Slow and steady for this book. It took me some time to into the different POVs and getting to know each girl. Once I got a decent way into the story then the plot began to pick up. I enjoyed the story and how bonds were formed over 31 days. I enjoyed getting to know each characters personal life and struggles then watch them overcome them.

Four very different young women, looking for an escape, find themselves sharing a cabin in the mountains. At first, they only seem to see their differences, but as they take the time to scratch beneath the surface, they find they share a lot more than just pierced ears.

This was such a lovely story of friendship and finding your inner strength. Each young woman was dealing with something, be it scholastic pressure, an absent parent, a scandal, or an illness, and they were trying to take a break from their situation. Maybe running wasn't necessarily the answer to their problems, but it gave them the space to gain a new perspective on their lives, as well as on the way they view many things.

Things I loved:
• The friendship
• Grandma Ruthie
• The setting - it was beautiful!
• Romance with the boy next door
• A love, who wouldn't give up and his Latin letters
• Board games
• The search for lost love

The page count comes in a bit high for a contemporary romance, but Flinn had a lot of story to tell, and I didn't really feel like there was anything I would cut. I am happy that I got to spend this July with this wonderful group of young women, who took the month to explore and reclaim themselves.

*ARC provided in exchange for an honest review.

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There's really not much to say about this book. It's literally just about 4 very different girls who spend a summer in a secluded cabin with limited cell service. It's really your classic summer coming of age story, with a few diverse updates.

All in all, nothing to write home about, but enjoyable nonetheless.

Trigger and Content Warnings: Blood, injury, hospitalization (brief), mentions of drug use and overdosing, estranged parents, high parental expectations, anxiety

Most YA novels have a pretty big focus on romance, and believe me, I understand why. The teen years are a time when having crushes on people and falling in love is top of mind. However, Girls of July is different in a way that was really refreshing to me.

Girls of July is about four girls who are all very different, but who all end up spending the month of July in a cabin in the Adirondack Mountains. Spider wants to stay there for the summer with her grandma Ruth, but the only way they can do it is if they get some other girls to rent out rooms for the month of July. That’s where Britta, drama queen, Meredith, girl with a perfect GPA, and Kate, a soon-to-be debutante, come in. Britta finds the ad for the cabin online, and suggests that Meredith come with her to get in some relaxation time, even though they barely know each other. Kate’s father finds the ad online and suggests it to her as a way to get her out of their small town before a political scandal will make him and their family fodder for gossip. And Spider has an autoimmune disorder called juvenile rheumatoid arthritis, which she’s trying to hide.

They all have secrets, but over the course of the summer, they’ll get closer that they ever thought was possible. If you’re looking for a great book about a group of girls finding out who they are and developing bonds that will last a lifetime, then I highly recommend you pick up Girls of July. Whether you read it in the month of July, during the summer, or the coldest days of winter, it’ll warm your heart to the value of girls and female friendships.

Decent read but nothing to go crazy over. Good filler.
Plot had potential, but fell just a tiny bit short. Characters were the same; could have been amazing but just fell flat.

what I expected from this book: female friendship, strong setting, introspection, character development
what I got: stereotypes, a boring romance, weird pacing, too much telling & not enough showing

I'll admit, the beginning did hook me: this book is easy to read and easy to get drawn into. It just lacks substance and follow through.
Two of the main characters, Spider and Meredith, are extremely condescending because they're smarter than everyone else around, apparently. One of the other girls, Britta, immediately got labelled annoying for? no reason?? as far as I could tell??? For the entire duration of the book, Spider makes snarky, mean, uncalled for comments about Britta (and a lot of other people), and honestly, if I were there, I would have thrown the first punch. Just reading through the comments I highlighted makes me mad again. Meredith is a nerd and "not like other girls," and she learns to like herself and questions everything she worked for because..... a boy falls in love with her. Over the course of two weeks. None of which are really shown to the reader, by the way- it kinda goes first date now, confession of love next chapter.
For some unknown reason, the pacing of this book is absolutely fucked- the first third of the book is just the first two days (day of arrival and day 1 at the cabin), and the entire 28 other day are squished into the other two thirds.
If you're thinking, hey, what about the fourth girl? I did too. Kate is rich, and that is her only character trait, and while Britta hides from or tries to appease ticking timebomb Spider, Meredith sneaks out with her townie bf, and grandma Ruthie, idk, just sits in her room I guess, she starts babysitting a kid she ran into at the grocery store. I guess her development is supposed to mirror the kid's family's- not everyone is out to hurt you, accept help when it's offered- but it's jus told to the reader, rather than shown, which makes it incredibly unimpactful and forgettable. I liked the little subplot with her boyfriend, and I think it would have been great for the book if Kate had gotten to interact with the other girls more than twice. Especially some conversations with Meredith about living up to your parents' expectations vs. following your own interests would have been interesting.... but alas.
The other thing that annoyed me was that Britta didn't really even get a plotline? All she did was hang out with Spider and try to make her not hate her. Which I'm disappointed in, because I thought they author was setting her storyline up to mirror Ruthie's life, in more ways than one, which I would have loved to read about. Why include a character if you're not going to develop it. There was no follow-through on things that were introduced early in the book, no fun banter, no! freaking! character development- the girls literally hang out together once all summer and decide that they're "all getting along now" and are bffs 4 lyfe with absolutely no buildup or believability. And Spider is still a bitch at the end.
I don't know what I'm supposed to take from this book, I really don't.