A well written novel with two main characters plus the parents of one of the girls.. This is a funny romantic novel that I think most people should enjoy. 4 stars from me.

Thanks to NetGalley and publisher for this ARC.

Set in 1971.
Two young women set off on an adventure to find themselves before settling down.
And one of their mothers decides to do the same thing .
This book is well written with believable characters.
Thanks NetGalley

This is genuinely a wonderful read with a superb range of fantastic characters whom I have adored from the very beginning. This book is centred around love, finding yourself and friendship. It is definitely a book that must be on the TBR.

Kennedy has produced well written characters who have really been brought to life in this one. I have found myself invested in Agnes and Bea, I have loved the journey with them. Kennedy allows us to transport to the 1970s which I have found really interesting.

This is a completely heartwarming and inspiring read that I have devoured. I have been completely unable and unwilling to put this down. This is an enlightening trip and journey with some amazing characters.

This is definitely a read that I will be highly recommending and I absolutely cannot wait to read more by this author.

I’m probably about the same age as the author and thought she evoked the feeling of being a young adult in the 1970s really well.
Bea and Agnes are friends whose lives are just beginning. They decide to go to
London and lose their virginity, but things don’t go according to plan.
Meanwhile Agnes’ mother Florence is struggling with her loveless marriage and decides to escape and to have a holiday - a journey of self-discovery - in France and Italy.
This is a coming-of-age tale for all concerned.
The themes of this novel are friendship, love and self-discovery.
I didn’t always feel for the characters - it took me a while to believe in them as more than stereotypes, but this novel and the people in it did grow on me.
By the end they felt real and i mourned their loss!
In summary: this is a light and evocative read. Perfect for those who want a whiff of nostalgia, some major social issues addressed in an accessible way, and a sweet coming-of-age story.

This had a really interesting storyline set in the 1970s which i started off thinking if I could connect to the characters or not, I loved reading about how the characters were growing up in London after their exams. I preferred the story of Agne's Mum though, but can't say too much without giving spoilers.

i found this book really thought provoking. Set in the very early 1970s it amazed me how much changed between then and a decade later when I was a teenager. The difference in the life of a wife and mother, and the life of a young woman. The stifling lifestyle expected of Agnes and Bea, and the rut that Florence felt her life had to be. This was joyful as the women discovered who they should be. It wasn't all plain sailing and there were some hilarious adventures along the way. I didn't expect to be thinking so much about life and its progression on reading this, and having a frank discussion around the issues it raised in my mind with friends. Excellent read. #netgalley #theneverendingsummer

3/5 🌟 Thanks to the publisher for the e-ARC in exchange of an honest review. ❤️

The Never-Ending Summer had a really interesting storyline! It's set during 1971, so I was very excited to see if I could relate to the characters belonging to a different time period. I ended up having mixed feelings about the book. 😅

The story started off with a promising touch, but kind of fell short with the execution of the main characters' Agnes and Bea's lives. I couldn't connect to them at all. 😩 I enjoyed knowing about their experiences in London though. Just wanted to see a more fleshed out  character development from both Agnes and Bea, that's all.

I unexpectedly loved reading about Florence, Agnes' mom! 😍 The secondary plotline surrounding her was the best part of The Never-Ending Summer in my opinion. Her struggles with her marriage were very thoughtfully written. I empathized with her, and cheered her all throughout her trip to Europe! Her growth was remarkable in my opinion. :')

I really liked the idea of this story. Set in 1971, Agnes and Bea just finished their exams. They live a dull, predictable life and adult future seems no more exciting. It's the time of second wave feminism. After reading Germaine Greer's The Female Eunuch, they hatch a plan to spend a month in London and lose their virginity.
I found the first half of this book hard going. I know that it was deliberately dull to contrast the events that happened in London but I nearly gave up. It was only the side story about Florence, Agnes' boring mum, questioning her humdrum life, that kept me going. As her last child moves out, she decides that she needs some excitement and when her husband won't take her away, decides to go on a road trip any way.
By the end of the summer, the whole family dynamic has changed.

A nice read. I didn't enjoy the storyline between the 2 main characters as much as I did that of Agne's mum and dad. Nice characters and well written.

Unfortunately this was a DNF for me at 25%. I couldn't connect with any of the characters and found Agnes and Bea particularly irritating. Considering they were twenty years old I thought they acted very immature. After trying with the book for a couple of weeks I've decided to put it down for now and maybe try again a different time.

I have seen a lot of lovely reviews for this book and there are many out there who seem to enjoy it but on this occasion something wasn't working for me.

This is essentially a book about love, friendship and finding your own place in the world. It is a hugely enjoyable read.

We meet close friends Agnes and Bea, who have just left college in the late 1960’s and are keen to break free from the small town they live in and Agnes will do anything not to replicate the dull lives of her parents.

At 20 years of age the friends think that they will pretend to go to Europe but actually set off for London, their sights set on losing their virginity and having great fun. Despite the fact that they are very sure they are both boring and ugly they plot and plan and eventually head for the capital where they find lodgings with some much more worldly girls; amongst them a Bunny Girl and a lesbian activist.

The characters are well written and very likeable, especially the two main characters. We also follow the journey of Agnes’s mum Florence who starts the book as the textbook housewife, ignored by her family and drowning in boredom and routine. She herself sets off on a trip to Europe and finds herself along the way.

