The Darkest Summer

Sera has returned with her young daughter, Katie to her hometown after the death of her husband. But instead of finding comfort in familiar surroundings, Sera is reminded of her best friend Dee, who vanished along with her brother, thirty years ago. Then to her shock, Dee and brother Leo return along with Dee’s own daughter. Dee is a shadow of the happy girl she used to be and when Sera discovers why, she endangers not only Dee but herself and her own child as well

I so enjoyed this book I love a good mystery Sera has moved back home and lives with her mum after her husbands death with her little girl . years ago she had a best friend who one night . vanished with her mum and brother 'but now they have both come back in this book everyone has a secret not saying no more its a must read so recommend

Read this book within 2 days. I was hooked just wanted to no what happened.
Amazing plotline and characters
Will look for this author again
5*****

A really good mystery thriller. I loved the alternate past and present which made the novel feel like a YA novel too. Which is a huge compliment. Highly recommended

When the first few pages bangs you with interest you know what's lying ahead. The book surely made me stick till the end especially to know what and why Dee and her family fled away one summer.
The storyline:
Dee and Sera were two best of friends .They shared their childhood together, but suddenly Dee and her family which included her brother Leo disappeared one summer without giving anyone any clue.
Years after Sera who is an adult now and have a daughter katie 5 years old., shifts to her old home to live with her mom. Her husband die due to an accident. Little did she imagine that her stay would dig up some mystery about herself and her long lost friend Dee.

With added mystery man Henri in Sera's life, the new neighbour, it made the story more unpredictable.
I totally kept reading and reading just to know about Dee's daughter Ashley's peculiar behaviour and also a connection between Hazel and Mimi.
Did the book satisfy my thriller craving ?I would say yes somewhat .

This is a good mystery thriller with a dual time narrative which kept it interesting. I liked it overall and would read more from this author.

The Darkest Summer is a good thriller with interesting characters and storyline. I would read more from this author.

The Darkest Summer by author Ella Drummond is a fast paced and easy to follow thriller that did not disappoint! I absolutely loved this book! Releases next month!

Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This thriller is a MUST read!

Dee and Sera were best friends until Dee's family "disappeared" when Sera was 12. Now, after her husband had died 3 years ago, Sera returned to her mum's house to live. Sera's daughter, Katie, is 5 and precocious. One day, Sera runs into Dee's younger brother, Leo, and later on he returns with Dee and her nearly silent daughter, Ashley. Dee has changed for the worse and is downright nasty. What happened to her? Handsome and seemingly wealthy, Leo sparks minor interest in Sera. She had already met Henri, a Frenchman, who has recently bought the farm Dee and Leo had lived on as children. There is a real spark between Henri and Sera.

We find out that Mimi (Sera's mum) and Hazel (Dee's mum) had been flat mates, once, and how their relationship had been affected by this. The reader wants to know what happened between the two of them.

We also learn more about Henri and why he has extensive scarring. But the real twists are yet to come!

A superb read - don't miss this one!

A Thank you to Hera Books and NetGalley for a great suspense/thriller !

This is a book that I devoured in a few hours. There are multiple mysteries and plot twists and I couldn't put the book down, which is the highest compliment I can give a book.

I want to thank NetGalley, Ella Drummond and Hera Books for an Arc of the darkest summer. I am always really intrigued by thrillers with a story line where someone disappears and then many years later they return. I love the mystery and trying to find out what actually happened to them all that time ago. This boom was a wild ride for me and I could not stop reading. I just had so much anticipation wondering what all of the secrets were.
One hot summer, Dee disappeared now she's back but she's not the girl you knew. Sera returns to her hometown with her five year old daughter after the death of her husband and 30 years after the disappearance of her best friend Dee and her brother Leo one summer day. Suddenly Dee and Leo return and Dee has a daughter but Dee won't talk and won't say what happened to them all of those years ago. There are so many twists and turns including things you find out about both Sera and Dees mom.
This book kept me on my toes and I wanted to know what happened and who did what and what the heck was up with Dee. I was happy with the ending and this book was super thrilling and I recommend for all of my psychological thriller fans.

