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A Hundred Summers
Goodreads Choice Award
Nominee for Best Historical Fiction (2013)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.
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.
357 pages, Hardcover
First published May 30, 2013
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 4,013 reviews
July 15, 2013
Well, this is another book that I wanted to like and it just did not work for me. It started off fine, alternating chapters between “the present” (1938) and “the past” (1931), telling the story of Lily Dane and Nick Greenwald’s ill-fated love affair in 1931 and Lily’s present day (1938) heartache when she learns that Nick and his wife, Lily’s former childhood best friend Budgie, are summering in the same resort town as Lily. As a fluff-tastic beach read, I suppose this novel is fine, but there were some problems I had with the characters and plot.
KIKI. Yikes. Kiki is a tired cliché: a cute, precocious, six-year-old who desperately wants Lily and Nick to get back together. Everyone thinks Kiki is Lily and Nick’s secret love child from their affair in 1931, but, of course, she is not. I knew from the point that Lily told someone that Kiki was her sister, that she was in the delivery room with her mother when Kiki was born, that Kiki was actually the product of an affair between Lily’s mother and Nick’s father (a revelation that actually took Lily most of the novel to figure out). Yep, Kiki is the half-sister to both Lily and Nick. Just think about that a minute. Even though Lily and Nick are not related by blood, Kiki still insisted that her brother (yes, unbeknownst to Kiki, but still…) and sister get married and live happily ever after.
Budgie and Graham. Of course, Budgie and Graham both end up being jerks. Of course they do. Because, of course, Lily and Nick are good people and we cannot let them live their lives apart. They are so meant to be together! Budgie was never really a good friend for Lily, but was it necessary to make Budgie so “evil?” Was blackmailing the Greenwald family necessary? Was the revelation about childhood abuse necessary, especially when placed almost at the end of the book? I think Budgie would have been a more effective character without the blackmail and childhood abuse; just make her simply jealous of Lily and Nick. I also had a problem with the tidy explanation that all of a sudden Graham is revealed to be a huge philandering womanizer because the womanizing made it OK for Lily to dump him: he’s no longer a perfect guy that she does not love, he is a jerk! I almost wished that Graham had remained a “good guy” and that Lily just refused him. I disliked all of the black and white characterizations of the four main characters: Lily and Nick are good, Budgie and Graham are bad! I wish there had been more gray.
The convenient demise of all of the “bad guys:” Budgie, Lily’s mother, and Graham. Here comes a massive hurricane! Watch out Budgie—you may have survived your suicide attempt, but we don’t want Nick to go through a messy divorce! Hurricane bonus: Lily’s mother gets her comeuppance for driving Nick and Lily apart! I suppose at least Graham dies nobly in combat a few years later during the war, but he’s a jerk, so who cares?
Nick’s piratical eyes. Argh! Every time Williams describes Nick, she mentions his piratical eyes or his piratical look. Every time I read “piratical” I almost laughed out loud and found myself wondering whatever happened to “rakish?”
Lily's failure to understand that the snubbing everyone gave Nick and Budgie in Seaview was because of their ill-treatment of her and not Nick's Jewish ancestry. Additionally, Lily's obtuseness about many things in the book was annoying (Kiki's real father, the snubbing, her mother's true colors, Budgie's reason for marrying Nick, etc.).
The Epilogue. It was much too saccharine for me. Of course, once Lily and Nick are free to get married, they take in Kiki and Lily’s father and have two perfect boys and a perfect daughter. And of course, Nick is so very noble that he must not only serve in the war, he insists on serving in a combat unit, but of course, he makes it through D-Day unscathed!
KIKI. Yikes. Kiki is a tired cliché: a cute, precocious, six-year-old who desperately wants Lily and Nick to get back together. Everyone thinks Kiki is Lily and Nick’s secret love child from their affair in 1931, but, of course, she is not. I knew from the point that Lily told someone that Kiki was her sister, that she was in the delivery room with her mother when Kiki was born, that Kiki was actually the product of an affair between Lily’s mother and Nick’s father (a revelation that actually took Lily most of the novel to figure out). Yep, Kiki is the half-sister to both Lily and Nick. Just think about that a minute. Even though Lily and Nick are not related by blood, Kiki still insisted that her brother (yes, unbeknownst to Kiki, but still…) and sister get married and live happily ever after.
Budgie and Graham. Of course, Budgie and Graham both end up being jerks. Of course they do. Because, of course, Lily and Nick are good people and we cannot let them live their lives apart. They are so meant to be together! Budgie was never really a good friend for Lily, but was it necessary to make Budgie so “evil?” Was blackmailing the Greenwald family necessary? Was the revelation about childhood abuse necessary, especially when placed almost at the end of the book? I think Budgie would have been a more effective character without the blackmail and childhood abuse; just make her simply jealous of Lily and Nick. I also had a problem with the tidy explanation that all of a sudden Graham is revealed to be a huge philandering womanizer because the womanizing made it OK for Lily to dump him: he’s no longer a perfect guy that she does not love, he is a jerk! I almost wished that Graham had remained a “good guy” and that Lily just refused him. I disliked all of the black and white characterizations of the four main characters: Lily and Nick are good, Budgie and Graham are bad! I wish there had been more gray.
The convenient demise of all of the “bad guys:” Budgie, Lily’s mother, and Graham. Here comes a massive hurricane! Watch out Budgie—you may have survived your suicide attempt, but we don’t want Nick to go through a messy divorce! Hurricane bonus: Lily’s mother gets her comeuppance for driving Nick and Lily apart! I suppose at least Graham dies nobly in combat a few years later during the war, but he’s a jerk, so who cares?
Nick’s piratical eyes. Argh! Every time Williams describes Nick, she mentions his piratical eyes or his piratical look. Every time I read “piratical” I almost laughed out loud and found myself wondering whatever happened to “rakish?”
Lily's failure to understand that the snubbing everyone gave Nick and Budgie in Seaview was because of their ill-treatment of her and not Nick's Jewish ancestry. Additionally, Lily's obtuseness about many things in the book was annoying (Kiki's real father, the snubbing, her mother's true colors, Budgie's reason for marrying Nick, etc.).
The Epilogue. It was much too saccharine for me. Of course, once Lily and Nick are free to get married, they take in Kiki and Lily’s father and have two perfect boys and a perfect daughter. And of course, Nick is so very noble that he must not only serve in the war, he insists on serving in a combat unit, but of course, he makes it through D-Day unscathed!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 11, 2013
Really loved this book. It is admittedly a little sappy, schmaltzy, and a little contrived, but it is also a fantastic beach read for those of us who love the 1930's. It felt like my favorite old black and white movies, and I would love to see this made into a movie. Great read.
October 9, 2013
The more I think about “A Hundred Summers,” the snarkier I get.
