Judy Blundell has a reputation as a top-notch storyteller. Her latest novel, "The High Season," is another example of her ability to translate feelings into words. The struggles of Ruthie Beamish seem so real! Can you imagine having to rent out your home just to make the payments? Letting the rich and famous into your home as you and your daughter move into a friend's pool house for the summer? While it seems so foreign, Blundell makes it seem believable. Ruthie's job at a local art museum puts her smack into the oncoming traffic of those who live in excess. Those extravagant lives cost Ruthie dearly in more ways than one. Kick back with a glass or two of wine and enjoy Blundell's pages filled with quirkiness, gossip, romance and excitement.

ARC provided by NetGalley

Ruthie has the perfect house in a popular vacation town, but she has to rent it out every summer just to keep it. She has an amazing job at the local art gallery, but the politics involved in keeping the job are becoming too much. What will Ruthie do to keep her house and all that she's worked hard for? Told between Ruthie's, her daughter, Jen's, and her co-worker Doe's points of view, this is a great summer read. Blundell has the ability to create characters who are actually human, with faults that you recognize and empathize with.

Every summer Ruthie Beamish and her family have to move. Ruthie's husband Mike inherited a beach house that they have painstakingly restored, but the only way they can afford to live there is by renting out the house during The High Season. They have been doing this for years and it is never easy to leave the home they love so much and this year is no different. Except it is. Ruthie and Mike are separated and delaying a divorce, just because of financial reasons. Their fifteen-year-old daughter, Jem, is at that age that she is realizing just how different her artsy family is from the rest of the teens on the Northfork. And this year, instead of weeks of different anonymous families, their home is being rented by somebody they know. Adeline Clay is the widow of a wealthy, famous artist that Ruthie used to work for a million years ago. But this year is also different because Mike has allegedly fallen in love with Adeline Clay and Ruthie loses her job as director for the local art gallery. As the summer unwinds, Ruthie feels like her life is spinning out of control and lets her anger drive her actions in uncharacteristic ways.

The High Season is the summer beach reads from the other side. It is told from the perspective of a local woman and her family trying to make it through another summer of being forced from the home they all love. Every year a new crop of "Beach Reads" hits the market, often set in oceanside communities in beachside homes that we can only dream of visiting. We never think about the people that actually live in those homes, in those communities. You can sense the resentment in Ruthie for having to give up her home for the best months of the year, but she does it so she can remain living the illusion that her family has money and belongs in the community. I liked Ruthie. Even when she lets her emotions over her job loss and Mike's new relationship get the better of her. Everything about her seems so authentic, even her bad decisions seemed authentic. Her relationship with Mike seemed "too good to be true" and her reaction to him dating Adeline was just about right. There was a considerable amount of drama before the end of summer, but in the end, I think things worked out the right way. - CLICK HERE FOR SPOILERS -

Bottom Line - Today is the official start of the summer season and The High Season is most definitely one that you should add to your list. The characters are so well written and the emotions so defined that it will feel like you are right in Orient with the Beamish family.

Details:
The High Season by Judy Blundell
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Pages: 416
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Publication Date: 5/22/18
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A great twist on the stereotypical beach read. I’ll enthusiastically recommend this to fans of Elin Hilderbrand, etc.

Thank you to #NetGalley and #Random House for this book.

I could not connect to any of the characters in this book. It seemed to be about a bunch of rich snobs who didn’t really care about anyone. That tends to be realistic for the very rich but in a book I expect to like the characters and the secondary characters. At least one of them. Not so in this one. I felt bad for the owner but she was still not likable.

I’m sorry but this book gets one star from me. I will try more books by this author. Or at least one more before I make up my mind whether I like her writing or not.

Summer reading to me should be enjoyable lighter fare that takes you away to a coastal location with interesting charcters. This book meets my criteria for all of the above. It is not your usual summer reading, the author steps into the subterfuge of stalking, of the vapid innate useless rich and of the empty lives they lead.

But at the heart of this book is the location, coastal Hampton's in the summer and all that implies. I found it
surprising and more so that I did not like the charcters at all due to their inexplicable narcissistic attitude. The heart of the book is the location. and for summer reading I found that interesting but I could not connect with the wealthy or relate to them in any way.

Solid vacation read but it made me a little sad for the home owner

Free copy from netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Every summer, Ruthie and her daughter Jem must exile themselves from their home in a Hamptons-adjacent village on Long Island, vacating so that summer renters can take up residence—this arrangement is the only way Ruthie and her almost-ex (Mike) can afford to keep their lovingly-restored house. This summer, on the day the glamorous new renter arrives and catches Mike's eye, Ruthie finds out that her beloved job as the director of a small museum in the village is at risk because of a power-hungry board member’s scheming. 15-year-old Jem is on the outs with an unkind friend, as well as with the girls she shoved aside in pursuit of popularity. And Ruthie’s enigmatic employee Doe, an upstart with a fabricated resume, is desperate to find her way into the inner circle of the wealthy summer crowd and increase the follower count of her gossipy, anonymous Instagram account.

Are you sensing a theme? This is a novel about outsiders who disrupt the world in which they’ve been trying to gain a foothold. The writing is lovely, and the depth of Blundell’s character development elevates this beyond the realm of the typical dishy beach read (those can be great, too! But this has all the fun, plus a dash more substance).