This was a great quick summer mystery. Sera had her best friend disappear from her life suddenly when she was a teenager and after giving up and both women going on to live their lives the mysteriously become reacquainted and the mysteries of their past become unraveled. It did start off a bit slow with probably the most entertaining parts being in the last quarter of the book. However the characters while initially a little mild kept me interested and I like how the author brought the story together by linking the three different storylines. There are some parts I would have liked to have been expanded on, for instance their mothers story but all and all a good read.

The Darkest Summer, set in today’s stifling summer, revolves around a different summer in the past where the lives of best friends Sera and Dee suddenly change. A missing family haunts the town and eventually we know what happened that summer when events change again in the current timeline. Plenty of surprises and twists keep you reading. My first novel by this author and looking forward to another.

This book deals with the small town mysteries in midst of a sweltering summer where Sera encounters her long lost friend Dee. Sera has been wondering what happened to Dee and her family and why they left so suddenly fifteen years ago.

The story is set mostly in the present with a few back and forth chapters that serve as a comparison for Dee and Sera's friendship between then and now. We notice the huge change immediately and, as the reader, you can't help but feel for Sera. This reunion clearly wasn't what she was expecting. During Dee's time back she is distant and far from the joyous girl Sera once knew. As soon as Dee was introduced I knew there was something fishy going on with her and her brother, Leo. Although I was able to correctly guess what they were hiding, it wasn't until the very end I was able to confirm it which meant that my nerves where through the roof for the whole book and I couldn't stop reading it.

However, uncovering Dee's tragic past isn't the only thing Sera wants to do. There is a new neighbor that Sera begins getting close to and he has secrets of his own. By far his secrets where the hardest for me to decipher but when you find out it all makes sense and the dots connect perfectly. I really liked the fact that there were no loose ends in the book; everything tied up wonderfully.

I think this is a perfect read for people who, like me, love trying to decipher the mysteries before they're revealed and who love to read books in one sitting. It gets quite fast paced once we are introduced to the characters properly and makes for a good summer read! I also liked the way it written because I could see it so clearly in my head, it was like watching a movie.

The Darkest Summer by Ella Drummond is a fast-paced read that virtually overflows with mystery, lies, and long-held secrets. This is a quick read that I devoured over the course of a single afternoon.

Sera and Dee have grown up together and are almost as close as sisters. But when Dee disappears with her family one hot summer day, Sera is left feeling abandoned and confused. Why has the family that Sera thinks of almost as her own suddenly vanished? A chance meeting with Leo, Dee's brother, reunites the two friends, but the closeness that they have always shared is missing. Dee is not the same fun-loving girl that Sera once loved, and seems to be angry and withdrawn. What could account for this change, and what, if anything, is she trying to hide?

There is no shortage of twists, turns, and bombshell revelations here, all making for a fun and compulsive read.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Hera Books for this ARC.

I really enjoyed this book. How true you never know people, not really.

I brilliant story of friendship through the ages, secrets and family.

I highly recommend this.

I’d never read anything by this author and this book was a pleasant surprise! It was a bit predictable but still had me wanting to read more and more. I would definitely recommend and read more books by this author! If you want to read a twisty book of secrets and lies, this would make the perfect summer read!

Having read My Last Lie by the author and loving it, I couldn’t wait to read her new standalone and it didn’t disappoint.

Set in the hottest season of the year, The Darkest Summer makes for at times, a stifling read. You get the sense of the heat and dryness that Sera is having to endure but that isn’t all she has to deal with!

The story is set mainly in the present with some chapters in the past. We get to see the difference in Sera and Dee’s friendship between then and now. In the past, Dee and Sera were the bestest of friends and carefree and loving life. Fast forward to present day and whilst life has obviously hit both of them hard, Dee is far from the person she was when they were younger.

