New Book - Summer Wives by Beatriz Williams (Pages 1 - 82)

 First Published: 2018

The book starts in 1969. Miranda Schuyler returns to Winthrop Island, and after arriving, she goes straight to the store where she talks to Mrs Medeiro. 

Miranda asks after her grandson Joseph, and she mentions something about him escaping prison. Then Mrs Medeiro drives her to Greyfriars, which is where her mother lives, and when Miranda knocks at the door, the person who opens is Isobel.

The novel then jumps back to 1930, a section told from the perspective of Bianca Medeiro, a seventeen-year-old girl, who is the niece of the store owners. Bianca tells us how she is in love with Mr Hugh Fisher, but she knows that he likes her cousin, Francisca. And Francisca is engaged to be married to Pascoal Vargas, and it is a marriage that will take place.

Then the novel changes again, and it is 1951. Miranda arrives in Wintrhop Island for the first time. She is barely 18, and the reason why she is on the island is because her mother is marrying Hugh Fisher. Her father, who was an art teacher, died in the war, and her mother, who was a secretary in Foxtrot, met Mr Fisher in the school as both Miranda and Isobel were students. Isobel is Hugh's daughter. The morning of the marriage Miranda witnesses a lobster catcher fall to the sea, and a younger man rescue him. The man is taken to Greyfriars, and a doctor is called. The man who saved him is Joseph Vargas, who is the son of Pascoal and Francisca Vargas, owners of the lighthouse. Later on the day after the wedding Isobel and Miranda sail to the lighthouse. Isobel and Joseph have been friends, and she throws stones at his window to make him meet them. Isobel is drunk and at some point she falls asleep, and he and Miranda talk. Miranda realises that it is then that she falls in love with Joseph.

Then the next day Miranda and Isobel go to visit the Monks. Clayton Monk is Isobel's fiancé, and the day before they had a disagreement. When they are there, Clayton and Miranda talk in private, adn Clay mentions his worry about Joseph because he thinks Joseph wants Isobel, so he asks Miranda to keep an eye on Isobel and tell him if there is some trouble. I think that Clay is blind, and it is Isoble who is smitten with Joseph, and I have the impression that she doesn't care for Clay.