The Girls of Summer is a debut novel set on a paradise Greek island written in the style of a "beach read" but with a very sinister story at its heart.

Told in dual timelines of "then" and "now", Rachel is a married woman in her thirties looking back on a seemingly idyllic summer in her late teens that she just hasn't been able to shake. On a visit to the island with her husband, Rachel meets Helena, a figure from her past who awakens memories in her that she has attempted to bury within herself, instead convincing herself that it was a coming-of-age summer of intense first love. As Rachel begins to revisit those memories, life begins to spiral out of control as she is confronted with the dark truth.

This is a #MeToo novel, exploring consent and abuse, with Jeffrey Epstein vibes. It gave me the serious ick, possibly because the style it's written in belies the grim subject matter. I can't say I enjoyed it as such, but it's well written for a novel of this type. I never warmed to Rachel and I didn't find it convincing that she would continue to look back on the past with rose-tinted glasses, given what transpired. However, perhaps I'm underestimating the longlasting effects of grooming. An interesting one that would make for a good book club discussion and decent debut novel. 3/5 stars

If you pick up this book expecting a twist on Mamma Mia, then you'll be sorely disappointed. What you get instead is something much more sinister, set amongst the background of both a beautiful Greek Island (then) and London (now).

I loved that the story was told through the view of Rachel both then and now. It gave so much background and character development and really helped the story to grow. I felt transported back to that time when Rachel was 18 and it made me reflect on my own time when I was her age too.

All the way through, you could feel the suspense growing. Why was Kiera so scared? Why was Rachel so attached to Alistair? Why was she avoiding Helena? So many questions to be answered and what an ending it was!

For a debut novel, this was brilliant. I am very much looking forward to seeing what the author does next

Where to begin?
Told in duel timelines from the perspective of Rachel sixteen years apart, we discover what that summer on a Greek island that promised so much to her as a fresh-faced seventeen year old truly meant. The excitement, heat, adventures, and promise of longlasting youthful holiday memories to treasure for years to come. Working in a bar with other girls. That summer love. Alistair. He's the one for her. Always was, always will be. Right? Wrong.

This book is dark, gritty, and intriguing to read. It is a very good fictional look at the #metoo movement. The story features a Jeffery Epstien type character and his entourage who unleashes coercive compliance on these young girls. What makes this book difficult to reflect on long after you finish is the stark possibility that this behaviour is going on out there in this world we live in today. Right now. It's almost impossible for any parent of a young adult to read this book and not worry frantically about their daughter, who is planning or currently on a gap year travelling.

This book deals with the subject of consent and coercion brilliantly. A great debut. I'd happily read more from Bishop.

Thank you to @netgalley and Transworld publishers for my review copy.

This book tells the story of Rachel, both in present day, and when she is a teenager, embarking on her first holiday abroad, which leads to a freedom she has never really experienced. Whilst visiting a Greek island, she meets and falls for an older man, Alistair and stays working on the island to be with him until something happens that ends it all. In the present day, after visiting that island with her husband, she reconnects with people from back then, including Alistair. But do Rachel's version of events really tie up with the reality of what happened?

This was a very easy to read book, and dealt well with some difficult topics. I must say that I was overall rather disappointed though. I really struggled to buy into present day Rachel not having any doubts or trepidation about what she went through as a teenager, her apparent naivety really jarred for me and brought me out of the story. I appreciate that perhaps part of her didn't want to acknowledge that but that didn't seem to be how she was portrayed.

Unfortunately not one I'd recommend.

This was an absorbing but difficult read, one that I found I had to take little breaks from and come back to. The author handles difficult topics with sensitivity and care and the writing flows beautifully. I felt as if I were transported to the island with Rachel but also struggled to read some of the horrors she experienced and the gaslighting she was put through thereafter. I don't mean this negatively at all; it's a testament to the author's ability to create fully fleshed out, complex and human characters within these pages. It encapsulates the confused feelings of youth and naivete and how your mind can hide the truth from you as a way to protect you. Overall, a dark and thought=provoking book I will be recommending.

