Beatriz Williams is one of my summer read go-tos. For some reason, I never got around to this book last summer when it came out. My mother passed her copy to me and it has been sitting on my non-library book TBR pile ever since. I finally cracked it open and it did not disappoint.
Most of Williams’ books offer a little bit of mystery and a whole lot of star crossed loving. I’m more than fine with that. Her tendency to set things in two of my favorite decades: the roaring ’20’s and the 1950’s also checks some boxes for me. This book spans from 1930-1970 and follows the lives of the wealthy summer residents and full time islanders on the Winthrop Island in the Long Island Sound.
Recently graduated from school and heading off to college at the end of summer, Miranda arrives on Winthrop Island for the wedding of her widowed mother to a rich businessman, Hugh Fisher. Still mourning the loss of her father who died in the war, she is uncomfortable but doesn’t want to mar the new found happiness of her mother. Her soon to be step sister, the flamboyant Isobel, whisks Miranda around the island, offering a distraction from her conflicted feelings.
Thrown into a new world full of dinners at the club, lavish social gatherings and lots and lots of cocktail drinking, Miranda soon gets caught up in the clandestine relationship between Isobel and the son of an islander lobsterman, Joseph. Lives begin to unravel and decades old secrets held by both the wealthy summer residents and the islanders are exposed.
Williams brings the period and her characters to life in another page turner. While sometimes her writing can get a teeny bit overwrought, I love her novels. This one was no exception and read like a movie starring Natalie Wood. Super fun and absolutely perfect for a summer read.