Conveyed in an alternating narrative structure of 'Now' and 'Then', protagonist Rachel's story of her travel to Greece during a long summer holiday with her friend, and the way she was drawn into what was, essentially a MeToo scenario, unfolds. There were several worthy aspects to this novel: the plot, which is compelling, and the structure. In terms of characterisation, there was a bit of snipping at the edges of cliche at times, and certainly the pace was too slow, and there is definitely an impression that the writer was holding back on information far too long, so the effect is a bit lost because of it. Unlike other reviewers, I don't think there's any need for a trigger warning. It's fiction, so grow up and skip over any parts that get under your skin by all means, but you'll be skipping over the part that is by far the best-written. It would be better if, before publication, the publishers corrected some of the errors ('disinterestedness', for instance, where I think the writer means 'uninterested'.)

My grateful thanks go to the publishers and to NetGalley for the ARC.

A sun-soaked page-turner, I had hoped for more tension and darkness based on the comps, but I can see this being a popular beach read.

A married women struggling to accept the humdrum existence of her life, is fixated on a period two decades before , when during a summer holiday she became obsessed with a charismatic older man. Moving between two periods of her life the story of grooming, abuse, rape and suicide are expertly outlined through the protagonists rose coloured spectacles, her perception distorted by immaturity. The teenagers on an unsupervised holiday prior to university, meet others on a boat and the group agree to remain on a isolated island looking for casual work and enjoying the experience and ambiance. Our chief protagonist, immature and shy blossoms in the attention and largesse of a much older man . With the situation and actions of the group spiralling out of control and safety, she stubbornly refuses to alter her perceptions. The fallibility of the group and inability to recognise danger impacts and damages them into the decades that follow until dramatic events cause them to reevaluate the past and question others motives and their actions. A distressing serious of events leads to a dramatic conclusion , if not a successful closure for lives damaged beyond repair. A harrowing story of vulnerability exposing the dangers of manipulative abusers. Many thanks to author, publisher and Netgalley for this ARC.

Started a bit slow, but eventually it opened up and was really good. I enjoyed this book. Thank you.

Like an earlier reviewer I was slightly puzzled at this idyllic Greek island with its expansive white sands and tidal waters! But that was an idle niggle in an otherwise beautifully written first novel.

The author sensitively handles the more grotesque aspects of the story and, as a male reader, I’m happy that she doesn’t demonise all men as complicit in a certain type of behaviour. Interesting too that she doesn’t hold back in showing that women too can be equally as complicit.

This wasn’t an easy read and I would have liked to have learnt a little more back-story from the points of view of Alistair and Henry;

Highly recommended and my thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for an advanced digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Now the description alone had intrigued - anything set on a Greek island, the thrill of a summer of exploration and freedom - especially with a dark twisty kind of story line. It's being compared to My Dark Vanessa which does work - but it also has very strong echoes of Young Women by Jessica Moore and What Red Was by Rosie Price. But what makes Bishop's debut stand out and have more mass appeal is the thriller pacing of it - as a reader there were sections I wanted to just slow down a little and understand more about Rachel. It's a dual time line of the summer Rachel backpacked to Greece and met older, Alistair, and her present spiral of being in her mid thirties unhappily married in London. Some readers may feel like me that there was a lot more to explore here - her lack of autonomy in a relationship with Tom, the sub-plot of motherhood expectations, truth, layered with trauma carried from her all consuming love for Alistair. Of course, the magic Bishop weaves is Rachel's very blankly innocent teenage self drawn to the enigmatic man on a blissful island - and the plot centre's on how she could not understand that fully until she confronts the past with the other 'girls of summer'. Without giving too much away I felt that there was a sort of comfort in a familiar story, the past is reviewed in new harsh light and brings life changing realisations. For anyone familiar with famous legal trials and recent prosecutions there is slippery ease that Bishop negates overly explaining in the narrative which some readers might question, but I guess that such tropes we know too well by now (trafficking, exploitation, older rich and influential male characters) are modern day morality tales.
I really did enjoy the angles at which The Girls of Summer looks at the story-line from a fresh perspective, that cusp of adulthood that Rachel teeters on and explores the continual reverberating impact of a mere few months on her present adult life in London and the many traps she needs to escape.

Rachel's relationships with the other girls was a bit rushed over in wrapping up - there was a strand of toxic manipulation happening that isn't really addressed. The setting of Greece was only just believable - yes, the heat and the sand and sea are there. Given they are on a nameless island so imagination could run wild, but for me there was little sense of Greek characters or scenes that made this setting come alive to reflect how far away from Rachel's 'boring' home life we were. There was one moment when Rachel wonders about a taxi driver being able to send his kids to college when the tourists leave - otherwise it's the odd reference to Greek food and the incorrect notion that the sea has natural tides around her islands (which for me spoils some major scenes!) The only part Rachel understands is a white wealthy enclave created by Alistair's boss Henry Taylor, whom we as readers never quite find out who he is and why people will do anything for him. London is much more neatly drawn in the present which does make up for that.

I think a smattering of more detail and nuances would have helped, as Bishop is a talented writer getting to the emotional heart of the characters and keeps the reader turning the pages.

Overall - yes, highly recommend and well-written, and am sure readers will look forward to future Katie Bishop novels!

I loved this book and couldn't put it down, even though it was almost painful to read at times. The reader is drawn into the very convincing world of young girls (children really) just wanting to experience fun and glamour, but not realising the dark side of life. I will definitely look out for more by this author.