As soon as Dee comes on the scene my senses were going through the roof. It was obvious her and her brother Leo are not telling Sera everything and I was desperate to know more. What I love most about this authors books is how she gently draws you into them and slowly reveals things along the way. Usually I would struggle with books that do that to me but not this authors! They are so compelling and when I pick her books up, I swear I can’t tear myself away as am so fixated on the story and characters and to how it will end for everyone involved.

The Darkest Summer is an addictive read that totally absorbs you. Whilst I had managed to work out some of what was in store for us, I certainly hadn’t anticipated all of it and when it came to light, it literally blew me away. Ella Drummond without a doubt is vast becoming one of my favourite authors in this genre.

I haven't read anything by this author, and this book leaves me wanting more and more from her!

The story line was a bit predictable, but that didn't stop me from binge reading the whole thing in one night!

I read this book in record time., I was sucked in from Chapter 1. It is well written, very descriptive I could picture the land as I was reading the book. It is told from a few points of view. The main character seems to be Sera and the books is mostly told from her POV. There is also a story being told from Mimi, which confused me at first, but once I figured out who it was it was glorious.
This book has a few twists and turns, some I saw coming others I did not. Sera has moved back home after her husband sudden death. Thinking home would help her grieve and adjust it just seemed to make her miss her old friends who went missing when she was a teenager.
I don't want to give anything away, this book is good. Very twisty and turny and more then one story within the book. 2 mysteries. I would definitely recommend this one.

I was given this book from Netgalley in exchange for my honest review.

This book made me uncomfortable from the very beginning. From the fire on, I just knew that our main character Sera was doomed to struggle through the novel. I enjoyed the mysterious relationships and definitely wanted to read until the end. The familial relationships felt very real and truthful.

After her husband dies, Sera has returned to hometown of Oakwold with her daughter. Her ideas of restful, healing days at her mom's house are quickly shattered when Sera's childhood friend, Dee, returns to Oakwold, along with her daughter and brother. Dee's entire family had disappeared abruptly in 2003. Sera is excited to see her old friend, but quickly learns that Dee has changed dramatically. There are many twists and turns in this book, making it a fun read! You will not figure out all of the secrets until the very end!

An unbelievable story of mayhem and secrets, of ambition and devastation, of desperation and escape. Ella Drummond has managed to capture the snapshots of all these emotions in the various chapters of the book.

The hottest summer caused a bedlam in Sera's life both in the past and the present. Best friends Dee and Sera were inseparable in 2003, but Dee and her family disappeared one summer night. Sera tried to find out but no luck. Life happened and decades later, Sera was back with her mother post her husband's death. And so was Dee along with her brother and a child. But the Dee of today was a changed woman holding back so many secrets.

The story caused the gentle waves of mystery and curiosity to pull me deeper into the ocean of confusion and murkiness where secrets transpired connecting both the past and present. Sera was beautifully etched, I liked her kindness to her best friend and to a stranger Henri with no judgements. I was in awe of her life where she lived in the midst of so many secrets, yet quite unaffected.

Then came my niggles, too many conversation breaks, just when the suspense was reaching the zenith, and weird reactions from some of the characters, diluted my interest too.

I rushed through the book to get to the secrets. And boy, they were so many. Many simply shocked me speechless. Murder and confusion and unexpected connections made this a quick, fun read.

This one had so many twists and turns. It was definitely a roller coaster of a read. From the beginning, you want to root for Sera and Dee to rekindle their friendship once Dee and her brother Leo return from a long disappearance. Dee has changed though, and Sera cannot quite put her finger on it. She is quiet, removed, and overprotective of her daughter. Leo is also acting different which draws suspicion from Sera.
As the story unfolds, we start to realize the premise behind Leo and Dee's disappearance and that all is not as it appears on the surface. When Dee's daughter says something extremely odd to Sera one day, the whole truth unravels and we find out exactly who she really is.

"One hot summer, Dee disappeared. Now she’s back...but she’s not the girl you knew.

Sera and Dee were the best of friends.

