This is a fabulous debut book that completely drew me in from the first few pages till the end. The story is written in a then and now format as the main character of Rachel goes on a backpacking holiday abroad with a friend and gets lured into a world of wild parties, drugs, drink and all that goes along with that. Falling for an older man and being coerced into that life at 18 Rachel’s life crumbles as this wild life suddenly comes to an end and she returns home heartbroken. The story then is one an awakening for Rachel as she begins to realise that this was not the perfect life she had but one of manipulation.
This is a book that deals with sone heavy subjects but is done exceptionally well by the author. It’s a story we have all heard and a very topical one and for me I found the book to be addictive as I really wanted to know how the characters lives would pan out. It was beautifully structured read and although heartbreaking at times it was a story that I flew through and very much enjoyed.
My thanks to NetGalley and Random House UK, Transworld Publishers, Bantam for giving me the opportunity to read the ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

A dark, bubbling debut!

The Girls of Summer is at times a disturbing read, tackling issues of subtle abuse disguised as work and fun. Written from one girls perspective throughout, the author weaves the story between then and now, telling a tale of love, loss and realisation. Evocatively written with hazy Grecian days unravelling before your eyes, the book rolls along rather than races, drawing you in as you see what she fails to see, even in the present day.

A satisfying read, no threads left undone, and a recommended book. I look forward to other books by this author in the future.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for my ARC in exchange for my honest review.

**Triggers - rape, abortion, loss, suicide

This is a book with an interesting premise - the story of Rachel, a young teen exploited for sex by a shadowy Epstein-type magnate - narrated from the young girl’s perspective. Seduced by the magnate’s right hand man, Alistair, an attractive man twice her age, she idealises this experience as a romantic love affair and continues to do so well into adulthood and a dull but sensible marriage. Despite this potentially compelling storyline, I found this book incredibly boring and difficult to get into. Written in two timelines - the heady teenage years of seventeen years ago and now - I found it difficult to believe that the adult Rachel was so enamoured of her old love as to rekindle the relationship and the journey to realisation was painfully slow. Very well written but for me, very difficult to engage with.

With thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review an advance copy.

You know how in your memory the summers of your childhood were perfect, the sun always shone, it never rained and every day seemed wonderful? Well, first love is a bit like that and Rachel's first big romance definitely benefited from being on a Greek island with blue skies and warm seas. An older man, a lot of booze and drugs, and a perfect escape from dreary old England and A level studies. But was it really as perfect as she thinks it was?

Returning with her husband 16 years later, everything feels very different. A chance encounter with a girl she knew all those years before, leads Rachael to contact Alistair again and she's soon cheating on her husband.

Told in dual timelines, the book slowly reveals what was really going on back in her summer of love. Will she still think it was all so perfect in the era of #metoo and Epstein?

It's a good read. Rachael is a very flawed heroine, Alastair is seriously creepy and the secrets revealed are not particularly surprising. That said, I quite enjoyed it and am sure others will too.

At seventeen, Rachel spent what she remembers as the perfect summer on a picturesque Greek island. Alternating between 'then' and 'now', sixteen years later, The Girls of Summer uncovers the story of what really happened.

The prose is straightforward and easy to read, and plot doesn't throw up too many surprises, but I was impressed by the nuance with which Bishop approaches her subject matter. It's often an uncomfortable and unsettling read: while Rachel romanticises the summer she spent on the island, it is obvious to the reader that there are dark forces at play. She is far from the perfect protagonist - somewhat self-absorbed and unreliable - but in many ways that's what makes her story so compelling. Bishop explores the complexities of abuse and victimhood, of changing perspectives and painful home truths, and how the past is never really set in stone.

Long ago on a Greek island, 17 year old Rachel fell in love with an older man. The summer they spend together is full of sunshine, parties and secrets.
Now, Rachel is married but a trip back to the island where she spent an unforgettable summer brings back memories of what really happened that summer, the love she had and why he disappeared.  That summer was not as perfect as it seemed, there were dark secrets and lies which are slowly coming to the surface.