I really enjoyed this one, but in places i just wanted it to be a bit more.
It's a summer beach read for me, nothing that I could get my teeth into.

A heartbreaking story, however it got me gripped.

Thank you NetGalley for my complimentary copy in return for my honest review.

The Girls of Summer is set over two timelines- the summer when Rachel was 17 and staying on a remote Greek island and 15 years later, when in her 30s Rachel is married to Tom and living in London. The teenage Rachel met Alistair on the Greek island- a man almost 20 years her senior - and now in the present she reconnects with him.

This is an absolutely stunning, thought provoking and beautifully written debut that I was completely caught up in over the space of 24 hours. The dual timeline narrative works perfectly and the reader sees from the beginning what is happening on the island and the abuse and coercive control that is present. However, Rachel still believes the relationship she had with Alistair was her first great love affair. Adult Rachel is not a particularly likeable character , however as we hear about her past, the trauma she suffered becomes clear and this helped me to empathise and understand her behaviour. The novel shows how attitudes have changed over the past couple of decades and deals with the subject sensitively.

A dark and compelling novel that I would highly recommend.
Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this digital ARC.

I received a gifted advance reader copy of this book to read in exchange for an honest review as part of the book tour hosted by Random Things Tours

The Girls of Summer is a fantastic debut novel that keeps you invested from chapter one. Rachel goes on holiday to Greece with her husband to an island she holidayed to and ended up working on in her teenage years. The book goes back between then and now and slowly builds up to a life-changing event she can not escape from. Rachel begins to delve back into that past part of her life, mainly because 1. She wants to re-live it and 2. She needs to compartmentalise what happened and why. This was a quick and thought-provoking read that makes you realise how vulnerable young females can be and gives much food for thought.

A beautifully told and written book about sex, exploration, deception and coming of age. The characters are young and it was great to read how they grow up.

The Girls of Summer is told across two timelines, present day (Now) and sixteen years ago (Then).

Then - We first meet Rachel as a Seventeen year old following a life changing event, that we don't immediately get to understand. Though certain things are heavily hinted at.

She has spent the summer in Greece, island hopping with her best friend Caroline, who has now gone home. Rachel has decided to stay with her new found friends, having settled in a job, and begun an affair with a much older man, Alistair.

She came to Greece in the shadow of Caroline, but meeting Alistair has given Rachel a confidence she never knew she had, and she is determined to make the most of the summer.

Now, Rachel is married to Tom, but her heart still lies with Alistair, even after all this time. When she and Tom go on holiday to the island that she once called home, Rachel is hopeful that she can start to forget about the past, and move on with her life.

But when she comes unexpectedly face to face with an old friend in a bar, Rachel realises that she can never move on. She flees the bar in a panic, only to return the next day without Tom to try and understand if any of the old friends are still in touch.

She is delighted to receive Alistair's contact details, but tells herself she won't do anything with them.

Of course, Rachel never could resist the pull of Alistair, and has spent years believing that they are meant to be together. So when she meets up with him, it is somewhat inevitable that their relationship will continue where they left it.

But Rachel is older now, a little wiser perhaps..

Or maybe not. We all know that love can be blind.

As their relationship continues, more people begin to return to Rachel's life from back then, and she is forced to consider that the carefully constructed memories that she has of that time, could all be built on lies.

I don't want to give any more away, but I really loved this novel. It tackles some difficult subjects well, and although Rachel can be frustrating at times, we've all been young and naïve once! Her journey is what makes this novel special, her realisation of what has happened is painful, but necessary. A great debut!

This was an interesting read. It deals with the topics of abuse and how cultural changes can reshape your own view of what really happens.

