This book is so much fun! This is more of a suspenseful book than a thriller, but other than that it reads very much like a popcorn thriller.

Lauren Parker is the social queen of Salcombe, Fire Island every summer - she is a Hamptons-esque mom who seems to have it all. She and her group of friends, picture the popular group of moms/husbands/adults on the island, all have dark secrets, hold grudges, constantly gossip, and maybe even… commit murder?

This was a super easy read, I binged it in one day and I enjoyed it SO much! I am a sucker for rich people doing bad things. The characters were fun to hate, the island itself was easy to picture based on the writing, and this was a darkly comedic story. I happen to love stories with dark comedy, so I honestly just had a really good time the entire time I was reading.

One issue I have with this novel is all of the characters we have to remember and get the POV of - there are around 8 important characters. This got confusing sometimes, especially during the audiobook. The other issue I had was that this is said to be a thriller - but it is really more of a suspenseful novel. There weren’t as many twists and turns as I expected.

The audiobook was sometimes hard to follow because of all of the characters, but I really liked the narrator, January LaVoy. She did a really good job narrating this book.

Overall, this was a 3.5 star read for me. I enjoyed it so much, but with it being hard to follow and also not having the twists/turns I expected, I had to rate it at 3.5.

I really look forward to seeing more from this debut author, Emma Rosenblum! I think I will really enjoy her books in the future!

Thank you to NetGalley, Macmillan Audio, and Emma Rosenblum for the audio ARC of this novel in exchange for my honest review!

Thanks to Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for the audio ARC! 2.5 ⭐️
This dragged on after an interesting prologue. There was barely any mystery and no real thriller aspect. I felt there were way too many characters to keep straight and the drama was uninteresting and I wasn’t invested in any of it. The writing wasn’t bad and if there were less characters and more compelling events I think I would have enjoyed this much more.

Well, I've never read a truer title! The characters in this book are very interesting and very bad. I love stories about rich people and their drama, it fascinates me. I was entertained and engaged throughout the book and sometimes that doesn't happen when there are a TON of characters to follow. Was there a lot of suspense? No. Was there a ton of drama? Absolutely.

The narration was good. THANK YOU for not doing a full cast narration because that can be extremely hit or miss and I prefer a single narrator.

Overall, the book was enjoyable. I'd recommend.

I really didn't expect to like this book as much as I did, but it was exactly what I wanted to read lately! I love the beach mystery setting, and I'm fascinated by the lives and scandals of the super wealthy. None of the characters are necessarily likable, but they are all fascinating. I really enjoyed this and would read more books by this author. The audiobook narrator did a great job, as well.

3.6 stars

Great narrator; I wouldn't have been able to paper-read this one but with narration it was easy to listen to while doing chores, etc.

This is definitely NOT a thriller. It's a domestic drama with a sprinkle of suspense. It's an easy, entertaining "vacation" listen. AND FOR ONCE the title is appropriate!

Note: I still find it incredibly hard to believe these types of characters and their "summer towns" exist in the real world. Everything about the town and the people in it feels like a cartoon/literary cliche/stereotype that only exists in books. I also saw how everything was going to play out (including the ending and the twist) from a mile away; but sometimes it's that "popcorn" read your brain wants.

It's the first book I've enjoyed in a while even if there's nothing likable about the story or the characters. It was just nice to be a fly on the wall for someone elsese drama and gossip.

Would recommend if you like "real housewives" type of entertainment.

One aspect of the story I really liked (and this surprised me) was how many narrators there are. There are at least 10, maybe more. I also liked that we got the backstory for each character when they narrated a chapter for the first time.

SUMMARY: Solcumb is a rich, white "tennis town" on Fire Island. The book mainly follows two 40-something couples. The husbands grew up going to Solcumb as kids and now are going back with their own families. Each of them narrates, as well as the one families nanny, Rachel, a childhood friend of the husbands, Robert, the new tennis instructor all the women have the hots for, and Micha, a 21yo who has grown up going to the island and is now the resident bar tender. There are other characters who pop up as well, such as the woman overseeing the tennis tournaments, but these are the "main cast" and the book follows their summer and their problems. For example, multiple people are having affairs, sometimes with each other, someone is stealing money, someone else has been sued for harassment, etc.

At the start of the book the reader finds out someone ends up dead at the end of summer. For the entire book you're wondering how any of this "Drama" could lead to a death, but then eventually you find out who dies and who "snaps" and "why" -- really this "murder mystery" is so minor in the story I forgot about it entirely until part 5 when the person dies.

Thanks netgalley for my ARC/ALC!

Thank you so much to NetGalley, the publisher, and author for providing this audiobook for my honest review. I loved this “rich people behaving badly” popcorn mystery/thriller. It’s so twisty and full of backstabbing, drama, and gossip. I couldn’t stop listening to it! It is the perfect summer beach read. It’s amazing that this is the author’s debut novel. It’s perfection! I also loved the narrator. There are quite a few characters in this book and the narrator does an excellent job of creating unique voices and accents to help the reader keep track of everyone. I have listened to many of her audiobooks and always enjoy her performances. I loved the audiobook so much, but now I need a physical copy too! I look forward to more from this author. Thank you again for allowing me to review this wonderfully entertaining book.

