Under the Stars

A Novel

De: Beatriz Williams

Narrado por: Helen Laser, Xe Sands, Johnathan McClain, Rachel F. Hirsch, Adam Verner, Will Damron

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • When a daughter and her famous mother return to Winthrop Island to confront their complicated past, they discover a secret trove of paintings that connect them to a mysterious woman who vanished on a luxury steamship two centuries earlier.

From the New York Times bestselling author of Husbands & Lovers comes an epic tale of family legacy, love, and truths that echo down generations.

Audrey Fisher has struggled all her life to emerge from the shadow of her famous mother by forging a career as a world-class chef. Meredith Fisher’s glamorous screen persona disguises the trauma of the tragic accident that haunts her dreams. Neither woman wants to return to the New England island they left behind and its complicated emotional ties, but Meredith has one last chance to sober up and salvage her big comeback, and where else but discreet, moneyed Winthrop Island can a famous actress spend the summer without the intrusion of other people? Until Audrey discovers an old wooden chest among the belongings of her estranged bartender father, Mike Kennedy, and the astonishing contents draw the women deep into Winthrop’s past and its many secrets…attracting the interest of their handsome neighbor, Sedge Peabody. How did a trove of paintings from one of America’s greatest artists wind up in the cellar of the Mohegan Inn? And who is the mysterious woman portrayed on every canvas?

On a stormy November night in 1846, Providence Dare flees Boston and boards the luxury steamship Atlantic one step ahead of the law….or so she believes. But when a catastrophic accident leaves the ship at the mercy of a mighty gale, Providence finds herself trapped in a deadly game of cat and mouse with the one man who knows her real identity—the detective investigating the suspicious death of her employer, the painter Henry Irving. As the Atlantic fights for her life and the rocky shore of Winthrop Island edges closer, a desperate Providence searches for her chance to escape…before the sea swallows her without a trace.

In Under the Stars, the destinies of three women converge across centuries, as a harrowing true disaster at the dawn of the steamship era evokes a complex legacy of family secrets in modern-day New England. Williams has written a timeless epic of mothers and daughters, of love lost and found, and of the truths that echo down generations.

©2025 Beatriz Williams (P)2025 Random House Audio

Great dual timeline story

Loved the characters in all their humanity and rawness. it begins and ends on an island of summer houses on the east coast. Starlet mother needing to stay sober to obtain her next big role and Audrey her only child picking up the pieces in her wake. Audrey is suffering from a huge marriage betrayal. So together they find themselves on her mom’s family estate on the island. But mom has tremulous past that unfolds and Audrey must deal with her feelings of betrayal. In this time hop there is a ship that sinks off the coast of the island nearly 200 yrs ago. A girl running from her past pursued by the law.
Very good tie in between the two stories. Excellent story teller.

Fantastic book

When I started reading I was not thrilled with the chapters on Providence Dare! As I continued reading I began to love everything about this amazing read! Kudos to all!

Entertaining read 3.5 stars ,should have been 4 but I needed more questions answered in the end .

It was entertaining enough for sure . Some of the characters from Husbands and lovers were back which was fun ,I love when the author does that . You don’t need to read her other book ,this is a stand alone . It’s the kind of book that jumps around a lot because it’s about 3 women in different generations of life ,all connected but the book does jump around to follow their lives . I loved some parts ,needed more of the truth in certain parts,wanted more information in how one of the characters lived out her life . There were parts of the book that were unnecessarily over done and some parts that were underwhelming. All in all it made for an entertaining read. 3.5 stars ,almost very good.

Good Summer Read

The female narrators were tough to take after a while -
Audrey whiny and angry, Meredith too blasé

I really enjoyed this book

I was skeptical because of some negative reviews but really enjoyed the story. It was something different that I wasn’t expecting

Duel storyline seemed far fetched, narrating was tedious and overly dramatized at times.

I love Beatrice Williams’ work. That said, her last two novels have varied a bit from her usual genre of historical fiction and taken place in present day for portions of the story. In my unprofessional opinion, her writing style doesn’t work as well in this format, for these periods, she is much better suited to historical settings in her writing. It may be too, that when too much time or space exists between the two storylines she is trying to link, it becomes difficult for us readers to buy into the underlying plot that ties it all together. I usually automatically buy everything this author writes, but I may become more selective in my purchases. Also, I am not a fan of ensemble cast audio books, they remind me of old radio dramas and grate on my nerves. The overpaid drama and constantly changing voices distract from the writing. I really missed her usual narrators on this book. Some listeners may completely disagree.

Sad it’s over…

Loved the story and the story telling. Enjoyed the characters. I’ve read just about every book of hers.

Not her best.. IMO

I love all of Beatriz Williams books. I love how the characters are all intertwined throughout the books and where in one book they may be a small insignificant character, they become a main character in another book. I really struggled with this one but I think that was primarily doing part to the narration. The narrator for Audrey was so well cast. XE Sands for Meredith was a poor choice. Not sure why, but there is always the same inflections at the end of each statement and tends to get loud and quiet and trail off all the time. Just poor casting. So perhaps if I hadn’t Audible’d, I may have liked it better. Hard to say because I haven’t had issue with narrators on her other books.

An entertaining mystery with twists, turns, romance, and a lot of heart!

Williams expertly crafts layered characters, and keeps you guessing from the first page to the last! A dual-timeline mystery and family drama with just enough romance.

A Downer

One of my favorite writers must be going through a midlife crisis or has given up on the human race. I could not get past a third of the book before deciding life is too short to wallow in the never ending misery of fictional characters. A little escapism goes a long way these days.