There is something about books set on a beach with a rocky coastline that really speaks to me. Probably because the Oregon coast is rocky and stormy, so whenever I see books set in other locations with a rocky coast, I am often drawn to them! Haven Point is set in Maine and promises to be a fantastic beach read even if the beach itself isn’t a white sandy beach with pina coladas! This setting is a little more rocky but no less captivating!
This book caught my eye for a couple of reasons, one of which being the generational feel of the book. It hits some key points in history, the 1940s, the 1970s and a more modern 2008. I liked how the author wanted to connect multiple periods in American history with the larger character driven narrative. It sounded like a great read and I am super excited to read this one a little later this summer.
I think the setting of the book is going to offer readers a new type of beach read and something they can sink their teeth into while they are hitting their road, beach or the skies for vacations this summer. The book is currently out now and being met with critical acclaim! Full of drama, secrets, beaches, and of course history, this one hits the high notes for me so make sure to get this one on your radar!
Summary
“The book equivalent of a beach getaway.” —PopSugar
A sweeping debut novel about the generations of a family that spends summers in a seaside enclave on Maine’s rocky coastline, for fans of Elin Hilderbrand, Beatriz Williams, and Sarah Blake.
1944: Maren Larsen is a blonde beauty from a small Minnesota farming town, determined to do her part to help the war effort––and to see the world beyond her family’s cornfields. As a cadet nurse at Walter Reed Medical Center, she’s swept off her feet by Dr. Oliver Demarest, a handsome Boston Brahmin whose family spends summers in an insular community on the rocky coast of Maine.
1970: As the nation grapples with the ongoing conflict in Vietnam, Oliver and Maren are grappling with their fiercely independent seventeen-year-old daughter, Annie, who has fallen for a young man they don’t approve of. Before the summer is over a terrible tragedy will strike the Demarests––and in the aftermath, Annie vows never to return to Haven Point.
2008: Annie’s daughter, Skye, has arrived in Maine to help scatter her mother’s ashes. Maren knows that her granddaughter inherited Annie’s view of Haven Point: despite the wild beauty and quaint customs, the regattas and clambakes and sing-alongs, she finds the place––and the people––snobbish and petty. But Maren also knows that Annie never told Skye the whole truth about what happened during that fateful summer.
Over seven decades of a changing America, through wars and storms, betrayals and reconciliations, Virginia Hume’s Haven Pointexplores what it means to belong to a place, and to a family, which holds as tightly to its traditions as it does its secrets. (summary from Goodreads)
The Lit Bitch 