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3.38 AVERAGE
3.38 AVERAGE
adventurous
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
A fun beach read! I think the story was great, but I was just expecting more from the reveal at the end and the ending in general. The characters were annoying and obnoxious at times but I think that comes with the class and social background of the characters. I loved the setting of the story, it really felt like a beach read and that is why I liked it.
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
2.5/5. I liked the beginning and the end, but the middle dragged a bit. This is a Gatsby retelling if Gatsby was a girlboss millennial. Fans of Elin Hildebrand might like this. An easy beach read. I liked the setting of Block Island.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for my copy.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for my copy.
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
N/A
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Many thanks to Netgalley and William Morrow books for an advanced eArc in exchange for my honest opinion.
It might just be a me issue but this book was WAY to wordy. It read very chaotic to me, sentences jumping all over the place. Random flashbacks to the past. Random inserts of the podcast, which in my opinion didn't do anything to further the story.
Nicola, Shelley, David, Jack were all super insufferable to me. Nicola's character seemed like 18 not 29. Juliana was the only one that I enjoyed reading about her backstory but with the authors writing it was super difficult for me to become invested in it.
I definitely saw all the Gatsby references, it seemed like the was the driving force behind the book and the author added little things to make it her own twist on the story. So wasn't super original.
It normally takes me maybe 4 day's to start and finish a book and this one took me 7 days.... reading this felt like homework.
It might just be a me issue but this book was WAY to wordy. It read very chaotic to me, sentences jumping all over the place. Random flashbacks to the past. Random inserts of the podcast, which in my opinion didn't do anything to further the story.
Nicola, Shelley, David, Jack were all super insufferable to me. Nicola's character seemed like 18 not 29. Juliana was the only one that I enjoyed reading about her backstory but with the authors writing it was super difficult for me to become invested in it.
I definitely saw all the Gatsby references, it seemed like the was the driving force behind the book and the author added little things to make it her own twist on the story. So wasn't super original.
It normally takes me maybe 4 day's to start and finish a book and this one took me 7 days.... reading this felt like homework.
This is a great pick for a summer beach read—it has a little something for everyone. The setting is ideal, there’s romance, complicated family dynamics, complex friendship dynamics, and even a light mystery surrounding the death of a resident. What more could you want? For me, in a summer read, nothing honestly.
There are three women at the center of the story—Juliana, Taylor, and Nicola—and I thought all three were fairly well-developed and interesting in their own right. I’ve seen a couple of people say this one is wordy, and maybe it is a little bit, but I got strong Elin Hilderbrand vibes from all the detailed descriptions—not just of the current setting and events, but also of the women’s pasts.
I enjoyed how their storylines intertwined and loved the sometimes dramatic twists the story took. All in all, this was an easy summer read with some depth and smarts that I really enjoyed.
I was expecting Elin Hilderbrand-esque and this is definitely not it.
dark
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
https://cdnbookworm.blogspot.com/2025/05/mansion-beach.html
slow-paced
I love Meg Mitchell Moore books. I was thrilled to receive the ARC from netgalley in exchange for an honest review. And I'm disappointed I could not find much to like about Mansion Beach.
Contrary to the author note saying this was inspired by The Great Gatsby and not a retelling, it's a retelling. Maybe the parts with the podcast gives her the right to say that, but it's fooling no one. I had high hopes for the podcast portions because I thought we'd get more of a mystery out of the story via the town council, but no. Will some readers be surprised to learn year round residents in places where rich people vacation really hate said rich people? Maybe, but probably not.
Because this is The Great Gatsby with gender roles swaps the characters felt flat and not what I'm used to from Mitchell Moore. I didn't care about any of them. So much happens off the page that the reader is then told about from a conversation between two characters. It didn't feel like this author's previous work. I wasn't invested in their lives enough to care about the outcomes. If you love The Great Gatsby this is worth a read.
Contrary to the author note saying this was inspired by The Great Gatsby and not a retelling, it's a retelling. Maybe the parts with the podcast gives her the right to say that, but it's fooling no one. I had high hopes for the podcast portions because I thought we'd get more of a mystery out of the story via the town council, but no. Will some readers be surprised to learn year round residents in places where rich people vacation really hate said rich people? Maybe, but probably not.
Because this is The Great Gatsby with gender roles swaps the characters felt flat and not what I'm used to from Mitchell Moore. I didn't care about any of them. So much happens off the page that the reader is then told about from a conversation between two characters. It didn't feel like this author's previous work. I wasn't invested in their lives enough to care about the outcomes. If you love The Great Gatsby this is worth a read.
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Before I get into the review, a quick thank you to both NetGalley and the publishers over at William Morrow for allowing me access to the ARC in exchange for an honest review. Mansion Beach follows outsider Nicola Carr as she spends the summer on Block Island as the oldest intern ever at the local conservatory. Her neighbor, Juliana George, disrupts Nicola's sleeping pattern nearly every night with outrageous parties. Juliana George was only ever hoping to catch the attention of her neighbor across the water (and Nicola's cousin) David Carr who is married to the heiress of a real-estate empire, Taylor Buchanan. Over the summer, the rich become careless with their wealth, with their bodies, with others' feelings. When the end of the summer comes barreling at them, they'll make some grave mistakes they can never hope to undo. Mansion Beach comes out on May 27th and is available for preorder now.
Because I just finished this book and read the acknowledgement pages I want to address something. The author writes in those pages that this is "not a retelling of F. Scott Fitzgerald's 1925 novel The Great Gatsby." GIRL. I need you to be so real right now. This is a joke, right? Having read the entirety of this book I have to tell you that you're wrong. This is a straight The Great Gatsby retelling. You hit every single beat. Come on now. For some reason, I went into this expecting more of a murder mystery element, but that's not what happens here. I think the author tried to create that feeling by adding a podcast element to the story, but the podcast doesn't add anything at all and is just some locals bitching about rich people doing rich people thing. I get it. But it didn't add any tension or mystery to the story. I also spent a ton of time waiting for the plot to kick off. I was constantly thinking that it's all about to start. On the next page. Or the next page. But it was the same drudgery throughout. Even at the end of the novel, we don't SEE the life changing action of the story. Everything gets told second or third hand. The writing style also drove me up the wall a few times. For some reason, the author inserts emojis in the story at random moments to describe a character's facial expressions. She doesn't even just describe the emoji it's just a straight insert into the novel. It felt pretty jarring at times. There was also a moment when the author felt the need to explain to the reader what the word "diluted" means. Could someone please send this girl an editor?
The characters were all as awful as you expect them to be in a retelling of The Great Gatsby. So, they are pretty true to the originals. I also found the setting to be really well described and set up for the reader. Block Island is a place where the author has obviously been quite a few times so it was always fun to see the characters running around all over the island and getting up to rich people non-sense. For the most part, I liked Nicola, but as the outsider she was always expected to be the reader's favorite. She's more realistic and down to earth as she watches the summer of drama unfold.
Overall, I realize that this was never going to be for me. It's more General Fiction than Mystery/Thriller. That genre never does well with me. I think this is a good read for those who like the genre or just someone who enjoys a good The Great Gatsby retelling.