This is a very intense book. The pacing was quite slow. The writing was good. I felt that this was nothing special and original

Rachel's dewy eyed ignorance makes sense when she's seventeen (to an extent)...but as a grown woman, it's a bit far fetched that she would be SO oblivious to EVERYTHING that transpired that fateful summer. Not to mention her treatment of her poor husband Tom, who basically gets strung along for no apparent reason (still not even sure why she married him in the first place!). There isn't really a lot to like about Rachel, and because she doesn't learn a thing even when the truth is being shouted in her face, it's hard to feel sorry for her.

A very compelling read. I’ve read this today curled up under a blanket dreaming of my summer holiday. It shows how easy it is to drag young girls into being controlled and I loved the dual timeline. The main character is someone you will root for and despair about in equal measure. A great book for the upcoming summer. Go buy!

what a interesting book to read we all think in our early teens that summer holidays abroad are fab and dont want them to end but reading this book through racheals eyes and her friends gives one a different understanding into these hols

I've just devoured the debut novel by Katie Bishop on th strain during our break away and flew through it. I know some readers have had issues with it as it could easily trigger people of the me too collective but I found it to be believable and enjoyable (apart from the obvious of course). Set in Greece it tells of Rachel's summer where she flies out there with her best friend to work there. There they meet other terms and find employment in the bars under the watchful eye of Alistair, a man who promises them a summer they'll never forget. Unknown to Rachel these things come at a high price and it's not until she hits her thirties that she discovers exactly what happened that summer - or did she really always know and was reluctant to believe it?

A great summer read! It felt quite mysterious and tense and I was immersed in the story. Love this cover too!

Very much in the vein of My Dark Vanessa this examines the relationship between a younger woman and an older man in a heightened position of power.
This is an uncomfortable read at times due to the subject matter, but never overblown or over the top. Well written and powerful

My Thoughts:

I got so invested in this book so quickly. It starts out as a teenage gap year holiday to the sunny Greek islands and turns into a dark twisty little number about how easy it is to be coerced into thinking either you are the problem, or there isn't really a problem to begin with.

I enjoyed the dual timeline, of Rachel at 17, and then Rachel in her 30s, married and still being caught up in her past life.

I found myself constantly wanting to pick this up to see what happened next, and that is always a good sign!

✩✩✩✩

Thank you to @netgalley and Transworld Publishers for the eArc.

A simmering tale of teenage love and longing, but overlaid with something a lot more questionable happening alongside, which isnt apparent until the protagonist looks back on her life with a more adult approach.
I was expecting a light summer read from the cover and was blown away by the depth of the storyline. Its powerful and necessary reading.

This is a dark unsettling story that keeps you on the edge of your seat. It took me a little while to get into the story but that's only because I'm a mood reader and I hadn't quite got the head on for the story but I soon warmed up to it

At first I wasn’t sure this book was for me. How wrong was I? A powerful, slowly developing plot, revealing insight and essential understanding on a tricky subject.

As a parent, seeing teenagers ‘act out’ and thinking they know everything, is a phenomenon many people will be aware of. How unscrupulous people can manipulate and manage the children’s views becomes scarily clear in this book.

The characters are well-developed, acting as I would expect young people to, whilst travelling the world, enjoying freedoms and making decisions for themselves. In this book it is interesting to see how they then develop into adults and carry with them ‘memories’ of their adventures. Not always likeable, I don’t think they are always meant to be, but drawing huge empathy from the reader as the book draws to quite dramatic conclusions, putting into context the complete picture.

The story is told from several timelines, mostly ‘then’ and ‘now’, although with some backstory included, to round out the understanding for the reader.

Particularly helpful are the details for contacting helplines for the variety of issues covered within the book.

I would recommend this, particularly to parents, as both a great read and to gain an understanding of some pressure young people can face.

Gut renching, relatable to many, The Girls of Summer is a superb debut that will linger with you for a long time after you have finished it. A powerful and resonating read.

The Summer Girls by Kate Bishop is a story of young love, which was in hindsight an abusive, controlling affair with a man 20 years older than the seventeen year old Rachel. Rachel returns to the island when she is married to Tom and remembers her live before with Alistair.
The Girls of Summer grapples with themes of power, sex and consent and the MeToo movement.
Recommended

A thought-provoking and unsettling read, drawing inspiration from the #MeToo movement which found many women re-living and re-examining their past experiences around consent, power and control.

