While listening to this, my phone stopped working. Once I received my new phone and downloaded the Netgalley app I lost all my downloaded audiobooks. I was unable to finish. Love Elle Kennedy so I know this book would have been a 4 or 5-star read for me!

While overall a light "beach read" story, I found some parts of the book to be problematic and/or somewhat cliche. It was hard for me to engage with the characters and feel invested in their story, which was somewhat bland as a whole. Nothing really stood out to me with this read, unfortunately - it was just okay.

This is the third book in the Avalon Bay series. It can be read as a stand-alone, which is what I did but previous book characters are mentioned.

Elle Kennedy has become a favorite author.
I listened to the audiobook and the narrators were amazing. Great job Caitlin Elizabeth and Teddy Hamilton! I love Tate and Cassie together. Their witty banter was so cute.
There is enough family drama to keep you entertained 👏🏼
If you’re looking for the perfect beach read then look no further!

Dual POV
Virgin heroine
Friends to lovers
Small beach town romance

The Summer Girl (audioARC) — 4 ⭐️

𝐏𝐮𝐛𝐥𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐃𝐚𝐭𝐞: 07/19/2023 - Out Now!

𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐈 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞𝐝 —
👀 Multiple POVs
💓 Contemporary Romance
🤩 Addicting Read
🏡 Small Town Setting
💪 Strong Characters + Development
💗 Friends to Lovers
🔓 Open Door Romance
😂 Plenty of LOL Moments

𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐛𝐨𝐨𝐤 𝐢𝐟 —
🎯 You’re competitive while playing games
💭 You have a strong imagination
🌞 You’ve had a summer fling/romance
⛵️ You enjoy spending time on the water
🙇‍♀️ You have dealt with parental verbal abuse

𝐑𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐰: The Summer Girl is probably my favorite of the Avalon Bay series! For readers who haven’t read any books in the Avalon Bay series, have no fear! You can also read this book as a stand-alone rom-com. The author does a great job fully telling the story, so you won’t feel left out if you haven’t read the other books.

This book had the perfect balance of emotional and lighthearted moments, and I adored Cassie’s character. The writing made me fully engaged, and I looked forward to reading “what’s next.” I really enjoyed that this wasn’t just about romance. It took a deep dive into Cassie’s relationship with her parents who are divorced, and we saw the comparison to Tate’s relationship with his parents. Plus, don’t get me started on the romantic chemistry!! It gave me all the feels!

As always with Elle Kennedy’s books, I really enjoyed the audiobook version. The narrators really brought the story to life, and I think the voices fit the characters perfectly. Most of the time, I forget I was listening/reading.

𝐓𝐖: sexual content, profanity, miscarriage, verbal and emotional abuse, body shaming, infidelity, abortion

Thank you, NetGalley, St. Martin’s Press, and Macmillan Audio, for providing me an eARC copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

I love visiting Avalon Bay and this was my favorite in the series! I promise it has nothing to do with the fact this was the spiciest book yet... seriously!

This story follows Cassie who is making one last trip to Avalon Bay to visit her grandmother. In comes handsome Tate-the boy next door who keeps popping up everywhere she goes. This is the ultimate friends to lovers story because Tate goes from total play boy to completely simping over Cassie. There was a lot drama and spice in this one and the third act breakup was actually really good,

Read if you like:

-friends to lovers
-the boy next door
-self disovery
-ultimate summer town shenanigans like boy toy auctions
-family drama (narcissists)

Thank you Netgalley and MacMillan Audio for an alc of this book. Teddy Hamilton was the perfect Tate!!!

My favorite of the series! I was even a little emotional at the ending. Finally a book from the series where I liked both characters; Cassie’s backstory was especially relatable personally and tugged at my heartstrings. And that curveball reveal/twist towards the end of the book?! My jaw was on the floor. Overall, a super enjoyable steamy, small town, summer read! Glad I read them in order but definitely can be read on their own or out of order. I listened to the audiobook and thought both narrators did a great job!

This was my first Elle Kennedy novel and I 100% will not be my last. I may or may not have already borrowed the first two audiobooks in this series from the library😅

Cassie is back home for one final summer hurrah in her hometown. Her grandmother sold the family business and is moving away so Cassie decides she’s not going out without a bang. Enter Tate, the fun-loving boy next door. Who immediately friend zones her. But don’t worry, he changes his mind😂

Main Trope: friends to lovers

The main thing I loved about this story was Cassie’s relationships with her parents. On one side we have the quiet, reserved, seemingly uninterested and unassuming parent. Which ends up being one of those situations where if everyone just communicated with each other, everything would balance out. But everyone is just too scared to toe that line. Then on the other side we have the hypercritical parent. Just because someone is family doesn’t mean you have to accept mistreatment. Cassie’s personal growth throughout the story was inspiring. Your opinion matters, you are important, you are valued. Stand up for yourself, speak up. If someone is contributing negativity to your life you are not obligated to keep them in your life. There’s the door. Protect your mental health and wellbeing.

