This was a fantastic debut novel. Although I'm not sure women would have been quite this bold in their decision making in the 1930s as Beatrice was, I thoroughly enjoyed the story. It's captivating and the character development was perfect from the start.

TW: sexual assault, pregnancy, death, infidelity

I enjoyed reading this book I just never got around to writing a review. I will continue to read works by this author

Thank you to the publisher for granting me access, unfortunately this book just did not work for me, but I’m sure others will enjoy it.

Thank you Netgalley for this ARC.

This book/author reminds me alot of Beatriz Williams, whom I love. What an incredible debut novel by Nicola Harrison. I have already recommend this book to several friends!

Finished up Montauk by Nicola Harrison. I enjoyed the book for the most part and I think I would have liked it even more if I had ever been to montauk. If you grew up going there I imagine this would be a great trip back!

Local author to Long Island, so is the story so it really was epic to me, It was read in our Library Book Club and we all enjoyed it very much!. I received a copy of this book from St. Martin’s Press via NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

#Montauk #NetGalley

Beautifully written novel that evoked a different era. Really enjoyed this - it made me want to travel to the area.

I am sorry for not reviewing fully but I don’t have the time to read this at the moment. I believe that it wouldn't benefit you as a publisher or your book if I only skimmed it and wrote a rushed review. Again, I am sorry for not fully reviewing!

Beautifully written. For a debut novel, this author did quite well, and I look forward to reading more by her. I highly recommend this book.

Montauk
By Nicola Harrison

Its 1938 and Beatrice and Harry Bordeaux are spending summer in the hamlet of Montauk. A quaint fishing village with a sturdy lighthouse and a very ran down community.
The holiday is in aid of business and investment, Harry has a plan to line Montauk’s beautiful skyline with towering luxury apartments and other holiday venues for tourists to reside in over the summer months.
Being 1938 pre-war times Beatrice is a kept woman but she is without child and this is something that plays on her mind regularly and something she really desires to change. She makes the effort to be the perfect wife, buying lingerie and making herself look attractive in the hope that her husband will make the time for her.
Typically, Harry is playing away and has several other women on the go so his wife Beatrice is last on his mind.
This leaves Beatrice lonely, she finds herself seeking friendship with the laundry lady and forcing a friendship, where she then meets Thomas, a rugged lighthouse keeper, charismatic, attractive and attentive. Of course Beatrice falls in love. Thomas and Beatrice spend more and more time together she nurses him back to health after a nasty fall, she cooks for him and helps him with his day to day duties. The relationship becomes a passionate love affair, meanwhile Beatrice’s relationship with Harry has taken a turn for the worse after confronting him one evening about his lack of attention to her he violently rapes her and leaves her as he goes off and continues life ‘business as usual’ .

Beatrice has made the decision to leave Harry, although divorce is frowned upon and start a life with Thomas. The only thing is Beatrice is experiencing light-headedness and nausea. She is pregnant.

From here the story unravels in ways that have you wandering what on earth is going to happen and How Beatrice is going to get herself out of this love triangle. It’s such a heartbreaking ending and I really wasn’t expecting it to end the way it did.
There are various other characters in the story but I was so invested in Beatrice and Thomas and what was going to happen.

It was an enjoyable read and I am grateful for @netgalley and St Martins Press for the ARC.

I LOVED this book. Once I got going, I couldn't put it down. It's one of my favorite books for the year.

Set in 1938, Beatrice is a society wife with a husband who drinks and has affairs. Harry says they should summer in Montauk and he plans to leave Beatrice out there during the week while he goes back to the city to work. Beatrice wasn't raised in this world and she finds it a little off-putting. She wants more to her life than frivolity.

On a trip back to the city where she plans to surprise her husband for their anniversary, she finds that she is the one who is surprised when she passes an unknown woman in the hallway of their building and then finds evidence of their affair.

After that, Beatrice goes back to Montauk where she finds meaning and friendship with the woman who does the laundry for the resort guests and the man who runs the lighthouse.

This book has such great characters and a great story line. You will not want to put it down!

Despite being nearly 400 pages, Montauk was a relatively quick read because I didn’t want to set it down. The writing was beautiful and I loved getting lost in the world of 1930s high society. But what I loved even more were the very real issues handled in this historical fiction.

Although Harrison begins the story in the world of opulence, she’s quick to cover privilege and highlight the fact that wealth doesn’t equal happiness. Infertility, infidelity, sexism, anti-Semitism and many other things are touched on in this book.

I’d recommend this one to the historical fiction lovers.