The Girls Of Summer is a slow building, suspenseful novel which tackles many difficult topics. I enjoyed this book however I did find it difficult to get into the flow of the structure as it flicks between past and present. Once I connected to the characters, particularly the group of girls Rachel surrounds herself with, and the story I couldn't put it down!
Thank you to Random House and NetGalley for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

A great story told in the past and present about a 17 year old who travels in Greece and the experiences shape her for life. Slightly slow but then loved it and went back and read the beginning after

The Girls of Summer is a beautifully written slow burn of a book, dealing with many themes and issues that will resonate with readers of all ages. It’s timely and important, and perhaps more of a cautionary tale than it first appears to be.

Set over two moments in time, sixteen years apart, The Girls of Summer tells Rachel’s story first as a seventeen-year-old girl travelling Europe, and then as a woman in her thirties coming to terms with what happened to her during that long ago summer. Older Rachel slowly begins to realise all may not be as she remembers, and what follows is a journey to the truth she never let herself believe.

Rachel’s story is a clever meditation on consent and coercion, and how memories can be misconstrued through different eyes and experiences. The obsession of first love blinds her to the point of ignorance, and from there it’s nothing but a slippery slope that ultimately ends in a wholly avoidable loss of innocence.

The Girls of Summer hooked me immediately, though I did find the pacing a little too slow at times. It luckily didn’t detract from my overall enjoyment of the book, and I found myself savouring it over a few days, letting its revelations sink in and that one life-changing summer come to life. I look forward to more books from debut author Katie Bishop; if they’re even half as well-written as this, I’ll be in for a treat.

Although I think I should love this book due to its very #MeToo theme, it didn’t really grab me. It was interesting in that we all romanticise our first love/teenage years and block out most of the bad which is exactly what Rachel, the main character, did. however, Rachel was not a character I liked as she let what happened mould and shape her whole life and dragged her husband through her warped memory of the world as well. I don’t think there was one character I liked and I certainly wouldn’t want any of them as a friend, with the exception of Jules. They were all aware of what they were doing but just went along with it. It wasn’t bad for a debut novel but I think its dark subject matter needed a stronger voice.

In The Girls of Summer, Katie Bishop explores the extent to which the past holds up to closer scrutiny, especially with the hindsight of adulthood. The memories of our youth are precious to us, but are they always accurate?

In this well-written debut novel, we follow the journey taken by Rachel, who has been in love with Alastair for pretty much her entire adult life, despite the fact that she was only 17 when she met him on a remote Greek Island. Alastair himself was 20 years older, but swept way by the excitement of her first grown up relationship, and the glamour of her surroundings - drenched in sun, sea, parties and opulence - Rachel has been never been able to forget the all-consuming intensity of that first love.

This continues to be the case a decade and a half later, despite the fact that she has married Tom, who is devoted to her, in the meantime.

Rachel's grasp of the underpinnings of her relationship with Alastair can really only be properly understood in the context of how young she was at the time when they first met. Just how unequal the power dynamics were in this relationship that she considers to be the love of her life becomes increasingly evident as the writer unpacks some of the more painful truths that lurk beneath the surface of the stories that Rachel has been telling herself.

So when a twist of fate leads her to return to the island with Tom, Pandora's box is once again thrown open, setting in motion a series of happenings that will lead to serious consequences - for Rachel, her relationships and her most fundamental beliefs about who she is.

This is a thought provoking novel by Katie Bishop that is told over two timelines, then and now. It is set in Greece and tells the story of a group of young women, mainly in their teens who work in a bar run by an Englishman, Alastair, who is manipulative, and unbeknown to the girls is grooming them. The protagonist is Rachel, at 17 she is naive and impressionable, and believes herself and Alastair to be in love. A tragic accident involving one of the girls changes everything and the girls all leave the island and return home.
Twenty years on Rachel is married but still believes her one great love was Alastair and she makes plans to meet up with him, When she meets up with the other girls the truth finally comes out and Rachel finally faces up to the truth of what has happened to her and how the trauma has affected her subsequent relationships.
"The Girls of Summer" is a hard read at times but it tells an important story about dealing with difficult and dark topics, but it is beautifully crafted and leaves you thinking. The characters are well drawn and believable and I think it would appeal to readers of any age. I found it hard to put down as I was invested in Rachel from the beginning.
Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for my review.

