Bittersweet

A Novel

De: Miranda Beverly-Whittemore

Narrado por: Cassandra Campbell

Suspenseful and cinematic, New York Times bestseller Bittersweet exposes the gothic underbelly of an idyllic world of privilege and an outsider’s hunger to belong.

On scholarship at a prestigious East Coast college, ordinary Mabel Dagmar is surprised to befriend her roommate, the beautiful, wild, blue-blooded Genevra Winslow. Ev invites Mabel to spend the summer at Bittersweet, her cottage on the Vermont estate where her family has been holding court for more than a century. Mabel falls in love with midnight skinny-dipping, the wet dog smell that lingers near the yachts, and the moneyed laughter that carries across the still lake while fireworks burst overhead. Before she knows it, she has everything she’s ever wanted: friendship, a boyfriend, access to wealth, and, most of all, for the first time in her life, the sense that she belongs.

But as Mabel becomes an insider, a terrible discovery leads to shocking violence and reveals what the Winslows may have done to keep their power intact--and what they might do to anyone who threatens them. Mabel must choose: either expose the ugliness surrounding her and face expulsion from paradise, or keep the family’s dark secrets and make Ev's world her own.

Worst narration ever!

I tried three times to listen to this book, but gave up and will read it in print instead. This narrator is so bad , she grates on every last nerve. She reads dialogue like every sentence is a pleading whine, and the last word is ground to a gravelly end or hard long consonant. I can't get into the story because her reading is so distracting.

Loved Bittersweet

Compelling book. Enjoyed it beginning to end. Interesting characters that are well developed. This will be a recommendation for my book club.

great read book club loved it, will recommend to

loved it, book club loved it, author was kind enough to call club, great read

Complex

College freshman Mabel Dagmar, from a working class family, plain and slightly overweight is enthralled by her wealth, beautiful roommate Ev Winslow. When Ev invites Mabel to her summer home, Mabel quickly falls in love with the Winslow extended family and the lifestyle they enjoy. She longs to be part of the family, even as she learns secrets. Small secrets. Big secrets. Life altering secrets. Secrets that go back generations and threaten the present clan. Mabel learns that some secrets carry a heavy price, maybe even a deadly one.

BITTERSWEET grabbed me from page one with Mabel's almost lyrical narration. The characters in this novel are, for the most part, deceitful, selfish and unlikable, nobody is exactly who they initially seem to be. Still, I rooted for Mabel, Ev, and Ev's younger sister Lu, who may just be the only completely sympathetic redeeming character. Despite Mabel's shortcomings, she is a multidimensional character, with more positive than negative traits. The plot was well fleshed out and complicated, however with 4-5 generations of names of both alive and dead Winslows, I couldn't keep most of the names straight. A family tree would have been extremely helpful. At 400 pages, BITTERSWEET is at times laden with too much description slowing down the pace. Once I hit the last third of the book revelations came fast and furious, some I saw coming, others I did not building to an ending I found chilling, satisfying, and surprising.

If you like mysterious (though not mystery) women's, young adult or new adult fiction, BITTERSWEET is a book you want to to grab up while the ebook is on sale for $1.99. Even if you miss the sake, this is a book worth paying full price.

A good summer read but a little too long

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

At first it was kinda hard to want to keep listening because the beginning was dull and never actually got to the point until around the 5th hour, and I couldnt put it down since then.

Any additional comments?

The story was a little cliche I suppose but its definitely a good summer read except that its a little/way too long, there was too much description about pretty much everything.