Thank you Netgalley for my copy of Bad Summer People.
This book was truly my guilty pleasure. I loved all the drama and backstabbing.
Only complaint is that I felt there were too many characters to keep track of.

Perfect summer beach read, especially if you live on Long Island, like I do! This is a twisty, “rich people behaving badly” page turner with a great sense of place. No one is likable but you definitely want to know how it’s all going to come together in the end. Put this on your summer reading list!

Great read. Bad Summer People is a dramatic soap opera like book with a little twist in the end. All the scandals kept my interest through the whole book.

This is a super intriguing story of the intertwined , deceptive lives of the residents in a small costal community. I enjoyed the different perspectives while still moving the story forward at a fast pace.

A listening delight, in Bad Summer People, well dressed and educated, totally charmingly unlikeable people navigate a Fire Island summer full of tennis competition, overserved drinking, fake friendships, lying, stock manipulation, adultery and, finally, murder. I don’t want to give anything away but I could not stop listening this domestic drama, written by Emma Rosenblum and narrated by January LaVoy. Netflix and Amazon, pay attention. Bad Summer People is a series or a movie. 5 stars.

Thank you to NetGalley, Macmillan Audio, Emma Rosenblum and January LaVoy for this ARC.

If you like high society drama then this book is for you! Usually, when there are so many characters, I get overwhelmed with remembering who is who and there is typically so much drama going on that there isn’t a clear focus. This was not the case with this book! I liked how all of the character’s drama overlapped with an overarching problem, so it was easier to keep track of what was going on. I never felt any true suspense, but it was entertaining to listen to on my drives to and from work.

Anyone who is looking for a beachy suspense novel should pick up this read. This book is full of anti-heroes and starts out to a body being found in a rich neighborhood.

After a body is found the narrator takes us back to the beginning of the summertime when all the families are arriving at the beach. The community is filled with fairly unlikeable characters (in the best way possible if you know what I mean) and messy relationships. Overall, I enjoyed this book but it started to drag a little bit for me because I was waiting to see how all the relationship problems and antics would lead to a death. I think I was expecting a little more action in the middle of the book with such a strong start but this novel is more of a slow burning suspense with us getting a deep insight into what leads to it. Definitely more of a suspense novel than a thriller but that's not necessarily a bad thing.

I would recommend this book to anyone looking for a beachy read with a mystery. Thank you NetGalley for an opportunity to read this story.

3.5 Great summer read as these are bad summer people. The story really brings you into the inner circle of the small rich town with secrets galore.

Audio narration was good, I feel like more narrators would have really brought this to life.

I was drawn in by the narrator and the premise. The opening grabbed me, but as soon as the characters started to reveal themselves I couldn't connect.

The book was hard to relate to and came across as trite. I liked the narrator, but the characters were hard to relate to and I lost interest. I think most adult literacy, adult learners, would have a hard time relating. While there was a critique of this privileged and rather loathsome characters, I just couldn't hang in long enough to follow the plot..

This is a fun, engaging beach read, with a character driven plot and great story. I highly recommend.

Definitely more of a tale of domestic entanglement than a thriller, but still quite compelling, and often cinematic (you can really imagine these people trying to evade one another on beach cruisers, for example.)

Thank you so much to NetGalley & MacMillan Audio for the ALC in exchange for an honest review!

3.5 stars

BAD SUMMER PEOPLE falls into the genre I call "rich people problems", and that's not a bad thing! This was an entertaining story of a bunch of rich people in their summer homes on Fire Island. It contained the usual infidelity, embezzlement, fraud, etc. I really enjoyed the multiple POVs of the story and found the ending to be quite the twist!

What brought the rating down for me was expecting the murder mentioned in the synopsis far earlier than it showed up. I found the book to really take the time setting the scene (over half of the book), before the murder and it's mystery unfolded. I think the length of time for the rising action made it hard to keep my attention at times, but overall I enjoyed the story and the narration was extremely well done!

I believe this would make for a great beach read :)

Just in time for vacation season!! This was a great "beach read" in my opinion. I would say people that enjoy the "real Housewives" and mystery would love this book. Although the book opens up with a "mystery" the majority of the book reads more like a fiction novel. The story is based in a small town on Fire Island, "the red-headed step child" of the Hamptons. The book goes through the wealthy inhabitants' lives, and how they are intertwined through the small town, or through the obsession of tennis. Through the story we learn the "lead-up" to the opening mystery, and eventually all of the details to the actual act.

I listened to this book, and I found it easy to follow, and enjoyed the narrator. I will say that the story line at the end seemed forced, but then it came together with the epilogue.

Overall, I would recommend this book for a fun read!