The Lost Summers of Newport by Beatriz Williams, Lauren Willig, Karen White

Hello everyone.  I hope you are having a nice day.

Have you ever toured historic homes?  Hubby and I both love history and houses so going places like Monticello and Mount Vernon are a natural fit.  One summer we went to the Biltmore.  This was the home of the Vanderbilts in Asheville NC.  The grounds alone are stunning with gardens, a green house and scenic woods and water everywhere.  I think Olmstead was the designer, the same person responsible for many famous gardens and parks including Central Park in New York. If you ever want to feel really poor, go to a Vanderbilt house, you'll feel like you're just schlepping through life without the use of oyster forks.

I recently read The Lost Summers of Newport by Beatriz Williams, Lauren Willig, and Karen White.  These popular solo writers often team up to write historic fiction.  I read The Forgotten Room by these three ladies and enjoyed it.  This time their book is about a mansion in Newport, Rhode Island. The story is about the mansion owned by the Sprague family, which is quickly deteriorating like many of the larger houses in Newport.  

Told in three parts, one written by each author, the story rotates through each.  The first part takes place in 2019 and features Andie who is the host of a tv show Mansion Makeover.  She has been enlisted to "makeover" several rooms in the grand house.  While confronted by Luke, Andie is warned never to go certain places, to be gone at a specific time and to never ever bother Luke's grandmother, Lucky, living on the third floor.  

The second part is told from Ellen's point of view.  The time is 1899 and she has been hired to teach the young and lovely Maybelle Sprague to sing.  Maybelle is about to face an arranged, but prestigious, marriage to an Italian prince, so her voice must make him swoon. Interestingly, forces are working against Maybelle's royal wedding and Ellen is not what she seems.

The third area in the rotation is 1958, told from Lucky's perspective.  This is the same older lady and matriarch now living on the third floor.  She has a drunk and serial philandering husband, Stuy and his dying, father who is the epitome of disrespectful.  Lucky also has a married neighbor who loves her dearly and she reciprocates.

The publisher says this is a historical thriller.  I don't think it's a thriller, but it does have several fascinating mysteries.  The stories are interesting and come together masterfully.  If you are a fan of Newport, this is a must read as not only is the lifestyle addressed but several of the real homes are as well.  In any case, you will find this one difficult to put down and will wonder about the well-developed characters when not reading.  I only have one criticism and that is about the 2019 portion with Andie, the tv host.  This part is written by Karen White, and she refers to Melanie, a character from her Tradd Street series.  The Tradd Street series was seven books, which I read all gleefully.  It was cute in the beginning, seeing a beloved character mentioned, however, it got old very quickly.  By the ninth mention all the way back more than 300 pages in the book, it got to be annoying. In addition, it added absolutely nothing to the story and I ended up angry the author was wasting my time with what seemed like a trivial commercial.  

In general, I loved this book.  This might be my favorite of the year and it's only February.  One thing is for sure, we are now planning a trip to Newport to see these buildings.  I'll start hunting for an oyster fork.