Update: I still need a vacation and am not getting one till January, so I’m reading all the beach-y things. Enter Holiday in the Hamptons. Sarah Morgan is one of my go-to Happy Feels authors, but I was lukewarm on Holiday in the Hamptons because of weak internal conflict and a heroine who, on occasion, baffled and irritated me.
Felicity “Fliss” Knight grew up with a horribly emotionally abusive father, so her summer vacations in the Hamptons (just mom and the siblings, Asshole Dad stayed in the city) were a sanctuary for her. It certainly didn’t hurt that Seth Carlyle, a hot, slightly older boy, lived next door. The summer she turns eighteen, Fliss and Seth have an affair and wind up married and promptly divorced.
Fliss moves back to Manhattan, and she doesn’t see Seth again for ten years.
By now Fliss and her twin sister, Harriet, have a successful dog-walking business. Fliss is described as being the driving force behind the business, and as a person who is smart and determined. That’s why her behavior when she learns Seth is town is so baffling.
Seth is now a vet, and works at a clinic that Fliss sometimes takes animals to. When she learns he’s in Manhattan, she immediately hatches a plan to get out of town and never speak to him or look at him or think about him too hard. I’m not speaking from experience, but I wouldn’t think it would be very hard to avoid someone in Manhattan if you wanted to. Go to another clinic. I live in a city of 70,000 and I would no issue avoiding someone. Fliss acts like she’s going to bump into Seth every single day.
So, anyway, Fliss gets a call from her grandmother, who still lives in the Hamptons. Grandma had a bad fall and wants Harriet to come stay with her for the summer. Harriet is routinely described as being the caregiving, kinder sister while Fliss is the more business-minded of the pair. Because you can’t be both. And if Twins with Danny DeVito and Ahhhhhhhhhhhrnold taught me anything, it’s that twins have to be the total opposite of each other. It’s Science.
So Fliss does a super uncool thing and heads to the Hamptons pretending to be Harriet. Don’t lie to your grandma, Fliss.
Who does Fliss run into in the Hamptons? Seth of course. He works as a vet there (he was subbing in Manhattan, I guess).
I was all like, “don’t say you’re Harriet. Don’t say you’re Harriet.”
Fliss tells him she’s Harriet.
Fortunately the whole twin swap thing lasts only to the forty percent mark of the book, and nothing physical happens during this time. So while it felt kind of dumb, it’s not horrifying and gross.
Anyway, Seth never stopped loving Fliss. She left their marriage pretty abruptly–like Kardashian style–and he went from feeling angry and hurt to missing her. Cue beachy reconciliation scenes.
And that’s where the conflict felt weak. Fliss felt like Seth married her purely because of the spoiler above, and not out of true love, because her super shitty dad convinced her she was unlovable. She still thinks of herself as the “bad twin” because went skinny dipping and stole tomatoes out of a garden when she was a kid. This book is a good illustration of how deep and insidious emotional abuse can be, but as far as conflict, there comes a point where the character has to move past that and getting them there during the main part of the story convincingly is hard. That’s why the “no one can ever love me, I don’t deserve it” plotlines don’t work well for me.
Fliss needs to accept that Seth really does love her, and that process felt more like they were dating than that Fliss was working through some tough emotional issues. Based on the descriptions of Asshole Dad, she should be in therapy at least.
To be honest, the relationship between Fliss and her sister Harriet was more nuanced than the one between Fliss and Seth. Harriet is the one who points out to Fliss that the coping mechanisms they developed to survive childhood don’t have to be part of their adulthood. They have choices.
So yeah, a lot of this book didn’t work for me. It isn’t all bad though. I love vacation books that take me to another place, and Holiday in the Hamptons definitely qualifies. I loved the beach-setting and experiencing the area along with the characters. There’s also a great and sort of heartbreaking moment when Fliss realizes how proud her grandmother is of her. Grandma is like, “of course I’m proud of you and brag about you all the time,” but Fliss truly didn’t believe she was worthy of that kind of love and praise until that moment.
And there are lots of dogs (dog-walking heroines after all).
Holiday in the Hamptons had all the makings of a really feel-good read: puppies, beaches, sassy grandmas. Unfortunately a weak conflict, a mystifying heroine, and a twin-swap plot device made it impossible for me to really enjoy it.
This book is available from:
As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.
We also may use affiliate links in our posts, as well.
Thanks!
Hated it! Fliss was a cowardly liar for almost half of the book. And I’ll say Morgan needs to spend some quality time in New York if she’s going to write about it. Fliss, Harriet and Seth are more Melbourne than NYC. IMO. DNF.
Ufff, so it wasn’t just me who felt the book lacked something. I thought it was because I’d binged on Morgan’s books too many times and recognized every single thing. Seriously.
Book two in a trilogy (FMWL #4-6 are about the Knight siblings) with a quickie marriage for the wrong reasons that split up fast? Could be “Some Kind of Wonderful”
The spoiler? Showed up in “The Vasquez Mistress”.
I don’t mind repeated tropes from a same author. Heck, that’s why I read Morgan. I know I’ll probably get second-chance romance, characters rising from abusive parents, an emphasis on family, competent females and some angst. And I like that. (The Christmas thing does get weary if you binge, fair warning).
I will eventually read the next book, but I am looking forward to the one after that. Time away from the Romance Formula will allow for new tropes to be explored.
