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kikideee's review
3.0
I just closed the cover on this book and I don't really know what I think of it. (Spoilers ahead.)
It was well written and easy to read. I finished it in a couple evenings after work. However, there were several pieces of the plot that didn't add up (was the nurse working that day or did they give her the day off?!) and the overall idea of the book was somewhat ridiculous, making you want to smack the main character. Throw in some incest and rape and it was also disturbing and grotesque before being given its happy ending.
So, I give the book three stars because I liked the beginning, the middle was ok, and I hated the end.
(I won this book during in a Read it Forward drawing so I will be passing it on to the next person!)
It was well written and easy to read. I finished it in a couple evenings after work. However, there were several pieces of the plot that didn't add up (was the nurse working that day or did they give her the day off?!) and the overall idea of the book was somewhat ridiculous, making you want to smack the main character. Throw in some incest and rape and it was also disturbing and grotesque before being given its happy ending.
So, I give the book three stars because I liked the beginning, the middle was ok, and I hated the end.
(I won this book during in a Read it Forward drawing so I will be passing it on to the next person!)
audiophile71's review
4.0
Slow to start, but eventually I was drawn into the suspenseful story of the "poor and misfit" roommate, who spends a summer at her wealthy college roommate's summer compound. Filled with intriguing characters, the writer pulls the reader in as she spins the tale of a family's decades old devastating secret.
bpowers08's review
1.0
This book is like a train wreck. I needed to look away. It I kept reading. The story is so unbelievable and the characters are contrived. Bills itself as a mystery but is a just a bad harlequin novel.
mellabella's review
2.0
Mabel Dagmar is on a scholarship to a prestigious east coast college. She is a little chubby and, I'm assuming unattractive? I believe it's mentioned. Her beautiful roommate Genevra "Ev" for short is rich and at first, treats Mabel with disdain. It's surprising that she invites Mabel to her cottage, Bittersweet on a Vermont estate for the summer. Mabel's character, (as we come to realize) comes from a loveless family. She is hiding something. She's slightly pathetic. There would be no way anyone would allow someone to treat them the way Ev treats her and continue to be her "friend". She eats the attention Ev shows her up. After spending a little time with Ev's family, and the way they live... Mabel is seduced. She also starts to have feelings for Ev's brother Galway and becomes close with their youngest sister Lu. There is one twist and turn after another. OK. Families in general have secrets. Sometimes rich families come across their wealth in shady ways. But there seemed to be TOO much drama. Is it bad enough that Ev is sleeping with her half brother? It seemed her father Birch liked to force the women employed by their family. There was a suicide, two murders, a sick aunt. It was all too much. By the time Mabel found the swastika, I couldn't imagine what else could happen. Mabel herself was an odd character. Indo (the sick aunt) asked her to dig and delve into their families past, and she did it. Becoming more and more involved in things that were none of her business. The whole time I was thinking "Who would really do this?" I read this book super fast. I don't know if it was because of the soap opera tone? Or, if I was just trying to see what else the author would throw in the plot.
jbarr5's review
4.0
Bittersweet by Miranda Beverly-Whittemore
The two woman meet when they are rooming together in college. Abby takes it upon herself to help out Maybelle and invites her to her home.
When you become a certain age the family allows you to pick a cottage and it's up to you to prove you can make it liveable. With all the servants May can't understand why because of how she grew up.
We are able to meet Jennifer's sisters and brothers and rest of the family. May feels so privileged to be given this opportunity to bump elbows with royalty.
Loved hearing how the other side lives and how May is able to unearth all kinds of information about the family compound and how it all came about, to preserve itself for the family to yet be born.
Blood money and how it plays a part in this book, interesting.
I received this book from National Library Service for my BARD (Braille Audio Reading Device).
The two woman meet when they are rooming together in college. Abby takes it upon herself to help out Maybelle and invites her to her home.
When you become a certain age the family allows you to pick a cottage and it's up to you to prove you can make it liveable. With all the servants May can't understand why because of how she grew up.
We are able to meet Jennifer's sisters and brothers and rest of the family. May feels so privileged to be given this opportunity to bump elbows with royalty.
Loved hearing how the other side lives and how May is able to unearth all kinds of information about the family compound and how it all came about, to preserve itself for the family to yet be born.
Blood money and how it plays a part in this book, interesting.
