Thursday, October 23, 2014

Review: Bittersweet

Bittersweet
By Miranda Beverly-Whittemore
Crown May 2014
400 pages
From the library 


Bittersweet

Mabel Dagmar and her roommate Genevra Winslow couldn't be more different. Mabel is a poor scholarship student and Genevra is a beautiful heiress. Mabel is shocked when Genevra invites her to spend the summer at Bittersweet, the stunning summer estate that has been in her family for generations. Mabel falls in love with the ease of wealth and having everything you could ever want. For the first time in a long time, she feels like she belongs somewhere and that Genevra and her handsome brother Galway actually care about her. But all of the beauty is not without a price. As dark secrets emerge, Mabel will have to decide just what she is willing to sacrifice for security and the chance at happiness.

Mabel, of course, has her own secrets and she is thrilled to be able to leave her expected summer working at the family business behind in order to spend lazy weeks with the Winslows. Mabel, like many people, equate goodness with wealth and beauty. The Winslows may have more money and stunning cheekbones than they know what to do with, but Mabel will discover that there are many shades of grey within the generations of Winslows. Is covering for someone as bad as committing a wrong itself? What does it mean if you know someone has done horrible things but you love them anyway?

Stories about uber-wealthy people often make me frustrated. I want to read about people with actual problems, not the ennui of being oh so rich and oh so privileged. But this story feels a little different. Instead of glossing over the sins of the wealthy, they are each brought into the light. The characters must examine what it means to be a good person and choose between being good and being comfortable.

This is the sort of book you speed through in one glorious weekend. Bittersweet has the perfection combination of story elements - forbidden romance, murder, and mystery. The beautiful photograph of the Winslow family in their crisp white clothes on the family estate that Genevra keeps up in her dorm room suggests none of the skeletons hiding in the family closets. But discovering each one is an enthralling ride that will keep you flipping pages late into the night. 

8 comments:

  1. I didn't love this book as much as you did...maybe because I had a hard time warming up to Genevra. And I didn't connect to Mabel either. But I'm not sorry I read it. Great review!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm not sure this is a book where you are supposed to like the characters, but I found it hard to put down!

      Delete
  2. I hadn't read anything about this one before, but it does sound interesting .. it's always good to have something on hand for a quick but engrossing read!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It's kind of flying under the radar, but I was really pulled into the story.

      Delete
  3. Great review! From your description, it sounds a little like Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey--wealthy brother and sister invite less wealthy female to their estate, secrets emerge, etc--but I guess that's a pretty common storyline.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That's a good comparison. I hadn't thought of that!

      Delete
  4. That is a good collection of story elements! It sounds as though this was a more thought-provoking than some books about bored rich people might be.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I think having Mabel as an outsider looking in gives it a different feel than many books about wealthy people. It was a lot of fun!

      Delete