THE SUMMER GIRL - ELLE KENNEDY
4⭐
PLOT - Cassie Soul comes to Avalon Bay to spend an entire summer with her grandmother and ring in her 21st birthday with her estranged father and his family. She wants to enjoy her summer by finding a summer fling she meets Tate who is a known player but in meeting Cassie he refuses to be her fling as she is not those sorts and puts her in friend zone but theri mutual attractions makes it impossible to ignore. To add to this is their respective family drama for when secrets unfold their relationship may not survive.
MY THOUGHTS
I hv read both the previous books in the series but this can be read as a standalone and i enjoyed it the most.
I loved the whole small town business owners competition with various beach activities. Tate and Cassies friendship turned attraction and there is quite a bit of steam too. I enjoyed Cassies character development was really good and her final interaction with her mother who kept demeaning her. The last bit of family drama was a bit too much for me but overall it was an enjoyable beach read this summer.
The narrators were fantastic and quite enjoyed the audio.
Thank you Netgalley and publishers for this arc in exchange for my honest review.

I loved this audio so, so much! (I mean, Teddy Hamilton? 🥵 yes plz)

The Summer Girl was probably my favorite of the Avalon Bay series. I reeeaally loved Tate and and the relationship arcs between Cass and her family - it all felt super relatable.

This is a fun, summertime read. Cassie and Tate are interesting, relatable, entertaining characters. I enjoyed their on-page time together. I really liked how their relationship progressed. The secondary characters added so much to the fabric of the story. Cassie’s mother is something special (and not in a good way).

I enjoyed their narrators and found them easy to understand and follow.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Cassie goes to Avalon Bay for the summer to visit her grandmother, relax, and to have a fling. When she meets Tate, a local boy, they strike up a friendship, that turns into a fling and slowly develops into a love. The Summer Girl is the perfect beach romance read for summer.
Thank you Netgalley for the audio ARC.
Pub: July 18, 2023

I would give this book a 3.5, but since it has to be rounded either up or down, I will round it up to a 4 because of the added backstory of the parents. I loved hearing about Cassie's relationship with her grandmother, father, mom, stepmother and half-sisters.

The story is set in Avalon Bay where we me Cassie, a college student who is looking for a summer hookup. She meets Tate who she is instantly attracted to and propositions him for a summer fling but is quickly rejected by him. However, Tate offers to be her wingman as she pursues.her quest for the perfect summer fling. From there the story follows these two on their summer journey as they share flirtatious banter, hardships, family drama and summer fun.

What I liked about this story is that there were a lot of relatable things, such as college issues,
family relationships, family drama, and summer fun and games, I think the author did a great job with the dynamic of the family relationships and issues. I loved the relationship between Cassie and her grandmother as well as the relationship between her and her father. The background stories were awesome to follow, and I would love to read more about the mom and her feelings. I feel we didn't yet break the surface of the mom's pain, which came tumbling out over 10 years later at dinner. I would love to see Cassie and her mom reconcile in the near future as well as seeing Cassie try to understand and reach out to her mother more. To me it seems obvious that the mother still has a lot of pain, resentment and regret of things that happened in the past that she has not clearly healed from.

This was my first book of the Avalon series, and I would definitely say that it is a stand-alone book. I really appreciate that we had both a female and male narrator for the voices of Tate and Cassie. I do agree with @Bookseller982757 who said that Cassie sounded like a character from my little pony and that the tone of the narrator sounded like a children's show narrator. Not only her voice but the character also seemed very immature and a lot younger than college age. She actually seemed like someone who was about 16. I mean what adult says the word "moist" and then tells the guy I am sorry I said the word "moist." very comical!

I would have to agree with many of the other reviewers on the crude talk. It was definitely a bit creepy the things Tate would say, and it also felt like a horny adolescent rather than a college playboy. At times it felt like this book was written by a male or at least parts of it. I had to recheck the author on this book. Some of the dialect could have been toned down to give more of what is advertised by the cover: a fun summer girl beach story.