Until the day that Dee and her brother Leo vanished from Sera’s life, during a long hot summer fifteen years ago.

Now Sera is an adult, with her own child, five-year-old Katie, and has returned to her childhood home after her husband’s death.

While she grieves, the past haunts Sera at every turn...and then Dee and Leo return to their small Hampshire village, along with Dee’s young daughter.

But Dee is silent and haunted by her demons; no longer the fun-loving girl that Sera loved. And when Sera uncovers the shocking secret that Dee is hiding, it’s clear that the girl she knew is long gone - and that the adult she has grown into might put all of them in danger..."

I'm in the middle of one hot summer... so this book is obviously meant to be read right now.

This book is marketed as a psychological thriller, but to me it seemed more like literary fiction. It was a slow burn. The setting is a huge part of the story and the scenery is described with beauty.

The story centers around Sera, a young widow who lives with her mother and her young daughter. A mysterious new man named Henri moves in next door, to the house where Sera's best childhood friend lived. The best friend, Dee, disappeared suddenly along with her mother and brother when Sera was young. Nobody heard from them again. When arson leads to the discovery of a body at Henri's farm, the whole town starts talking. And when Dee and her brother, along with a little girl, suddenly appear with no explanation of where they've been all these years, what does that mean?

I loved the beautiful descriptions of the area's heat wave, drought, and fires. I could almost feel the heat, and it reminded me a bit of the setting in "The Dry" by Jane Harper. Fiction and mystery readers will enjoy this novel, but it's not a fast-paced thriller.

This twisty, readable book is perfect for a hot summer’s day. You can practically feel the heat sizzling from the pages as the author vividly describes the sweltering weather and fires. It is a mystery filled with dark secrets, murder and life-changing revelations.

For fifteen years Sera has wondered what became of her best friend, Dee, and her family after they disappeared suddenly one day that hot summer. When she sees Dee’s brother Leo back in town she’s hoping that she finally gets answers and the chance to rekindle her lost friendship. But it is soon apparent that Dee and Leo aren’t the people she used to know, and that there seems to be something sinister about the secrets they’re keeping. Maybe inviting them into her home wasn’t the wisest thing to do...

The Darkest Summer is set in the New Forest in the present day with flashbacks to the summers of 1990 and 2003. The scenery of the New Forest is described with breathtaking beauty and is a large part of the story. I spent my formative years near that area and as I read it conjured up images of my youth spending time in places like the ones Sera describes. It is an almost idyllic place to be and I was so fully immersed in the book that I really felt like I was back there.

As well as our main storyline there are numerous subplots that run parallel in the flashbacks and ultimately merge together, though I couldn’t see how some of them would. I loved the clever twists and turns the author wrote that made seemingly mismatched the pieces fit together.

One subplot was Henri, the Sera’s new neighbour. I had a soft spot for Henri from the start and had a gut feeling he was a good guy, so I was hoping I’d be proven right. I loved the blossoming friendship between him and Sera and the mystery surrounding his past. I had no predictions about his past so I thoroughly enjoyed she surprises in his storyline. The subplot concerning Mimi and Hazel was also fascinating and I enjoyed learning more about both mothers and how they came to be the women their daughters now know, particularly Mimi as she’s not the warmest character in the book.

This book was filled with a host of colourful characters, each of which I loved for different reasons. Sera, our main narrator and our protagonist, was a great character. She and her daughter Katie moved back to her hometown to live with her mother three years ago after her husband died suddenly. She’s still working through her grief and feels suffocated at times by her mother, who she’s always had a difficult relationship with. When she was a child her single mother was mostly learning lines or away working, so she got little of the attention she craved. Instead, she found maternal attention from Hazel, her best friend Dee’s mother, who was the cool, vivacious, affectionate mother she dreamed of. She and Dee were inseparable, had many things in common, and Sera spent most of her time on their farm and felt a part of their family so their sudden disappearance cut her deeply. She’s never recovered from that loss so rekindling those relationships is a dream come true when Dee and her brother Leo first come back into her life and, as a reader I was rooting for that, and for the potential relationship between Sera and Leo.

