Montauk
A simple town on the brink of a glamorous future.
A marriage drifting apart.
A life on the edge of what is and what could be...
An epic and cinematic novel by debut author Nicola Harrison, Montauk captures the glamour and extravagance of a summer by the sea with the story of a woman torn between the life she chose and the life she desires.
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…
My Review
This is a lovely story. I did feel like I was swept away to Montauk. Ms. Harrison invited me into a world of beauty, friendship, love, and second chances with engaging characters and a beautiful scenery all wrapped in up her novel, Montauk.
Beatrice was definitely the voice of this story. The more familiar I became with her, the more I fell in love with her. She is someone that I would have wanted to be friends with back in this time era. She was not snotty. Which, speaking of snotty; there were a few women like that but some that also was very nice as well.
Finally, there is the love story between Beatrice and Thomas. It was a beautiful one filled with love; unlike, Beatrice's current marriage that was just about duty and image. I look forward in glee to reading the next book from Ms. Harrison.
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