I’ve enjoyed some of the books in this series but not this one. I feel C+ is a generous grade.
There were so many things that made this story oh so unconvincing. Frankly, I don’t know how two sisters can afford even a studio in Manhattan as dog walkers. And one of the sisters main focus is fostering animals. Last time I checked, one fostered as a volunteer.
If Fliss is so intelligent and driven, why didn’t she get therapy to recover from her abusive father? And he didn’t seem to really have any reason for being so abusive.
If one is going to write about Hamptons, please spend a good bit of time there. Montauk Point is in the Hamptons, not someplace separate.
No, just didn’t work for me.
FWIW I’m in NYC and I don’t think of Montauk as the Hamptons.
HOWEVER
I hate the Hamptons more than anyplace on earth. All the worst humans in Manhattan go to the Hamptons. It is jam-packed with privilege and entitlement. I was there once in October, when all the horrid people were gone (I was visiting a friend who was the assistant to a famous chef and cookbook writer, and she was finally getting to breathe now that the summer people were gone and only locals were left, which, hey, would be a good premise for a romance novel) and I saw how GORGEOUS the beaches were when there were no vile shrieky Manhattanites on them. But even the towns are cloying and richy-rich. Montauk at least still has a modicum of surfer/local vibe, though it’s disappearing by the moment as it gentrifies.
tl;dr no fucking way am I reading anything set in the Hamptons.
I love Morgan so much that I’ll likely forgive all of this, but I’m happy to know the flaws going in to keep myself grounded (I also hoard her Presents books for rainy sad days).
Also, while the Hamptons generally are AWFUL, if someone wrote a romance based v loosely on Ina Garten and her hubby Jeffrey, writing the timeline so she started her Hamptons business before they fell in lurve, I would temporarily love it with all of my heart. (Ina Garten is such a genuine soul & she did a great podcast interview lately.)
That was a reach to connect two things. Thank you for this awesome review! And Sarah, plz write an Ina Garten-style romance (but maybe in the U.K. because then we could all relive Great British Bakeoff).
When I lived in Manhattan, Montauk was certainly considered part of the Hamptons.
“Montauk May Be Considered Part of “The Hamptons”
Far, far down at the easternmost tip of Long Island’s East End is Montauk. Once a surfer’s haven, this “fishing capital of the world” has gained popularity with tourists trying to escape the crowds of the Hamptons — although, according to Curbed.com, just over 57 percent of people include Montauk as part of the Hamptons. While North Hampton, Southampton and Montauk all lie against the Atlantic Ocean, Montauk also shares its coast with a harbor, pond and several bays. Named after the Native American Montauk tribe that initially inhabited the area, it is also the only place among the three that can claim to have hidden pirate treasure within the aptly named Money Pond.”
http://traveltips.usatoday.com/differences-between-northampton-southampton-montauk-110343.html
The NTY clearly thnks of Montauk as part of the Hamptons: http://www.nytimes.com/ref/realestate/greathomes/GH-Hamptons.html?pagewanted=all
(confidential to John: my friend may or may not have been Ina Garten’s assistant.)
@marjorie, kinda assumed you meant Ina because is there another celebrity chef in the Hamptons with a TV show?
I love Ina’s house, but especially her garden.
I knew someone who was a dog walker and lived in Manhattan. It was 1992-ish and he had three roommates and lived around 90th and Lex.
@genie, I know that part of Manhattan well, Upper East Side. Rent would have been outlandish in 1992 and even worse now.
Fliss and Harriet sound like they live in a nice part of the city. This chart says something about rent in NYC… you an see why I am skeptical that dog walking and fostering puppies and kittens would allow two women to share even a one bedroom.
https://www.rentcafe.com/average-rent-market-trends/us/ny/manhattan/
If they moved into a relative’s apartment who was stabilized or controlled, they could inherit the right to the lease.
Living in a rent regulated apartment can be very affordable.
@Vic you and I know that is true, but there is no indication that the author knows this is true
Everyone in the comments has brought up such thoughtful valid points. Here I am, unable to get past the idea of a heroine named after a dental aid that makes your gums bleed.
I’ve been pretty underwhelmed by this whole series. The only one I’ve liked is the one with the writer and the woman who shows up to decorate his place (I’ve forgotten the title!). At least one was a DNF for me, so probably not going to pick this one up.
@Rose, her names is “Fliss,” not “floss” and is short for Felicity.
@Rose – I DNF’d another book in this series which had Harriet and Fliss in it as secondary characters. I was irrationally annoyed every time they appeared that no one in the editing process had told the author that those names don’t work for American women in their 20s.
@Gloramarie I did pick up on that, but it was still too close to “floss” for my liking–perhaps I just have an overly sensitive reaction to anything that sounds even slightly like a dental tool!! 🙂
@SusanH it always baffles me when authors don’t check the names of their characters for the time period or the setting. It’s one of those little details which can pull a reader out of the story in a big way.
Character naming is hard. Especially for romance writers because the hero’s name might be screamed aloud, if all goes well. As a writer, you don’t want his name to be too generically trendy, or so unusual that it takes away from the story.
As an identical twin I can honestly say that I have never pretended to be my twin. And if a man I married couldn’t tell us apart even after ten years, he would never get a second chance.
Can I mention how much I love that you inserted Zootopia into this review? I love everything about Zootopia, Judy Hopps, Nick Wilde and the whole city – the sloths at the DMV – everything just everything.