I received this book for free from Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Last summer, Skye's sister died in a tragic accident. It's been an awful year without Luisa, and Skye's parents think that the back-to-back activities of a summer camp might be just what she needs to process through her grief. Skye is sent off to a remote, week-long camp for troubled teens at Morely Hill Activity and Adventure Center. All of the kids at the summer camp have lost someone close, but is bringing them together such a good idea?

Then Skye receives a text...from her dead sister. Who is pretending to be Luisa? And who at camp can be trusted? Skye must confront her past. But what if the danger is right in front of her?

Short and Sweet Review

Lying About Last Summer follows our main character, Skye heads to a remote summer camp for teens dealing with grief after losing her sister Luisa in a tragic accident the year before. Her parents hope the camp will help her heal, but things take a strange turn when Skye starts receiving texts from Luisa’s phone. Surrounded by people she doesn’t fully trust and still drowning in guilt over her sister’s death, Skye starts trying to figure out who is pretending to be Luisa and why.

I really wanted to love this one because the premise sounded so good. A grief camp, mysterious texts from a dead sister, isolated setting… it had everything you would want in a creepy YA thriller. Unfortunately, the execution fell short. The biggest issue was the pacing. It takes a long time for anything major to happen, and a huge chunk of the book focuses on Skye processing her grief, interacting with the other campers, and doing camp activities. Some of those moments felt realistic, and I do think the book handled grief in a pretty believable way, but it leaned much more into emotional contemporary territory than thriller. If you go into this expecting constant suspense or twists, you’ll probably end up disappointed. The mystery itself was also pretty predictable. I guessed most of the reveals very early on, especially the situation with the texts. There weren’t many moments that genuinely shocked me because the clues felt very obvious from the start. The creepy atmosphere was there at times, but the tension never fully built in the way I wanted it to.I also struggled with the ending because it felt rushed compared to how slowly the rest of the story moved. After spending so much time building up the mystery, everything suddenly happens in the last section of the book and gets wrapped up incredibly fast. Some plot points felt disconnected from the main storyline too, almost like the book wasn’t entirely sure whether it wanted to focus on grief, mystery, or a darker thriller plot.

Overall, it was still a quick and easy read. I think readers who enjoy emotional YA contemporaries with a light mystery element will probably get more out of it than readers looking for a genuinely intense thriller. The premise had so much potential, but it just fell short of my expectations and in the end I felt disappointed.