When Rachel was seventeen she traveled through Europe with her friend during summer. Their last stop is a small Greek island. Rachel is naïve and shy, not as outgoing as her friend. But on this island she makes a lot of new friends and, most important, she meets a man. Alistair. He is much older than her, he is in his thirties, but Rachel is smitten immediately. It seems that he can see her like nobody else can. She feels special when she is with him. When the time to leave comes she decides to stay. But there is something more sinister going on and Rachel is not aware of that. For her this summer is magical and she is happy because she is in love and feels loved. But is it all as it seems?

Right at the beginning we learn that Alistair left Rachel behind and everything on this island is in shatters. Then the story jumps to adult Rachel fifteen years later. She is back in London, married and has a normal life. But she never got over that first love and she still thinks about Alistair. Rachel idealized this summer on the island but after meeting one of the girls from then she slowly begins to understand that there was something going on that she in her naivety did not realized. Or rather just did not want to see it.

This book reminded me a bit of “My Dark Vanessa”. In both books a woman even as an adult does not see that she was abused. She wants this to be a love story and not a story of abuse. Young Rachel was too vulnerable and impressionable but it is sometimes almost unbearable to see how stubborn she is as an adult. She never moved on in the fifteen years afterwards. She even ruins her marriage because of her love for Alistair and her unwillingness to see the truth. Adult Rachel is not a very nice character. She cheats and lies and she is very selfish. But it is hard to look back and realize you were a victim and not a young girl in love. Unfortunate it is true that in the past abuse of women was just not seen as such. And even the women herself did not see it that way. I hope that the cultural changes #metoo started will go on and change how people see certain things.

I enjoyed this book as far as you can call it “enjoy” reading about such horrible topics. The pace is slow and the reveal about what is going on is protracted a bit although you can easily see what is going on as a reader. But it is still an important topic and I think the author did a good job handling

A shocking and immersive read that seems at first to be the perfect summer read, but that becomes something very much darker.

Rachel has returned to Santorini with her husband Tom. It seemed like a nice idea, but it triggers memories from the summer she spent there as a naive young woman. A woman who fell under the spell of a much older man and became involved in something very dark without even being fully aware.

Unable to stop thinking about her first love and desperate to feel alive again, she contacts Alistair and reignites their affair. But as ghosts from her past reappear, Rachel begins to have doubts about the past that eventually become too intrusive to ignore.

I devote a lot of my time to reading, but there are times when a book makes me drop everything. I carry it in my bag to read while waiting for appointments. It takes precedence over Netflix and all the other streaming channels that lure us into watching the screen every evening. I spent my whole morning in pyjamas reading, because I needed to finish this novel in one greedy gulp. I was completely transfixed by this story of a young girl taking a holiday to Greece that completely changes her life. Rachel is a naïve seventeen years old when she sets out to the island for a holiday with her friend Caroline. She sells it to her worried parents as being no different to a gap year, just a year earlier than normal. Once on the island they meet a group of girls who work in a local bar, belonging to entrepreneur Harry Taylor. When Rachel meets his right hand man Alistair she feels an immediate attraction but does he feel the same way? Surely she isn’t going to capture the attention of a handsome and sophisticated older man. She does notice him looking at her and it sends a shiver through her. Rachel has never thought of herself as beautiful, especially next to the other girls here, but as Alistair singles her out for attention she feels special. They have a connection, so strong that she makes a huge decision. She isn’t going to return to England with Caroline at the end of the holiday. She is going to work in the bar alongside the girls she’s made friends with and share their rather chaotic house nearby. Why would she return to her parent’s suffocatingly ordinary semi and her A’Levels when she can be on this golden island with Alistair and frequent the glamorous parties held by his mysterious boss at his enormous villa in the hills?

