The Summer Wives Beatriz Williams

Published: William Morrow
Date:  July 10th 2018
Format: e-ARC
Pages: 384
Genre: Historical Fiction
Source: Publisher via Edelweiss
Rating:

In the summer of 1951, Miranda Schuyler arrives on elite, secretive Winthrop Island in Long Island Sound as a naive eighteen year old, still reeling from the loss of her father in the Second World War. Although a graduate of the exclusive Foxcroft Academy in Virginia, Miranda has always lived on the margins of high society.

When her beautiful mother marries Hugh Fisher, whose summer house on Winthrop overlooks the famous lighthouse, Miranda is catapulted into a heady new world of pedigrees and cocktails, status and swimming pools. Isobel Fisher, Miranda’s new stepsister—all long legs and world-weary bravado, engaged to a wealthy Island scion—is eager to draw Miranda into the arcane customs of Winthrop society.

Summer Wives by Beatriz Williams was a read that I sank into and have to say really liked. It ranges over three time periods - 1930, 1951 and 1969.  It is told mostly from the viewpoint of Miranda, however their is also the story of Bianca.  We go from one time period to another - backwards and forwards.

That could be somewhat disconcerting, however if it is carefully read and characters and events tracked until the jigsaw comes together then it returns a rewarding read. As I kept notes I put what was happening together so there is no surprise much at the end, but the satisfaction of seeing how it all turns out.

It is set on an island where there are the local people - fishermen and then the summer people. The rich people, who eat, drink and make merry and don't intermingle much or at all with the local people. Miranda comes to this island as a teen when her mother remarries on of the summer men. She finds she has a step sister Isabel. I did think it a little odd that she changed in a way I wouldn't expect. 

And her step father - what of him, well he has a lot to do with the characters in this story and just to say I didn't like him.  So many lives intertwine on the island, and not least of all Joseph the young man we first meet saving a fisherman.

To discuss what happens would be to take away from the reader the opportunity to follow the twists and turns, the mystery, the way characters relate to each other.

The writing is beautiful, the issues sometimes sad, yet here is a tale of redemption and hope as well. 

The Beach at Painter's Cove. Shelley Noble

Published:William Morrow
Date: June 15th 2017
Format:e-ARC
Pages: 432
Genre: Mainstream Fiction
Source: Publisher
Rating:
            

The Whitaker family’s Connecticut mansion, Muses by the Sea, has always been a haven for artists, a hotbed of creativity, extravagances, and the occasional scandal. Art patrons for generations, the Whitakers supported strangers but drained the life out of each other. Now, after being estranged for years, four generations of Whitaker women find themselves once again at The Muses.

The Beach at Painter's Cove by Shelley Noble brings us into the lives of the Whitaker family in an old family mansion. It is a multi-generational family, a little unusual and certainly dysfunctional, and very certainly not ordinary.

Issy is called home from her work in a museum by her young niece Mandy. She and her brother and sister Stephanie have been dropped off at their great - grandmother's house by their mother who has then disappeared. Arriving home Issy finds bills unpaid and her grandmother Leo in hospital and her aunt Fae trying to hold things together.  

Fortunately for Issy she has good friends in Chloe and Ben, who are there at every turn as Issy tries to deal with the situation she finds at the house. Worse is yet to come, its possible the house will need to be sold and her rather selfish mother, sister and uncle are yet to descend on her.

I liked Issy, she is responsible and ultimately caring, she loves her grandmother and aunt and wants to do right by them. She has reservations and anxieties about being sent from the house and the memories she has of her own childhood. Yet she seems to be the most rounded human being in her family.

Another character that I felt sympathy for was Fae, she appears to be well a little fay, she is arty and a little out of the ordinary, but her heart too was in the right place and she has made sacrifices for the good of others.  I liked especially how she could see where twelve year old Stephanie was coming from and was able to connect with her in a special way. I totally agreed with Fae's final choice.

There is plenty of family drama, some mystery, a tiny amount of romance and some growth for most of the characters.  Living in the Whitaker family would never be dull.

The Almost Sisters. Joshilyn Jackson

Published: William Morrow
Date: 11th July 2017
Format: e-ARC
Pages: 352
Genre: Contemporary Ficton
Source: Publisher
Rating:
                 

Superheroes have always been Leia Birch Briggs' weakness. One tequila-soaked night at a comics convention, the usually level-headed graphic novelist is swept off her barstool by a handsome and anonymous Batman.

