Ohhhhh this was a tough one to review!

My joy is a GOOD YA mystery/thriller and I actually really enjoyed this. I think the going backwards and forwards and in my head trying topiece things together (everyone does it!) The issue is that it got to a point where I just found it a bit too predictable so that took away part of the enjoyment.

I enjoy Emily Barr's young adult novels because the characters in them aren't all the angsty, self-absorbed, entitled kids you find in some YA novels, but they feel like real, well-rounded people. They also deal with adult themes and ideas, which means they're also very readable by not-young adults! This Summer's Secrets is a complex and satisfying mystery told through three interconnected time spans, involving a huge cast of characters that never blend into each other. It's a really well-crafted book with plenty of surprises and a satisfying conclusion. I enjoyed it a lot.

'This Summer's Secrets' is an intoxicating read that is set over multiple time periods and has a lot going on. I liked the fact this was set over different time periods and I enjoyed each setting equally. There are also multiple focal characters who tell this story and my only criticism was that it was not always clear initially as to which character you were following. This could have easily been resolved by starting the chapter with the name of the character.
This aside, there is a lot to this plot and the action does not relent. Barr brings in multiple plot threads and I thought she did them all justice. They all added something to the plot and left me with intrigue.
The characters are good, some more likeable than others but they all had something about them that captured my attention.
Overall I thoroughly enjoyed this read.
Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Random House for an advance copy.

Emily Barr never fails to disappoint, though Ghosted remains my favourite if make this your summer read this year you won't regret it!

Ever since I read The One Memory of Flora Banks, Emily Barr has remained one of my favourite authors. This Summer’s Secrets didn’t let me down. The characters pulled me into the story and never let me go. I came to care deeply about them and cared so much about what happened to them. Another solid, heart wrenching story from the author.

Oooh what a book, had me on the edge of my chair racing to read on!

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

Another good read
Perfect book to curl up with and to get lost in
Will have you hooked from the first page
Thanks NetGalley

This is one of those rather lovely coming-of-age summer stories suitable for teenage readers. It reminded me of Meg Rosoff's 'The Great Godden' and 'We Were Liars' by E Lockhart.

The beautiful cover sets the mood, then you dive into sunshine, seaside and country houses as friends and family gather for a summer break - but secrets and lies are exposed.

Cliff House is closed off for most of the year until its rich London owners come down to Cornwall for the summer.

Senara hasn't felt comfortable in this world of entitlement and beautiful people but this year she finds herself falling in love for the first time.

Instead of feeling on the periphery, an outsider looking in, this time she feels at the centre of things, full of excitement and potential.

But the owners of Cliff House have been hiding things. There are secrets held by previous generations which are seeping out, and Senara and her friends and family are affected in ways they never could have imagined. An atmospheric, slow reveal of a summer read.

Emily Barr is a must buy author for me; her earlier novels were travel themed but there's been a shift to YA lately and I've found I love these too, each story is original and different to the last.

In The Summer of Secrets the scene is set in the fictional coastal town of Pentrellis, Cornwall, where the story revolves around a large house overlooking a cliff. The story is told over three different time periods (during the 1940s when Martha was evacuated from London to Pentrellis; the 1980s, with Martha's daughter and her friends; and now, with friends Clem, Josie and Senara) as well as being told from multiple viewpoints, which must have been so complicated to write. As in, I'm envisaging a crime noticeboard with pins and strings, that kind of complex.
It definitely keeps interest in what is a simple yet effective mystery storyline.
The Summer of Secrets started off quite slowly and it was a struggle to keep track of everyone but around 25% in everything clicked into place and the pace picked up. At this point I really started to enjoy it more and more, the war era parts in particular were the ones I was most invested in. I found Clem as a character to be so irritating but you've got to have one of those once in a while to appreciate the characters with nicer personalities, much as in real life.
As always, looking forward to whatever Emily Barr writes next!

Not for me unfortunately. I got to about 30% but was a bit confused by the timelines and also didn’t find myself caring much for the characters.

This summers secrets was a quick page turner. If you like thrillers with good writing pick this up. The writing was so descriptive and characters were well developed with some unlikeable characters.

Great for fans of A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder.

The overlapping strands of timelines and characters makes this plot very interesting and leaves you always guessing what the skeletons in the closet are. Every new revelation changes your theories.

There’s LGBTQ representation, there’s actual representation of an old lady’s whole life instead of dismissing her as some background character just because she’s old.

There were so many times in this book that I actually gasped from the plot twists.

There was so much going on here, and yet at the same time, not a lot going on? There's 3 timelines - present day, where we have two different POVs, 1988, where we have another different POV, and the 1940s, where we have yet another different POV. It did get a little confusing - the POVs all sounded pretty similar to each other, and it was hard to distinguish at first between all the perspectives. I think that this would have been okay, if the mystery had been more compelling. It's difficult to discuss without spoilers of course, but nothing to do with the mystery really kicks off until about 60% of the way through, and I was definitely expecting there to be happening a lot earlier. And by the time the mystery does kick off, the plot twists don't feel like plot twists - they weren't surprising or shocking enough, because you pretty much know by then what's going to have happened.

I think that this book was possibly just marketed wrong. It is way more YA Contemporary than YA Mystery/Thriller, and I think when it is marketed as such you go in with the wrong expectations, when this isn't necessarily a bad book - just not the 'dark Cornish thriller' it was made out to be.

Dealing with several timelines and then socio economic issues, prejudice this turns into a ya thriller. I love how Emily creates characters she is brilliant

One of the best books I have read!

The perfect read of a summer in the UK that at times makes you feel like your melting!

This Summer's Secrets is a great read that whisks you along at an ever increasing pace, cleverly mixing three timelines that are drawn together in a spectacular denouement.

What starts out as a 'traditional' teenage summer break adventure, quickly turns into a suspenseful thriller. Dealing with issues of socio-economic prejudice, single parent families, sibling relationships and entitlement, Barr is not afraid to tackle some serious issues in this book. Alongside a thread of WW2 evacuation and shell shock.

The many disparate identities in the book are keenly drawn but at the same time symbiotic. A really great summer read.

First of all a big thank you to Netgalley, the author and the publishers for sending me a copy of this book to read and review.

This was an entertaining read and I did enjoy my time reading this. However I’m not sure what it was but I just couldn’t fall into the story. I kept having to remind myself to pick it up. There was nothing wrong with this story I just don’t think it was for me or I read it at the wrong time. I’m unsure.

I found this one quite confusing with so many characters I had to flick back and forth to check who was who and who was related where

I read Ghosted by Emily Barr last year and absolutely loved it so I was thrilled to get the chance to read her latest work.

I absolutely loved this too. Set across 3 timelines and 3 generations of family it slowly weaves them together beautifully. The fact I grew up very near a Cliff House overlooking a beach made it even more of a fun read although I think mine was a little less dramatic!

I see this is being pitched towards fans of We Were Liars and it definitely has similar vibes. I enjoyed it just as much.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for this ARC.

Cliff House is closed off for most of the year until its rich Londoner owners come down to Cornwall for the summer. This year, despite herself, Senara finds herself pulled into this world of wealth and ease, sunbathing and beautiful people. She even finds herself falling in love for the first time.

But Cliff house and its owners are hiding things.

I absolutely loved the different timelines and pov’s!
All the characters were wonderfully written and actually felt like teenagers.

I would say this book was a bit slow at the start but it got very exciting and mysterious half way though.