“There's something about the smells of your childhood, isn't there? ... You still remember those small sublime joys with an ache of longing because there's no getting it back, is there? You cannot return to a state of innocence.”

Beatriz Williams has a knack for immersing her readers in a time machine. She paints evocative images of a time gone by and draws the reader into the plot with a cast of characters that you get to know. Romance, mystery, secrets, and money create the twists and turns of the characters that Beatriz so eloquently develops.

Set in the 1950s and ‘60s, it is a tempestuous story of romance, class, power, secrets, and murder set on picturesque Winthrop Island.

It is the summer of 1951 and Miranda Schuyler arrives on the elite, yet secretive Winthrop Island in Long Island Sound. She is a naïve eighteen-year-old who is still reeling from the loss of her father in the Second World War.

Miranda is a graduate of the exclusive Foxcroft Academy in Virginia and has always been on the cusp of high society. When her beautiful mother marries the dashing Hugh Fisher at his family summer home, Miranda is thrust deeper into the world of the elite with their pedigrees and cocktail hours.

Isobel Fisher is Miranda’s new stepsister, and she takes Miranda under her wing to educate her on the clandestine ways of the Winthrop upper crust. She is long-legged, blonde, brash, and adored by her fiancé, Clayton Monk.

The other residents of the island are not wealthy summer families; they are the working class made up of Portuguese fisherman and domestic service people who earn honest days work from the seasonal inhabitants. Miranda finds herself attracted to the lighthouse keeper’s son, Joseph Vargas, a lobster fisherman. He is also a childhood friend of Isobel’s and attends Brown’s hoping to better himself.

Almost two decades later, Miranda, now a famous actress, finally returns to the Island. She is nursing heartbreak and secrets of her own. On the surface, the Island appears to be the same, but Miranda quickly realizes that things are not as they appear. For one, the Fisher family no longer wields the same power and prestige it once did, and Greyfriars, the Fisher family summer home, is in complete disrepair. Also, Joseph has escaped where he has been serving a sentence for the murder of her stepfather eighteen years earlier. Miranda makes it her quest to bring justice to the man she once loved and still loves.

I liked the story that takes place over several years and generations. It’s also told from the perspective of unique characters, which makes it even more interesting. I loved the description of the island, flowers, the ocean, and the beach and the details about each person, so you get a good “picture” of each one. You get a sense of the difference in the lives of the island “locals” and the rich elite who vacation there each summer. 

Beautifully written, this story wrapped around me like a cloud and didn’t let go until I’d read the last page. I’m a fan of the author’s other books, and The Summer Wives certainly lived up to them with an intriguing plot, characters I felt I knew, and an atmosphere I felt I was living in. Wonderful book!