Fiction
Reviews
An intense, hot ride through a sticky Scottish summer... an absorbing read about love, compromise and deceit,
Daily Mail
An atmospheric and thought-provoking tale of a messy queer love triangle... it's a singular novel that leaves a haunting impression
Herald
It’s a propulsive story, set in Edinburgh, and Thom is a writer of rare talent
Gutter Magazine
A novel that packs a real punch, Summer Hours is such an eloquent an evocative read that you can feel the heat coming off the page, and taste that warm wine
SNACK Magazine
Thom displays great skill in tangling her characters up in a fascinating knot of relationships - some sexual, some platonic, some hovering in the deliciously ambiguous no-man's land in between... Thom's Tardis-like debut novel makes an outsize impression
The Scotsman
'A sizzling story of what happens when the lines of friendship are blurred
The List - shortlisted for the Best rising Scottish author award
A spry tale of friendship and desire, best inhaled in a single sitting. Summer Hours is astute, funny, and fizzing with life
Malachy Tallack
Alessandra’s writing is both vivid and compelling, combining raconteurial warmth with sharpness, poise and an enviable instinct for rhythm. Whether its subject is family legacy and memory or the precarities of young adulthood, this is writing attuned – apparently effortlessly – to both atmospheric subtleties and the timeless antagonisms of intimacy
Daisy Lafarge
Everything about this book is alive. I inhaled it
Maria Sledmere, author and critic
Thom perfectly summons up a sultry and stultifying summer that threatens to utterly derail her protagonist. Gulp it down with a cool drink at hand
Lynsey May
the most compelling read.... a brilliant coming of age novel, beautifully written and sensitively presented
Undiscovered Scotland
A beautiful, sweaty, sticky, heat wave of a novel
Jodie Matthews, author of Meet Me at the Surface
a vital and vivid examination of life in the modern world,
SNACK Magazine, 10 Books for 2025
A love triangle of three women in an Edinburgh heatwave, Summer Hours explores the power-struggles of money, friendship, and desire
LoveReading
A captivating read
Scottish Field
Alessandra Thom beings a fresh and unique voice to this evocative read. Filled with wit, humour and insight, Summer Hours is a vivid and compelling read, perfect for fans of Sally Rooney and Julia Armfield
Scots Magazine, August Book of the Month
A sizzling debut
Sunday Post
Thom writes with precision and tenderness in equal measure—a formidable combination . . . The novel pulses with the anxieties of our precarious age: housing instability, wealth disparity, the weight of familial expectation, the vertiginous uncertainty of young queer life
Scene Magazine
About the Book
'Everything about this book is alive' – Maria Sledmere
It's a hot Edinburgh summer, and Roisin’s life is stagnating. She spends her days cancelling plans, skipping work and drinking lukewarm wine in the bathtub with her best friend Eve.
When their wealthy mutual friend Claire offers Roisin a significant amount of money under the guise of ‘freelance work,’ Roisin thinks her luck might finally be changing. But Claire’s proposal is not all it seems, and soon Roisin finds herself trapped. Paralysed by both her intense infatuation with Eve and her secret arrangement with Claire, Roisin must walk a delicate line to avoid losing what matters to her most.
The Author
Alessandra Thom
Alessandra Thom is a writer from Aberdeenshire. She was a Scottish Book Trust New Writers Awardee for Prose in 2023 and the second-place runner-up in the Short Fiction International Short Story Prize 2024. Her short fiction has appeared in Gutter. Summer Hours is her first novel.
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