Haven Point
A Novel
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4.3 • 145 Ratings
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
INSTANT NATIONAL BESTSELLER
"The book equivalent of a beach getaway." —PopSugar
"A stunning debut." —BookRiot
A sweeping debut novel about the generations of a family that spends summers in a seaside enclave on Maine's rocky coastline, for fans of Elin Hilderbrand, Beatriz Williams, and Sarah Blake.
1944: Maren Larsen is a blonde beauty from a small Minnesota farming town, determined to do her part to help the war effort––and to see the world beyond her family’s cornfields. As a cadet nurse at Walter Reed Medical Center, she’s swept off her feet by Dr. Oliver Demarest, a handsome Boston Brahmin whose family spends summers in an insular community on the rocky coast of Maine.
1970: As the nation grapples with the ongoing conflict in Vietnam, Oliver and Maren are grappling with their fiercely independent seventeen-year-old daughter, Annie, who has fallen for a young man they don’t approve of. Before the summer is over a terrible tragedy will strike the Demarests––and in the aftermath, Annie vows never to return to Haven Point.
2008: Annie’s daughter, Skye, has arrived in Maine to help scatter her mother’s ashes. Maren knows that her granddaughter inherited Annie’s view of Haven Point: despite the wild beauty and quaint customs, the regattas and clambakes and sing-alongs, she finds the place––and the people––snobbish and petty. But Maren also knows that Annie never told Skye the whole truth about what happened during that fateful summer.
Over seven decades of a changing America, through wars and storms, betrayals and reconciliations, Haven Point explores what it means to belong to a place, and to a family, which holds as tightly to its traditions as it does its secrets.
Customer Reviews
Mixed feelings
The book started slow but finished better…there were some parts very compelling and others tedious…
Something was missing
This has all the elements of what you would think would make a great book but from the moment I started it I just couldn’t get into it. Normally I love long sweeping generational stories but this just felt tedious. I tried to get through it as quickly as possible just so I could get to the next book on my list. The story lacked something and it dragged. The author would start chapters with no cohesion and introduce characters with no explanation as if we were already familiar with them. There were so many names to keep track of and most had no relevance to the story. I would have to stop and go back and try to find where these characters came from but after that happened several times I just didn’t care anymore. Also Maren married Oliver and was treated terribly by him and the people on Haven Point for years and just put up with it. She never stood up for herself thus she became complicit in their snobbery. I can’t abide people like that. There was no moral of the story learned here. The awful people “won” in the end while the decent ones died or fell apart. I have no interest in the rich and their harmful ways. I just couldn’t find much to like about this and I wouldn’t recommend it.
A wonderful read
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It was so well written that the characters came to life in my imagination from the moment they appeared on the pages. Such a thoughtful story, and so many life lessons that we can all benefit from – – from forgiveness, to shifting your perspective, to second chances. Bravo!