Thank you Harper Audio for the ALC and William Morrow #partner, for the finished copy of The Lost Summers of Newport in exchange for my honest review.
Publisher: Harper Audio / William Morrow
Published: May 17, 2022
Summary:
From the New York Times bestselling team of Beatriz Williams, Lauren Willig, and Karen White–a novel of money and secrets set among the famous summer mansions of Newport, Rhode Island, spanning over a century from the Gilded Age to the present day.
2019: Andie Figuero has just landed her dream job as a producer of Mansion Makeover, a popular reality show about restoring America’s most lavish historic houses. Andie has high hopes for her latest project: the once glorious but gently crumbling Sprague Hall in Newport, Rhode Island, summer resort of America’s gilded class–famous for the lavish “summer cottages” of Vanderbilts and Belmonts. But Andie runs into trouble: the reclusive heiress who still lives in the mansion, Lucia “Lucky” Sprague, will only allow the show to go forward on two conditions: One, nobody speaks to her. Two, nobody touches the mansion’s ruined boathouse.
1899: Ellen Daniels has been hired to give singing lessons to Miss Maybelle Sprague, a naive young Colorado mining heiress whose stepbrother John has poured their new money into buying a place among Newport’s elite. John is determined to see Maybelle married off to a fortune-hunting Italian prince, and Ellen is supposed to polish up the girl for her launch into society. But the deceptively demure Ellen has her own checkered past, and she’s hiding in plain sight at Sprague Hall.
1958: Lucia “Lucky” Sprague has always felt like an outsider at Sprague Hall. When she and her grandmother–the American-born Princess di Conti–fled Mussolini’s Italy, it seemed natural to go back to the imposing Newport house Nana owned but hadn’t seen since her marriage in 1899. Over the years, Lucky’s lost her Italian accent and found a place for herself among the yachting set by marrying Stuyvesant Sprague, the alcoholic scion of her Sprague stepfamily. But one fateful night in the mansion’s old boathouse will uncover a devastating truth…and change everything she thought she knew about her past.
As the cameras roll on Mansion Makeover, the house begins to yield up the dark secrets the Spragues thought would stay hidden forever….
My thoughts:
Team W, as this group of three authors has been dubbed when writing together, has become one of my favorite author groups to read and I get so excited when I see a new book coming out by them. I’m not quite sure how they do it, but when they put their heads together, magic happens. You don’t get three separate stories but rather one seamless story that if you didn’t know better you would think one author had penned. Once again, we have another fantastic read that is sure to be a hit.
I have always been a fan of the dual narrative, but here we have a triple narrative and I absolutely loved it and loved how it was all connected by one common thing – a Gilded Age mansion in Newport, Rhode Island. Moving effortlessly back and forth between the different time periods, I loved that we would learn something that would tie in to the next piece, always leaving you wanting more. These clues just beg you to keep reading to see how everything all ties together. It isn’t necessary to try to work it out yourself – just trust that it will and enjoy the ride! It is such a captivating story and once I started it, I found myself completely swept up, unable to put it down until I finished it, which is why I was able to get this one done in one day!
This book is full of secrets and intrigue, a possible murder and scandal. I loved how we come to learn all that through the initial set-up of the present day story-line of the make-over show coming to the Sprague Hall and from there, going back to the two other time periods to then fill in the history of the Sprague family. Almost right from the start we learn that there are secrets surrounding the family and the property. Why can’t the crew of the make-over team have access to the third floor or the grandmother? Why must they stay away from the boat house? This is what hooked me and I couldn’t rest until I learned these answers.
Of course, what really makes this book shine are the characters. They are all so richly drawn and whether you grow to really like them or to despise them, and believe me there are some unlikeable characters here, they are all quite dynamic. I love when authors can make me feel so strongly about characters – that’s when I know they are written really well.
I also very much appreciated the little Easter eggs thrown in throughout the book. If you are a long-time reader of these authors, you will know what I am talking about. There are nods to previous Team W books and nods to Beatriz’s books, of who I am most familiar with as I have read all her books. There might be nods to Lauren and Karen’s books but I am not as familiar with their individuals books.
As I expected, this was an engaging, entertaining read with a little mystery, a little scandal and a little romance and I think it will be a perfect book to add to your summer reading list. I’m looking forward to discussing it with my online bookclub tonight – I can’t wait to see what everyone thought of it!
Audio thoughts:
I listened to this one and the narration was perfection! There were three narrators – one for each time period – and they all did such a great job. The narrators – Saskia Maarleveld, Brittany Pressley and Lisa Flanagan – all happen to be among my favorites, so that was just a bonus for me as I knew I would be in good hands and they totally delivered stellar performances. I did have the book on hand but I only used it to mark quotes or passages I wanted to remember to my bookclub discussion.
