I think it's fair to call this a juicy, big-hearted family novel, set in the summer of 2016 in New England. Fearing his fast-approaching 70th birthday, the brilliant patriarch who heads this blue blood family decides to go off his bipolar disorder meds, certain this will lead to a big breakthrough in his oceanography research. He adores his two adult children, though the siblings are polar opposites who don't understand each other and don't get along. Into this dramatic family milieu strolls an outsider who is related by blood to the Gardner clan but doesn't want to reveal her connection until she gets to know them and can decide if she wants to be part of their lives. Long-held secrets and scandalous revelations keep trickling out all summer long, until everything comes to a head at the patriarch's 70th birthday gala. I love a good family drama, and also appreciated the themes of arts, politics, midlife reassessment, and reinvention in this debut. The audiobook boasts a full cast narration.

From the publisher: "On a hot July night on Cape Cod when Adrienne was fourteen, her mother, Malabar, woke her at midnight with five simple words that would set the course of both of their lives for years to come: Ben Souther just kissed me. Adrienne instantly became her mother’s confidante and helpmate, blossoming in the sudden light of her attention, and from then on, Malabar came to rely on her daughter to help orchestrate what would become an epic affair with her husband’s closest friend. The affair would have calamitous consequences for everyone involved, impacting Adrienne’s life in profound ways, driving her into a precarious marriage of her own, and then into a deep depression. Only years later will she find the strength to embrace her life—and her mother—on her own terms."