It turns out the caped crusader has left her with more than just a nice, fuzzy memory. She's having a baby boy--an unexpected but not unhappy development in the thirty-eight year-old's life. But before Leia can break the news of her impending single-motherhood (including the fact that her baby is biracial) to her conventional, Southern family, her step-sister Rachel's marriage implodes. Worse, she learns her beloved ninety-year-old grandmother, Birchie, is losing her mind, and she's been hiding her dementia with the help of Wattie, her best friend since girlhood.

Leia returns to Alabama to put her grandmother's affairs in order, clean out the big Victorian that has been in the Birch family for generations, and tell her family that she's pregnant. Yet just when Leia thinks she's got it all under control, she learns that illness is not the only thing Birchie's been hiding.

The Almost Sisters  by Joshilyn Jackson was an amazing read. So many layers to it, with a variety of characters that embody so much of southern USA still today.

Leia is a graphic artist and novelist, she is talented and made her way in this world really well. She has created her own work in a graphic novel about Violence and Violet. It has been a huge success but now she is not sure where to turn. She is meant to be writing a prequel showing the origin of Violence but she can't quite get there, nor can she proceed with a further story because she so violently finished off the novel. Who are Violet and Violence and how do they link to each other and Leia was one of the mysteries in this book.   It was one of the questions that held my interest all the way through.                                    

Leia has a sister Rachel, well they are step sisters - almost sisters, Leia's Dad died early and her mother remarried, however small Rachel was adamant Leia was not going to call Rachel's  father - daddy.  The theme of fatherhood and its importance runs through the book, echoed in a number of places. In one place we have Lavender, Rachel's daughter who is lost to her father at present as her mother has thrown him out of the house.  Lavender needs her dad.

And of course we have Leia pregnant with new life, but no daddy. And that's upsetting especially for Lavender who is determined to do something about it.  That's not the only place fatherhood is examined, but no more, because to mention it would be to spoil it for readers.

As well we have two wily old women, Birchie - Leia's grandmother and Birchie's best friend Wattie. They tell a story of the south and how white and black people integrate or not, its a story of great sadness and also of hope. Theirs is a tough story but a brave one and is a very important part of the book.  Leia walks right into a mystery that is about to blow right up.

I was drawn right from the beginning with this book and found it an absorbing read, while heartbreaking at times, the  bond of love and loyalty wins through.  It is confronting and highlights the issue of racism that will no doubt leave a mark on any open and compassionate heart.

Summer Selection.

The Cafe by the Sea Jenny Colgan

Published: William Morrow
Date: June 27th 2017
Format: e-ARC
Pages:416
Genre: Contemporary Fiction
Source: Publisher via Edelweiss
Rating:
             

Years ago, Flora fled the quiet Scottish island where she grew up -- and she hasn't looked back. What would she have on Mure? It's a place where everyone has known her all her life, where no one will let her forget the past. In bright, bustling London, she can be anonymous, ambitious... and hopelessly in love with her boss.

But when fate brings Flora back to the island, she's suddenly swept once more into life with her brothers -- all strapping, loud, and seemingly incapable of basic housework -- and her father. Yet even amid the chaos of their reunion, Flora discovers a passion for cooking -- and find herself restoring dusty little pink-fronted shop on the harbour: a café by the sea.

So on the one hand you have hot, muggy, dirty London - squashed into a tiny flat, eating food from a microwave and doing a small paralegal job. Or... you could be back home on a small Scottish island in the far north. That is the dilemma for Flora in The Cafe by the Sea.  She has escaped island life, her mother was always so keen for her to be educated and to go forth and experience the world, not the small world of the island.

However Flora finds herself back on the island when her work calls for someone who knows the local area well and some law as well. There we find her back with her family, in a tough hardworking family farming environment. They are a family who deeply mourn the loss of a wife and mother gone before her time. They've let things slide, and Flora isn't too sure of her welcome back - even for such a short time - because she may have gone too far in what she said at her mother's funeral.

I can only say I adored the setting of the island, the scenery described, the wildlife, the animals. If I were a travelling person its a place I'd love to visit. Joel, Flora's boss sees the beauty of the place and the way Flora handles herself in this environment. Unbeknown to him Flora has been carrying a torch for him for a long time. But Joel has issues of his own and is a little overpowered by the strong family environment he witnesses when he visits to check up on the case in hand.

I loved all the characters, Flora's Dad, her three brothers, her three year old niece and of course the dogs. And all the crusty people that make up the island, along with the wealthy new hotel owner - Colton, who wants to prevent a wind farm being built right in front of the hotel, but must woo these taciturn people to his way of thinking.

I was transported out of my own life into these islanders lives and I loved every moment of it. A very entertaining and delicious read!