The dark and twisting new novel from Araminta Hall, bestselling author of One of the Good Guys.

Summer is a woman on fire, but will she ever burn as brightly as she did all those years ago?

When Summer was a young woman, she burned as hot as the season for which she was named. Curious and beautiful, she longs to be a writer and is thrilled when she lands her dream job working for a famous author over the summer. Drawn into the orbit of a glamourous bohemian elite in the idyllic English countryside, she quickly falls under the spell of Tom, another young star circling the twin suns that are the bestselling author and his artist wife. But her stay ends in disaster, with a violent death.

Ever since, Summer has struggled to embody her name. What she learned that year is that you can’t earn privilege. And you can’t outrun your true self. Then she learns that the terrors of her life have been twisted into a villainous bestselling novel, The Ruined Girl, written by her previous idol, Rosie.

Determined to reclaim her story and seek her truth, Summer begins her revenge.

When she realizes that a young child in her care is in danger, what lengths will she go to to make him safe? She has thought of herself as a bad person for so long: perhaps one more murderous act will be easy?

Set between the atmospheric, heady few months in which the young Summer tastes power and desire only to lose everything, and the cold present-day reality of the life lived she has lived ever since, trammelled by fear and self-loathing, this book asks the question – who is a reliable narrator of their own life? And at what cost do you take control of the narrative?

Praise for Araminta Hall:

‘I’ve been a fan of Araminta’s from the start; she is one of the most daring and intriguing writers working today’ – Gillian Flynn, author of Gone Girl

‘Brilliant, timely and necessary’ – Dorothy Koomson, author of My Other Husband

‘Compelling, proactive, dazzlingly clever’ – C. M. Ewan, author of The House Hunt

‘Original, hauntingly dark, and so clever!’ – Natalie Simmonds, author of Good Girls Die Last