Just for a change I actually read the blurb so don't be fooled by the title and cover. This is a dark story that talks about older men taking advantage of younger girls. Some readers may find this an uncomfortable read. So don't say I didn't warn you!

The author sets the scene when we are transported to Greece. Where we follow a story told over two different timelines. Rachel was seventeen and she met Alistair who is twenty years older than her and finds it impossible to forget that summer in the present day.

I really enjoyed it and found I couldn't put it down. Each chapter left me wanting more. It is a story full of mystery and suspense. I just wanted to know what happened. This story will certainly keep you on your toes, keeping you there from the start. Brilliant debut novel which I highly recommend.

The issues and themes are definitely of the moment. The events experienced by a seventeen year old young woman in a seemingly golden summer in a Greek island, and the reality of what it really happened only becomes apparent to the protagonist many years later... This was not a novel exactly for me although I can see the interest and truth of the premise. We do re-create our past and accommodate it in ways that facilitate our present. On the other hand, new ways of looking in the present (eg the me-too movement) make us reevaluate the past and transform our present... I was not keen on the continuous swing of perspectives past/present, past/present and the a bit laboured prose. Also, I could see where everything was going a bit all too easily, there was not real element of narrative surprise. Nevertheless, it is an interesting novel dealing with believable events and characters. I could not suspend disbelief, alas.
With many thanks to NetGalley for the opportunity to read this novel.

This book consumed my thoughts. I spent 3 days reading it, and when I wasn't reading, I was thinking about it!

This awesome debut is about 17 year old Rachel and her friend Caroline, who 'then' decide to travel one summer before going back to school in autumn. They arrive on a Greek island, make friends, and Rachel meets Alastair and falls in love. Alastair is in this 30s and works for the extremely rich Henry Taylor.

We then move forward to 'now' and Rachel and her husband are on holiday on that Greek island where Rachel made so many memories. Rachel meets one of the girls she made friends with and from that meeting starts to really dig deeper into that summer and what happened to not only her, but the other girls she lived and worked with.

This isn't a story with any major plot twists, and I'd describe it as more slow and steady than a page turner. It's thought-provoking and at times uncomfortable and dark. For me, it really highlights how one persons perception of time can be very different to another and with a little time can also come perspective.

Thank you NetGalley and St Martins Press for an e copy of this book.

The premise of this book makes it sound exactly like something I would love but, with the exception of the prologue, I never found it as gripping as I'd expected to. It moved along very slowly and I felt at a distance from Rachel and her experiences. The characters all seemed flat and the exploration of the harrowing issues was really quite basic. I was sadly unmoved by it.

Whilst this book opens with a beautiful depiction of Greece and the atmosphere of freedom, adolescence and travelling, it soon becomes very dark, tense and gut-wrenching…in a hugely readable way. Power dynamics, grooming and abuse are such important topics that are barely touched in books or film, and yet such an important topic. This was hugely readable, emotionally compelling, heartbreaking and, in its own way, uplifting. A fantastic achievement for a debut, i can’t wait to see what Katie Bishop writes next. I have already recommended to friends!

Fifteen years ago, Rachel fell in love. As a teenager on a sunkissed island, she fell in love with the nightlife, with working at a bar by the sea, by living in paradise … and with Alistair. That handsome, charismatic man twenty years her senior who made her feel things she can't explain, and still to this day lives in her mind - even now she's twenty years older, married, with a life of her own.

But she still finds herself drawn to that Island, and here once again she finds herself reaching out to the people she met that summer and revisit the people they were back then. But the more she rediscovers her old self, the more she discovers about Alistair and she starts to question if that passionate love affair she's held onto all these years was even real or if something much darker was going on that she didn't even realise …

"They feel like parts of the same puzzle, lines from the same song, chapters of the same story. Fragmented things that I had never though to put together before feeling suddenly sharp and solidified."

