Vendor
	Mohrbooks Literary Agency Sebastian Ritscher
Original language
English
Categories
Fiction & Related items

SUMMER DARLINGS

Brooke Lea Foster

A novel about a poor Wellesley student who spends the summer of 1962 as a nanny for a wealthy New England family and learns that the right last name and a house to "summer" in guarantee privilege, not happiness.

It's 1962 in Martha's Vineyard, and Heddy Winsome is in dire straits. Her original plan to spend the summer nannying for a wealthy family was supposed to give her a little extra spending money and the chance to relax far away from the New York City smog. But when she learns that her academic scholarship at Wellesley has been revoked, the stakes are suddnely much higher. With only her poor, single Irish-immigrant mother and the slums of Brooklyn to return to come Memorial Day, Heddy needs a ticket out.

And a wealthy husband just might be it.

Determined to find a fun romance, and maybe the ticket to her future, Heddy works to blend in to the Martha's Vineyard country club crowd and make herself "useful" to the right people. She quickly learns, however, that not all is as picture-perfect as it appears: after all, there's always a price to be paid for joining the "it" crowd.

Brooke is a three-time finalist for the Livingston Award for Young Journalists (the highest honor given to writers under the age of 35), as well as the recipient of the Robert D.G. Lewis Award for Investigative Reporting. With connections at The Boston Globe Sunday, The Huffington Post/AOL, the Washingtonian Magazine, and Psychology Today, Brooke knows how to write: and what's more, she knows how make a piece of writing sellable.

Available products
Book Published 2020-05-05 by Gallery
Book Published 2020-05-05 by Gallery

Comments

Set in the summer of 1962, Brooke Lea Foster's Summer Darlings has all the ingredients of a delightfully fizzy beach cocktail: A spunky, working-class Wellesley student determined to make her mark, the deceptively "perfect" wealthy couple that employs her as a nanny on Martha's Vineyard, two alluring and very different suitors, and a bombshell movie star with a heart of gold. If you like your summer escapism with a nostalgic splash of Mad Men-era glamour, you'll love this surprisingly twisty debut.

I was immediately seduced by Summer Darlings. Foster cleverly conceals her characters' deceits and betrayal beneath a stunning, sun-spangled surface, and Martha's Vineyard (my third favorite island) is portrayed with glamorous period detail. This is one terrific summer read.

The enchanting beaches, dazzling parties, and elusive social circles of Brooke Lea Foster's debut carry secrets and twists that keep us breathless and guessing until the very last page. As working-class Heddy pierces through the façade of this privileged world, she comes to question everything she believed about money, marriage, and the need to improve her lot in life. A delicious read filled with an acute sense of place and unexpected discoveries about class, status, and ambition.

A delicious romp through mid-century Martha's Vineyard, Foster's evocative debut is like a delightful picnic basket packed with everything readers want in a summer read. Summer Darlings is about the human desire to strive toward something more, the reality that things aren't always what they seem, and the strength a woman will find within herself when she listens to her inner voice.

Beautifully written and richly detailed - it pulled me in from the very first page. Heddy is an unforgettable heroine, and I'll be recommending this book to everyone I know.

Rendered in evocative historical detail, Summer Darlings is a compelling debut, a taut portrait of money and social status, and of a young woman navigating her place in the world. Foster offers a glittering glimpse into the private lives of New England's elite families, while exposing the dark underbelly of privilege. I couldn't stop turning the pages until I had reached the breathless, satisfying conclusion.

Foster has written a compelling coming-of-age story that exposes the sparkling glamour and dark underbelly of the haves and have nots in the 1960s. Summer Darlings is utterly atmospheric and compelling.