Title: One Greek Summer
Author: Kate Frost
Published on: 9 March 2022
Genre: Contemporary Fiction | Women’s Fiction
Harlow Sands arrives on an idyllic Greek island to work on a big budget movie. Her flight from London was delayed and she missed the connecting flight to Greece. She arrived at her destination a day later.
Soon after her arrival, Harlow gives her mother a customary phone call. Maeve, Harlow’s mum, is the producer of the movie and Harlow would be working as an assistant location manager. Harlow meets Tyler, her boss/location manager the same evening. Tyler and Harlow have a history. Something happened two years ago and Harlow decided not to speak to Tyler anymore. But here they are, working side-by-side, setting their differences aside.
Well, the first night they get into a fight. The next morning, Tyler acts as if the fight never happened. He sends Harlow to Olive Gardens, the location of one of movie scenes. The farmer who owns the olive farm is proving to be a tad difficult and Harlow is sent to get the papers signed. When she arrives at the farm, she’s shooed away by the farmer’s son – well, he spoke something in Greek and Harlow decided it is better to come the next day and talk to the father.
Maeve has a problem with Harlow’s inability to decide anything in life. It is pretty clear that the mother-daughter share a passive-aggressive kinda relationship. Not to mention, things are quite toxic with Tyler too.
Throughout the story, we see Harlow reminiscing the past she cannot change and how bad things are between her and her mother. Honestly, I felt this was getting a bit too much – too much of wallowing in self-pity. It is not that Harlow couldn’t have a better life. Relationship with her dad is quite good but Harlow did not want to spend more time with his new family because it would then remind her of what she didn’t have/what she missed.
Why??? I mean, seriously. Harlow had a chance to be a part of a family – things are quite good with her father, his wife and three daughters. Yet, Harlow went in search of something she never wanted in the first place. Then there is this ‘friends with benefits’ thing with Tyler which was completely toxic. Whenever Tyler and Harlow got together, they had a brief fling… until their next meet. It seemed as if Tyler was using Harlow.
At the end of the story, Harlow tells her mother how Tyler helped her, or rather, saved her from bad men (who wanted to sleep with a teenaged Harlow). But that doesn’t mean she had to give in whenever Tyler had an urge!
Harlow meets Adonis (the farmer’s son). Things change from black-and-white to lovey-dovey overnight. This sounded a bit too far-fetched, if you ask me. One moment Adonis is Mr. Rude and the next day, Mr. Sweet and I-am-so-sorry-for-acting-rude. Excuse me if I am sounding a tad anti-romantic. This certainly isn’t my idea of romance.
Somehow, this story failed to impress me. I loved the writing but I cannot say the same about the story. The characters were just okay, nothing much happening till the end of the book – except for the cycle of self-pity. The ending seemed hurried up too. It was not up to my liking either.
Overall, One Greek Summer by Kate Frost was an okay read. If you usually read books of this genre, you might like it better than I did.
The Book Decoder 
Sounds like those yesteryear Mills & Boon romances without any head or tail.
I haven’t read any mills and boons. 😬