The First Act of Summer

by Joanna Glen

Is it ever too late to figure out who you were meant to be?
As children, Hester and Elias were inseparable. Every year, their families would spend the summer together at their beach huts on a wild and windswept sandbank, where the two of them never left each other’s side.

But childhood friendships can stretch and warp as you grow up, and in the summer of 1976, the year they turned 14, Hester did a terrible thing that would shatter both of their lives.

For her 60th birthday, Hester goes back to her family’s beach hut to hide from the husband she wants to leave and the daughters she’s never fully understood. It is here that she finally faces up to what she did that fateful summer, wondering whether it’s ever too late to become the person you were meant to be. And if there’s still a chance of finding Elias again…

Genres: Fiction, Summer, Contemporary

412 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 18, 2026

About the author

I am a former teacher and headteacher, now a novelist, who lives by the sea in Brighton, on the south coast of England.

I'm a lifelong hispanophile, with a passion for Andalusia, all of it, but in particular the beguiling city of Córdoba and the glorious coast of Cádiz.

You can expect Spain and sunshine and sea and beach and snowstorms and octopi and wildness and birds and travel and wonder as the backdrop to my characters' lives.

I love to explore relationships in all their layered complexity. That's what my books are about: who we are and how we live and love.

The pain and the joy. The living and the dying. The love and the hope.

My next book comes out in June 2026.

Reviews

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely adored this book! 🥰 Joanna’s beautiful writing shines through page after page. I was totally captivated by Hester’s story & reduced to tears by the end. Highly recommend! (& if you haven’t already read All My Mothers, do!)

[Jemima Heath · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another Joanna Glen book that I want to somehow connect up to a drip and inject into my veins. She manages to break my heart and fill me with hope every time. I guess I'll be going on holiday to Mudeford Spit this year!

[Claire Thorpe · Rating 4 out of 5]

love a Joanna Glen book – they have all been fabulous and this one doesn’t disappoint .

Hester and Elias have been best friends all of their lives and meet every summer at their families beach huts ( which sound Idyllic!! I have always wanted one!). As they grew older they started to change and not be as close until a terrible event happened and they didn’t speak to each other ever again. Hester is now 60 and still goes to the beach hut and reminisces of all that has happened  and what she would have done to change that event.

I really enjoyed the pace of this book and how well it flowed. Hester is a hilarious character and I loved her . This was a perfect holiday read for me .

 

[cosylittlereadingcorner · Rating 5 out of 5]

Give me a book that says Joanna Glen’s name on the cover and I know I will love it even before I read the first page. I have read every single one of hers, after falling head over heels for “All My Mothers” and she has never once disappointed me. As you can imagine, I couldn’t wait to find out what her latest novel had in store for me.

Set on the Dorset coast and told in dual timeline, “The First Act of Summer” is the story of Hester and Elias. How as children they were inseparable but then the summer of 1976 tore them apart and they never saw each other again. In the present, Hester reflects on life as she celebrates her 60th birthday and how that fateful summer impacted everything that came after.

I absolutely adored this book and this would make a fab choice for your summer holiday!

Joanna’s stunning writing drew me in and mixing hard copy and audio and I devoured this novel. I loved the way we got to know Hester as a young girl, saw how she changed as she grew and why she became the woman we meet at 60 years old in the present. It is the story about how secrets can linger, how living with guilt can change the trajectory of any life but it is also a novel with that hugely important message I adore in any book: it is never too late to start again, to live the life you imagined, if only you believe in yourself.

Taking you through not only Hester’s life but also key moments in modern day Britain we all remember, this was such a brilliant read!

[Lydia Bailey · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don’t know how she does it but she does it every time! Joanna Glen’s books always go straight for my soul.

It is Hester’s 60th birthday & she has taken herself off to the family beach hut- adamantly alone without her family. Once there she ruminates- via a dual timeline format- on her life, her childhood, her teens, her parents, her mistakes and her choices. And on one incident in particular which had a ripple effect on the rest of her life.

