As wild fires creep a devastating path towards the idyllic town of Morranez, a vulnerable girl goes missing. But was she taken - or was she escaping...
The summer is the hottest yet in the Brittany coastal town of Morranez, but when a new case lands on the desk of the Toussaints detective agency, there can be no time to relax. As wild fires bear down on the town, the alert goes out for a missing girl. Congratulations on an eye-catching cover! It caught my eye and made me read the synopsis.
The characters are just so well written and realistic, the tension is built so effectively and you really do have no idea where the storyline is going or what the outcome is going to be!

The Summer of Lies by Louise Douglas is an enthralling story, it is set in Wales and Brittany and you have heatwaves, fires and a missing young woman with medical. issues.
This is the new case for the Touissaint Detective Agency and Mila Shepherd and Jackson Carter are both kept busy. Mila also has problems and mysteries in Mila’s personal life.
I found the storyline fascinating and the personal issues that are brought up in the book very interesting. I look forward to reading the next in the series.
Highly recommended

A brilliant book that keeps you hooked.

Mila works for a PA firm and has been hired by the parents of a missing girl, they believe they know who abducted their daughter but the abduction might not be quite what it seems. This book also follows Mila's romantic and complicated family relationships. Mila's character is brilliant, I really liked her and was rooting for her to find the girl and some happiness for herself.

Blog tour with Rachel's Random Resources

http://ramblingmads.uk/2024/02/11/blog-tour-the-summer-of-lies-louise-douglas/

Another fantastic book from Louise.
Once again we follow Mila as she continues to work in her step mother’s investigation service and looks after her neice Ani, following the tragic death of Ani’s mother and her father Charlie still being missing following the boat accident that claimed Sophie’s life.
Mila has been asked to locate a missing teenager Briony. Briony is extremely sick and has disappeared/been taken by ex convict Billie. They have fled to France and are known to be in the area around where the Toussants agency is based, hence Mila’s involvement.

We follow not only this investigation but Mila’s struggles as she continues to cope with stepping into Sophie’s shoes.

I love these characters and cannot wait to read the next instalment

Thanks to Netgalley for the opportunity to read this book

Mila is not looking forward to the responsibility of organising a celebration for her mother’s birthday – a thought that gives her anxiety rather than joy. A case soon takes her mind off her mother and onto an unwell nineteen-year-old girl who has seemingly been taken from her home in Wales to France. Can Mila and Carter find Briony Moorcroft before it’s too late?

I’m so happy to be back in Morranez with Mila, Carter, Cici and Ani. Having enjoyed The Lost Notebook, I was excited to catch up with these characters. It was like catching up with old friends.

Louise Douglas offers up a mystery quickly and it’s not hard to be drawn into the plot and the story. The trail to find Briony is intriguing. There is also a subplot concerning Ani’s parents/Mila’s half sister. I will leave it at that. As usual, I don’t want to give too much away.

Mila remains a good character with good instincts when she allows herself to trust them. She has been placed into a hard situation with Ani and is trying to make the most of it, to the detriment of her own life. With her living in France and her fiancé in Bristol, life isn’t easy. However, is her heart wanting to belong a little closer to her home in Morranez? Personally, I think that’s a yes.

Carter is a bit of an enigma. I feel that he doesn’t give too much of himself away. I’d be interested in learning more about him. I am hoping it’s not the last we see of these characters that’s for sure.

I like Louise Douglas’s style of writing. I raced through this book. The setting sounds stunning. I wanted to step into the pages. There’s some explosive moments, alongside some heartbreaking ones. Some hard themes are explored and I feel this was all done well.

If you like great characters and a good mystery, this book is perfect. I loved it.

(Thank you to Boldwood Books, Netgalley and Rachel’s Random Resources for the advanced reading copy in exchange for an honest review.)

After reading The Secrets Of Villa Alba I was eagerly awaiting the next @louisedouglas3 book and I just adored this story so much. It was such a captivating story, the more I read the faster I was turning the pages. I was hooked from the first chapter and desperately hoping that they would find Briony, while equally hoping that Mila would get the closure she desperately needed. I loved the twists and turns as the truth was slowly revealed and I don't think I will forget this ending for a long time. I haven't read The Lost Notebook yet as I didn't realise these were connected, I now plan to go back and remedy that while I wait for the sequel.

Louise never disappoints - her stories are always multi-layered with engaging characters. Can't wait to read the sequel to this.

BLOG TOUR REVIEW

Review for 'The Summer Of Lies' By The Sea' by Louise Douglas.