Dee was so well written that despite the massive change in her personality and how moody and dismissive she is as an adult, I had a lot of sympathy for her. It seemed like she must have been through something extremely traumatic as she was showing signs of mental health issues and possibly PTSD. Her refusal to talk about anything that had happened was suspicious, especially as Leo was cagey too, but I hoped it was just that she was too traumatised to discuss it yet and he was respecting her wishes. The author made the many facets of her personality completely believable but like Sera I too got tired of her outbursts, how she controlled the entire household with them, her taking advantage of people, and with her strange behaviour towards her daughter. By the end I couldn’t stand her and wanted Sera to get as far away from her as possible.

This intriguing story started slowly and built the tension steadily until it became a crescendo in the last third of the book. It didn’t feel like a tense thriller but was full of mystery and had me guessing throughout. The many twists and turns were mostly unpredictable, with one in particular completely blindsiding me and turning so much of what I had predicted on its head.

I hadn’t read any of the author’s books before this one but when I read the description I was sold and I will definitely read more of her work. A compelling, character-driven summer read that I would recommend to anyone who enjoys mysteries and literary fiction.

Thank you to Sarah Hardy at BOTBS Publicity, Hera Books, Ella Drummond and NetGalley for the invitation to be part of the blog tour and providing the E-book ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Excellent psychological thriller! It moved at a fast pace with twists and turns throughout! Well-developed characters and plot. Highly recommend!

I have to start by saying that I loved Ella Drummond’s previous novel My Last Lie and The Darkest Summer is even better! I could not put it down!

The Darkest Summer follows Sera as she’s trying to rebuild her life after her husband’s death. She’s living with her mother and five-year-old daughter in her childhood home and can’t help but think back to years gone by and her best friend Dee whose family disappeared suddenly one summer day. Then one day she thinks she spots Dee’s brother in the street and her life is about to be turned upside down all over again.

I was gripped from the very start of this book and I just didn’t want to put it down for a second. It’s one of those books where you say just one more chapter, then one more, and one more and before you know it you’re turning the last page and it’s way past your bedtime!

The Darkest Summer is mainly set in the present day but it also flashes back to fifteen years ago in the lead up to when Dee and her family disappear. We also get a few chapters from the early 1980s following Sera’s mum, Mimi. I loved this way of telling the story as I was equally invested in all three timelines and this kept me flying through the pages as I wanted to know how the past fitted with the present and where Dee’s family had gone, and why they left without trace!

I love books that explore female friendship, it’s endlessly fascinating for me to read books like this. I really enjoyed seeing Dee and Sera as girls on the cusp of being teenagers where they still loved running wild and swimming in the lake, but were also becoming aware of their own bodies and the power they might possess. It was really interesting to see how they related to each other on meeting up again years later, and how different it can be to how you imagined it might. It was the same seeing Sera’s mum when she was a young adult finding her feet in London and trying to make it as an actress. Her friendship back then gave her an unbreakable bond to someone because of what happened but still life pulled them apart, and yet not quite! The women were so believable in this book and I keep thinking of them all, especially Sera, and wondering how she is.

I loved the setting of this book, and the way the heat of the summer emanated from the pages. I could envision it all so clearly as if I’d been there. Ella Drummond really is a great writer who writes such beautiful, evocative paragraphs. She brings her books to life and it makes them so memorable.

I was curious by what might have happened to Dee and her family, and was shocked when we finally find out. I had worked out elements of it but I couldn’t put it all together to figure it out fully. I was also intrigued by what Mimi’s story from years earlier had to do with the present day and didn’t figure that out either. I love when a novel keeps me guessing, it’s a rare thing for a book to do that but this one did!

The Darkest Summer is the perfect summer thriller read! It’s gripping, mysterious and it will keep you up way past your bedtime! I loved it and highly recommend it!

This book moved at a pretty decent pace and I really enjoyed it. I liked the writer’s style, and I think that it was an excellent dark psychological thriller.