This is a very interesting insight into life of the 1970’s and how different life has become. It is a lively tale of friendship and love, but also deals with being different and how this can feel. There is joy and sadness in equal measure. It is a well written book and I would definitely recommend it and the quirky characters to others.

Thank you to Netgalley, the publisher and the author for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

“The Never Ending Summer” is the latest novel from Emma Kennedy and is genuinely a wonderful read with characters I adored from the start.

- Best friends Agnes and Bea decide to embark on one last adventure before their adult lives begin. Agnes’ mother Florence is feeling something is missing now her daughters have flown the nest and her marriage settles into a new routine. As Agnes travels to London and Florence follows her heart to Europe, both will discover a world of possibilities they never could have dreamed of.

Although I was fully invested in Agnes and Bea and their search for the sexual revolution in London, my particular interest was in Agnes’ mother Florence, who I felt the most empathy towards. Being of a similar age to Florence and having grown up in the era the book is set in, I could fully understand how she was feeling as a mother and the sense of redundancy. It was also a time when appliances were starting to overtake the manual work in the kitchen and therefore reducing the typical housewife’s work. As Florence begins to feel unimportant and no longer appreciated and coupled with losing her offspring as they fly the nest, her emotions were truly relatable and understandable.
Agnes and Bea’s journey was very addictive and the realistic scenes they encountered, like Glastonbury and introduction of drugs was a real eye opener for them and I loved witnessing their both very different reactions.
This is a superb coming of age story that made me smile, nod in agreement and allowed me to share the characters feelings of elation and sadness. Is the grass greener on the other side? Or can it make you realise that what you have at home, you can also have the dream you always wanted?
Based on a lot of the authors own experience and using realistic events, this was an incredible read, tender and life-inspiring.
#TheNeverEnding Summer - and I for one didn’t want it to end either!
5 superb stars

I liked it initially. Easy to read and to get into.
But the more I read, the more irritated I felt. Full of clichés. The two outsiders who don't fit in at school do become best buddies. The perfect housewife dreaming of a trip abroad a la Shirley Valentine but without the wit and sparkle and fight of Shirley. The grumpy set-in-his-ways husband who expects everything done for him and doesn't even know that you can't put Tupperware in the oven.
It's described as light and feel-good but then the girls are duped into taking drugs and one of them is sexually assaulted /raped.
I felt there was an incongruence between events like this and the frothy feel-good tone.
Not one for me. Abandoned half way through so to be fair, it might have improved.

A pure joy to read from start to finish. This book helped me escape the stresses and strains of life. It reminded me how much potential we all have to live the life we deserve to - by being bold and brave and never giving up on ourselves.

The Never Ending Summer tells the story of Agnes and Bea, best friends and soul mates. Nineteen and beyond fed up of provincial life, they embark on a four week adventure in London. Whilst it doesn't really go to plan, it nevertheless changes them both in ways that allow their friendship to deepen despite a fracture.

But perhaps the most interesting character in this book is Agnes' Mum, Florence. Married to William she is leading a small and unsatisfying life. When Agnes leaves for her holiday, Florence realises she is purposeless. When William rejects her idea of a trip to Italy, she takes off without him, and sheds her old life with ease and splendour! She comes back stronger, wiser and with sass a-plenty, and I adored her metamorphosis immensely.

Gorgeous dynamics evolve throughout the story, and it truly is a testament to friendships, love and being true to oneself.

Many many thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC of this title in return for an honest review.

Best friends Bea and Agnes are both a bit odd and immature..
They decide in the summer holidays they want to loose their virginity so plan a secret trip to London.
The girls start working for a strange promoter who finds them work including cheering a musician on at Glastonbury.
Meanwhile Agnes mum Florence,is a downtrodden housewife controlled and ignored by her husband
.One day she ups and leaves and goes to France to find herself without telling anyone.
There are no separate chapters for the different characters which is a bit strange.
.You get used to this and it doesn't spoil the story.
I really enjoyed this book and would recommend it. I don't want to give anything away so read it yourself to find out what becomes of the three of them.

Sadly disappointing. I was a couple of years older than Agnes and Bea in 1970 and I did not recognise them at all. Maybe in 1960 it might have been different. By 1970 we'd had the swinging sixties with mini-skirts and the Beatles. Hot pants were becoming popular. No 20 year olds could have not been affected or be so stupid as them.. The depiction of Florence was more 1950. Although I enjoyed some reminders of songs and products, the story didn't work for me. I appreciate Kennedy did a lot of research, but I wonder how many people who were 20 in 1970 did she interview.
This is an honest review of a complementary ARC.

Real escapism - a warm, uplifting and funny book that takes you away from living through the grind of lockdown! Loved the characters and the story - a great one for some summer escapism!

A thought provoking, romantic book, that will make you smile & whisk you away to a place which will enable you to escape what we are living through right now during this pandemic.

A warm, thought provoking book where the women all decide to change the way their lives are heading. Some escapades turned out unsettling and not as they expected. A book full of exciting hope and adventure.

The Never-Ending Summer by Emma KennedIt was huge fun delving into the 1970s - a trip to an era when life was less complicated, to a certain extent. But some things don't change, and it was poignant and painful and lovely to read about the coming of age of Agnes and Bea, and how they try to break free of their familial bonds.

On the other end of the spectrum we see Florence, whose has her own chains - both marital and of her own making.

Female empowerment features heavily in this witty novel, but it also serves as a reflection of how little gain has been made in certain aspects - as the #metoo movement proves.
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