4.25⭐
Genre ~ New Adult Romance
Series ~ Avalon Bay, #3
Others in the series ~ Good Girl Complex, Bad Girl Reputation ~ fine as a standalone, but previous book characters make appearances
Publication date ~ July 18, 2023
Page Count ~ 392
Audio length ~ 12 hours 9 minutes
Narrators ~ Caitlin Elizabeth, Teddy Hamilton
POV ~ dual 1st
Featuring ~ characters in their 20's, play boy, virgin, neighbors to lovers, friends to lovers, summer fling, minimal steamage, side character infidelity, toxic parent

Cassie & Tate
Cassie is on break and spending the summer with her grandma, Lydia. I love reading about grandmother/granddaughter relationships. They had a great bond and it makes me miss my grandma.
She's a virgin and looking for a summer fling to gain some experience. Who better than the gorgeous guy that is house sitting right next door.

Tate is known as a playboy and doesn't do relationships, so it seems like a no brainer to accept Cassie's proposition for a summer fling. But he has reservations when he gets to know her because she just doesn't seem like the fling type to him.

These two were really cute when they were together. They had great banter and chemistry, and were both so sweet. I really liked seeing Tate's emotional side and Cassie's big news at the end was perfect.

The 20 year old side characters were more mature than one of the adults. She was so mean to Cassie, and really everyone around her. Did I like the 3rd act breakup? Nah, I never do, but I can kind of see why it had to happen, but did I need the side plot that caused it? Not really.

Overall, this was good fun and my favorite of the series.

Narration notes ~ Caitlin's voice sounded perfect for her 20 year old character. I've listened to Teddy narrate many times and it doesn't appear that he's worked on his lady voice, oof.

"The Summer Girl" is the third in Elle Kennedy's 'Avalon Bay' series. For those who have already read "The Good Girl Complex" and "Bad Girl Reputation", it feels like be welcomed home to places and characters we've met before...like Tate!

In this book, we get to meet Cassie who is visiting the bay for the summer and staying with her grandmother. She grew up here, but once her parents got divorced she moved north. Around the time Cassie left, Tate's family arrived. Tate teaches sailing lessons and helps run his family's business. He's a bit of a playboy, but also a sweet and sunshiny character.

Similar to the other books in the series, the characters have difficult relationships with parents, and "The Summer Girl" twists some really complex family dynamics into the story!

A quick fun summer beach read!

📚 The Summer Girl
📝 Elle Kennedy
📌 Book 48/50 for 2023

🔔 Publishing 7.18.2023 🔔

✨ This was an audio ARC gifted to me by Macmillan Audio via NetGalley. The following review is my own and contains my honest thoughts and opinions. ✨

𝗥𝗔𝗧𝗜𝗡𝗚: ⭐️⭐️⭐️ (3)
𝗚𝗘𝗡𝗥𝗘: Romance 💕
𝗦𝗧𝗘𝗔𝗠 𝗟𝗘𝗩𝗘𝗟: 🔥🔥🔥

𝗥𝗘𝗩𝗜𝗘𝗪 📖
This was book 3 in Elle Kennedy’s Avalon Bay series but I read it as a standalone and as my introduction to Kennedy’s work. I really enjoyed the style in which this book was written and it was a cute, quick summer read (or listen) overall. The pacing was pretty consistent but I feel like I would’ve been more invested in the plot had there been more chemistry between Tate and Cassie. The little bit of drama at the end definitely kicked it up a notch, but otherwise this was a basic, solid small-town rom com.

𝗥𝗘𝗔𝗗 𝗜𝗙 𝗬𝗢𝗨 𝗟𝗜𝗞𝗘 ⤵️
fwb to lovers 🔥, sailors ⚓️, small town drama 🫣, happy endings 🫶🏼, summertime ☀️

The third installment in the Avalon Bay series is (ALMOST) here (only one more week til pub day) and it is one of the most perfect summer New Adult reads I’ve read this year! It gives immaculately cutesy, mildly spicy, and quintessential summer vibes and follows Cassie, the grand daughter of the former owner of the decades old hotel in Avalon Bay (that has recently been bought, completely renovated and remodeled after sitting dilapidated for decades after a series of hurricanes claimed it) and all her summer escapades in Avalon Bay! And boy, does she get into some escapades! This book just squeezed in and became my favorite in the series (replacing Good Girl Complex).


And though it is the third in the series this definitely can be read as a standalone (because of the subtle and integrated catch up of characters you may want to know from the previous two books) even though I highly recommend you read all three because they’re 🔥!

This is the first one in the series that I’ve listened to via audio and it was such a great experience! It comes out around 12hrs and I was able to legibly listen at my normal 2.5x speed, so it was a super fast read and I was even able to do a bunch of mundane tasks that were made a lot more fun because I was listening to this while doing them (one of the reasons I love audiobooks!)

You’ll love this is you like:
✨Strangers to lover troupe
✨He falls hard and fast
✨Summer Fling/FWB vibes
✨Strained/Overbearing Parental Relationships

Thank you to @netgalley @macmillan.audio and @ellekennedy33 for the ALC in exchange for my honest review!

4.5 stars rounded up!

I’m so glad we got another trip to Avalon Bay because I MISSED it so much! This third installment was absolutely perfect and I ate it up so quickly. Tate and Cassie were cuuuuuute and I loved their banter a lot, then you add in that we got tons of scenes with all of the other characters we’ve grown to love in this series plus ALL the drama (I actually found the drama in this story the most believable/relatable compared to the two previous books) - this book was really just a hit.

A huge thank you goes out to NetGalley and Macmillian Audio for the advanced copy of this audiobook - I’m truly so appreciative! The Summer Girl drops July 18 so get it on your radar!

Cassie, a college senior, is spending the summer in Avalon Bay with her grandmother while figuring out what she wants to do after college. Never having been in a relationship, Cassie is hoping to find a summer fling and thinks that Tate, her very handsome and very temporary next door neighbor, would be the perfect candidate.

LOVED SO MUCH! I fell in love with all the characters in this book (minus Cassie's mom of course) and honestly didn't want this story to end. I love how she finally spoke her mind at the end and did what she needed to do to be happy. Tate was the perfect MMC and I will forever have a crush on him.

My only (somewhat of an) issue was with the female narrator when she did Tate's voice - it just sounded odd and she gave him a weird sort of southern accent that Teddy Hamilton (my favorite male narrator) didn't do when he read Tate's chapters. The weird mismatch in accents didn't sit well with me but also wasn't enough to ruin the book.

My experience with this series: I liked but didn't love Good Girl Complex (I can barely remember it though), haven't read Bad Girl Reputation and loved this one! My advice if you haven't read the others in the series: just go right to this one.

I 100% recommend this book to anyone looking for a fun summery romcom!

A great addition to the Avalon Bay series. This book dealt with some weighty subjects, but it felt lighter than the previous two books. I think a lot of that is due to both Tate and Cassie’s personalities. On another couple, these stumbling blocks would become make or break, full of self-loathing and destructive choices. But Cassie and Tate get passed them. They’re both stronger than they think they are, and are both coming from a healthier history of relationships (or flings). This was a fun listen, and the dual narration was ideal. Both narrators brought a sense of innocence and naïveté (even to Tate and his sexual history) without making them sound stupid. They reminded the listeners that these are two young people still finding their way through life.

I received a copy of this audiobook from the publisher through NetGalley.

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