I liked this book! it felt very much like a play on the great gatsby with the green light, extravagant parties for attention, and old money vs. new money. I honestly wish there was more that happened in the end - it felt like everting was revealed suddenly but we didn’t actually get to see it play out.

not many lovable characters but lots of beachy gossip. this will be a fun beach read for the summer, for sure. thank you to netgalley and william mororw for the advanced copy! out 5/27/

Unfortunately, Mansion Beach was a miss for me. The pacing was too slow, and the plot was lacking - nothing really happens in this book aside from extremely unlikeable characters behaving badly. There is a podcast element in the book that adds no value to the story at all.

Added this to be TBR list after receiving an advanced copy of this book from @williammorrowbooks and seeing Elin Hilderbrand endorse this book. if you love Elin H books as much as I do, this book is for you. A great summer read. Mansion beach is sophisticated “escapist” novel, with a modern day Great Gatsby twist. Story takes place over the course of one summer on Block Island, RI, a summer vacation destination similar to Nantucket or Cape Cod, bringing together three women from entirely different backgrounds. The compelling narrative explores lives of these three women navigating class dynamics, ambition, secrets and modern relationships but yet is very much a beach lit read with romance, mystery and humor. I am surprised this one has not gotten more attention as I think it compares to many Elin H books.

NOTE: I received a complimentary copy of this book from William Morrow books and Net Galley but opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

Drama is everywhere on Block Island!! The parties are plentiful, the drinks are curated to fit the party themes, and the guests don’t even know why they are there, or who is hosting the party!! Sounds like the perfect recipe for disaster under the hot, summer sun. The summer residents arrive with their fancy cars, house staff, and schedules filled with meetings, sailing and even more parties. The rich get richer by taking over the land that was once sacred and turning it into boutique hotels and mega mansions with backyards on the ocean. What more could anyone want?

Nicola, one of my favorite characters, was at a crossroads in her life when she came to Block Island for a summer internship in her pursuit of a new career. She found free lodging at her cousin’s wife’s family cottage and her new neighbor, Juliana, was one of the famous faces that had descended upon the island for the summer, but her motive was shrouded in secrecy. Juliana hosted many parties over that summer and the drama level increased with festive fetes until one night, when the lights turned off for the last time. No one knew why the parties ended, but in reality, the drama just shifted to another location. Juliana had a difficult upbringing, but her brilliant and creative mind, along with a little help from a friend, gave her the push to become who she always wanted to be. Would the summer on Block Island also come with romantic nights under the stars with the one man who she had never forgotten? Will Nicola find her new career to be all she thought it would be, or will the island drama and her new friends be just too much to handle? Summer breezes come and go, and so do summer friends. Who will be left on the beach as the tide rolls out?

A very good and interesting retelling - nothing groundbreaking and the ending threw me unfortunately.

This novel is supposed to be a modern spin on The Great Gatsby, and follows Nicola Carr as she spends the summer on Block Island, where she is doing an internship as a marine wildlife researcher. She has left her previous partner and career and is taking her life in a new direction. She is staying in a small house that is owned by her cousin's wife's family. David is her favourite cousin, and they grew up very close, almost like siblings, including spending the summers at the lake in a family home. Now he is married to a real estate heiress, Taylor Buchanan. Taylor is very involved in her father's real estate empire and does whatever he asks of her, leaving her little time for David and their young daughter.
Nicola soon discovers that her next door neighbour is Juliana George, creator of a fashion-based social media empire called LookBook. Staying with David and Taylor is an old college friend of David's, Jack, who is a pro golfer, taking time for an Achilles tendon injury.
As Nicola continues getting a variety of job experience and exploring the small island, she also gets to know her neighbour Juliana and learn a little of her story of building her business and how her life has changed over time. She also finds herself courted by Jack, and unsure about Taylor given her standoffish attitude and how little time she is spending with her family. Nicola tries to avoid being drawn into any of the drama going on, but she also finds it all interesting, seeing these people in a world she is unlikely to ever live in.
The story is interrupted by transcripts from a podcast about what happened on the island that summer, but that part of it feels like it isn't really needed for the story.
This is an interesting tale of questionable relationships, social class, and misadventure.

2.75 stars

I expected more of an Elin Hilderbrand-esque scandalous beach read from this book, but instead I found the pacing slow and the plot boring. There are hints of potential throughout, but ultimately I didn't connect with the characters and I felt like the story never really led anywhere. I'm sure there is a larger theme or message in this book, but I am still struggling to find it. This one was really a miss for me.

If you are looking for a summer/beach read, Mansion Beach by Meg Mitchell Moore may be just the thing for you. It focuses on three women who are living on Block Island, Rhode Island one summer. Juliana, a former foster child, is an entrepreneur who has risen above a difficult childhood to become CEO of her own fashion app company, and she doesn't want anything to prevent her taking it public. Nicola feels like she's the oldest intern ever at age 29, but she loves her job working for a nature conservancy and has shocked her parents by discarding her expensive law degree. Taylor works night and day to please her demanding, wealthy real estate developer father and is desperate to hang on to her much less ambitious husband.

But there are conflicting relationships in play and secrets that can ruin everything. The story has its moments, but it is not my favorite of Moore's books. I would have liked a bit more nuance, and I was put off by sentences and even an entire chapter where the author speaks directly to the reader (e.g., "can you imagine . . ." and "you need to know this about [this character]." But the plot kept me reading with occasional excerpts from a podcast in which local residents comment on a death which does not happen until close to the end of the book. That's when we learn who died, how, and why. The story does have its moments, but for the most part, I found it difficult to relate to one or more of the three protagonists.