The structure of the book is interesting, because usually in time slip novels we have a protagonist in the here and now trying to solve a mystery interspersed with glimpses into the past that make sense of the present. Here the author turns that on it’s head. Rachel, now in her thirties and married to Tom, knows what happened in the past. She holds her relationship with Alistair up on a pedestal, their love was special and those months with him on a beautiful Greek island have been her benchmark of how love should be. It’s a revisit to the island with Tom and bumping into Helena that starts to unravel the rather idealised past she’s been narrating to us. The present actually deconstructs her past. As each new revelation washes over Rachel in the present it takes us into a past that’s changed a little, becoming murkier and more sinister. Rachel is still friends with Jules, a friend she made on the island who was separate to the bar. In fact it’s Jules who gives seventeen year old Rachel a warning, the locals think there’s something ‘off’ about the bar and perhaps it would be best to stay away. In the present Jules and her husband have Rachel and Tom over for dinner. They’re chatting about having a family, but Rachel and Tom have been trying for around a year without success. Tom mentions that they’ve talked about seeing a doctor to have a few things checked out when Rachel responds angrily that he wants to see a doctor, she hasn’t agreed to anything. Her harsh responses change the night and seem out of character. She’s told us about how easy it was to fall in love with Tom and how they’d taken steps to move in together almost without realising it, when she’d stayed for a few days while some work was being done on her flat. Of course by now we know that Rachel has Alistair’s number and has made plans to see him again. Could that have made her less invested in her future with Tom? Later we see that she’s stashed her contraceptive pills in a box of sanitary towels under the bathroom sink, she’s still been taking one regularly every day.

The structure of the book is interesting, because usually in time slip novels we have a protagonist in the here and now trying to solve a mystery interspersed with glimpses into the past that make sense of the present. Here the author turns that on it’s head. Rachel, now in her thirties and married to Tom, knows what happened in the past. She holds her relationship with Alistair up on a pedestal, their love was special and those months with him on a beautiful Greek island have been her benchmark of how love should be. It’s a revisit to the island with Tom and bumping into Helena that starts to unravel the rather idealised past she’s been narrating to us. The present actually deconstructs her past. As each new revelation washes over Rachel in the present it takes us into a past that’s changed a little, becoming murkier and more sinister. Rachel is still friends with Jules, a friend she made on the island who was separate to the bar. In fact it’s Jules who gives seventeen year old Rachel a warning, the locals think there’s something ‘off’ about the bar and perhaps it would be best to stay away. In the present Jules and her husband have Rachel and Tom over for dinner. They’re chatting about having a family, but Rachel and Tom have been trying for around a year without success. Tom mentions that they’ve talked about seeing a doctor to have a few things checked out when Rachel responds angrily that he wants to see a doctor, she hasn’t agreed to anything. Her harsh responses change the night and seem out of character. She’s told us about how easy it was to fall in love with Tom and how they’d taken steps to move in together almost without realising it, when she’d stayed for a few days while some work was being done on her flat. Of course by now we know that Rachel has Alistair’s number and has made plans to see him again. Could that have made her less invested in her future with Tom? Later we see that she’s stashed her contraceptive pills in a box of sanitary towels under the bathroom sink, she’s still been taking one regularly every day.

It’s very easy to understand the teenage Rachel. I fell in love at seventeen and had my heart broken. For years I idealised that relationship, using it as a benchmark for subsequent relationships that in hindsight had much more potential. She is so naïve that she can’t see what’s happening and how much she is being controlled. It’s almost apt that the book should come out in the light of the Phillip Schofield scandal, because it struck me how the responses to what happened are very different to the responses we might have had when I was seventeen in the early 1990s. Our gradual understanding of coercive control, grooming and power imbalances in relationships have coloured the way we view all relationships completely. An affair with a much older man probably wouldn’t have raised much of an eyebrow then, it’s only with hindsight that it becomes worrying. It’s only once the affair is viewed through the prism of our later experiences, such as having our own daughters, that our perspective changes. The #MeToo movement has changed how we see things. When I watched the film Bombshell I talked with friends I’ve had since I was a teenager and as the author writes in her afterword, we’ve all had experiences: of being groped without consent while waitressing or working behind a bar; having a boss who was a bit ‘handsy’ or made inappropriate comments; being touched an a crowded dance floor at a club. One of the most disturbing stories I have ever heard was from a woman who had known ‘wrestling’ between boys and girls in the school playground turn into sexual assault. I love that my stepdaughters are so much better informed than I was and are very conscientious about keeping each other safe when out with friends, although it frustrates me that they have to be so vigilant just to go out on a Friday night.

