My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Memorial Day, 1938: New York socialite Lily Dane has just returned with her family to the idyllic oceanfront community of Seaview, Rhode Island, expecting another placid summer season among the familiar traditions and friendships that sustained her after heartbreak.
That is, until the Greenwalds decide to take up residence in Seaview.
Nick and Budgie Greenwald are an unwelcome specter from Lily’s past: her former best friend and her former fiancé, now recently married—an event that set off a wildfire of gossip among the elite of Seaview, who have summered together for generations. Budgie’s arrival to restore her family’s old house puts her once more in the center of the community’s social scene, and she insinuates herself back into Lily's friendship with an overpowering talent for seduction...and an alluring acquaintance from their college days, Yankees pitcher Graham Pendleton. But the ties that bind Lily to Nick are too strong and intricate to ignore, and the two are drawn back into long-buried dreams, despite their uneasy secrets and many emotional obligations.
Under the scorching summer sun, the unexpected truth of Budgie and Nick’s marriage bubbles to the surface, and as a cataclysmic hurricane barrels unseen up the Atlantic and into New England, Lily and Nick must confront an emotional cyclone of their own, which will change their worlds forever.
**********
In A Hundred Summers are we introduced to Lily Dane who has returned to the summerhouse at Seaview, Rhode Island. However, her peaceful summer is interrupted when Nick and Budgie Greenwald arrives. The couple has just married and they are there to restore Budgie's family's old house. Lily and Budgie used to best friends, and Nick was Lily's boyfriend. So, this reunion is hard for Lily. Through the book, we get to know more about Lily's past through flashbacks as the summer progress and Lily try to get used to having Budgie and Nick back in her life.
As usual is the story Beatrix Williams has woven together fabulous. I spent some blissful hours listening to this book while working and I must say that if there is one thing Williams can do is take what seems to be a kind of straightforward story and throw in some twists. The writing is so good that I can easily picture the wonderful oceanfront community of Seaview. As for the story, I was captivated and I enjoyed that I did not always guess right what would happen next, especially towards the ending. What I truly enjoy is how human the characters in the book are, and that the title and the cover may make it seem like a light story, but there are serious events and people aren't always who they seem to be.
A Hundred Summers is a fabulous book and I recommend it warmly!
No comments:
Post a Comment