Read and reviewed for Louise Douglas, Boldwood Books, The Bold Book Club, Book & Tonic, NetGalley and Rachel's Random Resources Tours.

Publication date 7th February 2024.

This is the first book I have read by this author but it most definitely wont be my last!

This novel consists of 70 chapters. The chapters are short in length so easy to read 'just one more chapter' before bed...OK, I know yeah right, but still just in case!

WOW!!!! What can I say?!?! One thing I have got to say before getting into my review is clear your schedules as once you've started you won't be able to stop!!

This book is beautifully written with vivid descriptions setting the picture perfectly in the readers mind. The title, description and cover works perfectly with the storyline.

A fantastic book that is filled with mystery, twists and turns that will keep you turning the pages. It is filled with crime, mystery, family, relationships, twists, turns and everything you could ask for in a gripping page turner. It takes you on a journey from Morranez, Maidenhead, Bristol, Cardiff and more travelling along with Mila to look after her niece Sophie, working with Carter and helping Ceci try and find missing and at risk Briony. I absolutely loved watching Mila and Carter go about their investigating and they made a fantastic team. The storyline will make you emotional from jumping with joy to anxious, heartbreak and more. I love the fact that there isn't just the one storyline but many storylines weaved together and Louise brings them all together perfectly ensuring the reader does not get confused. It is rammed with twists and shocks that I would have never seen coming in a million years so a HUGE congratulations Louise. It is getting harder to surprise me with every new book I read but I most definitely did not see these coming! Louise's fantastic descriptions really captivate the atmosphere, surroundings and characterisations so you can see everything and everyone around you while your heart is pounding and you are kept in suspense. I was utterly glued to the pages and I could not bring myself to put it down. I was carrying my kindle around with me to read it every chance that I got and by the time the ending came I was left wanting to read more books by this brilliant author. I absolutely fell in love with the location and most of the characters. It is one of those fast paced, easy to read books that you can get completely lost in cuddled up under a blanket in the winter like I was or sprawled on a beach in the sun like I wish I was!!. Wherever you are reading this book Louise will whisk you off to Morranez and more in the blink of an eye. I genuinely felt I had gone on holiday and was devastated when I came to the end and had to leave Ireland to return to rainy Wales. You need to clear your schedules before starting this book because you will not be able to put it book down!!! An absolutely fantastic read from Louise and I'm looking forward to getting stuck into more of her books soon!

The characters are strong, realistic and I became completely invested in each and every one of them. Louise's fantastic descriptions ensures each of them come to life in front of your eyes and her emotive writing also makes sure that you feel everything that they are feeling. There are a great mix of personalities and I really enjoyed getting to know them all. The main character is Mila who my heart went out to as it felt like everyone wanted her to be somewhere else. Mila's mother isn't happy about the fact that she lives in Morranez and looking after her niece after her half sister passed away in a tragic accident and her fiancee Luke is also unhappy about her moving away not long after they got engaged. Not only has she got to the process the fact that she lost her half sister Sophie but also has guilt added on to her plate as she gets along so well with Ceci who is her fathers ex partner because her mother isn't happy about it at all, or about the fact that she is now the main care giver for Sophie's child Ani and on top of that she is also hunting down Briony who is disabled, has serious health problems and has been taken by her parents employee. I absolutely loved Mila and thought she is such a strong woman as well as a fantastic role model for Ani. i absolutely adore seeing strong female women in books being female myself and Mila was absolutely brilliant. Mila is working with Carter on the case to find Briony and I really liked his character too, along with Ceci who runs the agency. I loved watching the interactions between each of the characters and watching how feelings and thoughts changed between them from the start to the end. I wasn't a fan of all of them, in particular Mila's mother who I thought was incredibly selfish and childish at times but where is the fun if you like all of the characters? I won't say anymore about the characters as I don't want to go into too much detail at the risk of spoiling it for other readers but yet again Louise really has done an amazing job at bringing each of the characters to life and regardless of whether I liked them or not they all had a part to play and played it perfectly. I am looking forward to meeting Mila and Carter again in Louise's next book 'The Sea Cave' along with her previous book 'The Lost Notebook'!

Overall a captivating, atmospheric and page turning mystery that will keep you hooked from start to finish!!!

Make sure you read to the end to read a teaser from Louise's 'The Sea Cave' where you can meet Mila and Carter again and which looks absolutely brilliant. I am definitely looking forward to getting stuck into myself. Louise has also included Book Club questions at the end of her book which I also thought was a fantastic addition.