Some questions:
What was the real attraction between Lily and Nick? Why ever were Lily and Budgie best friends? Could there be a more gullible person than Lily? Why did 5-year-old Kiki speak like an adolescent? Why was the character whose secrets caused untold heartache a total cipher? Why did gossipy Aunt Julie keep her mouth shut when it really counted? What was with all the smoking and drinking? And Nick’s “piratical” eyes? Wasn’t it interesting that the Hurricane of ’38 destroyed property indiscriminately but was quite selective with people?
And ... did I really think the novel would redeem itself at the end? I guess I’m gullible too.
Some questions:
What was the real attraction between Lily and Nick? Why ever were Lily and Budgie best friends? Could there be a more gullible person than Lily? Why did 5-year-old Kiki speak like an adolescent? Why was the character whose secrets caused untold heartache a total cipher? Why did gossipy Aunt Julie keep her mouth shut when it really counted? What was with all the smoking and drinking? And Nick’s “piratical” eyes? Wasn’t it interesting that the Hurricane of ’38 destroyed property indiscriminately but was quite selective with people?
And ... did I really think the novel would redeem itself at the end? I guess I’m gullible too.
August 14, 2017
I loved this book! It is set in the 1930's along the ocean in Rhode Island and tells of the love story of Lily Dane and Nick Greenwald. The story flips between 1932 when they first met to 1938 when they meet again. This book sort of reminded me of an old movie...a little sappy, a little dramatic but very tender and loving. It is a perfect summer beach read!
September 14, 2013
I picked up Beatriz Williams' A Hundred Summers with a lot of expectations, owing to all the things I read about it. Maybe I should have not heeded to the word going around after all.
Seriously the first thought that came to me after I had finished the hideousness that is this book was what the hell are people raving about? It was a task in itself not to be tempted to throw my kindle while I was reading this book.
The book oscillates between 1931/2 and 1938 told from the POV of Lily Dane the book' protagonist, as she describes how she met Nick Greenwald in the summer of 1931 and their courtship which happened at the speed of lightning. And now in 1938 as she travels to Seaview, Rhode Island with her family for their annual summer vacation, she once again comes face to face with Nick, who is now married to her best friend Budgie. I love books that narrate things between two different time periods, usually have a mystery which stays under wraps until people discover what went wrong and why. This was a major reason I even read this, and was so disappointed.
About a quarter into this book I knew I was taking major chances even as a part of me realized this was not gonna end well
But I wanted to give it a shot at redemption, thinking may be the mystery will salvage the book but alas none of that happened.
So let me tell you more about the book and the reasons it's such a huge disappointment.
Lily and Nick first meet when Budgie takes her for a game her boyfriend Graham Pendleton' team is playing and plain old stupid innocent little Lily is smitten
And not the one to be left behind, Nick is taken with her too already
Its another thing that both of these characters individually or as a couple can make a bunch of rocks seem more interesting in comparison.
But somehow I guess they discover this early on, probably on setting their eyes on each other the first time itself. And fall in LUW.
They become decidedly serious in a few months span and discuss meeting the parents, only hitch here is Lily is somewhat terrified of her mom' opinions since Nick is a Jew and it is a big deal, since Jews are looked down upon and frowned at in her social circles. She feels her dad will on the other hand welcome her BF with open arms. Being a war veteran her dad has health issues since he was affected by some sort of exposure which I really can't remember at the moment and that is when shit hits fan.
Lily' mom never meets or even has a chance to meet Nick before he is asked by her dad to get the hell away from his home and his daughter.
Not to be discouraged by the reaction, the couple decided to elope and almost get married too, after spending a night together when their plans go awry and Lily calls off things between them.
Lily thought kicking Nick' ass would not make him go away, he would come back, but instead he mopes around, decides to go to Paris and run his Dad' firm' overseas branch.
While in Paris Nick learns Lily has had a baby and due to his own stupidity and another misunderstanding starts whoring around to forget Lily...
They don't cross paths until the summer of 1938, when Nick returns happily married to Budgie or so it seems.
Lily acts all cool and is friends with Budgie once again and in the words of a character from the novel is actually a spineless fool who can neither confront her ex-boyfriend or ex-best friend all the while as she feels betrayed, hurt and acts like a total moron.
In fact just to prove a point to herself and being the idiot that she is, she walks right into Budgie' scheme and gets engaged to Graham - Budgie' ex, whom she starts dating on BUDGIE' INSISTENCE !!!!
The main thing on which this novel depends are the two mysteries - why did Nick marry Budgie and is Kiki actually Nick and Lily' daughter?
The reason Nick agrees to marry Budgie is so stupid you cannot wrap your head around it, all you can think is he married her for this?? Did I read that right? Did I may be misunderstood it?
For the better part of the novel you think Kiki, Lily' baby sister is actually her illegitimate daughter, born of the one night stand, but that goes out of the window once you reach a certain point in this book and if you can catch it you know what the big secret is early on in the book and not wait till the end for the disclosure.
My first and foremost grievance with this book is that it has a dumb heroine, honestly - Lily is a doormat, people walk all over her and she lets them. Besides smoking and drinking almost all the time. At one point in the book she says she cannot help herself when people say they need her, she has to help them. Being helpful and being a dolt are two different things Lily.
The couple separated owing to misunderstanding, a failure to communicate beside the real reason that makes Lily' dad take up his guns against Nick. He had nothing against Nick being a Jew. I read a lot of stuff about Budgie being a bitch and all, and for the life of me all I could see was a poorly executed character who came across as just an opportunist to me. I know that qualifies to certain people as being a bitch, but reading the book did not make me feel any anger in the remotest sense for the character. Gillian Flynn' Amy was someone who I could and would certainly call a bitch as the character is amazingly brilliant even in its wickedness and all over the place. Williams' Budgie doesn't hold a candle to her IMHO.
The Dialogues.... OMG the Dialogues are just so stupid sometimes. Let me give you a few examples - they are real gems
Will you believe it that the author, a woman herself, has compared breasts to apricots, not once but twice in the novel. BREASTS & APRICOTS !!! and both these times the dialogues were from Lily!
Her small breasts boobed atop the surface of the water like new apricots
Budgie spread out invitingly, among the scented pillows with her red lips and sleek depilated body and her breasts like new apricots.
You are like milk and honey, Lily. Do you know that ? You are comfort and joy. You are the antidote to all evil.
^^ reading that line - this was my precise reaction especially the last part - no wait the last part made me laugh so hard I almost fell on my ass
Not to mention that Nick' repeated "Lilybird" got on my nerves.
By the end of the book I couldn't give a damn about the big storm , who lived or died or if Nick & Lily got their stupid happily ever after. Seriously how did this even make it to a best-sellers list ?
Not recommended unless you want to induce a migraine.
This review can also be found at One reader A thousand lives
Seriously the first thought that came to me after I had finished the hideousness that is this book was what the hell are people raving about? It was a task in itself not to be tempted to throw my kindle while I was reading this book.