Rachel is now in her mid-thirties but still thinks of the older man she met on a Greek island when she was 17 as her great love, even though she is now married to someone else and they are planning to start a family. We follow dual timelines exploring the two relationships, prompted by meeting friends from the past and leading her to the eventual realisation that neither her first love nor the people she met on that island were really as she remembered.

Rachel aged seventeen and her friend Caroline head off for a summer holiday in Greece, there she will meet Alistair a man twenty years older than her. Rachel is seduced and charmed by this older man.

Fifteen years later Rachel is married to someone else she still longs to relive the memories of her time with Alistair, unable to accept the truth of what really happened that summer.

When old friends contact her from that vacation, they force her to face the reality that her relationship with Alistair for what it really was. Turning her life upside down.

A compelling read. The way the story moves from a group of teenagers enjoying the summer parties and then it turns into something more sinister took my breath away!!

Thank you to Netgalley for my copy in exchange for an honest review.

Rachel spent a summer on an island in Greece where she had the time of her life and met the man she has been in love with since she was 17. However, she hasn’t seen him for 16 years, and she is married to somebody else. When her husband takes her back to the island for a holiday, she learns do his whereabouts back home in London and gets his number to contact him. However, how she remembers that summer is very different to how others remember it, and her rose coloured glasses are about to be removed.

This book sat on my NetGalley shelf for a really long time. It sounded intriguing but it just never jumped into my mind as the next book I wanted to read. However, when I saw something suggesting it would be the ‘dark read of the summer’ I picked it up! It is sort of a mix of My Dark Vanessa and the Nowhere Girls; both of which I loved, but it didn’t quite capture me the way they both did. The story is told across duel timelines which definitely left me needing to know more chapter to chapter. However, I do often struggle with an unreliable narrator and Rachel definitely is. I actually didn’t really love any of the characters, which is maybe the point but it was a miss for me.
This is definitely a dark book, a little predictable but written in a way that you have to finish it to learn the truth.
Lots of triggers though - alcohol misuse, sexual abuse, rape, drug use, sex trafficking, pregnancy, abortion, suicide. Basically you name it, it possibly has it.
I’m glad I read it, but I’m not sure how much I would recommend it to others.

It's taken me a week or two to be able to review this. On one hand, it's a thought compelling tale about rose tinted memories suddenly becoming clearer, what consent really means, sex been almost weaponised and the power of young love that can blind even the most sensible.
On the other hand, it's a book about the world's most irritating woman. OH MY GOD!! Rachel is the worst. As the main protagonist, I felt we should be able to feel sorry for her, but mainly, I felt bad for her poor husband.

It's a really well written story, well plotted and hard to put down. But I just can't get past how much I wanted to slap Rachel. Two weeks on, and my teeth still itch thinking about her. But if you can let go of these things, it's a great read.

The Girls of Summer was a very honest and somewhat unsettling read. I enjoyed the dual time periods from the same character’s perspective although the adult adult Rachel could be very frustrating at times. I understand this was the whole point as she processed everything that had happened to her as a teenager and it was very well executed. I felt completely drawn into the island location and its contrast from London adult life. The book addresses a number of serious topics very well. Highly recommend, especially if you enjoyed My Dark Vanessa.

Great little read, with unpredictable twists and turns that keep you guessing until the end. The perfect blend of suspense, drama, and unexpected surprises. What more could you want?

The cover leads you to think light summer beach read but this it most certainly isn’t . Instead we have an amazing thought provoking debut that will have you gripped . It’s a while since I’ve read something I’m constantly thinking about when I’m not reading .
The story is told with a dual timeline , then and now . In the past the reader gets transported back to Greece , the vivid descriptions of the places , being young and free yet also very innocent and naive . An all consuming romance which now all seems a lie . Fast forward to now where we follow Rachel in her mid 30s and is trying to come to terms with how what happened years ago has defined her life .
This debut needs to be read , if you want a summer read that gives you more then boy meets girl then read this now ! Already looking forward to reading whatever Katie writes next