Sprague Hall is one of the crumbling “White Elephants” of Newport, Rhode Island – the Gilded Age mansions whose owners have included the upper echelon of American society, but are now in disrepair as the family funds ran low. Andie’s home makeover reality show is there to renovate a few rooms, but the family is not making that easy for them – time limitations, rooms off limits, and don’t ever talk to the matriarch. But when Andie and the team start investigating the history of the house and the family to add a little drama to the show, they uncover secrets the family has kept hidden for generations. Will those secrets undo the family…or will the family call the whole show off?
From the trio behind The Forgotten Room, comes their latest work – The Lost Summers of Newport. Beatriz Williams, Laren Willig, and Karen White weave a trio of timelines and heroines in a seamless and ingenious manner. With mystery, romance, and the name dropping of America’s elite families, this novel ventures into historical fiction while placing the family and structure in a current day setting that helps readers connect to them. This is a story about true love, family ties, and the danger of greed.
I give The Lost Summers of Newport 3 out of 5 stars. I enjoyed the premise of this book, but found several challenges with the storylines, mostly in the “Lucky” chapters. Things like referring to the morning after a passionate evening between the character and her husband as feeling like she’d “been out riding a horse all night”, or the reference to the greed of the family as “rot” like the house had, too. Additionally, I caught a few lines in these chapters that seem to be lifted almost directly from other literary works – the reference to the Lusitania survivor clinging to wreckage from the first-class salon and a “Frankly, my dear…” line straight out of Gone with the Wind. The lack of creativity and borderline plagiarism is troublesome coming from three well-touted authors. Additionally, the rush to match Andie with the family scion doesn’t flow well – the reader sees a firm repelling between the two only for the family to push them together and quite literally into a bedroom together scantily clad in the hopes of a sexual encounter. How creepy!
If you are looking for a historical fiction with modern day connections, you may enjoy this book. Just don’t look too far under the surface. Given discussions of domestic violence, mental abuse, and substance abuse challenges, I would direct this book to more mature readers over 16. With the triple timelines, this would be a fantastic book club selection. There is much to unpack with each heroine, but also so much to see in the writing style of these authors. With that said, this is not a book I would recommend without some prompting – it has too many issues with the plot and the lack of originality.
I chose The Lost Summers of Newport for the US States Reading Challenge prompt Rhode Island. Newport is a town on my bucket list and this novel does make you feel like you are walking through the White Elephants with these characters. Have you seen these gorgeous mansions before? What are your thoughts?
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What I’m Reading
- Current print book: The Girls of Mischief Bay, Susan Mallery
- Current audio book: Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing, Matthew Perry
- Book I’m most looking forward to: A Discovery of Witches, Deborah Harkness
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