Really loved the story and plot. The characters were very loveable and I was hooked from chapter 1. Great show of friendship and relationships

The Sunrise Swimming Society by Rosie Hannigan.

This is a charming story set in a country lakeside town of Ireland called Lough Caragh. Lough Caragh means "The lake of beloved Friendship" as Rosemary a character in this book describes the local lake utilized by all.

This is also the story of 3 teenage girls who meet at high school and who have big dreams for their future. They become good friends even though they are worlds apart in their characters and nature. In fact they aspire to be lifelong friends......or so they think.

Niamh Kennedy - who married Evan her highschool sweetheart, has had 3 children of her own at a young age. Now living with her parents, feeling unhappy and neglected..... her dream to run a B & B, will it happen?

Heather Moore - grows up in a hippie household to parents Pippa & Cash. She becomes a Travel blogger, has infrequent income and thankful her partner Simon is her opposite with a steady income to support her blogging lifestyle. She wants an escape of her life.... but where too?

Lastly, there is Lauren Dwyer - who grew up with her Grandparents Rosemary & Paddy, she wishes for a big family with her steady boyfriend.....but does her wish come true?

The 3 friends help, support and love being together through school and life by a common interest in swimming. They make a pat to get together each Solice at dawn to swim in the local lake, making their wishes each new season.

Move forward 15 years all 3 ladies are now in their thirties..... but has life changed and moved in an array of different directions. Yes, infact this is the case. None of their youthful dreams have been fulfilled and they even lost their friendships and don't even talk to each other no more.

Now they have come together to celebrate the life of Rosemary who helped raise the 3 of them. even once said to them "They were lucky to have each other".

What caused such a rift to pull their friendships apart?

Will they continue to swim together. Meeting during Solice at dawn..... wishing to renew their friendships?

This book is for everyone who has close friends and or to remember friends of old and where life can lead you toward.

I really enjoyed this book it reminded me that you never really forget the value of family and friends. They are the gems in life you can hold dearly and treasure deeply.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers Avon a division of Harper & Collins for this advanced copy of the book.

This is my review and I rate this book a 4 out of 5 stars.

Lovely story about the enduring nature of friendship and second chances. I enjoyed this book immensely

Thank you to NetGalley and the Publisher for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This book is fantastic. It made me wish that I lived closer to my girlfriends who I miss all the time.
A fantastic story of friendship and love of an important mother/aunt figure in your life.
Everyone comes home to celebrate the life of a woman that helped raise the friends, she was their constant sounding board while growing up and she never understood what broke them apart.
Coming home to celebrate her and hopefully rekindle friendships they’ve missed and how that happens.
I didn’t want this book to end and will for sure be suggesting it to everyone I know that reads.


Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the advanced copy and to the author for such a great heartfelt book.

An enjoyable heartfelt novel of friendship, lost and reunited. The Sunrise Swimming Society shares a story of three young friends and a grandmother who touches them all. We follow them through youth, a 15 year separation and ultimately a reunion. This novel beautifully examines how perspectives can change throughout one’s life. Through hardships and unexpected paths the bond of friendship is beautifully examined in this novel.

This novel takes place in rural Ireland, in a small lakeside town. Three young girls - wealthier golden girl who dreams of adventure, Niamh, unhappy and neglected Heather, who is bent on escaping the shadow of her hippie family, and Lauren, who dreams of one day having a large family with her steady boyfriend - meet and, despite their differences, become fast friends.

These three friends support one another throughout school and gather at each solstice to dive into the frigid local lake and to make their wishes for the new season at sunrise. Fast forward fifteen years, when all three women are in their mid-thirties. Their lives have not spooled out in the ways they imagined in their youth, and they are no longer friends. Or even speaking to one another.

This novel had a lot of elements I love in a story: its rural Irish setting, a somewhat unlikely friendship, digging into how life turns out differently to how the characters imagined it would as young girls, and the swimming angle. While I enjoyed it, I did find it a bit slow and I didn’t feel as drawn to the characters as I felt I could have. I think part of the issue is that so much emphasis is placed on a blow-up between the three girls as the reason for their break. When the explanation finally arrived, it felt anticlimactic.

Still, it’s a pleasant story in an enjoyable setting of smalltown Ireland and I’m certain many readers will appreciate this feel-good tale.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for my copy - all thoughts are my own.

This book was just okay to me. I never was attached to the characters as I should have been. The plot is based on the friendship of three girls that were supposed to be very close, and their friendship was broken by something horrific. I kept waiting for the awful situation and it did not meet my expectation. Honestly, I did not receive the information I wanted to understand why this friendship was so valuable.

The character I liked the best was an older woman, Rosemary, and for me, she made the story readable. I usually read a book in 2 to 5 days, but this one took longer. I stopped reading for periods and my mind did not wander to the story, as it usually does when I am reading, so that also was a sign to me, that I was reading to finish the book, instead of reading for pleasure.

Almost everyone in the story is dealing with difficulties and it was a bit hard to read without making my spirit very low also. Just a FYI to people that want a easy, carefree reading experience, this might not be for you.

I love the book cover and it definitely has the feel of the story. So many times, covers are misleading, and I want to applaud the person that chose this beautiful picture.

I want to thank Avon Books UK, and NetGalley for giving me the opportunity of reading a book by a new to me author. My opinion is my own, not influenced by receiving the advanced reading copy.