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with a digital galley in exchange for an honest review.

When I picked this up I thought it would be a tense, dark summer thriller. But it wasn’t at all! It was more in line with books like The Nest and even Big Little Lies. Darkly comic with some serious undercurrents, super interesting and likable and well drawn characters.
I enjoyed this book so much! I read it during a busy time at my house with people visiting us. I would only have time to read it late at night before sleeping and every single time I started it, I stayed up way too late because I didn’t want to stop reading!

This book felt like the first season of Game of Thrones, or one of those movies with a holiday name and quick appearances from 100 actors. There were SO many characters in this book! at times, I felt like I needed a flow chart to keep them straight. After a few chapters, I started to get it down more.

An interesting summer read!

I received an ARC from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

DNF at 50%
I tried reading this book for over two weeks and just couldn’t keep reading. It sat unread for about a week and I almost pushed through since I was halfway, and then I read another chapter and realized I had to stop. Unfortunately, I found this book predictable with no likable characters. Maybe I’ll try picking it up again the the future, but for now it just is not something I want to continue reading.

I tried to get into this book but just couldn't. I read up to about 30% but it t didn't grab my attention. Someone else might like it, it just wasn't my style. I took a chance that it would be a good beach read, but it was too much detail of high society characters. The part about the photographer really didn't interest me. Thank you netgalley for the chance to read, but you ask for honest review so this is it. I do think if I kept going it would get better, but I need something to grab me right away.

The High Season by Judy Blundell. Ruthie, Mike and Jen owned a beach house they had to move out to rent in the summer. Sometimes they moved into a garage or a trailer in a park. When Ruthies husband Mike became involved with Adeline they wanted to buy her house she said no at first. Lucas tried to steal Daniel Manthis painting. She changed her mind after some life changing events and sold her house. Over Thanksgiving break Jem and Ruthie moved into a sublet that had one bedroom and a office. Mike and Adeline married in the spring and Jem was going with them to Italy. For Ruthie was not a love story but sometimes that is how divorce is.

I really enjoyed this engaging book. It was perfect for a beach read. The family dynamics and rest of the story made me not put this book down until it was finished. I received a copy from NetGalley and the publisher and this is my honest opinion.

When Ruthie's life starts to go downhill, it goes down fast. The question is - what is she going to do about it?

This turned out to be a delightful surprise. I ended up really liking Ruthie and was cheering that her life would make a turn around. She's funny and loyal - almost to her detriment. For me, this was a story about learning how to let go and turning life's lemons into lemonade (sorry for the cliche).

I received this from Random House Publishing via Netgalley.

As soon as I saw the cover of this book, I knew that it was going to be a great beach read. Every year the "summer bummer" begins where the tourists take over.

I loved Ruthie. She was a great and likeable character. Although she lived in a community filled with rich folks, she herself didn't have that luxury. It was interesting to see her immersed in that environment. I also really like Ruthie's fifteen year old daughter, Jem.

I really enjoyed the author's writing style and the way she painted the story. This was a quick read and would be perfect to read while lying on the beach.

Thank you to NetGalley for the free ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Ruthie Beamish has a beautiful house in a Long Island village, but she cannot afford to keep it unless the family rents it out during the summer months. Despite the fact that her ex-husband is pushing her to sell, Ruthie is adamant about her choice. This year's renter, Adeline Clay, is a rich woman with an agenda of her own. By the time the summer nears its end, will Ruthie regret the choices she has made or seize an unexpected possibility for her future?

I really wanted to like this novel, but I found my attention waning towards the middle of the book. The High Season had potential to be a good beach read, but the characters and the side plots took over. I just did not buy Ruthie's story, as her reactions to the situations in which she finds herself seem overly dramatic in places and blase in others. In a genre full of similar stories with more likable characters, I would be hesitant to recommend The High Season to other readers.

I was given the opportunity to read The High Season via Random House and NetGalley. I was under no obligation to review this book and my opinion is freely given.

What an unexpectedly fun and well-written book! I work in the nonprofit world, so many of the plot points are familiar to me (and I cannot wait to share this with my fellow nonprofit friends!) Ruthie was a lovable character, and even her least logical life choices made sense in this madcap plot.

I’ve read a lot of books set among the wealthy in summer beach communities, but this has to be one of the best. I hadn’t heard of Orient, but even though I’ve finished the book, I’m not quite ready to let go of it yet (apparently it’s a real place, and now I want to go there). The good guys won, the bad guys lost, and even though that can feel contrived and clichéd, in this case, it just seemed right.

I can’t wait to read more from this author — I would read one of her books every summer, like I do from Elin Hilderbrand or Nancy Thayer, if only she would write a book this good every time. Ruthie’s story isn’t over yet, so maybe we can have a sequel?

I received this book from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

The High Season is the ultimate beach read! It has everything I want in one a little gossip, some great characters and an insight into elite society. I fully enjoyed the storyline and its the book to sit back and enjoy on a summer day.

The High Season would have worked better as short stories connected by the location, for my taste. There were so many characters and plotlines that I found it a bit overwhelming. The overall pacing was uneven, it started slowly due to the introduction of so many characters and story arcs. I have to say that it took until the last third for me to actually care about the people in the book, and even then it wasnt compelling me to finish. So, while it might be a good beach or travel read for some, it was a bit too complicated for my reading style.