I’ve adored this read, it’s made me laugh and made me cry. I loved the nostalgia of Hester’s 1970’s/80’s childhood and could also resonate with the Hester of today in our sandwich generation era. The mentions of various foods I’d long forgotten such as Puffa Puffa Rice (what happened to that? It was the best!!) and favourite toons and bands of the 80’s. Every year from 1963 is documented and linked to the royals too. Perfection!

You know you love a book when you can’t wait to read on but also really don’t want it to end. I shall miss Hester & Elias . I won’t miss Lance or his (‘have you ever thought of changing your name to Esther?’) mother. And I will be re-reading this.

Many thanks to Net Galley & The Borough Press for the arc.

[Lynne Davidson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hester is sixty and returns to her childhood beach hut to find herself. She spends time reminiscing about events of her childhood and missing her childhood friend, Elias, with whom she has so much shared history and sorrow.
This is such a beautiful summer story. Set in Dorset, it’s the perfect summer read - nostalgic and poignant, but also bittersweet. It’s full of regrets and mistakes, confirming that we are all only human. Just gorgeous! 4.5 stars rounded up to 5.

[Liz · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars. I really enjoyed my time with this novel. It has everything I want from a summer read: humour, nostalgia, a beach setting with a strong sense of place, a journey of self-discovery for the fallible main character and moments of tragedy and loss.

It’s very rooted in the UK with many references to popular culture, especially the royal family who are used as a narrative device to frame key moments in the narrative (eg the wedding of Charles and Diana). I didn’t mind this at all - in fact I liked it - but I can imagine it might irk some, especially if you’re a vehement anti-monarchist.

It’s a book which will prompt you to reflect back on your own childhood summers and the impact of the past on your own present. A reflective, nostalgic summer read, then, which I really enjoyed and heartily recommend.

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[Claire Skinner · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5

[El Craig · Rating 4 out of 5]

It seems all the books i’ve read by Joanna Glen have gorgeous writing, wonderful characters, and a story that feels both funny and quietly emotional.

I loved the way the characters felt so real, with all their flaws, quirks and complicated relationships. It’s the kind of book where not a huge amount happens plot-wise, but you’re so invested in the people that it doesn’t matter.

[Helen J · Rating 5 out of 5]

Joanna Glen writes wonderful books. Ever since reading “All my Mothers” I have been hooked on her writing. Her storylines are unpredictable and each thread of the plot gradually is drawn together - not always in the way that you might expect.
This one was as absorbing and as mesmerising as the others I have read. Hester as a central character was frustrating in that she didn’t fight back but having been traumatised by an event in her childhood, you gradually come to understand why she is as she is. The other characters are also strong and believable as in her other books.
More please!!!

[Helen_t_reads · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thank you to The Borough Press for the GIFTED finished copy of The First Act of Summer, the latest title by one of my absolute favourite writers, Joanna Glen. I read it in a day and a half, loved every page, and was bereft when I got to the end because it was finished. I adored it, and know that it's going to stay with me for a long time to come.

No surprise though, as I love Joanna's writing. She is an alchemist, conjuring gold from words, creating emotional, poignant, truly satisfying stories peopled with characters that steal your heart because of their vulnerabilities, and in TFAOS we have Hester who has vulnerability in spades.

She has returned to her family's beach hut on Mudeford Spit, in Dorset, on her 60th birthday. The place where the same families and their offspring spent every summer together from early childhood through to the teenage years, and where she and Elias were inseparable.

As memories from the past come flooding back to Hester, she confronts not only the end of her marriage, but also something dreadful that she did in the summer of 1976 that shattered her friendship with Elias, and now she is questioning if redemption is possible.

The story spools out in the present but with flashback chapters filling in the past. As it does, we learn about what Hester did, why, and how the mental and emotional burden she subsequently carried, led her to be the woman she is today: empty, unfulfilled, guilt-ridden, in an unhappy marriage and with daughters she's never fully understood.

