It needed to be something huge that tore them apart, and while it was significant, it wasn’t of the magnitude I expected.Īt the climax of the story is a major hurricane (an historical one, the Great Hurricane of 1938, that wreaked havoc and destruction on New England). Given the way they cleave to each other, though, their inevitable break-up in 1932 felt anticlimactic.

In most books, I would be urging these characters to slow their roll and stop being lovesick idiots, but here, my reaction to their connection was almost visceral, so I went with it. Nick and Lily both know what they have is unusual and strange, but it feels right. You feel the rush, the intensity, the confusion, and the attraction. Lily and Nick have the type of romance that grows very quickly – almost too quickly to be believable, except that the reader feels it alongside the characters. I wouldn’t go as far as to say that she was flat, because she wasn’t, but when lined up against the dynamic and complex characters of Budgie, Graham, and Nick, Lily’s characterization faded a bit. Despite the fact that we spend the novel in Lily’s head, she seemed a bit elusive to me. The book is told entirely in Lily’s point of view, so the reader is limited to what Lily knows – which you realize is not very much, as the book progresses. It was suspenseful and well paced, and kept me reading far later into the night than I should have. The book alternates between 19, drawing out the story and adding intrigue in each chapter. But there are still many secrets, many old wounds, that have yet to surface. Graham, now a Yankees player, seems to be setting aside his womanizing tendencies for Lily.

Lily is the primary caregiver for Kiki, her six-year-old sister who may or may not actually be her daughter. Nick has recently married Budgie, and the two of them, Lily, and Graham all return to the Rhode Island seaside town where their families have summered for generations. Despite the fact that Lily knows her parents wouldn’t approve, they have a whirlwind courtship, until something breaks them apart. She and Nick shared an instant connection, despite the fact that he was shunned by many for his Jewish heritage even in the United States, it wasn’t good to be thought of as Jewish in the 1930s. But it wasn’t Graham, the golden boy, who caught Lily’s attention. Her friend, Budgie Byrne, dragged Lily up to Dartmouth one fall day in 1932 so Budgie could see her boyfriend, Graham Pendleton, play football. Lily Dane was drawn to Nick Greenwald from the moment she first saw him.

It’s a compelling novel, one that builds relationships and characters and suspense with great skill. A Hundred Summers is the second novel by Beatriz Williams (the hardcover, mainstream fiction alter ego of historical romance writer Juliana Gray).

A Hundred Summers by Beatriz Williams