This was so engaging I had absolutely no idea where it was going to go even though I was constantly guessing. I’m not sure if this is a debut or the other has other work but the second I’ve finished this review that’s what I’ll be looking in to.

Rachel is in her thirties, unhappily married and coasting along in her life. She's connected to a relationship that keeps its claws embedded long after the real connection has gone. What’s different is that Rachel’s big romance began when she was a seventeen-year-old on a Greek island whilst on a holiday with her friend, and it was with a thirty-something English man who is involved in running a local bar. It all came to a sudden end with a death. Recently she's contacted by other women who worked at the bar with her, and their recollection of those days greatly misalign with her romantic recollections.

A troubling and thought-provoking story of manipulation, teen girls and abuse. The story can make you uncomfortable; it can feel problematic. But it's an important read, and very well written. Thanks to NetGalley and the Publisher for the ARC.

BOOK REVIEW

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Thank you to Netgally and the publisher for allowing me to review this book!

Synopsis:
For the last 15 years, Rachel has not stopped thinking about Alistair who she met when he was in his 30s, and when she was 17 who she met on a Greek Island. However, when she reconnects with other people she met in Greece, she begins to wonder if her memories are as perfect as she thinks they are.

OH MY GOODNESS THIS BOOK!! It is really hard to put it into feelings without spoilers, but I will give it a go!

This book had me gripped! This is a very dark book which deals with senaitive topics, and I didn't realise just how dark this book was going to be when I first got into it. I think that with the topics that were included in this book, it was very well written, and it was clear that this was well researched. It shows that when you are young, the majority of people tend to be vulnerable, and it is only when you look through an adult lens you realise just how vulnerable teenagers/young adults are.

I thought all of the characters and the story was well developed.

I loved the details of Greece and it made me want to be on a beach! I could really imagine myself on the beach.

An amazing debut novel by Katie Bishop, and I will be looking out for her books in the future!

Please please read the triggers before reading this one! As this one is going to be very triggering for some people. It is a dark book, and from what I have heard about My Dark Vanessa (I have not read it), it is very similar to it.

I absolutely loved this book, I though I knew where it was going pretty early on but although I got one minor detail right I didn’t realise the deep dark spiral of what the real storyline was going to be. It dealt with some very sensitive issues and was very well written. It made me think about my own past and things that I put in a box, not that it was the same as the things that happened here but more about how we see things differently when we are young naive girls and when looking back on things from an older age things can look very different. I look forward to reading more from Katie Bishop in the future.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for an advanced digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This was an incredible read that I couldn't put down because I had to know how everything was going to pan out and what was going to happen in the end.It was well written with a gripping storyline and well developed characters. I loved this book and I cannot wait to read more by this author.

Memories play tricks on you and you remember all the good bits, but then the memory fractures and other things start spilling out.
The hot guy at the pool/beach is what you remember and you think you are having the best time reminiscing until someone points out they have a different memory than you of how the "best" summer went.
i just wanted to know the secrets and the truth of what happened, it was addictive and passionate i found it hard to put down!

This is a story about how the sense we make of our experiences changes as we have more information about the context of our experiences. It is a story about trauma, and love, and how so often it can be possible to confuse to two. It is a strange experience as a reader, feeling in many ways like you are one step ahead of your protagonist, being more aware of the context of their trauma than they are and rooting for them to face the painful truth. What is clear is that if Rachel doesn't reclaim her truth, she will continue to be hurt by her fantasy and lose all sense of self in the process.

Possible spoilers

There's something quite wonderful about how this book can make you really feel young, free and as if there's a sun soaked beach just outside your door.
Also, awkward and vulnerable.
The dual timeline works amazingly well, as does the sense of unease, as you realise things were maybe not quite as wonderful as you imagined.
In fact the sense of something very wrong hits the reader a lot sooner than our characters, as they are too lost in the moment of it all.
A joy to read.
...more

 

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A brilliant debut from Katie Bishop.

A gripping read from beginning to end, alternating between the past and now. There are some subjects explored in this book that Katie writes about in a honest and sensitive way. The descriptions of the Greek island were beautiful and you could imagine yourself there with Rachel and the other girls.

Highly recommend this book.

The pace of the first half of the book was great the second half was good maybe a sun soaked first half led to the romance of the story but when it all goes wrong a dismal uk
effectively gives the disaster a dismal feel. Clever storytelling

Congratulations to Katie Bishop on this wonderful firat book. It is very thought provoking and a subject so many of us can relate to, especially those of us who grew up before social media and popularity of the internet.

I have often wondered if I could do what Rachel and the girls so bravely did years later. Like Rachel it takes many years and a certain perspective to look back and really see what was happening.

I give this book 5/5 stars and hope it is read by many people.

A twisty story filled with journey's through the life of Rachel, who had an all consuming love affair with Alistair on a Greek island when she was 17. Almost two decades later, now married and settled, Rachel finds herself revisiting that summer when her and her husband go back to the island. Viewing her past under the new lenses of life makes Rachel contemplate her decisions and exactly what happened that summer all those year's ago with Alistair, and uncovers the secrets that were kept by everyone, even herself.

As we flashback with Rachel between the present and the past, the story builds and grows with realization, for us and Rachel about the true events of the past and the story of the love affair she once idolized.

The book draws you in with it's vivid description of the Greek islands. It begins upbeat but you can tell there's an undertone of something imperceptibly dragging Rachel between two worlds, the past and the present.

The way the author reveals the true horror of what happens to Rachel and the other girls is captivating.

It's absorbing and beautifully written.