This compelling, moving and poignant story makes you feel so many emotions as you read it, but it's also threaded through with a delicious leavening humour, and with scenes that will have you giggling with their relatability, whilst the clever inclusion of contemporary events and culture, songs, products, TV programmes and personalities will root you as firmly in the appropriate era of the past, just as the vivid and immediate descriptions of the Spit make you feel that you're right there by the sea.

As always, her characters are well drawn, relatable and nuanced, many of whom will claim your sympathy and your heart, as their story plays out and shows how events of the past trickle down the decades, influence the present, and shape the people they have become, for good or ill.

This emotional, mesmerising read explores themes of friendship, love, loss and grief; forgiveness and redemption; finding peace, happiness and love...and most of all, finding out who you were meant to be.

Definitely one of my top reads of 2026, and one you'll want to add to your TBR.

[Andrea · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was first introduced to Mudeford Spit, on the Dorset coast, as a location 3 years ago via an entirely different kind of book (The Beach Hut Murders) and remember spending a good amount of time looking at maps and photos to get a sense of this lovely holiday destination in my mind. So when I realised that the new Joanna Glen novel was set in the same location, I was delighted. She has become a must-read author for me, and being already acquainted with the location, settling into this novel was like catching up with old friends. That feeling was amplified as I got to know Hester - Hestie - Turner, the main character. Being just a few years older than me, Hestie's attitudes and experiences were familiar and relatable, and I liked her a lot.

This is a dual timeline story, with the later timeline covering just two days; Hester's 60th birthday and the day after. The earlier timeline covers Hester's entire life, from her early childhood to the present. Hester's birthday is critical to the plot for a couple of reasons. Firstly, her family (mum, dad, older sister Agatha) would always spend her birthday at their beach hut on Mudeford Spit. The other reason is that the day after happened to be the birthday of her best and enduring friend, Elias, who also came to the Spit for his birthday each year.

We learn very early in the story that something truly awful happened when Hestie and Elias were 14, something for which Hestie felt responsible at the time, and that she has carried this enormous guilt throughout her life. Reaching a personal watershed leading up to her milestone birthday, Hester hopes to have the opportunity to make amends or at least achieve something like closure.

I loved being immersed in this world for several days. I'm not normally a fan of coming of age stories, but when it's bookended with a later-in-life reckoning like this, I thought it worked really well. Glen's storytelling is warm, funny and just the right level of emotional. Highly recommended.

With thanks to NetGalley and HarperCollins UK for a digital ARC to read and review.

[Bookish Sam · Rating 5 out of 5]

Joanna Glen is a go-to author for me. She really connects with nature throughout her work and this is very much the case in her new book, specifically the sea. As a self-proclaimed thalossophile, this book was meant to be read by me.

Set over the course of several decades, it tells the story of Hester, a young girl who goes to her family beach hut every summer, hanging out with her best friend Elias. Then something tragic happens and the friends part ways.

It is brilliantly split between “then and now” the ‘now’ sees Hester on the eve of her 60th birthday, as she considers leaving her husband. She has gone to the hut on her own to contemplate her life.

The flashback scenes are my favourite. They start when she was very young and continue through to older adulthood, as you learn about Hester’s choices that led her down the path. It packs an emotional punch and you cannot help but be drawn to her captivating story. The book is peppered with news stories and music connected to the era. There is a lot of emphasis on the royal family and major events such as weddings, births, divorces and death are used well to pinpoint each part of Hester’s life. (The book finishes before the Andrew scandal broke, so we are spared that, although I can’t help but think how Hester would have spoken about it!)

It’s a beautifully written novel, with accurate portrayals of the surrounding environment. You feel the sand between your toes, the cold bite and salty smells of the sea. You can hear the gulls cry overhead and the rattle of the boat masts. Taste the food and visualise the moon reflecting off the water. Perfection!

It’s a little dark in places, and some of the characters are vile, but well written “baddies” show real skill; all too many times I’ve read books with characters that are almost cartoonish, like a pantomime villain, but Joanna writes awful people well.

I could honesty write a whole essay about how much I loved this book, but I am conscious of this review becoming long winded.

My short version? It’s bloody brilliant, no notes. Out in June – save the date and go and buy it!