Sera and Dee were inseparable when they were kids. But one day at Dee and her family up and left without any notice and Sera was left heartbroken. Now Dee is back 15 years after the family’s mysterious disappearance, but she’s not how she use to be. She is withdrawn and timid, even scared. Sera needs to know what happened and she’s determined to find out just why Dee isn’t the happy cheery person she once was.

This was a really fun read, it kept me interested and wanting to know what was going to happen next. The characters all added something to the story making it a very well rounded out novel. I would recommend this book for sure!

Thank you to Netgalley, Ella Drummond and Hera Books for the e-ARC of this title in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed this book. It was told in a twisted, engaging, way by the author (of whom I have not read a novel before but will certainly do so again in the future on the basis of this novel!). Great structure and story made it hard to set aside. Thank you!

The Darkest Summer is a great, slow building suspenseful book that will keep you guessing until the end.

Sera returns to her hometown, with her daughter, after her husband passes away. Soon after moving back, memories begin making their way back to Sera. She thinks about Dee, her childhood best friend, and Dee's family. Dee and her family disappeared one hot summer and she never heard from them again. All that changes when she sees Leo (Dee's brother). Leo and Sera catch up, and soon she sees Dee again.

Sera is quickly taken back at Dee's appearance as well as how she acts. This isn't the Dee she remembers from childhood. What happened that night all those years ago? Sera begins to unravel the mystery and it's apparent that not everything is as it appears. Sera finds herself inside a dangerous triangle and her only hope is to solve what went on back then and what is going on now.

Great mystery/thriller! There are quite a few twists and leaves the reader to wonder, "how well do you really know people"?

Thank you Netgalley and Hera Books for this ARC.

This is one of those that makes sure it slowly and continually builds the suspense, until it is so thick you can cut it! Well developed, both in plot, storyline, and characters, which moves in a gripping pace and rivets the reader. One I highly recommend!
Will make sure I recommend to many!

This book was fast paced. Hard to put down. It flowed well and it was very well written. It caught hold of me and had me hooked from the start . I was literally on the edge of my seat reading this book.

This psychological summer thriller really kept me guessing until the end.
I appreciated the twists and turns but some parts seemed to drag out. I have never read anything from this author before and will definitely check out her other titles.

This book was great. It had so many twists and turns throughout the book. It was addictive, gripping and overall a great book

I have never read anything by this author before. But I will be looking out for more of her work.

Full of twists and turns, I was a bit confused in parts but overall this book was gripping and exciting.

I’d never read anything by this author and this book was a pleasant surprise! It had me wanting to read more and more. I would definitely recommend and now plan to read more books by this author! If you want to read a twisty book of secrets and lies, this would make the perfect summer read! 4/5.

This was a really fun read, it kept me interested and wanting to know what was going to happen next. The characters all added something to the story making it a very well rounded out novel. I would recommend this book for sure!

I would like to thank Hera books and the Netgalley website for allowing me to read this book.

I was immediately attracted by the pretty cover of this book where you can see the main heroine dipping her feet in water.

We learn that one hot summer Dee disappeared and now she's back. But it's not the same as it was before. Sera and Dee were best friends. And fifteen years ago Dee and her brother Leo left Sera.

Now Sera's grown up, she has a daughter Katie who at five years old, she returns to the house where she grew up after her husband died.

Sera is grieving, but her past is tormenting her. As for Dee and Leo, they return to their village in Hampshire.

Dee remains silent, her demons torment her, she is no longer the girl Sera knew and when she discovers certain secrets, Sera will find that the girl she knew so well is long gone and that now that she is an adult she could endanger her loved ones.

I immediately hooked on to the story, which is so moving at certain points, captivating, full of suspense and twists and turns with very endearing characters. Can't wait to read other books by this author who has an addictive pen.

This was a pretty good book. I wish that I had actually liked some of the main characters so the end would have been more shocking. I read it and that was good enough for me.
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