This is a new Author to me. The sunrise swimming society comprises of 3 friends and a Grandmother who daily swim in a nearby lake. The friends have different family backgrounds and find comfort in each other. They swear to remain friends for life but something happens and they do not see or speak to each other for 15 years. This book delves into their stories and how their lives have changed from what each had expected. You will encounter love, loss, friendships and families. I found it a little slow at first but soon desperately wanted to learn what had happened!

I liked reading this gentle tale of life and its ups and downs. After being best friends at school, Lauren, Niamh and Heather part ways and the book explores their lives, the impact of their friendship and their relationship with Lauren's grandmother, Rosemary. The book is set in two time periods – in the past and present day.

It took me a little while to get into the book and to keep track as there were so many characters to deal with, often with nicknames too. My favourite character was grandmother, Rosemary. I enjoyed learning how the lives and loves of the characters developed and the ending was satisfying.

Oh how I loved this. It was an amazing story of friendship through different generations and times. Rosemary was a wonderful woman who touched so many lives, bringing happiness to so many. The ending on the beach brought a tear to my eye ( no spoilers here).

Each character had an element that was so relatable. We all can feel lonely and isolated, even when surrounded by people. We all say things in the heat of the moment and it’s hard to take it back and move forward, and the more time that goes past the harder it gets. And maybe more relatable is that we all look at others and assume they have everything they ever wanted, that their life is so much better than yours and they have no space in it for you.

This book shows that the power of friendship is an amazing thing and seeing it span through the years, even when there has been years of no contact is a wonderful thing.
From start to finish I was invested in each character and hoping that they get the happiness they deserved. A wonderfully uplifting read.

An enjoyable heartwarming story set in Ireland following the lives of three girls from when they start secondary education through to the finish of their education with a big falling out as they each go off on their life's path The plot then jumps between then and the present day when the three friends are still giving each other the cold shoulder but find themselves back in the same community once again. Wonderful descriptions with characters that develop over the course of the book with Rosemary, one of girl's grandmothers holding the group together during their teenage years. She was utterly delightful. I did think the way that the reason why the girls all fell out, being held back to the end but referred to constantly, was somewhat frustrating and drawn out. Then in the end the reason was fairly mild to create such a chasm of bitterness between the girls particularly as it was all really only started by one rather vindictive member of the three.

This is an emotional story about three teenage girls who swear to be friends for life, this is until they have a falling out and they go their separate ways. Fifteen years later they all find themselves back in the town by the lake in Ireland. This story tells of their lives growing up together and then in the present day as they have to face up to the past. I loved the friendship and the wisdom of their elders that guided them. The sunrise swimming is done on the solstices at dawn, which is a nice touch in the book and a thread that runs through their lives.

The characters are really good, I liked Niamh, Lauren and Heather, despite their sometimes intransigents. The characters are well-written and easy to engage with. I particularly liked Rosemary, Lauren's grandmother, she was a very special lady and spoke a lot of sense.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, the characters and their lives. It is an emotional story and I thought the ending was great, and yes, I did get emotional. This book is worth reading, although it had a little bit of a slow start once you get into it, you won't want to put it down.

"The Sunrise Swimming Society offers a heartwarming story about friendship and second chances. The setting of the small coastal town is beautifully depicted, making it feel like a character in itself. In my opinion, the pacing is bit slow, but the well-developed characters and the author's descriptive writing style make this book an engaging and comforting read.

A heartwarming story about friendship.
The story intertwines two time frames the childhood friendship and the nowadays riff between them. It explores dreams, hardships and everyday drama of tree girls/women. While reading the most awaited point is to figure out what could have ruined such a great friendship and I have to say I expected something worse, so that was a bit disappointing.
Overall a good read.

It was a poignant story. The main characters as children were a little more interesting than as adults. There were a few plot holes that did not close once the story ended.

This story is set in two time zones and features chapters by three main characters Heather, Lauren and Niamh.
A feud that occurred between them as girls is gradually revealed when they reunite again at their childhood homeland in Ireland. This stirs up lots of memories for each of them as they examine their lives now and in the past. As girls, they share a strong friendship promising to remain pals forever and swearing to meet up annually for their midsummer dawn swim in a lake where they live.
I found the story confusing at times as there are many characters in the book and that the bitterness and jealousy between them after all the years apart was too much.
Friendships and second chances features strongly as well as feuds.
My thanks to Net Galley and publishers Avon for the digital ARC of this book.

The Sunrise Swimming Society by Rosie Hannigan was such an uplifting and charming story.
A well written ok with characters who I absolutely adored. The characters are beautifully developed.
I could picture everything so clearly the vivid descriptions.
A great read that I very much enjoyed.

Thank You NetGalley and Avon for your generosity and gifting me a copy of this amazing eARC!

The Sunrise Swimming Society is a lovely heartwarming story about friendship and relationships. It tells the story of three girls who became friends at school and how life never turns out the way you expect it to. I loved the relationship between the grandmother and the girls. The author brought each of their individual stories to life. I became engrossed in the trials and tribulations of the characters. Loved it!

This was a delightful, heartwarming story of friendship—- found, and lost, and found again. I loved the setting and the stories of each of the three very different friends.

Thanks to NetGalley, the author and publisher for an advanced reading copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

What a fantastic heartwarming book.
All about friendship no matter the restraints of age. Niamh Heather and Lauren start off meeting at the start of secondary school they are destined to be friends for life and it’s all glued together by an elderly grandmother of one of the girls.
But life gets in the way and after an alcohol infused argument they drift off to do their own things.
Fifteen years later they all are back in the village where it all started. What will happen and can they forgive forget and move on..
Brilliant book by a fantastic author who just pulls in the heartstrings every time