Thank you so much to Harper Collins and Netgalley for my copy.

[Leanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

The First Act of Summer is a tender, windswept novel that moves with the quiet ache of memory—one of those stories where the past feels so close you can almost taste the salt on the air. Hester and Elias’s childhood friendship, forged on a wild sandbank and shaped by long, sun‑bleached summers, has the kind of intensity that only exists before the world teaches you to guard your heart. And yet, in the heat of 1976, everything fractures. The terrible thing Hester does—left unnamed for so long—casts a shadow that stretches across decades.

What makes the novel so affecting is the way it holds both versions of Hester at once: the girl who made a devastating mistake, and the sixty‑year‑old woman returning to the beach hut she once adored, carrying a lifetime of regret, disappointment, and unspoken longing. Her retreat isn’t dramatic; it’s weary, almost instinctive—a woman slipping back to the one place that ever felt like hers. The beach, with its shifting tides and stubborn resilience, becomes a kind of mirror, reflecting who she was, who she became, and who she still might be.

Joanna Glen writes with a gentle, lyrical precision that makes even the smallest moments feel luminous. The novel explores the way secrets warp a life from the inside, how love can endure even when it’s been buried, and how redemption often begins with the simple act of looking back without flinching. The relationship between Hester and her daughters is especially poignant—full of missed signals, quiet misunderstandings, and the painful realisation that love doesn’t always translate into closeness.

And then there is Elias, the ghost at the edge of every chapter. The possibility of finding him again—of finally facing what happened—gives the story its quiet, persistent heartbeat. It’s less about romance than about reckoning, about whether two people shaped by the same wound can ever find their way back to each other.

Raw, sweeping, and deeply humane, this is a novel about the long tail of a single moment, the resilience of love, and the hope that it’s never too late to become the person you were meant to be.

With thanks to Joanna Glen, the publisher and netgalley for the ARC

[Alison Bradbury · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh I can’t express how wonderful this book is!

Hester is turning 60 and has made some dramatic decisions. She has decided to divorce her husband…the only thing is, she hasn’t actually told him that. Fleeing back to the one place she has always loved, Hester arrives at Mudeford Quay and the beach hut that has been the scene of her happiest – and saddest – childhood memories. Now that she is here, can she find the courage to do what she must: put the past behind her, face her husband and set off into a brighter future?

The chapters in this glorious novel flick back and forth in sections between the past and the present and, through this, we see Hester grow into the woman she is today. At 5 she visits the beach hut for the first time and meets their hut neighbour, Elias, and his mother whom she comes to call Mama Bibi. Elias and Hester are very quickly inseparable and every summer she can’t wait to get back to the beach, fist bump Elias and discover what is new in their secret den. As the years pass other kids enter their world, including the permanently poorly Catherine, the beautiful Titiana and the deliciously handsome Tom H. But it is Elias and Hester who remain the strongest friends…until the year they turn 14 when, with the snap of some scissors, everything changes.

The writing is beautiful and evocative and each incarnation of the characters has their own distinct voice – it must be so tricky to make a 60 year old through to a 5 year old sound like the same person but with the appropriate level of understanding. The chapters in the past are so well written you can almost see the sepia toned film reel.

Joanna Glen is a wonderful writer and I am definitely a big fan!

Do yourself a favour and pack this as your holiday read.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

[Becca Jenkins · Rating 5 out of 5]

Take one author whose writing you adore...add in a setting that holds such special memories and you have the perfect book. You know the books you want to devour in one sitting...this is exactly what I want to do with Joanna's writing but I literally had to force myself to put it down it as I knew I wouldn't want it to end. I enjoyed reading this over a couple of weeks. I savoured every page and mindfully read this one which seamlessly switches between the past and the present until they come together.

The characters are... absolutely fantastic...Hester...so much depth, perfectly flawed, relatable and real. I loved her daughter May too...Elias...this beautiful deep thinking soul born of music. The Queen💛. We get to know every character on the Spit and they all add to the richness of hazy, hormone fuelled summers of the past and the realities of adulthood.