353 pages.

This book is just £2.79 to purchase on kindle, free with kindle unlimited and £9.99 in paperback at time of review, via Amazon which I think is an absolute bargain for this book!!!

Rated 5/5 (I loved it ) on Goodreads, Instagram, Amazon UK and Amazon US and on over 30 Facebook pages plus my blog on Facebook.

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I have been a fan of Louise's work for a while now. By no means have I managed to read everything that she has written but that is something that I hope to rectify in the not too distant future. I read the synopsis of 'The Summer Of Lies' and it certainly sounded like the sort of book that I have come to expect from Louise- an emotional story about love, lies, loyalty and family. Well it was all that and so much more. I really enjoyed reading 'The Summer Of Lies' but more about that in a bit.

I have to be honest and say that it took me a little while to get into 'The Summer Of Lies', which has a lot to do with the fact that I was tired and finding it hard to concentrate when I started reading and cannot be taken as a criticism of the author. After a little while, that was it and I was away as the saying goes. From then on I found it rather difficult to put the book down for any length of time. The characters and the main storyline intrigued me. I developed my own theory as to what was going to happen and so I had to keep reading to see if I was anywhere near the truth or if I had wandered off in the opposite direction. The more of the book that I read, the more I wanted to read and the quicker the pages seemed to turn. I was so wrapped up in the story and in the lives of the different characters that I didn't realise just how quickly the time was passing and the speed with which I was getting through the book. All too quickly I reached the end of 'The Summer Of Lies'. I found 'The Summer Of Lies' to be an interesting and intriguing story about families, secrets, lies, love and loyalty.

'The Summer Of Lies' is extremely well written but then I have come to expect nothing less from Louise Douglas. Louise certainly knows how to grab the reader's attention and draw them into what proves to be one heck of a story. For me, the story hit the ground running and maintained a steady pace throughout. Louise describes her characters so vividly and realistically that they seem just as real as you and I. At the same time Louise makes the reader feel as though they are part of the story themselves and at the heart of the action. That's how I felt anyway. Reading 'The Summer Of Lies' certainly felt like being on an unpredictable rollercoaster ride with several twists and turns along the way.

In short, I really enjoyed reading 'The Summer Of Lies' and I would recommend it to other readers. I will certainly be reading more of Louise's work in the future. The score on the Ginger Book Geek board is a very well deserved 4* out of 5*.

Summer Of Lies is a story about Mila, a woman who works for a missing persons agency. The weather is scorching. We find out all about her and the case that they take on to find a very vulnerable and ill girl who’s been kidnapped by an employee of the cleaning business her parents own. She’s been taken to France from Wales, and time is of the essence as this girl , Briony, will die without her medication. Mila and her work colleague Carter must work together to find her. We find out about Carter and his history.
Mila’s sister Sophie, was drowned along with her husband Charlie when they went sailing, so she’s been bringing her niece Ani, up herself, along with her mother and step mother.
So we have two cases really as more information becomes clear with Charlie and Sophie’s accident .
I found the writing excellent as usual from Louise Douglas. The characters are not complex and we get to know them well throughout the story. I’m hoping to hear more from this story as it felt like a bit of a cliffhanger at the end!! Fingers crossed!!.
Many thanks to Boldwood Books for the chance to read this arc copy for review consideration via Netgalley.
#Netgalley,#bookandttonic,#louisedouglas3.

When I read The Lost Notebook, not all of the ends were tied up and at that time I didn’t know Louise Douglas had more to share about Mila … so I was excited to find out if what I thought might happen did and where this story would take me. Don’t worry if you haven’t read The Lost Notebook, key events are weaved through The Summer of Lies and it will still make sense!

It’s clear that Mila’s split life … in Morranez and Bristol/Maidenhead isn’t working out too well. Everyone wants a piece of her and she has conflicting emotions. Important, I think, is that we get to know more about her family dynamics which gives us a better understanding of who she is and why she makes the decisions that she does. Her mum really fatigued me …

Life in Morranez felt less complicated in this story in as much as Mila has adapted to being the main care-giver for Sophie’s daughter (I think she’s a fab role model for her). Something new comes to light about Sophie and Charlie but gave me more questions … so intriguing!