The book oscillates between 1931/2 and 1938 told from the POV of Lily Dane the book' protagonist, as she describes how she met Nick Greenwald in the summer of 1931 and their courtship which happened at the speed of lightning. And now in 1938 as she travels to Seaview, Rhode Island with her family for their annual summer vacation, she once again comes face to face with Nick, who is now married to her best friend Budgie. I love books that narrate things between two different time periods, usually have a mystery which stays under wraps until people discover what went wrong and why. This was a major reason I even read this, and was so disappointed.
About a quarter into this book I knew I was taking major chances even as a part of me realized this was not gonna end well
But I wanted to give it a shot at redemption, thinking may be the mystery will salvage the book but alas none of that happened.
So let me tell you more about the book and the reasons it's such a huge disappointment.
Lily and Nick first meet when Budgie takes her for a game her boyfriend Graham Pendleton' team is playing and plain old stupid innocent little Lily is smitten
And not the one to be left behind, Nick is taken with her too already
Its another thing that both of these characters individually or as a couple can make a bunch of rocks seem more interesting in comparison.
But somehow I guess they discover this early on, probably on setting their eyes on each other the first time itself. And fall in LUW.
They become decidedly serious in a few months span and discuss meeting the parents, only hitch here is Lily is somewhat terrified of her mom' opinions since Nick is a Jew and it is a big deal, since Jews are looked down upon and frowned at in her social circles. She feels her dad will on the other hand welcome her BF with open arms. Being a war veteran her dad has health issues since he was affected by some sort of exposure which I really can't remember at the moment and that is when shit hits fan.
Lily' mom never meets or even has a chance to meet Nick before he is asked by her dad to get the hell away from his home and his daughter.
Not to be discouraged by the reaction, the couple decided to elope and almost get married too, after spending a night together when their plans go awry and Lily calls off things between them.
Lily thought kicking Nick' ass would not make him go away, he would come back, but instead he mopes around, decides to go to Paris and run his Dad' firm' overseas branch.
While in Paris Nick learns Lily has had a baby and due to his own stupidity and another misunderstanding starts whoring around to forget Lily...
They don't cross paths until the summer of 1938, when Nick returns happily married to Budgie or so it seems.
Lily acts all cool and is friends with Budgie once again and in the words of a character from the novel is actually a spineless fool who can neither confront her ex-boyfriend or ex-best friend all the while as she feels betrayed, hurt and acts like a total moron.
In fact just to prove a point to herself and being the idiot that she is, she walks right into Budgie' scheme and gets engaged to Graham - Budgie' ex, whom she starts dating on BUDGIE' INSISTENCE !!!!
The main thing on which this novel depends are the two mysteries - why did Nick marry Budgie and is Kiki actually Nick and Lily' daughter?
The reason Nick agrees to marry Budgie is so stupid you cannot wrap your head around it, all you can think is he married her for this?? Did I read that right? Did I may be misunderstood it?
For the better part of the novel you think Kiki, Lily' baby sister is actually her illegitimate daughter, born of the one night stand, but that goes out of the window once you reach a certain point in this book and if you can catch it you know what the big secret is early on in the book and not wait till the end for the disclosure.
My first and foremost grievance with this book is that it has a dumb heroine, honestly - Lily is a doormat, people walk all over her and she lets them. Besides smoking and drinking almost all the time. At one point in the book she says she cannot help herself when people say they need her, she has to help them. Being helpful and being a dolt are two different things Lily.
The couple separated owing to misunderstanding, a failure to communicate beside the real reason that makes Lily' dad take up his guns against Nick. He had nothing against Nick being a Jew. I read a lot of stuff about Budgie being a bitch and all, and for the life of me all I could see was a poorly executed character who came across as just an opportunist to me. I know that qualifies to certain people as being a bitch, but reading the book did not make me feel any anger in the remotest sense for the character. Gillian Flynn' Amy was someone who I could and would certainly call a bitch as the character is amazingly brilliant even in its wickedness and all over the place. Williams' Budgie doesn't hold a candle to her IMHO.
The Dialogues.... OMG the Dialogues are just so stupid sometimes. Let me give you a few examples - they are real gems
Will you believe it that the author, a woman herself, has compared breasts to apricots, not once but twice in the novel. BREASTS & APRICOTS !!! and both these times the dialogues were from Lily!
Her small breasts boobed atop the surface of the water like new apricots
Budgie spread out invitingly, among the scented pillows with her red lips and sleek depilated body and her breasts like new apricots.
You are like milk and honey, Lily. Do you know that ? You are comfort and joy. You are the antidote to all evil.
^^ reading that line - this was my precise reaction especially the last part - no wait the last part made me laugh so hard I almost fell on my ass
Not to mention that Nick' repeated "Lilybird" got on my nerves.
By the end of the book I couldn't give a damn about the big storm , who lived or died or if Nick & Lily got their stupid happily ever after. Seriously how did this even make it to a best-sellers list ?
Not recommended unless you want to induce a migraine.
This review can also be found at One reader A thousand lives
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 26, 2024
A Hundred Summers is a dynamic plot overflowing with flawed characters hiding many secrets. Just wish the ending provided more information on what becomes of the main characters a few years down the road
Narrator Kathleen McInerney did an extraordinary job creating an autonomous, easily identifiable voice for each character and an overall enjoyable listening experience.
Narrator Kathleen McInerney did an extraordinary job creating an autonomous, easily identifiable voice for each character and an overall enjoyable listening experience.
June 10, 2019
Buddy read with Alexa
This book has been on my shelf for years and I'm so thankful that I finally picked it up because it was such a pleasure! While we were reading, Alexa pointed out that it's basically Gossip Girl but set in the 1940's and I couldn't agree more. I loved the setting which was part Rhode Island beach town and part New York City. I also enjoyed the dual timelines which I'm learning seems to be a thing in historical fiction. The story spans over a bunch of summers and recounts Lily's relationship with Nick and their fallout to the present time when he's married to Lily's best friend Budgie (who is AWFUL by the way). Budgie is the perfect example of the worst type of frenemy and I felt bad that Lily had to go through the heartbreak of learning it the hard way. I found myself really invested in Nick and Lily's story, both past and present, and while I did have some hunches about the way the plot was going to go, I enjoyed it immensely.
This book has been on my shelf for years and I'm so thankful that I finally picked it up because it was such a pleasure! While we were reading, Alexa pointed out that it's basically Gossip Girl but set in the 1940's and I couldn't agree more. I loved the setting which was part Rhode Island beach town and part New York City. I also enjoyed the dual timelines which I'm learning seems to be a thing in historical fiction. The story spans over a bunch of summers and recounts Lily's relationship with Nick and their fallout to the present time when he's married to Lily's best friend Budgie (who is AWFUL by the way). Budgie is the perfect example of the worst type of frenemy and I felt bad that Lily had to go through the heartbreak of learning it the hard way. I found myself really invested in Nick and Lily's story, both past and present, and while I did have some hunches about the way the plot was going to go, I enjoyed it immensely.