The setting...I got goosebumps when I read the first page and saw where it was set...a really special place where my little family and I had our first family holiday as the Covid restrictions relaxed and somewhere we've returned to several times. I was transported there with this book and it brought back such happy memories 💞

The storyline was just so captivating...how one event in childhood had such a far reaching impact on her life...it was so elegant...many observations of relationships, little coincidences and what ifs. 

This one is out in summer and my pre-ordered copy will take pride of place on my trophy shelf.

[Cass loves books · Rating 5 out of 5]

BOOK REVIEW

The First Act of Summer


This book! This is why I read, for stories like this one.

I adore this book. It has absolutely everything I want from a story.

I connected so much with Hester, the main character her quirkiness, her complexity and that feeling of sometimes being on the outside looking in. She was written with so many layers and so much depth that I didn’t just feel as though I was reading about her; I felt everything alongside her.

I loved Hester’s relationship with Elias. Their special bond, their rituals and the way their relationship was depicted were just beautiful.

The story moves between past and present, with events involving the Royal Family marking the passing of time, and I absolutely loved this. Having been born in 1976, it made me think about where I was when some of these events happened and brought back so many memories.

There were little details that transported me straight back the mention of Paige boy haircuts (I had one!), and even Tizer, a drink I’d completely forgotten about until I saw its name on the page.

There was something incredibly nostalgic about reading it, but more than that, there was something about Hester and her story that really touched me.

This is poignant, beautifully written and incredibly special.

I think I’ve found my book of 2026.

And I already know Hester is one of those characters I’m going to remember long after I’ve closed the book.

[Milda · Rating 1 out of 5]

I picked this up because it had been compared to The Paper Palace, one of my favourite summer reads. That comparison is doing some seriously heavy lifting.

I made it to just under the 100-page mark before admitting defeat.

The plot never got out of first gear, but the real stumbling block was the writing, which repeatedly mistook stating the obvious for profound insight.

Take this gem:

“The gulls are diving in one spot. She supposes there are fish out there. Ah yes, a gull flies over with a fish in its beak, landing on the beach. Hester turns to watch it stab the fish’s belly. She wander if she should intervene. Obviously not. Gulls eat fish. Come to think of it, she eats fish too.

We all live and we all die.”

Or this pearl of wisdom:

“The thing about suggestions, she thinks, is that you can say no to them.

And she didn’t.”

Groundbreaking. Next we’ll discover that rain is wet.

Page after page filled with observations that are supposed to sound philosophical but say nothing. I kept waiting for the story to arrive, or for the prose to justify itself, but instead I found myself reading sentences that felt like they belonged on an inspirational fridge magnet that had lost the will to inspire.

[Papyrus and Peppermint · Rating 5 out of 5]

Joanna Glen is an auto buy author of mine at this point, and I truly hope she never stops writing.

Her character development, her easy way of writing emotional and deep characters, with feelings and back stories that just glide across the page. The prose is always easy to read and feel and digest as the reader, and the characters feel so fully formed that we feel empathy and connection to them and their thoughts, feelings, ups and downs.

The themes of this novel I would say are shame, identity and people pleasing, and the nasty cycle one can get into from a young age from not just being their authentic selves. It celebrates being who we are unapologetically, as well as forgiveness, friendships, connection and motherly love.

The dual timelines and voice (first in the past and third in the present) made it really easy to follow the story and why the main character of Hester feels the way she does, and it felt like going through the pains and celebrations of someone’s life and summers at a particular location both fully knowable and yet, so effectively easy to read and understand.

It’s utterly gorgeous and I’m so very thankful to borough press for my proof copy.

[Karen Kennan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hester feels like she’s at a crossroads in her life. She spends her 60th birthday, alone, at a beach hut that her family has owned for years. She can’t stop thinking about something that happened there, a long time ago. Initially, it’s a secret. We don’t know what’s happened but we know that she bears a huge amount of guilt, which has affected her whole life. The chapters swing between Hester as she is - quite an unhappy woman, isolated and feeling unwanted by her children - to her summers at the beach. The same families who went years after year, children who grew up together, who formed their own summer community, and her particular friendship with Elias.

