Bittersweet by Miranda Beverly-Whittemore

I started reading Bittersweet by Miranda Beverly-Whittemore after overhearing some people discussing this book and how they absolutely loved it.  I also saw it on lots of people's summer reading list so I added it to mine.  This is a long read and full of twists and turns.  I did think the book lagged in a few places and I did not like how the story concluded - wish the ending had more to it's resolution.  But isn't that the sign of a good book - it leaves you wanting more?

This book is a great beach read - a mystery, romance, beach, wealthy family estate, art history, etc.  It is not a mindless read though - beautifully written.  This will be a great book club book - lots to discuss but not everybody will like it because of the plot dragging in a few places.  Probably the best book I've read lately.  I'd give it 5 stars!

Amazon Book Description:

On scholarship at a prestigious East Coast college, ordinary Mabel Dagmar is surprised to befriend her roommate, the beautiful, wild, blue-blooded Genevra Winslow. Ev invites Mabel to spend the summer at Bittersweet, her cottage on the Vermont estate where her family has been holding court for more than a century; it’s the kind of place where children twirl sparklers across the lawn during cocktail hour. Mabel falls in love with midnight skinny-dipping, the wet dog smell that lingers near the yachts, and the moneyed laughter that carries across the still lake while fireworks burst overhead. Before she knows it, she has everything she’s ever wanted:  friendship, a boyfriend, access to wealth, and, most of all, for the first time in her life, the sense that she belongs.

But as Mabel becomes an insider, a terrible discovery leads to shocking violence and reveals what the Winslows may have done to keep their power intact - and what they might do to anyone who threatens them. Mabel must choose: either expose the ugliness surrounding her and face expulsion from paradise, or keep the family’s dark secrets and make Ev's world her own. 

The Girls of August by Anne Rivers Siddons

I absolutely love anything written by Anne Rivers Siddons -her books about the South just draw you in with her wonderful writing and stories.  That being said, The Girls of August just didn't "take me away" like some of other works such as Colony.  It is a good book but the plot just left me wanting more.  The plot resolution was not satisfying.  I'm going to go back and read some of her earlier novels.  I'd give this probably 3 1/2 stars and not recommend it for my book club.

Book Description from Amazon:

Every August, four women would gather together to spend a week at the beach, renting a new house each year. The ritual began when they were in their twenties and their husbands were in medical school, and became a mainstay of every summer thereafter. Their only criteria was oceanfront and isolation, their only desire to strengthen their far-flung friendships. They called themselves the Girls of August. But when one of the Girls dies tragically, the group slowly drifts apart and their vacations together are brought to a halt. Years later, a new marriage reunites them and they decide to come together once again on a remote barrier island off the South Carolina coast. There, far from civilization, the women make startling discoveries that will change them in ways they never expected.