Bittersweet

A Novel

By: Miranda Beverly-Whittemore

Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell

Length: 13 hrs and 38 mins

Publisher's Summary

Suspenseful and cinematic, New York Times best-seller 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.

©2014 Miranda Beverly-Whittemore (P)2014 Random House Audio

Critic Reviews

"Evokes Gone Girl with its exploration of dark secrets and edge-of-your-seat twists." ( Entertainment Weekly)

"In the tradition of The Great Gatsby, Miranda Beverly-Whittemore's heroine is an outsider invited into the secret, labyrinthine world of the super-rich - but the twist is, you never met such debauched people as the Winslows. Bittersweet is a satisfyingly dramatic, super-juicy read." (Jenna Blum, New York Times and internationally best-selling author of Those Who Save Us and The Stormchasers)

Slow to connect with the story and characters.

What disappointed you about Bittersweet?

It took a very long time to get to the "mystery". The book was overly descriptive of the opulent lifestyle and very little of the heroine's background.

Has Bittersweet turned you off from other books in this genre?

No

What didn’t you like about Cassandra Campbell’s performance?

I had no problem with the performance. At times I was getting bored but it was not due to her performance as much as the material.

What character would you cut from Bittersweet?

None

Any additional comments?

Overall - it took a lot of effort for me to continue to listen to the book. I am glad I finished it but - it took a lot of time to get to the meat of the story.

Outstanding narrator!

Any additional comments?

I enjoyed everything about this book-could NOT put it down during the last 4-5 hours.
That being said, what was especially outstanding was Cassandra Campbell's narration. She took an excellent book and made it really superlative with the reading! Perfect summer read. It even takes place at a "camp" by the lake

Waste of Time

What would have made Bittersweet better?

The story was so implausible. Soap opera quality

What about Cassandra Campbell’s performance did you like?

Cassandra Campbell has a lovely voice. Her talent was wasted on this.

Soap Opera

This is not a triller or a page turner. The characters are not likable and the story drags for too long into a soap opera like drama and dialogue. The tone on the narration also doesn't help. they all sound like abnoxious brats or from some 50 shades of grey style novela) I don't get the praise in the media, about to return this one :(

Yuck

This story was very long and drawn out and really needed someone to condense it. Not really sure why so many good reviews for this book because it took too long to get anywhere and by the time it got there I wasn't interested anymore. Only really why it's getting two stars is because she finally wrapped it up and it wasn't that horrible. Still not sure why we needed to know everything she through in there and the lead wasn't sympathetic and did things you didnt' understand until we got the explaination AT THE END. Don't waste your time.

Nothing less than a sleazy romance novel

I would not recommend this book. No depth, lack of development, and nothing more than a sleazy romance novel involving incest, sex, and shallow writing.

Loved Bittersweet

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

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.

Suspenseful Summer Page Turner

An engaging story with many twists and turns, set in bucolic east coast environs. Well read too, with clear distinction between characters voices'. Wish it had been longer!

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.