Luke and Mila’s detective partnership is brilliant – they work so well together. The new case at Toussaints of Briony’s abduction leads us through twists and turns. Plenty of tense moments and not just because there is a time-limit on Briony needing critical care. One scene in particular affected me emotionally. I can still see it so clearly in my mind, and even though I had a different perception later on, it stayed with me. I’ll add here that another scene had me fist-bumping the air, very heroic actions from the duo! Alongside the tenseness is the anxiety of doing what you think is right but might actually be wrong. I had my suspicions (having come across this from my time working in education) although I wasn’t entirely right! Louise Douglas doesn’t shy away from the impact but is sensitive in how she writes about it.

The Summer of Lies follows through and met my expectations. If you enjoy family drama, crime and all the secrets and lies that go hand-in-hand, you’ll love this one.

Working for the Touissaints Detective Agency in Brittany, Mila Shepard and Carter Jackson are charged with searching for Briony Moorcroft who is missing from her home in England and is presumed to be in France with a woman who may do her harm. With nothing much to go on, and with time ticking away, Mila and Carter must do all they can to find the missing girl as soon as possible.

The story moves along at a cracking pace and I enjoyed following not just Mila and Carter’s quest to find Briony but also the snippets of information about a recent tragedy in Mila’s life which has resulted in her being based in France and caring for her niece Ani. I liked very much the emotional aspect of the story especially the details of Mila’s life and her struggle to come to terms with the sadness which surrounds her. I also followed the missing person investigation with trepidation, enjoying how the author controlled the tension whilst allowing all the complicated strands of the story to come together.

What I love about this author’s skilful writing is her ability to capture the reader’s imagination right from the start and her strength in bringing a multilayered and complex story to life is done with huge insight into what makes people tick. I was really sorry when the story came to end but was delighted to discover that the ending lends itself to a further continuation, which will definitely be something to look forward to in the future.

Mila returns regularly to England from her new home in Brittany, where she cares for teenage niece Ani after the death of her step sister Sophie in a boating accident, working for the Toussaints detective agency run by stepmother Ceci. She visits her fiancé in Bristol, their long distance relationship becoming increasingly difficult to sustain – and spends time with her mother, who’s still wallowing in bitterness long after the end of her marriage, and struggling to cope with the former family home that’s disintegrating around her.

On her latest visit, Ceci asks her to visit a family in Wales whose vulnerable 19 year old daughter, Briony, dependent on regular medication for a complex health condition, has apparently been groomed and then kidnapped – they have reason to believe her life is in danger, and it seems both she and her abductor might be in hiding in the area around Morranez. It’s the height of summer, and forest fires are raging – it becomes a race against time to track them down, apprehend her captor, and reunite her with her family.

While the search for Briony drives the narrative, with disturbing and unexpected developments along the way, there’s also the continuing story of Mila’s new life in Brittany – her close relationship with Ani, her working relationship with Carter complicated by memories of their shared past, her grief at the loss of Sophie whose voice is always with her. And the repercussions from that boating accident continue – the body of Sophie’s partner is still missing, and it seems some of the remaining questions might be resolved when a boat, believed to be theirs, is found grounded on rocks in a remote cove nearby.

The whole story is beautifully balanced, both storylines developing in tandem – with a wholly unexpected turn in the search for Briony, and complexity to the storyline that I really wasn’t expecting. And the discovery of the boat adds a real edge of danger and drama – an emotional depth too, so perfectly handled. While one of the threads reaches conclusion – and particularly satisfyingly – the other continues to run, leaving me eager to find out more in the next book which will undoubtedly follow.

This book is so much more than an intriguing mystery – the characterisation is excellent, every individual so well developed, and the emotional content so perfectly captured with those memories of shared childhood regularly rising to the surface, along with recollections of first love and disturbing visions of Sophie’s tragic death. The setting is perfectly drawn too – Mila’s isolated beachfront cottage and her uncomfortable feeling of being watched, the laid-back Breton lifestyle in Morranez itself, and the threat of the spreading fires drawing ever closer. The author’s storytelling is as powerful as ever, and the whole pacing of the story works so well – the tension and emotion steadily rising as the pieces of the story slowly fall into place. And although it’s a sequel, there’s more than enough detail included about what has gone before to make it entirely readable as a standalone – although I think you’ll be as keen as me to read more.

A gripping story, so well told and filled with the unexpected, but with real depth and emotion – I really loved it, and would highly recommend it to others.

The start of the book sets the scene of hot and humid conditions which was not hard for me to imagine as that is how it is here in Australia at the moment so I could literally feel the scenes in the story. The further I read the more intrigued I became by the mystery of trying to find Briony but there was also some other things happening as well particularly with Mila which made the story complex but the layers of the book are extremely engaging. I loved trying to solve the mystery with Mila and Carter and I am ashamed to say that I had it so wrong. The characters are likeable realistic and the plot is well designed with mystery and intrigue.