Watching the teenage Rachel walk into danger is upsetting because this reader was ahead of the narrative and knew something was very wrong with the island set-up, particularly the extravagant parties. There was no explanation for all the male party guests and the mysterious Harry rarely appeared. On her way to a party, Rachel is excited and hopes Alistair loves her dress, she’s grateful that the girls have been invited never realising that they are the reason for the party. The gaslighting afterwards was painful to read - ‘you had fun didn’t you?’ Or ‘don’t feel bad about what happened, it’s okay, you enjoyed it.’ When they’re in the middle of that level of pressure, manipulation and controlling the narrative how would they be able to see through it and understand what’s truly going on? Even for an adult Rachel it’s hard. Her relationship with Alistair and it’s veracity is part of who she is, how she views men and relationships and determines her friendships with the very women who might understand her most. When the truth of everything is revealed, the horror of the Full Moon party and further painful revelations, it’s so hard for her to absorb and accept it. I found it deeply sad that even towards the end of the book, Rachel has still held a tiny shred of hope that her version of the relationship with Alistair will prove to be the love story she wanted.

When the truth is so deeply painful and damaging, isn’t it understandable that she would want to sugar coat things a little? To push away the truth and not have to confront what happened to you. To not feel like a victim. I could truly understand the women coming together to confront the past and I found myself thinking about how powerful men frame the narrative. They talk about a cabal or coven of women coming together to destroy them. Women who have been taking drink or drugs and having an encounter they bitterly regret in the morning. I can only imagine what effect it must have on the individual, to hear comments like Prince Andrew’s ‘I have absolutely no memory of ever meeting that woman’. For Rachel, who lost absolutely everything that summer, the denial of her experience actually brings the first chink of light into her situation. I felt hopeful that with the help of this group of women, friends like Jules and an acceptance of the truth she could start to rebuild. The fact that I’m talking about Rachel like this, as a real person, is testament to the brilliant writing of Katie Bishop. She has created a real, flesh and blood woman in Rachel and I found myself almost wishing I could see her as a client, I so wanted a recovery for her. This is a powerful story, that may trigger some people who’ve had similar experiences, but it’s important for stories like this to be told. I could really see this as a television series, with some reviewers seeing a similarity with The White Lotus - a beautiful setting, a luxury resort and the dark truths lurking underneath all that perfection. I loved the ending though, a return to that beautiful place but with the ability to see the reality instead of a fantasy. I wanted her visit to the island to be different to the one she had with Tom at the beginning of the book. To accept that she will never feel the excitement and promise she felt all those years ago, but that she will experience new feelings that are every bit as worthwhile.

Will be shares as part of the Random Things Tours Blog Tour on 8th June 2023

This book touches on so many aspects of girlhood, and the womanhood, that so many of us experience but can never quite articulate because we feel guilty or ‘responsible’. That as girls we somehow asked for it. Im so glad I live in a time where women are speaking up and fighting back against it.
This book encapsulates that fight, not always a violent battle with a known enemy but a slow, eventual understanding and coming to terms with the past and the people that shaped it.
I really liked Rachel’s character, at times I was so frustrated with her for not seeing the truth about what was happening to her and her friends. But then I realised that she was perfectly depicted as a teenager who was manipulated by adult men.
Bishop’s writing was enticing and atmospheric, I’m excited to see what she does next.

