10 Years After: "Before We Were Innocent" by Ella Berman

Bess lives alone working from home as the moderator for a dating app. Suddenly there's a knock at the door and standing there is a face from the past. Her beautiful, famous former friend Joni. Someone she hasn't seen in 10 years. Since something went terribly wrong in their past.

The past, when three besties spent a summer in Greece, their last get together before college. It is the family home of  wealthy heiress Evangeline, whose parents paid for  their trip. Everything seems set for a perfect summer, but teen Joni and Bess want to explore and have more fun than the more sheltered Evangeline is willing to do. She is happy meeting and greeting family friends and enjoying time at the villa.

 Joni and Evangeline go way back, while Bess sometimes felt she was the third wheel in their friendship, someone whose family moved to the wealthy California community from England. Once in a while during that summer,  Evangeline got annoyed with Bess. It happens, even with close friends. Maybe it's because Evangeline's brother always seemed a little too interested in Bess.

What happens during the course of that summer forever changed everyone's lives.

Before We were Innocent is the first book I've read / listened to by Ella Berman.  It is a gripping read, or, once again, I listened to this one, with a  compelling narration by Jennifer Jill Araya, who makes the girls and other characters come alive during that fateful summer and later, as the characters become adults.