The Summer Wives, Beatriz Williams
The Summer Wives, Beatriz Williams
19 Rating(s)
List: $26.99 | Sale: $17.82
Club: $13.49

The Summer Wives
A Novel

Bestseller

Author: Beatriz Williams

Narrator: Kristin Kalbli

Unabridged: 11 hr 47 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: HarperAudio

Published: 07/10/2018


Synopsis

New York Times bestselling author Beatriz Williams brings us the blockbuster novel of the season—an electrifying postwar fable of love, class, power, and redemption set among the inhabitants of an island off the New England coast . . .In the summer of 1951, Miranda Schuyler arrives on elite, secretive Winthrop Island as a schoolgirl from the margins of high society, still reeling from the loss of her father in the Second World War. When her beautiful mother marries Hugh Fisher, whose summer house on Winthrop overlooks the famous lighthouse, Miranda’s 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.But beneath the island’s patrician surface, there are really two clans: the summer families with their steadfast ways and quiet obsessions, and the working class of Portuguese fishermen and domestic workers who earn their living on the water and in the laundries of the summer houses. Uneasy among Isobel’s privileged friends, Miranda finds herself drawn to Joseph Vargas, whose father keeps the lighthouse with his mysterious wife. In summer, Joseph helps his father in the lobster boats, but in the autumn he returns to Brown University, where he’s determined to make something of himself. Since childhood, Joseph’s enjoyed an intense, complex friendship with Isobel Fisher, and as the summer winds to its end, Miranda’s caught in a catastrophe that will shatter Winthrop’s hard-won tranquility and banish Miranda from the island for nearly two decades.Now, in the landmark summer of 1969, Miranda returns at last, as a renowned Shakespearean actress hiding a terrible heartbreak. On its surface, the Island remains the same—determined to keep the outside world from its shores, fiercely loyal to those who belong. But the formerly powerful Fisher family is a shadow of itself, and Joseph Vargas has recently escaped the prison where he was incarcerated for the murder of Miranda’s stepfather eighteen years earlier. What’s more, Miranda herself is no longer a naïve teenager, and she begins a fierce, inexorable quest for justice for the man she once loved . . . even if it means uncovering every last one of the secrets that bind together the families of Winthrop Island.

About Beatriz Williams

Beatriz Williams is the bestselling author of over a dozen novels, including The Beach at Summerly, Our Woman in Moscow, and The Summer Wives, as well as four other novels cowritten with Lauren Willig and Karen White. A native of Seattle, she graduated from Stanford University and earned an MBA in finance from Columbia University. She lives with her husband and four children near the Connecticut shore, where she divides her time between writing and laundry.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Meredith (Trying to catch up!) on July 29, 2018

3.5 stars “Nobody ever says what they really mean. There is this vast fabric of tender little lies, and all the important things are unspoken. Boiling there underneath. We only bother telling the truth when it’s too small to count.” Dark secrets, lies, and betrayals set the stage for The Summer Wives.......more

Goodreads review by Helene Jeppesen on August 18, 2018

I was pretty much bored throughout most of this book, and while it wasn’t bad enough for me to DNF it, I didn’t at any point feel compelled to pick it up. Miranda, a national movie star, returns back to an American island after many years of absence. This island is a closed community where everyone......more

Goodreads review by Thekelburrows on July 23, 2018

Someone was wrongly accused of murder! And then someone else was impregnated out of wedlock! And then someone else set fire to a building! Also something about a lighthouse! AND EVERYONE INVOLVED WAS INCREDIBLY ATTRACTIVE!......more

Goodreads review by Katie on February 09, 2018

Miranda Schuyler has arrived on Winthrop Island in the summer of 1951. Her mother is set to marry Hugh Fisher, and after the wedding she will be spending the summer in his home with her new stepsister, Isobel. Miranda soon realizes there are two types of people on the island, the wealthy who come to......more

Goodreads review by Bookworm on January 26, 2019

Another elegant and mesmerizing read by Beatriz Williams. I've come to enjoy Ms. Williams' books. They are kind of like visiting an old friend. The Summer Wives is a story that weaves multiple timelines into a twisty and satisfying ending. Although the twists were not jaw dropping (I was able to gue......more