March 4, 2013
The cover of A Hundred Summers immediately reminded me of Tigers in Red Weather, a book that both made me cringe and feverishly read to the end. The descriptions sounded relatively similar too, and so I was in no particular hurry to get started on this one. After having it in my purse for a few days, I finally picked it up on the subway ride home and was transfixed. For the first time, in a long time, I was savouring the taste of the words on my tongue rather than racing to the finish line. There’s something about Beatriz Williams writing that makes you want to fold yourself into it and never come out.
Lily Dane, our narrator, uncovers the sordid story of her past and present. In 1931 she was still in college: best friends with Budgie Byrne, a heartbreakingly sexy socialite, and engaged to Nick Greenwald, a Jew. Somewhere between 1932 and 1938, Nick and Budgie were married and Lily found herself trying to swim out of the throes of shock and depression. Just as she thinks she’s accepting of the turns her life has taken, Nick and Budgie show up to summer with her in Seaview, Rhode Island. As the great hurricane of 1938 percolates in the distance, Lily’s entire foundation starts to unravel. She comes closer to learning the truth behind the Greenwald’s marriage as well as shameful family secrets that were meant to stay hidden.
Lily flips back and forth between 1931/1932 and the present, 1938. I have never read a book so perfectly structured between the past and the present. Moving between the two times was effortless and complimentary, rather than jarring. It’s no exaggeration that the book seduced me. The writing was a tease. Every second that I spent in 1938 with Lily, Nick, Budgie, and co., I wanted to know more about 1931, and vice versa. My body tingled with anticipation each time a small piece of the story was unraveled, like the buttons of a shirt slowly being undone to reveal a bit more skin. The scenery was scorching and bright, with hints of salty air tingeing every page.
While the heart of the story involves a love triangle (and occasionally a quadrilateral), Beatriz William’s writing showcases the wrinkles in a time period that is not often written about. She subtly ties together America’s distrust for the Jews, the financial crash, the burgeoning of World War II, and the plastic exterior of society’s finest. That last point was the only one that frustrated me about this book—the characters themselves. We clearly see the severe dysfunction within each person as everyone puts on an overly-affected show but, aside from a few brief moments of clarity, that’s all they ever remain. I would have willingly immersed myself in 100 more pages to learn more about the men and women behind the “darlings” and “my dears” than to catch glimpses at key moments.
When I finally finished the book, it took awhile to pull myself back to present day. I still felt the heat of the beach, the grit of the sand, and the tension of events that unfolded. Maybe a part of me just didn’t want to let go.
Lily Dane, our narrator, uncovers the sordid story of her past and present. In 1931 she was still in college: best friends with Budgie Byrne, a heartbreakingly sexy socialite, and engaged to Nick Greenwald, a Jew. Somewhere between 1932 and 1938, Nick and Budgie were married and Lily found herself trying to swim out of the throes of shock and depression. Just as she thinks she’s accepting of the turns her life has taken, Nick and Budgie show up to summer with her in Seaview, Rhode Island. As the great hurricane of 1938 percolates in the distance, Lily’s entire foundation starts to unravel. She comes closer to learning the truth behind the Greenwald’s marriage as well as shameful family secrets that were meant to stay hidden.
Lily flips back and forth between 1931/1932 and the present, 1938. I have never read a book so perfectly structured between the past and the present. Moving between the two times was effortless and complimentary, rather than jarring. It’s no exaggeration that the book seduced me. The writing was a tease. Every second that I spent in 1938 with Lily, Nick, Budgie, and co., I wanted to know more about 1931, and vice versa. My body tingled with anticipation each time a small piece of the story was unraveled, like the buttons of a shirt slowly being undone to reveal a bit more skin. The scenery was scorching and bright, with hints of salty air tingeing every page.
While the heart of the story involves a love triangle (and occasionally a quadrilateral), Beatriz William’s writing showcases the wrinkles in a time period that is not often written about. She subtly ties together America’s distrust for the Jews, the financial crash, the burgeoning of World War II, and the plastic exterior of society’s finest. That last point was the only one that frustrated me about this book—the characters themselves. We clearly see the severe dysfunction within each person as everyone puts on an overly-affected show but, aside from a few brief moments of clarity, that’s all they ever remain. I would have willingly immersed myself in 100 more pages to learn more about the men and women behind the “darlings” and “my dears” than to catch glimpses at key moments.
When I finally finished the book, it took awhile to pull myself back to present day. I still felt the heat of the beach, the grit of the sand, and the tension of events that unfolded. Maybe a part of me just didn’t want to let go.
January 4, 2024
A Hundred Summers by Beatriz Williams
Fantastic first 5 star read for 2024. Lots of romance but not too cheesy or raunchy. Lots of lovely drama and action. Some poor choices and sadness. A lovely precocious 7 yo girl. Great addiction to my finished reads list.
Fantastic first 5 star read for 2024. Lots of romance but not too cheesy or raunchy. Lots of lovely drama and action. Some poor choices and sadness. A lovely precocious 7 yo girl. Great addiction to my finished reads list.
December 20, 2015
4.5 stars!
Another great historical fiction by Beatriz Williams. Though set in some of the same time period as Along the Infinite Sea ( my first novel by her that I read a couple of weeks ago ) it covers a completely different place and a different occurrence in history. This covered the great New England hurricane of 1938, set in the fictional oceanfront community of Seaview, Rhode Island.
Summer 1938 : Lily Dane has just returned to Seaview with her family expecting another placid summer season among familiar traditions and friendships when the Greenwalds decide to take up residence in Seaview. Budgie and Nick Greenwald are an unwelcome specter from Lily's past : her former best friend and her former fiance, now recently married. This is the start of an emotional whirlwind, with gossip galore among the residents of Seaview.
The story goes between the past ( 1931 ) and the present, slowly unraveling the story of Lily and Nick's past together and what brought it to it's end, along with the unexpected truth of Budgie and Nick's marriage.
This story wasn't action packed by any means...it's a story of friendship, betrayal, family secrets and the lengths people will go to cover their indiscretions and above all, enduring love. It would make an ideal summer read. I love how realistic Beatriz Williams makes her characters, her settings. While reading this I felt as if I could hear the waves, smell the salt air. Her writing is amazing. She is fast becoming one of my favorite authors.
Another great historical fiction by Beatriz Williams. Though set in some of the same time period as Along the Infinite Sea ( my first novel by her that I read a couple of weeks ago ) it covers a completely different place and a different occurrence in history. This covered the great New England hurricane of 1938, set in the fictional oceanfront community of Seaview, Rhode Island.
Summer 1938 : Lily Dane has just returned to Seaview with her family expecting another placid summer season among familiar traditions and friendships when the Greenwalds decide to take up residence in Seaview. Budgie and Nick Greenwald are an unwelcome specter from Lily's past : her former best friend and her former fiance, now recently married. This is the start of an emotional whirlwind, with gossip galore among the residents of Seaview.
