Summer Beach (Hostin)

Emmy Award winner, renowned lawyer and journalist, and View cohost Sunny Hostin makes her literary debut with this dazzling novel about a life-changing summer along the beaches of Martha's Vineyard. Welcome to Oak Bluffs, the most exclusive black beach community in the country. Known for its gingerbread Victorian-style houses and modern architectural marvels, this picturesque town hugging the sea is a mecca for the crème de la crème of black society-where Michelle and Barack Obama vacation and Meghan Markle has shopped for a house for her mom. Black people have lived in this pretty slip of the Vineyard since the 1600s and began buying property in the 1800s, making this posh town the embodiment of "old money." Every summer, Esperenza "Perry" Soto, a beautiful and talented Afro-Latina lawyer, escapes the fetid heat of New York City for the gorgeous weather, cool water, and stunning views Oak Bluffs offers. Sharing a cottage on the beach, owned by her "Ama", with her husband and two god sisters, Perry is looking forward to trading meetings and clients for days of languor and fun. When Memorial Day arrives and the season begins, some of the nation's wealthiest, most powerful, and famous from the worlds of politics, art, and entertainment meet to swim, dance, party, and chill. While a few can't leave work behind, others indulge in a different kind of business affair. But this summer on the Bluffs is different. Ama is moving to the south of France to reunite with her college sweetheart. She is going to give the house to one of her goddaughters and she has invited all three of them to spend the summer with her the way they did when they were kids. Each of the women want the house desperately. Each is grappling with a secret that they fear will make them lose Ama's approval and the house. . .

In a hidden enclave in Sag Harbor affectionately known as SANS—Sag Harbor Hills, Azurest, and Nineveh, there’s a close-knit community of African American elites, who escape the city and enjoy the beautiful warm weather and beaches at their vacation homes. Very few know about this part of the Hamptons on Long Island, and the residents like it that way. Against the odds, Olivia Jones has blazed her own enviable career path and built her name in the finance world. But hidden behind the veneer of her success, there is a gaping hole. Mourning both the loss and the betrayal of Omar, a surrogate father to her and her two godsisters, Olivia is driven to find out more about her biological father, a police officer, who was killed when she was a little girl, and to solve the mystery of what happened to her mother. Feeling untethered from her life in New York City, Olivia buys and redecorates a home in Sag Harbor and begins forging a new community out in SANS. Friendships blossom with Addy, a wealthy part-time sommelier; Kara, an ambitious art curator; and Whitney, the wife of an ex-basketball player and current president of the Sag Harbor Homeowners Association. She also takes to a kind, older gentleman named Mr. Whittingham, but soon discovers he too is not without his own troubles. As the summer stretches on, each relationship teaches her more about who she really is. Though not without cost, Olivia’s search for her authentic identity in the secret history of her family of origin will lead her to redefine the meaning of joy, love, friendship, society, culture, and family—and restore her faith in herself, her relationships, her blackness, and her chosen path.

The View cohost and three-time Emmy Award winner Sunny Hostin transports readers to Highland Beach in the captivating third novel of her New York Times bestselling “Summer” series. Founded in the late 1800s by the son of Frederick Douglass, Highland Beach along the Chesapeake Bay is the oldest Black resort community. Inside this proud and secluded beach community of about 100 private homes is Olivia Jones's legacy. But Oliva's legacy comes with thorns-intertwined are secrets of her late aunt's death, a controlling grandmother who is determined to crush anyone or anything that will interfere with her son's political career, and a father who wants to build up the family he rejected decades ago. In the midst of family drama, Olivia must decide if she wants to return to the beautiful life she's created in Sag Harbor, or finally achieve her dream of having a family and home to call her own in Highland Beach. Summer on Highland Beach is an awakening, spirited novel that celebrates family, friendship, and community and reminds us of the importance of the legacies of our collective past and finding one's way in the world.