I received this book from National Library Service for my BARD (Braille Audio Reading Device).
meghan111's review
4.0
Disclaimer: The author is a friend-of-a-friend. I've never met her, but she is friends with my good friends, so that might have influenced my experience reading this book.
It was so much fun to read this Gothic summer novel about a young woman exposed to a life of privilege in Vermont. Like the protagonist of [b:Rebecca|17899948|Rebecca|Daphne du Maurier|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1386605169s/17899948.jpg|46663], Mabel gradually has to uncover the deep, possible murderous secrets of those around her.
Mabel's college roommate Genevra Winslow (Ev) has ignored her all year. But after Ev invites her to a fancy gala held to celebrate the Winslow family's recent donation to the college, Mabel and Ev become friends. Mabel is invited to spend her summer break at the cabins owned by Ev's family, where, it turns out, all the descendants of this blue blood Winslow family gather to spend summers boating, swimming, and...
There were parts in this book where I grew a little bored because I couldn't figure out where the story was going, and I felt too much of Mabel's own feelings of being out of place and a little unsure. But by the end, it became hard to put the book down, and the ending was one of the most satisfying I've read in a long time.
It was so much fun to read this Gothic summer novel about a young woman exposed to a life of privilege in Vermont. Like the protagonist of [b:Rebecca|17899948|Rebecca|Daphne du Maurier|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1386605169s/17899948.jpg|46663], Mabel gradually has to uncover the deep, possible murderous secrets of those around her.
Mabel's college roommate Genevra Winslow (Ev) has ignored her all year. But after Ev invites her to a fancy gala held to celebrate the Winslow family's recent donation to the college, Mabel and Ev become friends. Mabel is invited to spend her summer break at the cabins owned by Ev's family, where, it turns out, all the descendants of this blue blood Winslow family gather to spend summers boating, swimming, and...
There were parts in this book where I grew a little bored because I couldn't figure out where the story was going, and I felt too much of Mabel's own feelings of being out of place and a little unsure. But by the end, it became hard to put the book down, and the ending was one of the most satisfying I've read in a long time.
emiliedoleshel's review
4.0
A great "stay up until you finish, work be damned I'll just be tired tomorrow" read. Although, I'm not sure I liked the ending, the story and characters were gripping that I had to force myself to bed and not keep reading.
kategci's review against another edition
4.0
This is such a summer read and it reminded me of other summer reads, I,e, Seating Arrangements by Maggie Shipstead and Maine by Courtney Sullivan. The story is narrated by an outsider of an old New England family who is the college roommate of a privileged daughter. For much of the story, it seems like a beachy book, but there is a turn and it becomes something else. I thoroughly enjoyed the something else and the author transitions well. The transition could have been sooner, but I enjoyed reading about this huge, dysfunctional family.
blodeuedd's review
4.0
When I started this one I could not put it down, I read for hours, enthralled by the lyrical prose. It was such great language and a well crafted story.
Awkward Mabel's roommate invites her to stay at their family cottage, make that cottages. They have a lot of them and each family member has one of their own when they are old enough. Mabel comes out of her shell, but at the same time is that truly a good thing? Are the Winslows good people? I liked her mind, but the world is grey, and that is shown.
Her friend Ev is all over the place with her own secrets. The book is about Mabel realizing she is quite alone there. Making her own friends, digging into family archives. Something sinister lies at the bottom of this place. As the story progresses the tone changes in a way, makes the prose haunted and hunted for that matter. And the secrets that unfold, they are quite the secrets indeed. The title fits well too, the end is truly bittersweet.
It's a book you will not be able to put down, and one book that I do recommend you to try.
Awkward Mabel's roommate invites her to stay at their family cottage, make that cottages. They have a lot of them and each family member has one of their own when they are old enough. Mabel comes out of her shell, but at the same time is that truly a good thing? Are the Winslows good people? I liked her mind, but the world is grey, and that is shown.
Her friend Ev is all over the place with her own secrets. The book is about Mabel realizing she is quite alone there. Making her own friends, digging into family archives. Something sinister lies at the bottom of this place. As the story progresses the tone changes in a way, makes the prose haunted and hunted for that matter. And the secrets that unfold, they are quite the secrets indeed. The title fits well too, the end is truly bittersweet.
It's a book you will not be able to put down, and one book that I do recommend you to try.