This is a mystery/ thriller with lots of red herrings/twists, turns and surprises. 3.5 rounded up to 4. Meg returns to her cousin's home under a secret identity to try to find out the truth of what happened to her mother, who disappeared that summer long ago. This book does keep you off balance and throws you curveballs, but after all the tension building with each aspect and it just felt a bit anticlimactic with each reveal and too tidy. Overall, the book was engaging and had me intrigued to know what was going to happen, This author has a lot of potential in this genre. I would like to see what she puts out in the future.

Thanks to Netgalley and Boldwood Books for this ARC. This is my honest review.

Meg returns to Deben Manor 15 years after the incident to learn the truth of what happend that one summer. What really happend to her mum? And did she really kill that man? Most importantly, they can't know who she really is but it seems like someone already knows.

One Dark Summer is an incredible book with many twists and turns you won't see coming.
I absolutely loved it and I couldn't put it down once I got into the story. It really drew me in and kept me on the hook until the end.
With interesting characters and more than one mystery it will make you question everything and everyone!

This book was so fantastic! It really goes into how a person presents is not reality. The story is about a woman named Meg/Margaret who comes back as a nanny for a family that she is tied to by a secret and discovers that someone may know what that secret is. The story being told from Meg's and also her mother's perspectives because both stories are different however the conclusion is the same when it comes to how things wrap up. The twists and turns in this novel had me guessing the whole time and I was blown away by the ending. Highly highly recommend!

I raced through this pacy thriller in two days and it was a wild ride. I had no idea where the author was taking me, but I knew I wanted to follow…..⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I'd like to thank NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

"One Dark Summer" follows Meg, a professional au pair who takes a job at Deben Manor in the English countryside. But not everything is as it seems: the manor is owned by her three cousins, and she is undercover as Margaret, the nanny, using this unique opportunity to uncover what really happened fifteen years ago. That was the summer she stayed at the house after her mother disappeared- the summer she killed a man.

The story is fast-paced and packed with twists and turns. I thought I had it figured out at 20%, then at 40, then at 60... and I was wrong every time. Of course, this is one of those cases where, if only people sat down and talked instead of being secretive and sneaky, things would get resolved much faster- but that’s not how it works in real life either.
As readers, we know what happened to Meg’s mom (not the full story, of course, but most of it), while nobody else does, and we eagerly wait for her to uncover the truth. When the last twist is revealed and everything is laid out, there isn’t a single loose thread.

Definitely a page-turner from Sarginson that had me hooked and reading well into the night.

my first read from this author and very much enjoyed. Megs mum walked out on her and her dad when she was very young and never contacted her and now, she wants to find out what happed to her, and she thinks it's all connected to one family Debon manor where her cousins live. and something happened to Meg there one summer. the 3 sisters are very close, and meg goes there as the new nanny, it's a very addictive and creepy read that will keep you guessing until the end

Thank you to the author and publisher for an ARC copy

From page one, you are on a suspenseful ride. You will engulf this story in one sitting. I truly thought I knew what was going on and then Part 2 started, rinse and repeat through the end of the book. Wow.

This book left me in shock. It started out as a slow burn but I am really glad I kept reading it. I liked the characters and really found myself becoming engaged with their stories. The twists had me open mouthed. Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC!

This was such a great read! I love how fast paced it was and it kept me guessing. Perfect vacation book!

This book was completely different in that there are stunning twists and turns starting from the very beginning of the story. The author dives so deep into the character background, and really draws on the readers emotions at times. I really liked the story being told from multiple different character view points and different points in time. The family drama was crazy, but also had an underlying message that to be a family doesn’t require blood relation. A gripping read, couldn’t read it fast enough to see the end! Loved it!

“One Dark Summer” is by Saskia Sarginson. I found this to be a light mystery overall. The beginning was rather slow, but the pace picks up in the second half of the book. The characters were well thought out and I enjoyed them. I did find the time jumps to be a bit jarring - they weren’t smooth and lacked tying the past with the present. I think that if you’ve read other books by this author and/or like light mysteries, this book would be one to pick up.

After her mother went missing Meg spent a summer with her three cousins in Deben Manor. Now, years later she assumes a new identity and comes back to her cousins house in order to solve the mystery of her mother's disappearance.