I also found it hard to believe that Cassie' stepmom was Haitian when listening to the narrator who gave the character a Chinese possibly French mixed nationality. If there was not a mention of her being Haitian, I would have never guessed. The narrator trying to give a French accent was a bit comical. I did like when the twins came around. they were fun, and Cassie is definitely not the best babysitter. That being said I did enjoy this story and the ending. It is definitely a fun summer story with deeper real relationship issues in the backdrop. I would definitely read more in the series and would be curious to find out if she and Tate stays together, because Tate is a playboy and did tell her that his favorite thing is watching girls on the beach.

I would like to thank Netgalley and Macmillian audio for this arc for my honest review.

I must admit, I didn't really enjoy this audiobook. I requested it on netgalley because of the cute, summery cover not knowing it was the third book in a series and never having read anything else by Elle Kennedy. Had I know her books were so spicy (I'd personally say raunchy) I would have passed. I saw one person rate this as 1/5 on the spicy scale and I guess I must have a really low tolerance for spice, cause The Summer Girl made me genuinely uncomfortable.
Besides that, it was just too stereotypical while also being relatively surface level. Cassie is a Virgin who wants a "summer fling," which I found strange right off the bat. We never really learn why she'd waited so long, besides that she's "shy" and socially awkward (a rambler) though her quick banter and immediate friends would suggest otherwise and her tiny frame with huge boobs surely make her physically desirable to many.
Cassie's mother is straight up toxic and deserves to be immediately caught off, but Cassie tends to "put a smile on" for all the people around her who let her down. And her relationship with her father is strained since he's remarried and has two young daughters to raise. I did enjoy Cassie's family dynamics, even though they are pretty painful.
I also liked how up front and open her and Tate are with each other - they discussed deep stuff easily, which is refreshing with a male, man-whore type, but that just kind of added to my perplexed face for some of these storylines. He's slept with everyone in town but he has a heart of gold... no one's mad at him or has felt jilted after no-strings sex? No one? And he's super emotionally available and mature while constantly saying "c*ck" and "t*ts" in his head?
I dunno. This just wasn't for me. I listened on 3x speed to get through. There is some great depth but some confusing character traits and I just didn't feel sold. Maybe if I'd read the rest of the series I'd feel more connected.
If you're ok with smut, it's probably a great summer read/listen.

This was my second book of Elle Kennedy's and my second read from this series, though this reads as a standalone.
Cassie is in Avalon Bay for the summer, on break from college. She decides she's going to have a summer fling.
Tate is a local, a sailing instructor, and flinger-extraordinaire. At first, he's hesitant to get it on with Cassie because they strike up such a nice friendship. But I'm happy to report that doesn't last.
I love, love, loved this book. The chemistry between the two leads is off-the-charts, both during their friendship stage and as it blossoms into more. The spice is fantastic--especially one scene that takes place across a window (I won't say any more). Cassie's arc to find herself was extremely relatable, and I appreciated the family story and dynamics therein. Just one thing, it could have been a bit shorter! There were a couple of chapters that felt almost unneeded, as evidenced in the total run-time of the audiobook, which was over 12 hours!! Otherwise, a great read/listen I would definitely recommend. Thanks to #netgalley and #Macmillanaudio for the advance read in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed the audiobook narrators, but the story wasn’t my favorite. I had a hard time connecting with the characters. This is the third in the series which I didn’t realize before, so that might be why I had trouble connecting.

Cassie is looking for a fun, summer fling. Enter Tate who is the king of flings but after being warned off of Cassie he agrees to help her find another candidate for her fling. But the two cannot deny the chemistry between each other. They agree to be friends with benefits but their feelings just continue to grow.

This was such a fun beach read! Thank you Netgalley and Macmillan Audio for the ALC in exchange for my honest review.