Having devoured The Lost Notebook by Louise Douglas, I was delighted to find myself reading the resume for a sequel and couldn’t wait to get back to Brittany with Mila, Carter and Ani.

This book has a tricky multi-storyline plot which gave lots of fuel to feed my inquisitive mind. Starting in the UK, we discover a bit more about Mila and the life she left when she moved to France to look after her orphaned niece Ani. Much as she has fallen under the spell of Brittany, her confusion around her split life between France and the UK, as well as the shadow of what happened the day her stepsister Sophie and brother-in-law Charlie set out to sea in a storm three years ago, weighs her down. Mila’s sensitive way with Ani touched my heart as did her emotional, silent conversations in her mind with Sophie, who often seems to be the only person Mila opens up to.

Alongside this, Mila and Carter are involved in the agency’s search for a vulnerable nineteen-year-old, who is believed to be in the Brittany area. Time is critical in this search that is hampered by the wildfires that are ravaging inland from the coast. The more they discover, the more questions are raised, and although I had an inkling about the circumstances around her disappearance, I was still surprised when the truth was revealed.

From the beginning I was hooked, from the middle I was gripped, and even if I only had a few snatched minutes, waiting for the kettle to boil, my nose was back in this book. I’d have been sad to get to the end if it wasn’t for the fact it included a huge hint that there would be a third book – yippee!

As well as the mysteries to solve and the emotional situations the characters find themselves dealing with, the authors love for Brittany is evident and an integral part to this book. I can recommend The Summer of Lies if you are looking to get drawn into a good mystery, and if you haven’t read The Lost Notebook, grab yourself both books and have a real Breton adventure.

Ano5her great read from Louise and I really did t realise that it was a follow up from The Lost Notebook which made it even more interesting. I couldn't put it down and was captivated by the story. My thanks to netgalley and the publishers for giving me the opportunity to read this book in return for an honest review.

It was only after I finished reading this that I found out that it was a follow-up to an earlier book. Clearly this reads well as a standalone! Following the death of her stepsister Sophie and husband Charles in a boating accident Mila Shepherd moved to Morannez, Brittany, France to raise their daughter and her now 15 year old niece Anais ‘Ani’. Mila also works for Toussaints detective agency, owned by her stepmother Ceci. Worryingly there are massive forest fires raging in their area of France. Mila returns to England monthly to visit her mother in London and her fiancé in Bristol but both visits are seeming more like chores than choice.

Briefly, on her latest visit to England she is asked to visit a couple in Wales whose 19 year old daughter has been reported missing, possibly kidnapped. Briony Moorcroft is very sick and hasn’t taken all her medication with her and her parents are distraught. Returning to France Mila and colleague Carter Jackson start searching urgently for Briony…before it’s too late…. Meanwhile, the boat that Sophie and Charles were sailing has been found and she’s hoping to find Charles’ missing body.

I like the characters in this book, particularly Mila and Ani, they have a great relationship. The setting is perfect and you can almost feel the hear of the forest fires. Full disclosure, I had kind of guessed the outcome of the main storyline from very early on in the book, there was a big clue, but oh goodness there was then a massive twist I hadn’t foreseen. A very enjoyable and entertaining read and I’m going to go back and read the first book now.

An enjoyable read and I really enjoyed the dynamic between Mila and Sophie’s spirit voice, in her head.

The main storyline was good, if predictable and I loved the setting of the story in Brittany. I felt that the storylines involving Mila’s mother and her fiancé were surplus to requirements as they didn’t add anything to the main plot… unless… this is set up for a sunny sequel?

3 ⭐️ Thanks to Netgalley, Louise Douglas and Boldwood, for an ARC in return for an honest review.

I read "The Summer of Lies" expecting it to be a stand-alone novel. Whilst it didn't seem to matter that I haven't read "The Lost Notebook", it was disappointing not to reach a conclusion about all the mysteries - so reader beware!

That being said, the writing is wonderful, really evoking a sweltering summer in Brittany, where life is lived mostly outdoors, albeit in the shade. This contrasts with the gloom and despair of Lydia's (Mila's mother) house in the UK. I loved the characters and the twists and turns of the plot. Luckily a lot of the back story is filled in for those (like me) who hadn't read the first book in the series.

Thanks to Net Galley and the publishers for the opportunity to review this book.