The story goes between the past ( 1931 ) and the present, slowly unraveling the story of Lily and Nick's past together and what brought it to it's end, along with the unexpected truth of Budgie and Nick's marriage.
This story wasn't action packed by any means...it's a story of friendship, betrayal, family secrets and the lengths people will go to cover their indiscretions and above all, enduring love. It would make an ideal summer read. I love how realistic Beatriz Williams makes her characters, her settings. While reading this I felt as if I could hear the waves, smell the salt air. Her writing is amazing. She is fast becoming one of my favorite authors.
September 19, 2013
Was OK - to be fair, this is not my type of book. It started out in a very promising fashion but got increasingly over the top and melodramatic as it went on. The men's dialogue is SUPER cheesy; this might have been a record number of eye rolls for me. (Well, maybe not....I forgot about the one Nicholas Sparks book I read.)
On the up side, some interesting 1930's atmosphere and some memorable characters. I especially liked flamboyant and flirtatious Aunt Julie and stoic Mrs. Hubert.
Just a little too much soap opera for me.
On the up side, some interesting 1930's atmosphere and some memorable characters. I especially liked flamboyant and flirtatious Aunt Julie and stoic Mrs. Hubert.
Just a little too much soap opera for me.
January 21, 2018
I love books dated back in the 20’s, 30’s, 40’s etc and this one really made me feel like I was back in the 30’s. Loved this from beginning to end. Highly recommend!!
October 6, 2023
I've spent a lot of time lately going through Beatriz Williams books. Luckily did I have a lot of them available as audiobooks. Like this one. It's a pure joy listening to Williams books.
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 Beatriz 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!
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 Beatriz 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!
June 8, 2016
This was the first book I've read by Beatriz Williams and I thought it was pretty good. She threw in some interesting twists and zingers here and there, even though for the most part those twists didn't surprise me. The 1930's and the characters were described well. I do have to mention that it seemed that all the characters were either chain smokers or borderline alcoholics,or both, but then it was the time of Prohibition after all. Picking up a drink or lighting another cigarette seemed to be an easy way to provide filler for gaps in the flow of the story, however.
Full of family secrets and what one will do to save face. The narrator on the audio did an excellent job. I'm going with 3 stars.
Full of family secrets and what one will do to save face. The narrator on the audio did an excellent job. I'm going with 3 stars.
January 15, 2024
I really adore anything Beatriz Williams writes. She is a beautiful author that captures me in her first pages. I can already smell the sea air, and its always a heroine and hero I can adore and root for. And so it is with Lily and Nick. The side characters are also colorful and full of life.
It is 1938, and much of the book takes place at Seaview, near Newport, in RI, where our grand noblesse of the era "Summer." Right now I am watching the Gilded Age, Season Two, and there is a bit of that kind of snobbery, elite match, gossipy thing going on. But other parts of it could have been contemporary. It was so easy to see this book feel in a way "undated." It was fun, it was easy, it was great.
It is 1938, and much of the book takes place at Seaview, near Newport, in RI, where our grand noblesse of the era "Summer." Right now I am watching the Gilded Age, Season Two, and there is a bit of that kind of snobbery, elite match, gossipy thing going on. But other parts of it could have been contemporary. It was so easy to see this book feel in a way "undated." It was fun, it was easy, it was great.
July 27, 2020
A good read for hot summer days. Family secrets, inter-family entanglements, first love and the inevitable heartbreak that follows, make up this romance set in the 1930s. The wealthy with old money summering at the beach, their hypocrisies and prejudices in full view, makes an interesting subplot.
Even with Mother Nature lending a hand, the ending was predictable. Overall a solid four stars.
Even with Mother Nature lending a hand, the ending was predictable. Overall a solid four stars.
April 8, 2013
A Hundred Summers
By
Beatriz Williams
My"in a nutshell" summary...
An oceanfront community, a scandal, secrets and the scorching summer sun...OMG...this has the ingredients for an amazing summer book!
My thoughts after reading this book...
It certainly does not take long to totally fall in love with this book. I loved Lily from the start and was totally suspicious of Budgie immediately. A book is always fun when there is a sort of obnoxious bad girl who is overpowering the more quiet lovely girl...no matter how beautiful the bad girl is!
I love the way this book alternates between 1931 and 1938. I wanted to be a part of that beach community...doing beachy stuff in the day and having dinner at the club at night. Sigh!
I loved the mystery that began on the first few pages of this book! Quite wonderfully yummy! So...pretty much you have Budgie...supposed friend of Lily...but who eventually steals Lily's fiancé Nick...away from her. Thus we begin a myriad of family hush hush secrets.
Why did Nick marry Budgie? Is Lily's little sister really her little sister or is she her daughter? Why doesn't anyone talk about this stuff? Is everyone really against Nick because his father is Jewish?
What an era that must have been...people lost their fortunes, committed suicide, and kept secrets...all for what...
Everything sort of comes crashing down the summer that these people are back together at Seaview...Lily can't keep Kiki away from Nick...Budgie can't stop drinking and lying and there is even an old friend from college who is now a relief pitcher for the Yankees in the picture!
It literally takes a hurricane...well, almost...to knock some sense into everyone...oh, yes, and a war, too!
What I loved about this book...
Loved the era, loved the alternating years, loved the places...especially Seaview. The writing was wondrous...I was never not engaged.
What I did not love...
Not a huge fan of Budgie, Lily's mother and Graham Pendleton...Yankee relief pitcher. They are the characters that are the bullies and are fun to strongly dislike!
Final thoughts...
This book is amazing...a near perfect summer reading experience!
By
Beatriz Williams
My"in a nutshell" summary...
An oceanfront community, a scandal, secrets and the scorching summer sun...OMG...this has the ingredients for an amazing summer book!
My thoughts after reading this book...
It certainly does not take long to totally fall in love with this book. I loved Lily from the start and was totally suspicious of Budgie immediately. A book is always fun when there is a sort of obnoxious bad girl who is overpowering the more quiet lovely girl...no matter how beautiful the bad girl is!
I love the way this book alternates between 1931 and 1938. I wanted to be a part of that beach community...doing beachy stuff in the day and having dinner at the club at night. Sigh!
I loved the mystery that began on the first few pages of this book! Quite wonderfully yummy! So...pretty much you have Budgie...supposed friend of Lily...but who eventually steals Lily's fiancé Nick...away from her. Thus we begin a myriad of family hush hush secrets.
Why did Nick marry Budgie? Is Lily's little sister really her little sister or is she her daughter? Why doesn't anyone talk about this stuff? Is everyone really against Nick because his father is Jewish?
What an era that must have been...people lost their fortunes, committed suicide, and kept secrets...all for what...
Everything sort of comes crashing down the summer that these people are back together at Seaview...Lily can't keep Kiki away from Nick...Budgie can't stop drinking and lying and there is even an old friend from college who is now a relief pitcher for the Yankees in the picture!
It literally takes a hurricane...well, almost...to knock some sense into everyone...oh, yes, and a war, too!