This is a slow paced book. But this allowed me to get to know Hester, and why she feels the way she feels. I felt like I could relate to her. I’m glad I stuck with her so I could fully understand her. That being said it was perhaps a little too slow for me at points. I liked her relationship with Elias, and the British summer vibe/holiday made me feel a bit nostalgic. Hester sometimes behaved in ways that were perhaps a bit irresponsible but I think was her way of trying to fit in, and I think we can all relate to that as part of growing up. Overall, a nice read.

[Goosegirl · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thanks once again to Joanna Glen for giving me a brilliant reading experience and getting me out of a recent rut.
Like her previous novels, The First Act of summer scores 5*s in all aspects- story, characters, 'world building', emotive and utterly absorbing, as well as excellent quality writing. I almost feel, because it was so compelling and such great read (although Glen nevers shys away from complicated relationships, and trauma) that i should give it 4 stars......??!?!?!? Why? I suppose when a book 'goes.down like a fine wine' i worry it wasn't (in critical minds/really high brow read) challenging enough.
However, recently I've attempted couple that have been style over substance and think these can be either gimmicky or way too 'experimental' to flow and work as a story for me. Therefore, I'm rating this based upon how much a was engaged and enjoyed being in the 'world' with the people Glen as created.
I had an added element of appreciation because I grew up around hengisbury Head/Christchurch and know it pretty well. So a lot was familiar ang nostalgic.

[Cosy Midlife Book Nook · Rating 5 out of 5]

Joanna's incredible Maybe, Perhaps, Possibly stole my heart back in June 2024 and I haven't stopped raving about it since. So you can imagine how excited I was when I found out I had won a signed copy of Joanna's latest novel The First Act of Summer!

My Bookish Thoughts 💬
Oh my days... Joanna has captured another piece of my heart.

This is a novel that melodically plucks each and every heartstring, starting off with teasing chords reeling you in while building your curiosity like a beautifully layered piece of classical music. Joanna guides you through her character's childhood through to adulthood, interspersing it with the current day, building up into an emotionally tense and satisfying crescendo.

For me the beautiful harp playing in the story echoed the emotions I felt while reading this emotional, heartbreaking yet hopeful and empowering story.

I think this is one of those books that's best discovered for yourself, so I'll simply say this: grab your favourite drink, find a cosiest spot you can and prepare to lose yourself in nostalgia, love, laughter and emotion.

[Gem ~ · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a book that captures the nostalgia of childhood friendships, summer holidays and the childish wonder of innocence. The complexity of growing up and of adult relationships that are painful and toxic is written with such raw emotion and honesty I felt captivated by the chapters from the past and the present.
Hester is turning 60 and is confronted with a realisation that all of her past secrets have caught up with her, she teeters on the edge of sanity as she remembers her childhood friend Elias, and the difficult memories that being back at the beach hut on the Spit brings.
I felt the different representations of family and love so interesting and the difference between staying authentic to yourself and always being preoccupied with appearances or subterfuge.
This is a beautiful story that spans many decades of notorious British events and how everyday life weaved around them culminating in a woman making a choice for herself for once.

[Amy Savvides · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't know if it's just because I loved All My Mothers SO much by the same author, but I was just not wowed by this one.

Coming of age stories are one of my favourite genres, and I liked the overall narratives here. The back and forth between past and present worked well. But something about the stories just felt flat. All the characters bar Elias and Hester's parents seemed quite one-dimensional and truthfully, quite unpleasant. I also didn't find the intertwining stories all that interesting - it's not that I was expecting anything racy or dynamic or especially thrilling, but it was just...flat.

I liked it enough to read it over a couple of days, Glen's writing is easily accessible. But for me it just didn't hit the right notes.

I do really appreciate the opportunity to read this book ahead of publication, but whereas I bought copies of the previous book for my mum and sister, I don't think I will with this one.

