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mahjabinmeem 's review for:
The Summer Wives
by Beatriz Williams
Love, drama, families and secrets... The Summers Wives brings a delicious mix of everything to make your pulse race and heart flutter.
The plot sounds like a cliche romantic movie with a love triangle and two classes of the society colliding headlong. But it's far more interesting and fascinating than that. There are layers under layers, plots within plots in this book. The dynamic between the families and islanders is intriguing. Every family has a secret and money might just not be answer to everything.
The writing is undoubtedly the strongest suit of this book. Beatriz Williams' writing is everything I can ask for from a historical fiction. It is so evocative and expressive. She paints a beautiful imagery of the characters and their emotions with her words. It is simply stunning. If you like beautiful writing from your books, at least give this one a shot.
The characters were masterfully crafted. They felt like three dimensional, living, breathing characters with thoughts and emotions of their own. The descriptions of the characters are wonderful and vibrant.
"She drove wantonly, wastefully, rushing down the straight stretches and then slamming the brakes into the curves, so that the tires of her father’s sleek Plymouth convertible whined and slid against the faded asphalt. All the while, she clutched a cigarette between the first two fingers of her right hand, and along the straightaways she sucked long currents of smoke between her clenched, red lips."
"Livy and her mother were perfectly nice, perfectly pretty, like two round, full scoops of vanilla ice cream, the younger one wearing a dress like a lemon meringue."
If you don't like a non-linear storyline and a multitude of characters , then perhaps this book is not for you. There are quite a few characters in this book; it is pretty hard to figure out who is who in the beginning. Also the timeline jumps between one another frequently. As I am quite familiar with non-linear stories, it didn't bother me that much.
This is not a perfect book. There are some plot issues that I wish were done more smoothly. But I loved it nonetheless with its faults and all. Give this book a shot, you might just discover a gem.
The story is set on an Island, known as the Winthrop island, where rich "families" of America come to spend the summer. The original inhabitants of the island are mainly fishermen and lobster men of Portuguese descendancy. The "Families" and the islanders live on the opposite sides of island and though everything is amicable between everyone, they rarely cross each other's path. In the summer of 1951, Miranda Schuyler arrives on the island as a naive 18 year old. Her mother marries the charming Hugh Fisher after losing her husband in the world war two. Isabelle, daughter of Hugh Fisher, carries Miranda into the bold glamorous lifestyle of hers. When Miranda finds herself drawn to one of the fishermen's son, Joseph Vargas, everything is changed forever.
The plot sounds like a cliche romantic movie with a love triangle and two classes of the society colliding headlong. But it's far more interesting and fascinating than that. There are layers under layers, plots within plots in this book. The dynamic between the families and islanders is intriguing. Every family has a secret and money might just not be answer to everything.
The writing is undoubtedly the strongest suit of this book. Beatriz Williams' writing is everything I can ask for from a historical fiction. It is so evocative and expressive. She paints a beautiful imagery of the characters and their emotions with her words. It is simply stunning. If you like beautiful writing from your books, at least give this one a shot.
The characters were masterfully crafted. They felt like three dimensional, living, breathing characters with thoughts and emotions of their own. The descriptions of the characters are wonderful and vibrant.
"She drove wantonly, wastefully, rushing down the straight stretches and then slamming the brakes into the curves, so that the tires of her father’s sleek Plymouth convertible whined and slid against the faded asphalt. All the while, she clutched a cigarette between the first two fingers of her right hand, and along the straightaways she sucked long currents of smoke between her clenched, red lips."
"Livy and her mother were perfectly nice, perfectly pretty, like two round, full scoops of vanilla ice cream, the younger one wearing a dress like a lemon meringue."
If you don't like a non-linear storyline and a multitude of characters , then perhaps this book is not for you. There are quite a few characters in this book; it is pretty hard to figure out who is who in the beginning. Also the timeline jumps between one another frequently. As I am quite familiar with non-linear stories, it didn't bother me that much.
This is not a perfect book. There are some plot issues that I wish were done more smoothly. But I loved it nonetheless with its faults and all. Give this book a shot, you might just discover a gem.