What I loved about this book...
Loved the era, loved the alternating years, loved the places...especially Seaview. The writing was wondrous...I was never not engaged.
What I did not love...
Not a huge fan of Budgie, Lily's mother and Graham Pendleton...Yankee relief pitcher. They are the characters that are the bullies and are fun to strongly dislike!
Final thoughts...
This book is amazing...a near perfect summer reading experience!
August 1, 2018
Beatriz Williams loves to write historical fiction and I love to read it.
The historical event of this book, A Hundred Summers, centers on The Great Hurricane of 1938, which roared into Rhode Island on September 21, 1938. Hurricanes in the North East have a 1% chance of occurring each year, averaging once every hundred summers. The weather though, knows nothing of statistics... Hurricane Sandy struck less than 100 years later, in 2012.
The 'heroine' of this book is Lily Dane. Her best friend is Budgie Byrne. The love of her life is Nick Greenwald. Her sister is Kiki. There are other supporting characters as well. They meet in Seaview, RI in the summer of 1938.
Of course we must flash back to how they met and how their relationships transpired. Very complicated relationships, but still able to follow. Of course, there is a mystery or mysteries that need to be solved.
Enjoyed the book and want to recommend to my historical fiction fellow readers.
4 stars
The historical event of this book, A Hundred Summers, centers on The Great Hurricane of 1938, which roared into Rhode Island on September 21, 1938. Hurricanes in the North East have a 1% chance of occurring each year, averaging once every hundred summers. The weather though, knows nothing of statistics... Hurricane Sandy struck less than 100 years later, in 2012.
The 'heroine' of this book is Lily Dane. Her best friend is Budgie Byrne. The love of her life is Nick Greenwald. Her sister is Kiki. There are other supporting characters as well. They meet in Seaview, RI in the summer of 1938.
Of course we must flash back to how they met and how their relationships transpired. Very complicated relationships, but still able to follow. Of course, there is a mystery or mysteries that need to be solved.
Enjoyed the book and want to recommend to my historical fiction fellow readers.
4 stars
April 11, 2015
Lots of people are calling this a good " beach " or " summer read" and I agree. Set in the 1930's on the Rhode Island coast, it is a romance with lots of twists and turns and a glimpse of high society at a time when everything seemed to be a scandal. I liked the main characters Nick, Lily , and even Budgie (who gets to be the one we're not supposed to like) . It was an interesting time period , and I kept thinking of my grandmother who was part of this generation when women's lives were so different than those of women today. She is 94 and has some great stories to tell. It seems like many things were " swept under the rug " back then, and a lot of situations were governed by the concept of "what would people say ? ". 4 stars
August 2, 2020
Set in the 1930's, switching between two timelines we meet four characters that intersect between each others lives.
Lily Dane (a great name) is our protagonist and she's summering in Seaview, RI with her family when her old BFF Budgie screeches into town with her ex-lover. Slowly, the timelines converge and we discover what happened in the past to create the future.
This was just ok for me, mostly predictable and not something I'll remember long into the future. It was a good summer read, even though there were some tough themes, the writing didn't pull or invest me into these characters at all. This may have just been a case of throwing too much at the wall and seeing what stuck.
Lily Dane (a great name) is our protagonist and she's summering in Seaview, RI with her family when her old BFF Budgie screeches into town with her ex-lover. Slowly, the timelines converge and we discover what happened in the past to create the future.
This was just ok for me, mostly predictable and not something I'll remember long into the future. It was a good summer read, even though there were some tough themes, the writing didn't pull or invest me into these characters at all. This may have just been a case of throwing too much at the wall and seeing what stuck.
August 20, 2013
Terrible. Bad. Awful. Resist your urge to identify this book as your 2013 beach read and just walk away. Terrible, impatient character development. You can't even begin to figure out why the two, main female characters - Lily and Budgie - ever became friends, much less had a conversation. Contrived plot developments. I read "Tigers in Red Weather" last summer and was looking for something similar for August - this ain't it. I left this book on the shelf at a vacation house we rented - and felt badly about leaving it because it was such a stinker.
September 9, 2013
I don't know about you, but I rarely have truly visceral reactions to books. I obviously love reading and get really excited about them sometimes, but I can't remember the last time that I was so thrown by a plot twist that I've reared back in my chair, shouted creative expletives, and slapped something.
I got to a certain point in A Hundred Summers, though, and that's exactly what happened. I had to slap something.
When I was the merchandising supervisor in my bookselling days, I always put together an endcap of beach reads for the summer months. I went through the shelves and grabbed anything with images of sand and surf on the cover. It's actually a little disheartening how many women's fiction books have such similar covers and it's easy to dismiss them all as homogeneous, mindless stories of sex and crying.
If I were still in merchandising, I'd be putting this book up on top of the endcap: the cover fits in thematically (though a little more interesting than most) but it's also the best kind of diversionary reading. It's a little fluffy -- kind of soapish, even -- but it's so well done that I didn't really even notice.
This is a love-and-backstabbing story set in 1930s New England. In 1938, Lily Dane is summering in Rhode Island with her mother, Aunt Julie, and young sister Kiki when an unwelcome blast from the past shows up: her former best friend Budgie and former fiancee Nick -- newly married to each other. The story flashes back and forth between the "present day" and 1931, when the two women were in college and Lily was first meeting Nick. As the story unravels, we learn why their relationship fell apart, secrets come spilling out, and the drama ratchets up.
This is definitely a plot-driven book and the characters aren't the most well-developed or dimensional, but it's fairly well-written and I found myself completely absorbed. I liked how Williams handled the back-and-forth storytelling, slowly revealing pieces of the plot, and I was genuinely shocked by many of the plot twists. This isn't great literature, but it will surely make for a great weekend of reading in the sun.
Sorry, I don't do the beach. Or the pool. This girl doesn't swim, hates sand, and is practically bathing suit-phobic. So it would be a lie to say this was my beach read. I imagine it could be yours, but I read it mostly while sitting on dry land in a park.
I got to a certain point in A Hundred Summers, though, and that's exactly what happened. I had to slap something.
When I was the merchandising supervisor in my bookselling days, I always put together an endcap of beach reads for the summer months. I went through the shelves and grabbed anything with images of sand and surf on the cover. It's actually a little disheartening how many women's fiction books have such similar covers and it's easy to dismiss them all as homogeneous, mindless stories of sex and crying.
If I were still in merchandising, I'd be putting this book up on top of the endcap: the cover fits in thematically (though a little more interesting than most) but it's also the best kind of diversionary reading. It's a little fluffy -- kind of soapish, even -- but it's so well done that I didn't really even notice.
This is a love-and-backstabbing story set in 1930s New England. In 1938, Lily Dane is summering in Rhode Island with her mother, Aunt Julie, and young sister Kiki when an unwelcome blast from the past shows up: her former best friend Budgie and former fiancee Nick -- newly married to each other. The story flashes back and forth between the "present day" and 1931, when the two women were in college and Lily was first meeting Nick. As the story unravels, we learn why their relationship fell apart, secrets come spilling out, and the drama ratchets up.
