Ruthie Beamish loves
her house on the Long Island shore near the Hamptons. She’s used
her creative energy to turn the house into a showplace.
Unfortunately, she, her daughter, Jem, and ex-husband, Mike, can’t
enjoy the house during the beach season. In-order to afford to live
in the house the rest of the year, they have to move out and rent it
to a wealthier tenant.
The summer starts
well. The house is rented for the entire season. Adeline Clay, widow
of a famous painter, and her son, Lucas, have taken the house for the
whole summer. In addition, Ruthie and Jem have been invited to stay
in the guest house on a friend’s estate.
As soon as Adeline
arrives, things start to go awry. Adeline flits shamelessly with
Mike. Ruthie tells herself she shouldn’t mind. They’re divorced
after all, but as Adeline usurps more of Ruthie’s life, she becomes
angry. To top it off, her job as a museum director is threatened by a
staff coup. No job, no house, no husband. It’s shaping up to be a
very difficult summer for Ruthie.
This book is
overflowing with plot and characters. At least three plot lines are
woven through the book, one told mostly in emails. If you enjoy
reading about very rich, beautiful, nasty people, they’re abundant. None of the summer people are very nice and Ruthie
succumbs to the temptation to act as badly as they do.
This book is
primarily about Ruthie’s metamorphosis. I couldn’t blame her with
all the obstacles thrown at her in the summer, but I didn’t care
much for the way she handled them. The descriptions of the house,
town, and beach were delightful: the characters not so much so.
They’re greedy, narcissistic, and generally unpleasant. Still, it’s
an interesting book to take to the beach.
I received this book
from Net Galley for this review.
No comments:
Post a Comment