Although I personally love a thriller with a dark, mysterious house in a center of the story and a family secret I hate to say I didn't love this book. The story is very slow, especially in the first half. It felt really choppy to me that there were constant jumps back and forth which felt very artificial. I feel that usually there should be something that brings the character to the past and here those kind of transitions were often missing. Those jumps were really pulling me out of the story. Another thing that I didn't love were multiple characters with different names. This made it more difficult to connect with them and the story.

The plot twists also didn't feel all that much surprising, I figured some things out before the story came to them.

The aspect I liked were actually the characters. Once I got used to the writing style and time jumps I really enjoyed how Meg, her mother and even the cousins were written and how they changed throughout the story.

Overall I would say it was an okay book, it did have it moments, but I unfortunately didn't end up loving it. I'd also wouldn't classify it as a thriller, it's a good mystery with some light suspense, but was missing the keeping you on the edge of your seat feeling.

Thank you to NetGalley and Boldwood Books for the ARC of this book.
#OneDarkSummer #NetGalley.

Thanks to NetGalley and Boldwood Books for this Advanced Reader’s Copy of One Dark Summer by Saskia Sarginson due to be published April 13, 2025.
Also recommended by Saskia Sarginson: Identical.
Meg knocks on the door of the large manor house where she is to be the nanny to two children. It looks like she remembers from when she was little the summer her mother went missing. Will her cousins recognize her, or will she find out exactly what happened to her mother?
Wow – this book had so many secrets, twists, and turns it was hard to keep up with all of them. It had me hooked from the beginning as it alternated between two timelines and revealed more of Meg’s life. What a great thriller!

#NetGalley #SankiaSarginson #BoldwoodBooks #OneDarkSummer

Written in multiple timelines and POV’s this is an easy read psychological thriller/ family drama. The book opens with a short prologue where an unnamed person is trapped in a metal box, if that doesn’t hook you I don’t know what will. The book then moves into the first of three parts.

Briefly, Meg goes back to Deben Manor where she was part of some terrible event when she was just 11 years old. She returns 15 years later, hiding her identity, as Margaret, a nanny to Ophelia’s two children, determined to fine out what happened to her mother. Ophelia is the eldest of her three cousins, the others are Clem and Thea. Meg’s mother just walked out on Meg and her father leaving her father struggling to cope which is when Meg went to stay at the manor. However, after the tragedy she returned to live with her father but she has never seen or heard from her mother since she left.

I thought this was a compulsive read and I finished it in one sitting. There were some good twists and turns, some of which I had guessed, but some I got totally wrong! There is a bit of a gothic feel to the book which I enjoyed and I thought the character development was good. All in all an enjoyable and entertaining read.

This book was not at all what I expected! I loved the back & forth between the past and the present. The ending was jaw dropping. I loved watching the story unfold with Meg. I will definitely be recommending this book and reading more by this author!

This is one of those crazy books that has you off-balance the entire way through! It begins with Meg returning to the estate where she grew up and will now be the nanny to young children. But there's something "off" about the house and its creepy hallways, attic where she hears noises, and her young charges who seem innocent enough but the adults seem to be hiding things. You may not want to read this late at night as you may hear voices from your own attic or have nightmares about family members who are keeping secrets!
Thanks to NetGalley for this ARC!

Meg spent One Dark Summer with her three cousins when she was a child. Her mother had disappeared, and for reasons not entirely clear to her, her father chose to send her to stay with his sister. Flash forward 15 years and Meg is masquerading as Margaret the nanny to try to uncover reasons why her mother disappeared. I enjoyed the unexpected twists in this one, sad as some were. Thank you NetGalley for this ARC.

✨3 stars✨

I found this to be an okay thriller. I enjoyed the jumps in time while following different characters in order to work out the mystery.

However, the reveals fell flat for me and “plot twists” felt predictable.

I would recommend if you like this authors other books and it was a quick read but I just didn’t feel it as engaging as other thrillers that I have read.

I received an ARC from the publishers via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you!

It took a few chapters for me to get into this book, but once I was in, I was hooked. This book had me double checking that all my doors were locked. I thought the ending was perfect as well.

Also Fred is just the perfect character.

I didn’t want to put this book down.. every page made me want more! Definitely put this on your reading list :)