“The Girls of Summer” is the debut novel of English author Katie Bishop.
At the age of seventeen, Rachel Evans and her friend Caroline decide to spend the summer months before their final school year vacationing in the Greek Islands. A chance meeting with Alistair, an older man employed by an affluent businessman, marks the beginning of a torrid affair. Rachel is over the moon with the attention she is receiving from Alistair.
Rachel and the other girls that she befriends on the island spend their days working in the bar Alistair manages. They also attend parties at the mansion of his employer and Rachel begins to dream of a future with Alistair, but the summer ends in tragedy and scandal with Alistair abandoning her, leaving Rachel feeling shattered.
Rachel has never really gotten over Alistair, now in her thirties she visits the island with her husband Tom, where she meets one of the girls from that summer who stayed on. The meeting triggers a sequence of events that has Rachel revisiting the past, trying to determine the truth behind what really happened that summer and dealing with the shocking revelations that come to the surface.
I really enjoyed the “The Girls of Summer” and I would highly recommend it.