I thoroughly enjoyed Cassie and Tate’s romance, and yes there was smut, but honestly the familial relationships were what really spoke to me from this story. I highly, highly recommend!

I do not know what Elle Kennedy puts in the pages of her books but I think it might be crack. I swear whatever I read by her I find myself loving! This is the third book in the Avalon bay series (Good Girl Complex and Bad Girl Reputation) and follows Cassie. She is staying with her grandma who has just sold the family hotel and she is looking for a fun summer fling. But anyone who knows her knows that isn't who she is, she is a good girl who has never been 'flung'. Then comes Tate. He is a golden boy of Avalon Bay and he does not think she will be able to separate sex and love but he is finding it hard to resist ...

We all know that Elle can write a great steamy scene. And this book has its fair share of them. But I also liked that this book did not just have relationship dynamics but dysfunctional family dynamics too. Both the male and female main character have family issues of their own. I will say this is not my favorite in the Avalon Bay series but I also LOVE the second one so much I couldn't imagine loving any other in the series more. That being said it was the perfect summer read and I can't wait to continue the series because I love this friend group.

Overall, I would recommend this book to anyone looking for a steamy summer read. Thank you Netgalley for the opportunity to read this book!

I didn't know that this book was apart of a series when I started it. I am glad it is able to be read as a standalone. This was a fun summer, beachy read. I enjoyed it through and through.

Thank you to Netgalley for the ARC of this book to review.

I have read all of the other books in this series, and this one is BY FAR the best! The characters are relatable and seem reasonable, they have a great inner voice! The spicy scenes are among the best of any summer romance I read this year! Super spicy, but not at all cheesy or cringey! We follow a 21 year old who is getting ready to start her senior year of college, but takes a summer in the town where her Dad lives to spend some time with him. She has big plans to have a summer fling, but ends up befriending a local guy. After spending time in the friend zone and counseling her through a few encounters, OF COURSE, he turns to more than friends. But unlike other books where that's the end, we get to follow their early romance and watch them navigate the twists and turns of a few family secrets. I loved the addition of a plot that was more than just the two of them getting together. Highly recommend!

The audiobook has multiple narrators, which really helps to keep you in the story and get to know the characters. The voice acting was wonderful and the spicy scenes were enhanced by the tone and pacing the actors provided. Amazing job!

This is my first book by Elle Kennedy, but it won't be my last. I loved Cassie's internal monologue as she progressed from awkward and unsure to being a confident young woman. Tate was a little bit cocky but also sweet and I loved his relationship with his parents. The story contains plenty of family drama on all sides, sentimentality, and the romance between Tate & Cassie is both steamy and sweet. I'll definitely be reading the rest in this series, and look for this author in the future.

I absolutely loved this one!! And my favourite in the series yet!! Cassie was such a great character and I loved her right away. I felt for her how she felt like she to keep the peace with both of her parents and I really thought the journey she went on with both her mom and dad through the book was heart wrenching and my heart just really felt for her. I really liked Tate too and his banter/friendship with Cassie was so cute! You could feel the chemistry between the two of them from the first! I loved the spicy scenes too and thought the virgin heroine trope was done really well! i also loved going back to Avalon bay and the characters from the pervious books! I listened to the audiobook and thought the narration was so good and didn’t want to stop listing to this!

Caitlin Elizabeth and Teddy Hamilton narrate Elle Kennedy’s new adult, friends-to-lovers romance, The Summer Girl (Avalon Bay #3), exploring how small-town secrets threaten a summer fling that unexpectedly evolves into first love. College student Cassie Soul returns to Avalon Bay for her first summer since her parents’ divorce to visit her grandmother, who plans to sell their family’s boardwalk hotel. Cassie’s turning twenty-one and hoping for a summer fling. She thinks she’s found the perfect guy when she meets Tate Bartlett on her first night in town.

Despite being a player and no stranger to flings, Avalon Bay’s fun-loving golden boy, Tate, is a surprisingly sweet guy. And he’s not a heartbreaker. It’s obvious Cassie isn’t a girl you can have a casual fling with, and nobody gets hurt. So, he puts her in the friend zone. But the more he gets to know her, the harder it is for him to deny and fight his attraction to her. He quickly realizes, too late, that friends-zoning Cassie was a monumental mistake. Soon, all Tate can think about is how much he wants more than anything to have a fling with Cassie this summer.