This is definitely a plot-driven book and the characters aren't the most well-developed or dimensional, but it's fairly well-written and I found myself completely absorbed. I liked how Williams handled the back-and-forth storytelling, slowly revealing pieces of the plot, and I was genuinely shocked by many of the plot twists. This isn't great literature, but it will surely make for a great weekend of reading in the sun.
Sorry, I don't do the beach. Or the pool. This girl doesn't swim, hates sand, and is practically bathing suit-phobic. So it would be a lie to say this was my beach read. I imagine it could be yours, but I read it mostly while sitting on dry land in a park.
December 9, 2020
This was a really hard one to rate. On the one hand, I was really entertained the whole time and couldn’t put the book down. I tend to love fiction set in the 1920s-30s, and I couldn’t get enough of the glitz, fashion, etc. On the other, the characters weren’t believable, and neither were their motivations or actions, and the obstacles and resolutions/twists were...obvious but yet completely ridiculous? And zero character growth.
The story alternates between 1931-1932 when Lily and her best friend Budgie are in college and meet a couple of football players from another college, and 1938 when Lily runs into Budgie and her former fiancée and has to face some issues. Lily is struggling with her still present feelings, and there’s a lot of that going around.
The big storm mentioned in the synopsis was actually just an afterthought that conveniently wrapped the story up and not central to the plot.
Unreal and huge conflicts between multiple characters? Sweep them out with the storm! (In this case a character is literally swept out with it, and isn’t the only fatality). And what really grinds my gears is that our protagonist starts out as an aspiring writer, and then..nothing. We are told she gets some rejection letters and then it basically drops. That was the biggest let down to me, that Lily ended up being pretty bland and only interested in love, when supposedly part of what Nick loved about her was her intelligence and passion/goals. She’s NoT liKe oTheR GiRlsSS though. Or something.
Despite what probably reads as a disorganized rant, I can’t wait to read the other BW book sitting on my TBR cart 😂
I would recommend this to someone looking for a fun beach read but maybe not to someone who is looking for more substantial historical fiction.
The story alternates between 1931-1932 when Lily and her best friend Budgie are in college and meet a couple of football players from another college, and 1938 when Lily runs into Budgie and her former fiancée and has to face some issues. Lily is struggling with her still present feelings, and there’s a lot of that going around.
The big storm mentioned in the synopsis was actually just an afterthought that conveniently wrapped the story up and not central to the plot.
Unreal and huge conflicts between multiple characters? Sweep them out with the storm! (In this case a character is literally swept out with it, and isn’t the only fatality). And what really grinds my gears is that our protagonist starts out as an aspiring writer, and then..nothing. We are told she gets some rejection letters and then it basically drops. That was the biggest let down to me, that Lily ended up being pretty bland and only interested in love, when supposedly part of what Nick loved about her was her intelligence and passion/goals. She’s NoT liKe oTheR GiRlsSS though. Or something.
Despite what probably reads as a disorganized rant, I can’t wait to read the other BW book sitting on my TBR cart 😂
I would recommend this to someone looking for a fun beach read but maybe not to someone who is looking for more substantial historical fiction.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 31, 2016
Pure and simple this is a gripping love story that spans nearly a decade in the lives of Lily, Nick and Budgie. Lily has come to Seaview, Rhode Island where her socialite family have a summer home. She plans to relax and spend time getting over the difficult breakup with her fiancé, Nick. Budgie, Lily’s best friend suddenly appears with Nick and surprisingly they are married (gasp), which sends Lily into a heartbreak like she has never known before because she knows that she still loves him. The pain of the breakup and spending time with Nick and Budgie is almost more than she can bear. Alternating from 1931 to 1938 the author brings the two time periods together giving you a good picture of the astonishing story of these three people as they head into a major hurricane that will change life for everyone.
I love period stories and this one is enthralling and hard to put down. I also like a good romance that is told with elegance and grace and pulls you into the story so far that you feel like you are right there on the beach with them. The 1938 major hurricane was very real and the worst one that the East Coast has ever seen. It looks as though the author researched this time period carefully. She cleverly used it as a metaphor for the volatile relationship of the three longtime friends while working it into a breathtaking and intense novel.
I listened to the audiobook and immensely enjoyed the narrator, Kathleen Mcinnerney.
I love period stories and this one is enthralling and hard to put down. I also like a good romance that is told with elegance and grace and pulls you into the story so far that you feel like you are right there on the beach with them. The 1938 major hurricane was very real and the worst one that the East Coast has ever seen. It looks as though the author researched this time period carefully. She cleverly used it as a metaphor for the volatile relationship of the three longtime friends while working it into a breathtaking and intense novel.
I listened to the audiobook and immensely enjoyed the narrator, Kathleen Mcinnerney.
September 23, 2015
4.5 stars!!!
I was enchanted by this book pretty much within the first page, and I wasn't expecting that! I loved the character of Lily, she's an identifiable personality. And Nick. Oh Nick. Loved them together. What a crazy ride of a love story.
I loved the way it alternated chapters with time periods, giving you a little bit of the puzzle at a time. The slow reveal of the "true" story was great and I built up so much anticipation. Truly I just got emotionally involved in this story and couldn't stop reading. I had hoped to read this beachside, instead I read it mostly on my porch during thunderstorms (truly one of my favorite times to read though
I was enchanted by this book pretty much within the first page, and I wasn't expecting that! I loved the character of Lily, she's an identifiable personality. And Nick. Oh Nick. Loved them together. What a crazy ride of a love story.
I loved the way it alternated chapters with time periods, giving you a little bit of the puzzle at a time. The slow reveal of the "true" story was great and I built up so much anticipation. Truly I just got emotionally involved in this story and couldn't stop reading. I had hoped to read this beachside, instead I read it mostly on my porch during thunderstorms (truly one of my favorite times to read though
May 5, 2021
This is a lovely book based on a true unique time period....the 1930’s.
This beach read story wrenched at my heart and I was so saddened for the characters. Inside, I was wanting everything to come out ok.
The characters are very relatable and are brought to life by well crafted writing by the author. I began to relate to the couples as I was drawn into there struggles, tragedies and fears.
In the end, the overall themes of joy friendship/companionship and love.
Overall this is a very enjoyable book and I recommend it
This beach read story wrenched at my heart and I was so saddened for the characters. Inside, I was wanting everything to come out ok.
The characters are very relatable and are brought to life by well crafted writing by the author. I began to relate to the couples as I was drawn into there struggles, tragedies and fears.
In the end, the overall themes of joy friendship/companionship and love.