I enjoyed reading The Summer Girl by Elle Kennedy. Here is a bit of a description from the publisher: College student Cassie Soul hasn’t spent an entire summer in Avalon Bay in years, not since her parents divorced and her mother spitefully whisked her away to Boston. Now that her grandmother is selling the boardwalk hotel that’s been in their family for five decades, Cassie returns to the quaint beach town to spend time with family, ring in her twenty-first birthday… and maybe find herself a summer fling. On her first night in town, she finds the perfect candidate: Tate Bartlett, Avalon Bay’s fun-loving golden boy. As Cassie and Tate walk the line between friends and lovers, they’re about to discover that their situation is the least complicated part of this equation. Because Avalon Bay is full of secrets—and their relationship might not survive when those secrets come to light.

First, I have never read the other books in the Avalon Bay series and I don't think that I needed to. The author did a good job making this a stand-alone n=book, although I am curious to read the other books in the series. However, I probably won't read them because, although I enjoyed the book, it was not my cup of tea. I found the female characters to be a little too obsessed with having men in their lives and the language to be a little too crass, to me, when men were discussing female body parts. I know I am not the target audience (a married career woman in my 50s), so I think a younger, more boy-crazy crowd would enjoy this.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for giving me the opportunity to read The Summer Girl in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you to the publisher, author and netgalley for a chance to review this book early. I was approved for both physical and audio ARCs. I listened to the audio. Love Teddy Hamilton! I've immensely enjoyed this series and was happy to be back in Avalon Bay for Cassie and Tates story!

I absolutely loved this book. I am obsessed with the writing that Elle Kennedy produces and knew this book would not disappoint. This book starts out with Cassie Soul who is about to go into her senior year at Briar U going down to Avalon Bay for the final time as she visits her grandmother who sold the family business ( a hotel). While at the bay Cassie meets Tate Bartlette and there is clearly chemistry. They both come to realize that they are actually neighbors for the summer as Tate is house sitting for a couple that lives next to Cassie's grandmother. As the summer continues Cassie wants a summer fling and while Tate wants that too he is afraid she will fall in love with him so it is in both of their best interests to stay friends. Shortly later being friends is not something they both can do so they decide to have fun this summer. The amount of spice in the book is crazy especially that window scene. As the book goes on there is a secret that lingers within the families and Tate and Cassie come to see if their love can survive it all. Overall this book was amazing and the perfect summer book. Thank you MacMillian and Netgalley for this amazing audio ARC review.

This is the third in a series. I did not read the first two but had no problem jumping into this. This is a very open door romance with a beachy, summer setting. At first I thought it was going to be too cheesy for me but it ended up having some depth and a fairly big twist toward the end that I absolutely did not see coming. The book was told from both the male and female main characters and the audio had dual narration. I found the male viewpoint obnoxious at first but he grew on me. Definite beach read material

This book was soooo cute!
Thank you so much to Net Galley and Macmillan audio for sending me a copy of this before it was released.
It comes out on June 17th!
The perfect, cutesy, all the summer feels, with a splash of spice book!
I listened to this on audio and Teddy Hamilton and Caitlin Elizabeth were just a joy to listen to.

Tate and Cassandra were just so delicious and wholesome. I loved their chemistry and the maturity they emitted. Tons of character growth, some childhood / adult family trauma, lots of summer fun, some fun spicy scenes, honestly an great book to read on the beach!

My first book by Elle Kennedy and i must say I will definitely be reading more by her!