Because of their intense attraction, they surrender to their feelings for each other and become intimate, stretching the boundaries of their new friendship. They agree to keep their fling a secret, not realizing that there are far more dangerous secrets than theirs at stake. Like many small towns, Avalon Bay has secrets that could devastate Tate and Cassie’s relationship and their lives once revealed.

Elizabeth and Hamilton’s vibrant, expressive narration drew me into Kennedy’s steamy, captivating summer romance and kept me avidly listening as the novel flew by. Their narration perfectly captures the character’s personalities and the novel’s shifting moods, tones, and depths of emotion that Kennedy wrote into this story. Elizabeth’s narration is exceptional. She becomes each of the characters, regardless of age or gender. Elizabeth’s Southern and French accents are lovely. Her voice for Tate is closer to how I think the character might sound. Hamilton’s narration for Cassie and Tate is fine. However, his narration/voice captures Tate’s friends and parents better. Elizabeth and Hamilton provide distinct narration that differentiates between the characters using pacing, intonation, inflection, and emotion to give them distinct voices that reveal their personalities, feelings, quirks, and states of mind. Both narrators brilliantly express their characters’ moods and emotional turmoil.

Elizabeth and Hamilton breathe life into every emotional beat within Kenndey’s novel such that I can’t imagine anyone else but them narrating The Summer Girl. Elizabeth’s narration of Cassie’s emotional trauma and angst when dealing with the trauma of her parent’s divorce and her mother is phenomenal. Elizabeth imbues Kennedy’s emotional scenes with so much raw emotion that Cassie’s pain is so visceral it’s a living, breathing entity. She becomes Cassie’s cruel, calculating mother entirely. Hamilton’s narration shines most with the emotional, humorous, and steamy scenes. In Tate’s scenes with his family, Hamilton captures Tate’s feelings perfectly.

The novel’s tone ranges from humorous, intimate, angsty, intensely emotional, and sizzling hot, and the narrators deftly shift between these tones without affecting the novel’s excellent pacing. During the novel’s intimate scenes, Hamilton and Elizabeth use their full vocal ranges to express/portray the intimacy between the characters and their chemistry, sensations, desire, and passion for each other. Both narrators wonderfully capture Kennedy’s emotional and romantic story. I love Elizabeth’s narration for both Tate and Cassie more.

Kennedy develops Cassie and Tate’s relationship through humorous, sexy, and sweet banter and interactions and sweet, steamy, intimate, and sexy love scenes that also contribute to the characters’ development and evolution and the story’s progression. Cassie’s down-to-earth, sweet, funny, relentlessly optimistic, and girlfriend material. Kind, thoughtful, compassionate, and a good friend who genuinely respects women. I love how being friends first, then lovers, helps Cassie and Tate grow and encourage each other to face their fears, follow their dreams, and be honest with their parents about what they want from their lives and how their parents treat them.

Sweet, funny, sexy, emotional, steamy, angsty, and romantic, The Summer Girl explores themes of first love, falling in love, taking risks, small-town and family secrets, self-esteem, toxic parents, second chances, self-confidence, belonging, and following your dreams. I highly recommend the audiobook to fans of steamy new adult romances focused on friends-to-lovers, summer flings, and timed relationship tropes where heroes fall fast and hard for the heroine.

Advanced listening copy provided by Macmillan Audio via Netgalley for review.

The Summer Girl by Elle Kennedy
If summer romances are your thing, read no further...The Summer Girl is your book, and it's a sizzler. Lots of romance, a surprise twist that turns the novel upside down, and the coolest grandmother, who has it together, and makes those around her see the light.

The Summer Girl
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Author: Elle Kennedy

I requested a digital advanced readers copy from NetGalley, St. Martin’s Press and Macmillan Audio and providing my opinion voluntarily and unbiased.

Synopsis: 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. Tate, sailing instructor and lovable player, is no stranger to flings. In fact, he’s always down for a good time. But the moment he meets Cassie, he knows she’s not the girl you play games with. Cassie is gorgeous, hilarious, and, frankly, the coolest person he’s ever met. The last thing he wants to do is risk breaking her heart, and so he reluctantly puts her in the friend-zone…only to realize he made a huge mistake. Soon, his attraction to Cassie becomes impossible to ignore. He wants that fling now. Big-time. And maybe even something more. 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.

My Thoughts: This is book no. three in the Avalon Bay series. While this can be read as a standalone book, you will get a better sense of the supporting characters and small town by reading the previous two novels. Cassie is home for the summer and returns to Boston it the fall for her last year at college. Her grandmother sold the family hotel and is selling the family house at the end of the summer. She meets Tate, known playboy. A friendship sparks and they both want more on the cusp of some Avalon Bay secrets. This follows the tropes of friends to lovers and summer fling. Content warnings of supporting character infidelity and emotional abuse, and toxic parent.

