June 1946. As the residents of Winthrop Island prepare for the first summer season after the sacrifice of war, a glamorous new figure moves into the guest cottage at Summerly, the idyllic seaside estate of the wealthy Peabody family. To Emilia Winthrop, daughter of Summerly’s year-round caretaker and a descendant of the island’s settlers, Olive Rainsford opens a window into a world of shining possibility. While Emilia spent the war years caring for her incapacitated mother, Olive traveled the world, married fascinating men, and involved herself in political causes. She’s also the beloved aunt of the two surviving Peabody sons, Amory and Shep, with whom Emilia has a tangled romantic history.
As the summer wears on, Emilia develops a deep rapport with Olive, who urges her to leave the island for a life of adventure, while romance blossoms with the sturdy and honorable Shep. But the heady promise of Peabody patronage is blown apart by the arrival of Sumner Fox, an FBI agent who demands Emilia’s help to capture a Soviet agent who’s transmitting vital intelligence on the West’s atomic weapon program from somewhere inside the Summerly estate.
April 1954. Eight years later, Summerly is boarded up and Emilia has rebuilt her shattered life as a professor at Wellesley College, when shocking news arrives from Washington—the traitor she helped convict is about to be swapped for an American spy imprisoned in the Soviet Union, but with a mysterious condition only Emilia can fulfill. A reluctant Emilia is summoned to CIA headquarters, where she’s forced to confront the harrowing consequences of her actions that fateful summer, and a choice that could destroy the Peabody family—and Emilia’s chance for redemption—all over again.
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Was there a book that you couldn’t get out of your mind? I should expect it, considering I have read several Beatriz Williams books. However, The Beach at Summerly was one of her best. Within a few first pages, I couldn’t get the story and the characters out of my mind. I’m trying to find words to describe all my feelings through this book. I felt Emilia’s grief, betrayal, love, and anger. It was as if I was living through Emilia’s thoughts. I could picture everything vividly, imagining going along the journey with Emilia. I was intrigued by how the book started and couldn’t help but wonder: ‘What happened?’ Going back and forth between 1946 and 1954, the timeline was told perfectly. I enjoyed reading about both timelines, but I loved reading Emilia’s story from 1946. I love the friendship and the bond that Emilia and Olive had and how Olive wanted to take care of Emilia as if she were her daughter. I can’t imagine finding out that the person you cared so much about was not who you assumed they were.
I wondered what Emilia would find out the truth about Olive. Would she help turn her in how she was asked to? I do believe that Emilia believed that she was forced to do this; she didn’t want to betray her friend. I wondered if she would go through with the plan or would change her mind. In the 1954 storyline, Olive wanted to talk to Emilia, and as a reader, I couldn’t help but be curious about what it could be. I can’t imagine that Olive had good feelings about Emilia, knowing that she was the one who got her put in jail. The Beach At Summerly is full of action, and I couldn’t get enough of this story. I had this book on hold at the library for some time, and it was worth it. There is a reason that Beatriz Williams is one of my favorite historical fiction authors.
I highly recommend it. Be prepared for a thrilling ride!
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