Overall this is a very enjoyable book and I recommend it
April 2, 2015
Mindlessly enjoyable as I was reading it, but unbearably cheesy and melodramatic at points. And normally I wouldn't mind that if the story was juicy enough, but the insta-love and black and white characters (Lily and Nick are essentially perfect and Budgie and Graham are eeeevil - what happened to shades of grey?) took the annoyance factor up a notch.
August 25, 2020
Lily and Budgie's families spend their summers in Rhode Island. Budgie is beautiful and always out to have fun but reckless. Lily is more serious and beautiful in her own way. While in college Budgie is seeing Graham Pendleton and Lily falls in love with his friend, Nick Greenwald. Years later Budgie shows up at Seaview with her new husband, Nick. The story is told in two separate time lines, 1931 when they all meet and 1938 when Budgie comes back to renovate their cottage. That summer there is a big fall out with all the family secrets coming to light.
The characters were well developed. I liked Lily and Nick. They were so good together. Kiki was Lily's little sister and seemed like such a delightful child. When we first meet her she was six and kind of precocious. At times she sounded more like a young teenager than she did a six-year-old. Budgie was a very destructive personality and seemed well suited for Graham. He was somewhat of a player, big shot relief pitcher for the Yankees and had women falling all over him. The beach houses and the uptight society of the 1930's felt so real. The sand, the surf, the gin and tonics and the snooty old biddy, Mrs. Hubert, and Lily's Aunt Julia who was the bored divorcee. Lily's mother and father play an integral part of the story but aren't fleshed out. I would have liked to know more about her mother.
The end was pretty satisfactory with all the ends tied up and all the secrets revealed. I was riveted right up the very end.
The characters were well developed. I liked Lily and Nick. They were so good together. Kiki was Lily's little sister and seemed like such a delightful child. When we first meet her she was six and kind of precocious. At times she sounded more like a young teenager than she did a six-year-old. Budgie was a very destructive personality and seemed well suited for Graham. He was somewhat of a player, big shot relief pitcher for the Yankees and had women falling all over him. The beach houses and the uptight society of the 1930's felt so real. The sand, the surf, the gin and tonics and the snooty old biddy, Mrs. Hubert, and Lily's Aunt Julia who was the bored divorcee. Lily's mother and father play an integral part of the story but aren't fleshed out. I would have liked to know more about her mother.
The end was pretty satisfactory with all the ends tied up and all the secrets revealed. I was riveted right up the very end.
September 4, 2013
I read and enjoy romance novels from time to time. I look at them as junk food -- I wouldn't want a steady diet of them, but once in a while, it's nice to scarf one down. With this book, however, I was expecting more. I bought a copy after seeing it praised on several summer reading lists, noting that it took place in the years leading up to WWII (love historical fiction) and that the storyline seemed a cut above the typical chick lit. Unfortunately, I found myself underwhelmed by this cliched, melodramatic story.
I give Ms. Williams kudos for her attention to historical detail. The setting seems about right, and most of the dialogue seems in line with the times, although I will add Kiki to the long list of child characters in literature who speak with a vocabulary someone that age would never use. The anti-Semitism element to the story was interesting, but Williams wimps out on this at the end, attributing Nick's snubbing by the country club set to reasons other than his ethnicity.
My biggest quibble is with the make-it-or-break-it factor of any story for me: character development. Unfortunately, in this book there basically is none. The author uses adjectives, not actions to sculpt her characters, with the result being that you never really feel you get to know any of them. She does make an exception with her heroine, Lily, who clearly telegraphs that she is a gullible, empty-headed doormat with her every thought and deed. Seriously -- for years, virtually everyone around her has assumed and gossiped that Kiki is Lily and Nick's daughter, and Lily is genuinely shocked to learn of this? And what about Lily's mother? Her actions shape the entire plot, yet she remains just a shadow of a figure, receiving less page time than the novel's comic relief, Aunt Julie.
As for the plot, it contains lots of twists and turns; a few too many, in fact, to be believable. (Budgie's final revelation to Lily, thrown in almost as an afterthought, really puts it over the top -- oh, so that's why she's such a meanie! Now we can all feel sorry for her when she dies.). And since so many of the pivotal moments in the story are related via lengthy expositional dialogue, their impact is seriously diminished.
A blurb on the back of the dust jacket proclaimed that the story has 'a flavor of Daphne du Maurier'. I find this absolutely laughable. I am a huge fan of du Maurier's; she was an absolute master at creating suspense and crafting unpredictable plot twists. The twists in this book, on the other hand, come barreling at the reader with all the subtlety of a freight train; you can see and hear them coming from miles away. I see absolutely no resemblance whatsoever between this novel and du Maurier's work.
Overall, I might have liked this book better had I not had such high expectations. Unfortunately, my expectations were high, and it was a big disappointment. Oh, well. On to the next book!
I give Ms. Williams kudos for her attention to historical detail. The setting seems about right, and most of the dialogue seems in line with the times, although I will add Kiki to the long list of child characters in literature who speak with a vocabulary someone that age would never use. The anti-Semitism element to the story was interesting, but Williams wimps out on this at the end, attributing Nick's snubbing by the country club set to reasons other than his ethnicity.
My biggest quibble is with the make-it-or-break-it factor of any story for me: character development. Unfortunately, in this book there basically is none. The author uses adjectives, not actions to sculpt her characters, with the result being that you never really feel you get to know any of them. She does make an exception with her heroine, Lily, who clearly telegraphs that she is a gullible, empty-headed doormat with her every thought and deed. Seriously -- for years, virtually everyone around her has assumed and gossiped that Kiki is Lily and Nick's daughter, and Lily is genuinely shocked to learn of this? And what about Lily's mother? Her actions shape the entire plot, yet she remains just a shadow of a figure, receiving less page time than the novel's comic relief, Aunt Julie.
As for the plot, it contains lots of twists and turns; a few too many, in fact, to be believable. (Budgie's final revelation to Lily, thrown in almost as an afterthought, really puts it over the top -- oh, so that's why she's such a meanie! Now we can all feel sorry for her when she dies.). And since so many of the pivotal moments in the story are related via lengthy expositional dialogue, their impact is seriously diminished.
A blurb on the back of the dust jacket proclaimed that the story has 'a flavor of Daphne du Maurier'. I find this absolutely laughable. I am a huge fan of du Maurier's; she was an absolute master at creating suspense and crafting unpredictable plot twists. The twists in this book, on the other hand, come barreling at the reader with all the subtlety of a freight train; you can see and hear them coming from miles away. I see absolutely no resemblance whatsoever between this novel and du Maurier's work.
Overall, I might have liked this book better had I not had such high expectations. Unfortunately, my expectations were high, and it was a big disappointment. Oh, well. On to the next book!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 18, 2016
This was my first novel by this author and I found myself completely immersed into it. This was historical fiction based in the 1930's. This is an era that I love to read about, so it was easy to be pulled into this. The author did a great job at creating the setting, especially with the dialogue, but also with the mind set. The romance was a large part of this book, but it was more in a 'star crossed lovers' way. There were also some great twists woven in. So 4 stars.
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