Summer Beach (Hostin)

Emmy Award winner, renowned lawyer and journalist, The View cohost, and National Bestselling author Sunny Hostin dazzles with this brilliant 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.” Thirty years ago, Amelia Vaux Tanner and her husband built a house high on the bluffs, a cottage they named Chateau Laveau. For decades, “Ama” played host to American presidents, Wall Street titans, and cultural icons. But her favorite guests have always been her three “goddaughters:” Esperanza “Perry” Soto, a beautiful, talented Afro-Latina lawyer with Ama’s strong, yet guarded personality; Olivia Jones, a gifted Wall Street analyst with Ama’s brilliant, logical mind; and Billie Hayden, a gifted marine biologist and rule-breaker with Ama’s courageous free spirit. Growing up, these three goddaughters from different backgrounds came together each summer at Chateau Laveau. As adults, the cottage is a place this trio of successful yet very different women go to escape, to slow down from their hectic lives, share private time with Ama, and enjoy the gorgeous weather, cool water, and stunning views Oak Bluffs offers. This summer on the Bluffs, however, will be different. An era is ending: Ama, now nearing seventy-one, is moving to the south of France to reunite with her college sweetheart. She has invited Perry, Olivia, and Billy to spend one last golden summer together with her the way they did when they were kids. And when fall comes, she is going to give the house to one of them. Each of the women wants the house desperately. Each is grappling with a secret she fears will hurt her and her chances. By the end of summer, old ties will fray, new bonds will be created, and these three found sisters will discover they aren’t the only ones with something to hide. Ama has a few secrets of her own. What she has to give them is far more than property. Between Memorial Day and Labor Day, she will tell these surrogate daughters she fiercely loves and protects everything they never knew they needed to know.

Following her New York Times bestseller Summer on the Bluffs, The View cohost and three-time Emmy Award winner Sunny Hostin spirits readers away to the warm beaches of Sag Harbor for the compelling second novel in her acclaimed Summer series. 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. An awakening, spirited novel, Summer on Highland Beach 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. "Hostin's debut novel is aspirational escapism at its best, balancing an idyllic setting and lush, evocative language with emotional heft and adroit social commentary… Hostin's story is a vast, intricate and ultimately rewarding one about love, family and self-fulfillment... In short, this book is summer incarnate." - New York Times Book Review "A complicated, memorable tale of family, allegiances, secrets and summertime." - Good Morning America on Summer on the Bluffs "The Emmy Award–winning lawyer and journalist invites readers to the exclusive Black beach community of Oak Bluffs, Martha's Vineyard, where the money is old, the secrets are deadly, and summer is more of a sport than a season…Think The Undoing with a hint of melanin, where everyone's wearing $300 sandals." - Essence on Summer on the Bluffs "This glorious piece of summer fiction takes us to Oak Bluffs, a slice of the island that's been home to the Black community elite for summers since the 1600s. Come for the ethereal setting and beautifully drawn characters, stay for the family dynamics, personal secrets and wisdom revealed." - Boston Herald "Emmy-winning co-host of The View, Sunny Hostin invites readers to Martha's Vineyard in her fiction debut…what follows is a summer full of secrets that puts family ties to the ultimate test." - Woman's World "Bestselling author and The View cohost Sunny Hostin has penned the ultimate beach read in Summer on the Bluffs." - Popsugar "Summer on the Bluffs by the Emmy-award winning Sunny Hostin is a delicious, shimmering novel about the lives of Amelia Vaux Tanner and her three, grown-up godchildren. I was riveted by these fascinating, complicated women, and looked forward every day to opening Hostin's luminous novel and escaping, through its pages, to the golden dunes of Martha's Vineyard." - Amanda Eyre Ward, New York Times bestselling author of The Jetsetters "The highly anticipated summer must-read from the talented co-host of The View is finally here… No one, including the reader, is prepared for the feelings and secrets exchanged in this novel about love, family, and the courage to make the hardest of decisions." - Shondaland