An electrifying debut that makes a blinding statement about what it really means to reclaim and reframe your story when didn't even know it yourself. Bishop dives into the complex issues of past traumas, and how we can often excuse it, forget it, change it or reason with it because we're not ready to accept it.

Bishop gracefully and respectfully explores the areas of consent and coercion that aren't always so obvious - the power dynamics, the charming and convincing abusers, the disbelief from society and of course the way our own memories can fail in an effort to survive.

Rachel is an endearing and relatable narrator, she's troubled and doesn't always make good choices but I found a deep connection and understanding with her - in both her 17 and 34 year old self. Now an adult, she felt stuck, like a passenger in her own life. I felt her cry of 'is this it?' deep in my soul. And in her younger self, I saw myself as a teenager and wished I could talk to her, let her know that the faces of abuse aren't always scary on the outside.

The setting is clear from the first few lines - transporting us to a sweet, sweaty summer full of youthful excitement and then that same heat that is now stifling and unbearable. Time moves fluidly between that fateful summer and the modern day, subtle parallels giving me an uneasy sense of Deja-vu. Despite the beautiful backdrop, it's clear that there's a dark cloud over that island and we're left waiting to see just how deep that darkness goes.

The story felt like looking into a warped mirror - it wasn't an exact copy, but it reflected my own rage, frustration and fears ack at me. It invoked a deep sense of sisterhood not only with the characters but anyone else who looks at this story to find their own past staring back at them. This book is a moment of catharsis and healing that I am so grateful to Kate for sharing with me.

A fiercely feminist triumph of a novel from a new voice that demands to be heard.

Whilst the authors writing style is good, and I always enjoy a book that flips between timelines - I really struggled to finish this book. The story is very slow moving and I didn’t particularly like any of the characters. The book covers several dark subjects that do make for hard reading.

I wanted to love this, but something about the writing style left me a bit detached from the main character, which in turn meant though I was interested in what happened, I didn't ever really care enough. The premise is good - naive teenager goes to greek island and is manipulated and gaslit by powerful men, but told from the point of view of someone who doesn't realise that's what's happening to her. The story is her slow awakening to what's happened, and how it's affected her whole life. The style was just quite clinical, which made me feel a step removed from the action.

This was not the light summer beach read I was expecting! It is dark and compelling and when it ended I just felt empty.
The girls of summer is a dual timeline novel with one timeline taking place thirty years ago and one in the present day. Each chapter had me wishing I could read another of that timeline because it was such a forceful story that it almost read like a thriller.

We follow Rachel as she meets Alastair on a Greek island when she’s travelling between her A levels. He is almost twenty years older than her and what follows is a relationship where Rachel falls headfirst into island life and all it’s darkness. She spends the summer working in a bar with a group of girls who are all part of this story that revolves around Rachel’s relationship with Alastair and also the bars owner who they all work for.

In the present day, Rachel is swept up into the idea of seeing Alastair again but it calls into question her teenage relationship with him and so much more. There’s so much darkness that affected everything it seemed to touch on the island with multiple events that need unpicking in the present. There are quite a few shocking moments of things that happened on the island when she was younger but as you don’t find out until half way through the novel, I’m not going to spoil it for you.

In the present we see Rachel unpacking her teenage years, facing the reality of what happened and putting her life back together after huge amounts of trauma following a controlling relationship. As someone who has worked seasons myself, the vulnerabilities of teenagers is something you see constantly and this novel perfectly encapsulates the slippery slope that exists in the darker sides of island life.

Saying that, there are moments of light at the end of the tunnel, justice being done and the story of female friendship shines through here. Rachel is an enigmatic character who you want to shake by the shoulders and also give a hug to. I loved it and think it’s so relevant.
*Check trigger warnings before hand as there are going to be a few*
Thanks to @netgalley and @penguinrandomhouse for the ARC