My thanks to William Morrow and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and provide an honest review of this book.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an ARC for review.

This is loosely a modern-day version of The Great Gatsby. Set on Block Island, Nicola is a down-on-her luck cousin of a wealthy man, married to a woman but thinking of another one. When the object of his affection moves into town, lies and drama ensue. This is a great summer read that I didn't want to put down. I enjoyed getting backstories of each character just at the point where you were really hating on their entire persona.

Unhappy with her life, Nicola quits her job and takes an internship on Block Island. Quite quickly, she realized that things did not work the same way on Block Island as they did in Minnesota. She quickly falls for the trappings of the its wealthy residents, and just as quickly, it all loses its shine.

Because this is a Meg Mitchell Moore book, I did NOT read the synopsis. I went in blind and was just excited to be back on Block Island. As soon as they mentioned that "green light", I realized this story was some sort of take on The Great Gatsby.

There was a lot of gender swaps, but it was easy to see who was who and what was what. I commend Moore for the way she embraced the themes of the original work but that also could have been what kept this from being a hit for me. I found Gatsby to be a rather sad story, so I felt sad for these people. I was very drawn to the Gatsby character. Reading about her past made her even more sympathetic to her even if her plan to be reunited with David was not totally on the up and up.

I am big on how I feel about the characters in a story, and I mostly felt sad for these people which lines up perfectly with how I felt about those in The Great Gatsby. I was left with some hope for them though, as Moore made some choices for these character, setting them on paths towards better things.

Book set on an island off the coast of NY. Lots of interconnected characters with backstories that follow them one summer. Small town vs development. Love triangles, Betrayals. Lies. Loved it.

I'm pretty much obsessed with Meg Mitchell Moore's books, and especially her ones that are set on Block Island. I really enjoyed her latest book, which explores the stories of two women who are spending the summer on the island- Julianna, a fashion tech startup founder and Nicola, a woman undergoing a career-change. This book wasn't quite as fun and enticing as Summer Stage, but that could have just been that I liked the content of acting/influencers in that book more. Regardless, I will buy every book Meg Mitchell Moore publishes the minute they are available for pre-order.

This is a great summer read with several mysteries along the way. It's a Contemporary Gatsby retelling set on Block Island with several twists with each page. Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book.

My sister travels to Block Island every summer and as soon as I saw the setting for this book I knew I had to read it. Nicola arrives for her first Summer on Block, she just broke up with her bf and left her job to be an intern and live in a cottage of her cousin Dave's new wife. The cottage is next door to Juliana George (the founder of a fashion-tech company) and one who hosts parties many nights of the week. Throw in a summer romance, affairs and so much more. I really loved this book; I have to be honest I did not give it 5 stars because the last few chapters felt like it came out of nowhere and just ends. I cannot wait to read more by this author!

A perfect summer read set on Block Island, Mansion Beach follows a young woman and her new neighbors' lives of opulence, scandal and secrets.

Evoking similarities to The Great Gatsby, the author layers in three female characters all on a journey of self discovery. Nicola has come to Block Island looking for a fresh start as a summer intern at the marine conservancy. Her life will collide with her next door neighbor Juliana a successful CEO of a tech start up and her cousin’s wife Taylor’s resulting in a complicated love triangle. As the summer wanes, all their secrets will unfold.

The multi-faceted characters combined with the descriptions of the island make Block Island another character itself. With a mixture of found family, class differences and mystery, Mansion Beach is a great escape.

Thanks to NetGalley and William Morrow for the ARC in return for my review.

Well, call me a snob, but I hate The Great Gatsby. It's all terrible people doing terrible things.

So, because I wasn't paying attention, it took me a little while to realize this was a 'modern' retelling of the classic story about economics and bad people.

That's about it. Yes, genders are reversed and blah blah. It's still the story of people with too much money looking to prove they have changed.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the opportunity to read and review this book.

I love Meg Mitchell Moore books. I was thrilled to receive the ARC from netgalley in exchange for an honest review. And I'm disappointed I could not find much to like about Mansion Beach.

Contrary to the author note saying this was inspired by The Great Gatsby and not a retelling, it's a retelling. Maybe the parts with the podcast gives her the right to say that, but it's fooling no one. I had high hopes for the podcast portions because I thought we'd get more of a mystery out of the story via the town council, but no. Will some readers be surprised to learn year round residents in places where rich people vacation really hate said rich people? Maybe, but probably not.

Because this is The Great Gatsby with gender roles swaps the characters felt flat and not what I'm used to from Mitchell Moore. I didn't care about any of them. So much happens off the page that the reader is then told about from a conversation between two characters. It didn't feel like this author's previous work. I wasn't invested in their lives enough to care about the outcomes. If you love The Great Gatsby this is worth a read.

Thanks for the review copy. The cover is nice. I liked the parallels to The Great Gatsby. This is a fun beach read. People will love reading by the pool or on the beach.

I loved this book! Anything by Meg Mitchell Moore is always a hit! Love the location, the characters, everything! I will always read anything she writes!

I have read Meg Mitchell Moore’s novels before and this is one of her best. After leaving her boyfriend and her legal career, Nicola retreats to Block Island where she becomes a marine biology intern for the summer. Her cousin has married a rich developer’s daughter and Nicola is living in a cottage his in-laws own. Her nextdoor neighbor is a wealthy app developer who throws nightly parties to gain traction for her brand. Though multiple POVs and timelines, Moore develops both the characters and the story. It is a mashup of found family, rich people behaving badly, and a murder mystery. It evokes memories of The Great Gatsby. It will be a great summer beach read. I thank NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this ARC.