Books like The summer wives by Beatriz Williams

Twenty years after being banished from Winthrop Island, Miranda Schuyler finds herself drawn back to the familiar shores she once fled. In 1951, her mother marries Hugh Fisher, whose summer house overlooks the famed lighthouse, introducing Miranda to her new stepsister Isobel Fisher. Together with the island’s lobster fishermen and the enigmatic Joseph Vargas—who works the lighthouse’s boats and attends Brown University—Miranda is pulled into the island’s intricate social web. In 1969, the same secluded community remembers Joseph’s escape from prison after being convicted of murdering Miranda’s stepfather eighteen years earlier. Now a celebrated Shakespearean actress, Miranda returns with a determined resolve to uncover the truth and bring justice to the man she once loved. The novel weaves themes of wealth, class, secrecy, and familial ties against the historic backdrop of the New England coast, where the lighthouse stands as a silent witness to the island’s rich history and the secrets it harbors.

First publish date: 2018