THIS BOOK. MY HEART. TATE. CASSIE. I AM IN LOVE. Tate is 100% my new book boyfriend. This is my first Elle Kennedy book, and I loved it. This is the 3rd book in the Avalon Bay series, but can be read as a standalone. Cassie has come back to the bay for the summer, and is looking a summer fling. Will Tate and Cassie be able to keep it just a summer fling or will it turn into more? This was the perfect summer beach romance that I did not want to stop listening to!
The narration of this book was perfect. Although I don't know Cassie I could not imagine someone else voicing her, the accents, the emotion, and the humor was amazing through out the book.
Thank you to NetGalley for allowing me an ARC audio book!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

🌶️🌶️🌶️/5

Quick Hitters:
💋Virgin FMC
👀F-Boy MMC
🫶🏼Friends-to-lovers

Quick Summary:
Cassie hasn't spent time in Avalon Bay since her parents separated, but with her grandmother selling her boardwalk hotel, she decides to spend the summer there. Cassie went looking for a summer fling, and finds the perfect candidate, Tate Bartlett. But when Tate meets Cassie, he feels differently about her than he has other girls and friend-zones her. But he soon realizes that was a mistake because he wants Cassie...

Thoughts/Feelings:
This is the third book in Elle Kennedy's Avalon Bay series. They are standalones but interconnected setting and people. Honestly, this was my favorite book of the three in the series! I really, really loved the characters. I loved their growth as well as their relationship and how it was shown on the page.

Thank you @netgalley and @ellekennedy33 for the #advancedreaderscopy of The Summer Girl! All opinions are my own!

This was definitely a change from Bad Girl Reputation for me. I thought this was a good book and a great audiobook too. The storyline was so fun and sweet. I loved Tate and Cassies' friendship/relationship. They very clearly had a strong connection and great chemistry. The way their relationship developed was written so well. I also really liked how all, but one, of the characters were in this. Cassie’s mom is a list of horrible words. But everyone else was great. I think Elle Kennedy did a great job writing the new and former characters from the other two books. It was nice having those little updates of their lives without focusing too much on them.

My heart broke for Cassie and her strained relationship with both her parents. I know what it’s like being a child of a divorce, especially when it’s bitter, but her experience was so difficult and emotional.

There was a huge plot twist that I in no way saw coming. All I’ll say is wow.

The narrators were amazing. At first I wasn’t sure, but once I got more into it, they really fit the characters well and they did a great job with voice changes for other characters and conveying the emotions. They really brought the characters to life and made me feel like I was hearing the story right from the characters themselves.

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press, Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for this gifted copy in exchange for my honest review.

I enjoyed the summertime vibes and this kind of easygoing plot. It wasn't too heavy and had just the right amount of spice and angst.

Overall, I enjoyed the experience. It was playful and entertaining at times. It definitely had some of the major plot twists that left you gasping. It felt like watching a soap opera! Listening to the audio version definitely gave me more of the emotions and had me tearing up towards the end.

I think personally, the fluffy romance type stories just aren't my thing however. I am really glad I gave it a try though because I know so many are going to love this!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
🌶️🌶️

Summer Girl by Elle Kennedy
Book 3 - Avalon Bay series

I really enjoyed Good Girl Complex; however, Summer Girl was by far my favourite of the Avalon Bay series though. It was a light summer read, with some original and unexpected twists and developments that kept me coming back for more.

Teddy Hamilton & Caitlin Elizabeth did a wonderful job of the narration, and represented their characters well.

The dynamic between Cassie and Tate was fun and flirty, yet mature and not dramatic. The straightforward and direct communication they had with each other was a refreshing change for a college age romance. It was fun and romantic and a little spicy. A perfect combination for a quick summer read!

Thank you to Elle Kennedy & Macmillan Audio for this ARC to review through Net Galley.

THIS REDEEMED BOOK 2!

I really really enjoyed Cassie and Tate's story!! What started out as a flirty and banter-filled friendship turned into a sizzling summer affair which then grew to even more. There was a lot of family drama (honestly didn't see THAT twist coming) but I just loved the evolution of these two and how well they fit together! I even got a little emotional at times!! 🥹

⛵️ friends to lovers
⛵️ virgin heroine
⛵️ sizzling chemistry and fun banter
⛵️ CUTE NICKNAMES
⛵️ great communication (so refreshing!)