Book Review for My Summer Darlings by May Cobb

 My Summer Darlings by May Cobb 

Hardcover, 368 pages

Expected publication: May 17th 2022 by Berkley

Genre:  Mystery Thriller, Suspense

 

Taken from Goodreads:  Three lifelong friends plus a dangerous, sexy new stranger in town add up to a scorching summer of manipulation, obsession, and murder, from the acclaimed author of The Hunting Wives.

A woman in the forest thinks she’s going to die.
I know he’s coming back for me.

Jen Hansen, Kittie Spears, and Cynthia Nichols have been friends since childhood. They are now approaching forty and their lives have changed, but their insular East Texas town has not. They stay sane by drinking wine in the afternoons, dishing about other women in the neighborhood, and bonding over the heartache of their own encroaching middle age and raising ungrateful teens.

Then Will Harding comes to town, moving into one of the neighborhood’s grandest homes. Mysterious and charming, he seems like the answer to each woman’s prayers. He’s a source of fascination for Jen, Kittie, and Cynthia, but none of them are ready for the way Will disrupts their lives.

As Will grows closer with each of the women, their fascination twists into obsession, threatening their friendships and their families. When he abruptly pulls away, each woman scrambles to discover the source of his affection. But what they’ll uncover is far more sinister and deadly than any of them could have ever imagined.

My Thoughts: I love a good thriller and My Summer Darlings is just that.   I picked it up one afternoon and finished it in less than 36 hours.  I was intrigued by the characters, pulled in by the storyline, and could not stop reading with the need to figure out the next twist.  I loved the teenager, Chloe.  Her reactions to her mom were so spot on for her age and I enjoyed that she was not made to act older than her age.  

The twists and turns kept coming, most of them revolved around Will.   There was one other character that got thrown into the twists that I was shocked at; I had no clue the story was heading that way.   I loved the not knowing what was coming next.  The speed of the story was perfect.   The words flowed easily from chapter to chapter, which is not always easy when there are multiple POV.  There were enough details given to get a picture of what was happening without the story become redundant. 

I flew through this book, wanting more each time I was forced to stop reading.  I hurried back to pick it up again and stayed up past my bedtime to read just one more chapter. 

**Thank you Loren Jaggers at Berkley for a copy of the book in exchange for my honest review.

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