Montauk

Publisher: St. Martin's Press

Release Date: June 4, 2019

Genre: Women's Fiction

Montauk, Long Island, 1938.For three months, this humble fishing village will serve as the playground for New York City’s wealthy elite. Beatrice Bordeaux was looking forward to a summer of reigniting the passion between her and her husband, Harry. Instead, tasked with furthering his investment interest in Montauk as a resort destination, she learns she’ll be spending twelve weeks sequestered with the high society wives at The Montauk Manor—a two-hundred room seaside hotel—while Harry pursues other interests in the city.

College educated, but raised a modest country girl in Pennsylvania, Bea has never felt fully comfortable among these privileged women, whose days are devoted not to their children but to leisure activities and charities that seemingly benefit no one but themselves. She longs to be a mother herself, as well as a loving wife, but after five years of marriage she remains childless while Harry is increasingly remote and distracted. Despite lavish parties at the Manor and the Yacht Club, Bea is lost and lonely and befriends the manor’s laundress whose work ethic and family life stir memories of who she once was.

As she drifts further from the society women and their preoccupations and closer toward Montauk’s natural beauty and community spirit, Bea finds herself drawn to a man nothing like her husband –stoic, plain spoken and enigmatic. Inspiring a strength and courage she had almost forgotten, his presence forces her to face a haunting tragedy of her past and question her future.

Desperate to embrace moments of happiness, no matter how fleeting, she soon discovers that such moments may be all she has, when fates conspire to tear her world apart…

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My Review ♥️

I love the era between the Great Depression and World War II. Watching our country rise up out of the ashes and gain the strength to fight another world war never ceases to amaze me. It was during this time that the divide between social classes deepened and became crystal clear as the wealthy continued to live their lavish lifestyles while the lower classes struggled to survive. It is this divide that is the foundation of Montauk.

Montauk is a small costal town on Long Island that has become a glamorous summer retreat, with a stunning manor that many Manhattanites flocked to the summer of 1938. Beatrice Bordeaux is one of the privileged wives who found herself enjoying the beauty of Montauk that summer, but Beatrice feels discontented with her life, this displeasure deepening as the days of summer flutter by.

Beatrice's fight for empowerment, to find her true self, to break social barriers and fight for women's rights in this male-dominated society was by far my favorite part of this novel. I loved watching Beatrice blossom into a strong woman with a voice all her own, breaking away from her shy, people-pleasing ways, and standing up for herself and what she believed in.

Reading about the beautiful details of Montauk, the writing capturing my imagination, was also pleasurable, but the novel does have a slow start, some of the characters weren't well developed, and much of the plot and language was highly offensive to me since I prefer cleaner reads. It was these faults that had me torn, wanting to like this debut novel but the flaws overpowered it for me personally. If things like language, affairs, and steamy romances do not bother you I believe you will enjoy Montauk.

My Rating: ★★★

Get to Know & Connect With Author

Nicola Harrison

Originally from Hampshire, England, Nicola Harrison moved to California when she was 14. She studied Literature at UCLA and received an MFA in creative writing at Stony Brook University. She is a member of The Writers Room and has short stories published in The Southampton Review and Glimmer Train as well as articles in Los Angeles Magazine and Orange Coast Magazine. She was the fashion and style staff writer for Forbes and had a weekly column at Lucky Magazine. Nicola is also the founder of a personal styling business, Harrison Style. She has spent many summers in Montauk and currently lives in downtown Manhattan. Montauk is her first novel.

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*I have reviewed a complimentary copy of this book which I received from the publisher through NetGalley. All opinions are completely honest, and my own.