The Girls Of Summer was a decent read, it deals with some sensitive issues that you should be aware of before reading this.
Rachel is seventeen years old and has decided to go backpacking round Greece. Her and her friend find a lovely place and soon get work through Alistair. Rachel falls in love with the island, her new group of friends and Alistair. She doesn’t go home when she should do and stays but maybe that wasn’t the right thing to do? Returning to the island for a holiday with her husband she meets one of the women she was with and her life free falls as she reconnects with Alistair.
This book was at times very dark, I didn’t think it was going to be like this at all, especially with the front cover promoting Sun, sea and fun. The book is split into now and then which works really well as you get into the nitty gritty of the story. The characters unfortunately didn’t connect with me, by the end I was warming to Rachel but she did a lot of things that annoyed me and she came across a little naive. A book I would recommend though.
I would like to thank Netgalley and Random House UK, Transworld Publishers for this ARC I received in exchange for an honest review.

This book was a LOT darker than I anticipated. I did read the synopsis , the warnings are there but yet the cover screams summer read. I imagine many people will have similar experience with this one. This cover would leap out at me from a bookshelf in an airport bookshop and the cover does not lend itself to the dark dark story within.

Rachel met Alistair when she was island hopping 16 years ago. She fell in love with him on this remote island despite him being twenty years older than her. Rachel is still in love with in with him now in the present day even though she hasn't set eyes on him since that summer when she was 17 and even though she is married to somebody else.

A return visit to the island with her husband, a chance meeting with one of the girls she knew there and Rachel becomes consumed with past events and her first love. Dark secrets are unearthed, traumatic events are brought back and Rachel has to question everything she thought she knew about this great love of her life.

A dark dark read and while the subject matter is written with care , there was no light to balance all the dark. The fragility of memory or the difference in how people remember the same event is an interesting concept and this book held my interest the whole way through. even it was a little unevenly paced However , I cannot say I enjoyed it. It made me uncomfortable and tense and while I had sympathy for the main character, I didn't warm to her as a character .at all which made me keep this story at arms length a bit.
A tense, difficult read.
3 STAR.

I really enjoyed this! It was very like a modern day Lolita which I enjoyed! Great characterisation and very descriptive at parts! Will definitely be recommending!

‘It’s strange how quickly a truth you have believed for years can seem ridiculous the moment it is said out loud.’

This one had been on my radar since last year and I was so excited to get my hands on it!

The first chapter grabbed me immediately and I needed to know everything!

The story plays out over dual timelines, a Greek island in the 00’s and the present day in London. This worked so well for building the backstory and giving us an insight into Rachel’s behaviour in the present day timeline.

The depiction of grooming, cohesive control, age gaps and general toxic relationships with incredible. Uncomfortable in parts, it really puts you at the centre of it all. You feel everything, whilst screaming at the girls to get away whilst they can.

Rachel’s character was brilliantly written. She undoubtably makes some terrible choices, but it’s well understood why she’s doing so. Her development throughout the story is great to watch, her changes in understanding and being able to see a different perspective of things.

The imagery used was beautiful, the green islands sounded, visually, idillic and it gave such a good atmosphere to the book. It really pulled you in and you felt like you were there witnessing it all.

For a read with Dark Vanessa vibes, realistic and relatable characters with a plot that keeps you gripped - this one is for you!

A powerful, thought provoking and timely read.

The story is told across two time lines, the past some 16 years ago, and now. The key narrator, Rachel, has romanticised the events of that Summer, when on returning to the island she is confronted by the past that she has never truly wanted to face. The plot unfolds steadily, with the readers discomfort increasing as we realise the nature of what was truly going on (long before our primary story-teller does, but that just adds to poignancy of the narrative).

Its a story of the advantage that some men will take with young and vunerable women, of the lies that people tell themselves to avoid facing terrible events of how trauma spans decades and of how the truth can find its way out one way or another. Bishop is very tactful in how she tells the events of both timelines, its not done in a salacious manner but the ramifications of what is happening are crystal clear. For me it's not a book that you speed read through and the story is one that will definitely stay with me. I think it speaks to the experiences that a lot of women have in their youth that were not what they thought they were at the time. It is a very insightful read.