[mrsbookworm5 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hester is approaching her 60th birthday and looking back over her life, with the story unfolding through intermittent chapters that revisit her past.
Filled with childhood friendships, nostalgia, and long summers spent on a Dorset beach, it’s a beautifully reflective read. Hester (Hestie) meets Elias when they’re just 14, capturing that unforgettable first teenage love. Although life takes them in different directions, those feelings never truly disappear.
This is an emotional journey for both Hester and the reader, with memories of a 70s and 80s childhood brought vividly to life through the food, music, fashion, and atmosphere. As Hester avoids celebrating her birthday and returns to the beach, old memories and emotions begin to reignite.
I love this author’s writing, and this book certainly didn’t disappoint. A gorgeous, character-driven summer read that is full of heart and nostalgia.

[Meg Sloan · Rating 4 out of 5]

It’s super exciting to have a new release from Joanna Glen and I feel this was a great summery read. The setting of the English coast with the beach huts fitted the story really well. It’s definitely a slow-paced, character driven, coming of age story - we’re following Hester who had a unique friendship with Elias, another child who stayed at the beach huts. They were the best of friends, until they weren’t.

We get to see how Hester’s decisions in childhood and adolescence impact the rest of her life. At points she is very relatable, that feeling of trying to fit in as you’re growing up despite your childish instinct, losing yourself in quick, not fully thought through decisions and dealing with regret. At first the short chapters and style of the writing felt a bit choppy but the further I got in, I didn’t mind and the story felt more bingeable despite the slower pace.

Overall an enjoyable read but I do still prefer All My Mothers by this author!

[Nic · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5* The First Act of Summer - Joanna Glen

Hester bunkers down in the family beach hut on the occasion of her 60th birthday. Ambivalent about contact from her husband, continually checking to see if her daughters have sent a text. Hester cannot help but recall her childhood summers in the beach house and the searingly tragic events of 1976, events that Hester was possibly the conduit for.

Told over two timelines, The First Act of Summer is the lyrical telling of Hester’s life and, more importantly, her true love and her losses. The build up of the plot and the prose is adept by Joanna Glen (who always delivers) albeit I did feel a firmer edit would have been beneficial as the early years have some superfluous detail.

Joanna Glen is a go-to author for me and this is another which I would hugely recommend.

Thanks to Harper Collins and Netgalley for an ARC.

[Penelope · Rating 5 out of 5]

Every one of this author’s previous books is a mesmerizing story, a beautiful heartfelt read, and a glorious portrayal of what it is to be human, and “The First Act of Summer” is all those things. A slowly unfolding story of how our past actions can echo out into our present lives, for good and for bad, but how it’s never too late to find out who we were truly meant to be.

Past and present intertwine as we learn the story of that terrible summer, how things went so badly wrong, and just how its shadow bled over Hester’s life. Families, first loves, obsession, forgiveness and the power of love are beautiful examined in this radiant, beautifully written novel from an author at the height of her powers. Highly recommended!

[Louise Fein · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved, loved this book. I've been a fan of Joanna Glen since reading her debut, and this book is possibly my favourite yet. I genuinely could not put it down as I fell in love with her main character, Hester, who is so brilliantly portrayed, both as a child and teenager growing up, and as an older woman turning sixty. I adored her humour, her view of the world, her sadness and her foibles. And Elias. oh I loved him too. This is a novel about innocence and the loss of it, the painful process of growing up, the dark, long-lasting power of a terrible mistake. But it is also about forgiveness, redemption and love, set in an exquisitely drawn beach landscape in Dorset. Addictive, devastating, humorous. Go read this novel!

[Gillian · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a delightful read. Childhood and teenage angst - something we can all relate to and the regrets of mistakes that follow into adulthood. This book has them all in abundance.
I loved how the story jumped from past events of youth to the related adult outcomes.
One of the main characters, Hester, is tormented by something that happened in her childhood which she believes destroyed her life and the lives of those she loved most and thus ended any chance of happiness.
This felt like a story filled with dreams of hope, young love but tossed by the storms of the Rites of Passage and in the end Hester has to face her fears of all that has gone before. I found myself holding my breath as I read the last page!