The story is narrated by Cassie and Tate in this dual narration. Cassie is insecure, caring, avoids confrontation, even at her expense, and is sometimes afraid to stand in her truth. Tate is a bit of a playboy, charming, cares about others, and is loyal to a fault. While third act break ups are common in this type of novel, I was taken back by it and started yelling at the book. I won’t say more to not spoil for other readers. The message of the story really is hope, hope that we can stand in our truth at all times, hope for love, and hope for found family. The characters were well developed with depth, witty banter, chemistry, compassion, and intriguing. The author’s writing style was complex, humorous, thought-provoking, endearing, and engaging.

I had the opportunity to have the digital and audiobook for this novel. I loved the narrators. They did a phenomenal job at voice variation and really brought to life the characters from Avalon Bay. This was a lighthearted, endearing, sweet read. My only con is that the ending felt rushed and left me wanting a little more. However, I love Kennedy’s writing style and did throughly enjoy this book, mostly. I would absolutely recommend this one and all from this series to other readers.

4.5 Stars: The Summer Girl is the third book in the Avalon Bay series and although it can be read as a standalone story, I enjoyed catching up with the main characters from previous books in the series. Cassie Soul used to live in Avalon Bay, until her parents divorced and her mother got custody of her and they moved to Boston. Her grandparents owned the Boardwalk Hotel, but with his death, she is no longer able to run and maintain it. None of her children want to operate it, so she sold it and it is being reopened. Cassie returns to Avalon Bay to spend one last summer with her grandmother before she moves to live closer to her grandchildren. There will be grand opening gala that all her family will be attending as well as birthday celebration as she is turning 21. Her friends are hoping that Cassie will find someone and have a summer fling. There is a lot to look forward to this summer, especially spending time with her father, 2 half-sisters and step-mom.

I really enjoyed this story. Cassie has a lot of baggage from the divorce, being raised by a narcissist and not being liked by her step-mom. She is also sad that this will be her last chance to spend time in Avalon Bay with her grandma. She meets a handsome young man the first night there, but he is a local and just recently broke up with his girlfriend, but there is something that pulls them to each other. I loved both Cassie and Tate. Tate has been in previous books, so I knew a little about him, but this story showed us a lot more and made me appreciate this man, who may have been a "player" but was not a cad and never jumped around. Their romance was a slow build, with friendship first. The setting of Avalon Bay is a great one and having Tate and Cassie living next to each other added to the tension. Cassie's mother makes an appearance and is she ever a piece of work. I won't say more about her, but I'm surprised Cassie was as kind and level headed as she was. I enjoyed seeing Cassied grow, develop and realize that all was not the way she perceived. There is some angst and drama that has to be worked through before a happy ever after, but it was well done! There is some open door romance, but I skimmed those parts and still enjoyed this story. I listened to the audiobook narrated by Caitlin Elizabeth and Teddy Hamilton. It worked well as both Cassie and Tate narrated the story giving us both of their POVs. If you enjoy a good summer romance, then I recommend this story, in whatever format you prefer.

My ARC was provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. I thought this was really well written, elicited many emotions, and still has me thinking about the story. I really enjoyed her story telling. Since reading this ARC, I’ve already finished one of the previous books in the series and will be reading the remaining book in the series later this week.

My girls who are deep into reading CoHo will love this one. Even though it's definitely too spicy to keep on my classroom shelf, many of my girls are reading books that rank a solid two chili peppers above this one! What they'll love is Avalon Bay--from the interconnectedness of the characters to the careful development of a place that I sure wouldn't mind visiting! The main characters are endearing and leave room for cheering on the good guys. The nod to the past and the demons we leave there also makes this enjoyable for readers outside of the characters' demographics! The narration was spot on, and I found it highly listenable. I appreciated the development that their voices lent to the already well-developed characters.

The Avalon Bay series gets better with each and every book. The Summer Girl is by far my favorite in the series. I adored Tate and Cassie. The sizzling chemistry between the main characters is swoon-worthy. With unexpected twists and turns, the story keeps readers eagerly engaged. Light, sweet, funny, perfect summer read it had me smiling from the beginning. Lots of funny banter. Tate is adorable. Cass is sweet and I loved how it tied the series together.

This is the third book in the Abalon Bay series that I've read (or heard, rather) in audiobook format and it does not fall short from the first two books.
I really enjoy this type of rom-com in audiobook because i fell like it makes everything I have going on while listening to the book feel so much lighter.
The story was great, I've already reviewed the book and as previously mentioned, enjoyed it no less than the rest of the series.

5 steamy stars for both the story itself and the audiobook.