
The Book:
My Summer Darlings by May Cobb
Published May 17th 2022 by Berkley
Date read: May 25, 2022
The Characters:
Jen
Kittie and her husband Hank
Cynthia and her husband Gerald
Will, the new neighbor
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The Plot (from Goodreads):
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.
The Review:
Normally neighborhood dramas about catty rich women are right up my alley, but My Summer Darlings wasn’t quite for me. However, it was less problematic than the author’s first novel! I figured the age gap trope just wasn’t for me in The Hunting Wives and that I would give her another shot, but number two didn’t do too much to change my opinion. What can I say, though, I was drawn in by this colorful cover!
I can definitely see this book being someone’s poolside guilty pleasure this summer. It is full of secrets, lies, and catty, backstabbing frenemies. The love triangle trope doesn’t do it for me though, and I especially don’t care for the rampant cheating.
May Cobb can undoubtedly weave a deceptive tale, though! Read this if you enjoy love-to-hate characters making constant bad decisions.
Audio Review: I was glad to be listening to an audio copy of this book, because I likely would have DNF’d a physical copy. Only Kristen DiMercurio is listed as the narrator, and I’m wondering if she did all the voices. If so, she did an amazing job of changing it up between women. Each POV sounded entirely different! I will say, though, that I was not a fan of her Hotel Transylvania accent for Will. I can’t remember where exactly he was supposed to be from (Greece?) but the accent certainly did not fit the country mentioned. I kept picturing Dracula, and that made the steamy scenes a lot less sexy…
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Karissa Vacker, Amy Gordon, and Nan McNamara also read on it!
Thank you!! I didn’t think it was just one person but only one artist was listed in the app I use!