By Marjorie Preston
This week is full of romance, drama and mystery in four novels that are ideal for the waning days of summer. We round out the list with a non-fiction look at a golden girl and American prince whose love story ended in tragedy 25 summers ago.
“All the Summers in Between”
By Brooke Lea Foster
Gallery
This one’s perfect for a long day at the beach. It’s the summer of ’67. Rich girl Margot is visiting her family’s summer place in East Hampton when she befriends a working-class islander named Thea.
Despite differences of caste and class, the girls form a fast bond. Their friendship grows stronger as they work side by side in a local record store. Then, one terrifying August night, the idyllic summer comes to an end, Margot flees the island, and the friends lose touch.
Ten years later, Margot reappears, one step ahead of danger and begging for help. And Thea must decide how far she will go in the name of old loyalties.
You may grow impatient waiting for the big plot reveal, but that’s what makes this a page turner. “All the Summers in Between” is a mystery and a coming-of-age saga that will keep you riveted.
“The Best Life Book Club”
By Sheila Roberts
Mira
Poor Karissa Newcomb. After discovering her husband is having an affair (with her best friend, no less!), she’s forced to start all over again—in a new town, with a new job, a confused young daughter, and a heart full of hurt and self-doubt.
But Karissa isn’t alone. Her new neighbors all are facing their own challenges. Alice is mourning the loss of her husband. Margot is dealing with divorce, unemployment and dashed dreams. Judgmental Josie is on the outs with her daughter and son-in-law.
The women start a reading club, and start with self-help books to nudge them toward change and greater fulfillment. Eventually, they start writing a mystery of their own.
“The Best Life Book Club” is about the power of friendship, especially female friendship. Though it’s a bit formulaic, you’ll root for Karissa as she dares to hope for new love, Margot as she launches a new business, and Alice and Josie as they turn the page on past regrets.
“Just for the Summer”
By Abby Jimenez
Forever
For originality, this entry from Abby Jimenez gets an A-plus.
The hero, Justin, is convinced he is cursed: every woman he dates dumps him, then goes on to find the man of her dreams. His predicament becomes the subject of a Reddit thread, which is discovered by a nurse named Emma.
Frustrated in her search for lasting love, Emma proposes a pact: the two will date for a few months, then break up by mutual agreement. That, presumably, will break the curse, and both can go on to separate happily-ever-afters.
Of course, what starts as a summer fling grows deeper as they learn about each other’s lives, hopes and sorrows. Could Justin and Emma be meant for each other? Jimenez delivers on a slightly madcap promise in this romance filled with tenderness and humor.
“Joy”
By Danielle Steel
Ballantine
As a child, Allegra Dixon was abandoned by her mother, then her father, and finally banished to the custody of grim grandparents.
This Cinderella life leaves her longing for love and connection. As a young woman, she seems to find it with West Point cadet Shep, who is pursuing a military career. But war hardens Shep, and Allegra finds love a second time with a film composer named Henry. No spoilers, but our valiant heroine keeps searching for joy in life, though life thwarts her at every turn.
Danielle Steel doesn’t depart from the tried-and-true in her latest, which has all the glitches typical of her work: chronic repetition, as if she can’t remember what she wrote from page to page, and paper-thin characterizations. But it’s a lightweight romance you can finish in an afternoon at the beach, and Steel fans will enjoy it.
“Once Upon a Time”
By Elizabeth Beller
Gallery Books
It’s been 25 years since a small plane carrying John F. Kennedy Jr., his wife Carolyn Bessette and his sister-in-law Lauren crashed off the coast of New England, dashing hopes for a second Camelot.
In 2005, JFK intimate Carole Radziwill wrote “What Remains,” a moving book about that tragedy, and the subsequent loss of her own husband, Anthony, Kennedy’s cousin. Beller’s book focuses on Carolyn, a golden girl who got the prince, but paid a heavy price in public exposure, tabloid criticism, and harassment by the paparazzi.
“Once Upon a Time” is neither memoir nor biography, but reads like a long, fawning “Vanity Fair” article. This passage is typical: “Carolyn possessed an inimitably, wildly engrossing brand of magnetism that held those around her spellbound,” with “an energy that affects every facet of one’s being.”
In trying to defend Bessette against the media frenzy and rumor-mongering that dogged her in life, Beller turns her into a saint, a victim, and unfortunately, almost a caricature. This is an interesting book, but you may come away wishing for a more realistic portrait.
Marjorie Preston is a business writer, editor, ghostwriter and compulsive reader, who gobbles up books like potato chips. For more information (and more book reviews), visit marjorieprestonwriting.com.
