Mansion Beach by Meg Mitchell Moore

Mansion Beach by Meg Mitchell Moore
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Thank you to NetGalley and William Morrow for providing me with an advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest review!
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It’s the beginning of the summer, and Nicola Carr has just arrived on Block Island, RI, eager for a fresh start and some R&R. But her plans for a tranquil summer are derailed as the extravagant parties from the grand home next door pique her curiosity. She soon discovers the home belongs to Juliana George, an enigmatic entrepreneur with a past shrouded in mystery.

Juliana George, CEO and founder of a hot fashion-tech company, is at the top of her game. She’s spending the summer on Block Island preparing for a major IPO. But she’s chasing her dreams in more ways than one. This summer she hopes to rekindle a flame with a man from her past—a man who has a surprising connection to her neighbor Nicola.

Taylor Buchanan, the wife of Nicola’s cousin, is second-in-command of a real estate empire. Her life is exactly the way she planned it: she has the wealth, the family, the prestige, and the power. And there’s nothing she’ll let get in her way of Having It All. But when everything suddenly verges on the edge of collapse, she has no choice but to take matters into her own hands.

As Nicola, Juliana, and Taylor’s summers unfold, the three women are set on a collision course that leads to inevitable self-discovery, unforgivable betrayal, an unavoidable love triangle—and, most unexpectedly, a dead body.

A sophisticated escapist novel filled with light humor and surprising observations, Mansion Beach explores the depth of human relationships, our cruelly classist society, and the price of secrets that refuse to stay buried.
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I believe that this is the first novel I have read by Meg Mitchell Moore, which is surprising because she writes the kind of books I like to read. After previously overlooking them, I know have a nice back catalog to make my way through because I really enjoyed this journey to Block Island and the characters and goings on I found there. It is always fun to take a look at how the "other half" lives (à la the trips I have so enjoyed to Nantucket, if only in my mind, compliments of Elin Hilderbrand), and I got the same vibe from this author's upcoming offering.

While some of the characters were unlikeable, there was some redemption in the end. There were enough twists and turns to keep it interesting without things becoming overwrought or silly. I have to confess that I have not read Gatsby, so the comparisons to that classic work of literature were lost on me. The flipping between the various timelines was initially a little hard to follow, but I pretty quickly got into the rhythm and enjoyed the characters' backstories, which is not always true for me in books...I am not a huge fan of multiple timelines. There were clips from podcast transcripts inserted throughout to break up sections, and that lent a fun gossipy feel to parts of the story that was in keeping with some of the themes of the book. All in all, it was a fun, escapist beach read that went just a little bit deeper...there were some messages here that are meant to stay with the reader long after the last page is read.

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