I’ll be honest. The only reason I read this book is because I watch “The View” religiously and I love Sunny Hostin, who kept promoting this. I haven’t read her memoir (I think I’ve kind of ODed on memoirs), but I wanted to see how she did as a novelist, so I got the audiobook from the library. By the way, the audiobook was narrated by January LaVoy, whom I love, and the audiobook had a waitlist, so good on Hostin!
This book is fine. I don’t have any real criticisms, but I didn’t love it either. I think it’s pretty clearly meant to be a summer read, and it’s perfect for devouring on the beach and then forgetting about it.
The book focuses on Amma and her three goddaughters, Perry, Olivia, and Billie. Amma was in a loving marriage for decades before her husband died of cancer, but rather than build a family of their own, they decided to focus on their careers. Amma was a high-powered stock broker on Wall Street, loved her job, and made millions. Not only did they have a nice place in the city, but she and her husband were able to buy a plot of land on Oak Bluffs in Martha’s Vineyard and build a huge summerhouse for themselves there.
Amma and her husband, Omar, ended up kind of pseudo-adopting Perry, Olivia, and Billie as their goddaughters, even though there doesn’t seem to be any connection between them or between them, Amma and/or Omar. Boy are they in for a surprise.
The book jumps around a lot in time as it takes you through the summer of 2019, but also explores the history of Amma and her girls separately and collectively. It’s been a few years since Omar has died and now Amma has reconnected with an old flame who has asked her to marry him (and she said yes). She can’t bear the thought of bringing another man into this house she and Omar built together, so she’s decided to give the summer house to one of her goddaughters … but only one. She invites the three of them to spend the whole summer on the bluffs with her, and while they’ve all made sure to visit the house for short stays every summer, even as adults, they don’t normally spend the whole summer up there. But Amma clearly has something she wants to talk to them about, so they agree.
In the course of the book Amma reveals to each girl how they were connected to Amma and Omar before being adopted as their goddaughters and it’s not pretty. Amma and Omar kept some very big secrets and the women have every right to be upset by the choices Amma and Omar made when they were younger, and the fact that they chose to keep such big things secret for so long.
Throughout all this, each woman is struggling with their own adult lives. Perry is a high-powered lawyer whose marriage is on the outs. Olivia starts dating a white guy who is trying to be an ally, but still has some blind spots. And Billie is a marine biologist who’s gotten pretty serious with a chef named Dulce. Their relationship is pretty solid, but it’s thrown into jeopardy when Billie is offered a really impressive job in Texas and neglects to tell her girlfriend until Dulce finds out about it in a less-than-ideal way.
I’m not sure how I feel about where some of the characters ended up after everything they went through, but I do think every choice they made was believable for that character. Like I said, I didn’t love this book, but I didn’t hate it either. It’s a solid summer read.