I am in charge of the senior library and work with a group of Reading Ambassadors from 16-18 to ensure that our boarding school library is modernised and meets the need of both our senior students and staff. It has been great to have the chance to talk about these books with our seniors and discuss what they want and need on their shelves. I was drawn to his book because I thought it would be something different from the usual school library fare and draw the students in with a tempting storyline and lots to discuss.
This book was a really enjoyable read with strong characters and a real sense of time and place. I enjoyed the ways that it maintained a cracking pace that kept me turning its pages and ensured that I had much to discuss with them after finishing. It was not only a lively and enjoyable novel but had lots of contemporary themes for our book group to pick up and spend hours discussing too.
I think it's important to choose books that interest as well as challenge our students and I can see this book being very popular with students and staff alike; this will be an excellent purchase as it has everything that we look for in a great read - a tempting premise, fantastic characters and a plot that keeps you gripped until you close its final page.

I received a free copy from NetGalley. Women and their place in the 30s. Rich, poor, educated or not, it was a nice refection of another time and place. It was more romance novel than I was expecting and I felt like the ending prevented the author from actually having to have the main character make a decision.

This book is great! Would definitely recommend. Thanks so much to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

Montauk is described as an epic and cinematic novel by debut author Nicola Harrison. Set on Long Island in 1938, Montauk captures the glamour and extravagance of a summer by the sea with the story of a woman torn between the life she chooses and the life she desires.

This was a beautifully written historical fiction novel bringing high society, with all its glamour and pitfalls, to life. When Beatrice, secretary to an editor of Fortune magazine, met and married Harry she found herself in a new and enticing world of luxury. When Harry arranges for her to spend the summer at Montauk Manor, she soon realizes that living among the rich and famous is not all it appears to be. This story is one of personal growth and romance, and also astutely addresses serious issues of the time, including: anti-Semitism, infertility, women’s roles, and class disparities. A beautiful, immersive debut!

I was expecting this to be a historical novel and it turned out to be romance however regardless what a great debut Nicola Harrison!

This felt like a soap opera to me with all the high-drama and scandal. Set in 1938, Beatrice and her husband Harry are the centre of a scandal filled story of the priviledged. The themes are romance, scandal, women's issues, class inequality, and political issues - quite a range. The story and characters are well written. I enjoyed and will recommend.

If you are like me you are dreaming of days at the beach to come. Montauk definitely helped to make me feel like I was there. I was sucked into this story from page one and I could not put this novel down.

Bea has traveled to Montauk for the summer hoping to reconnect with her husband. In reality though she is there to mingle with other society wives where she has never really felt comfortable nor enjoyed. She finds herself drifting more and more away from this lifestyle.

I was enchanted by this romance. I was continually turning the page to see what would happen next! The strong description made me feel as though I had been transported to 1938 Montauk. I look forward to reading more from Nicola Harrison in the future. .

Montauk is a story of Beatrice, an educated country girl from Pennsylvania who married a New York wealthy elite, Harry. She along with the other wealthy New York families spend the 1938 summer in a Montauk. The small fishing village serves as their summer castle filled with leisure activities, fashion, luncheons, parties, and so-called charitable activities who serve only them. Beatrice and Harry have been in a childless and now stale marriage for 5 years. They grew distant from each other only to find themselves in the arms of others.

What I liked –
• I loved how Beatrice’s character develops thru the book. She never felt part of the elite club. In Montauk, she befriends the locals and over the course rediscovers herself. I like how assured and confident Bea is by the end of the book. She stands up for herself as well as those in need.

• This is a well-researched book. I loved reading about the frivolous activities of the elite and the beautiful description of Montauk. Definitely adding Montauk to my bucket list.

What could have been better –
• Although I liked the end, I wanted some more chapters to it. I wanted to know how she got there. I can make assumptions but given the time the book is set it would not be realistic. Financial and social independence is not easy to come by for a woman in late 1930s.

For this historical fiction fan, Montauk provided a good distraction from the current happenings.

Have you read it? Your thoughts?

It’s 1938 and it’s summer on Montauk. Beatrice Bordeaux arrives from Manhattan at The Montauk Manor with her wealthy husband, Harry. They’ve been married for five years, but are still childless. Beatrice is hoping that the summer in Montauk will rekindle the closeness in their marriage. But things in this marriage are more complicated than the fact that they don’t have a child.
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Bea came from rural Pennsylvania while Harry was born into a rich family from NYC. Montauk has become the seaside town where the wealthy go in the summer. They take over the tiny fishing village and “employ” the year-round residents for menial tasks like doing their laundry. Bea realizes she doesn’t fit in with the self-serving society women at Montauk Manor. She befriends the hotel’s laundress and begins to discover an entirely different Montauk, both its natural beauty and the people who live there all year.
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I found Beatrice to be a complex and fascinating character. She married into wealth, but finds that she’s far more comfortable around the people who are living a simple life in Montauk. And those people begin to accept Beatrice as well, especially one man in particular who makes her question everything she knew about herself. If you love historical fiction, I highly recommend reading Montauk! 4⭐️/5