My interest in this book was piqued when I read a description of it that said fans of Wisteria Lane (the street from Desperate Housewives) would enjoy this book. Well, I loved Desperate Housewives, and even though it’s been off the air for a few years now, I still miss getting my weekly Wisteria Lane fix. See, Wisteria Lane was a street where all the neighbors knew each other and knew each other’s business. Or at least, they thought they knew each other and each other’s business. There was a lot of secret keeping on that street, and each new season revealed a new mystery. That being said, reading about the residents of Newport Cove was reminiscent of watching my Housewives but with less mystery. This was a fun, entertaining story but more like a story with a mysterious tone to it than an actual mystery. The characters were entertaining and real, and I found Kellie to be the most real and relatable character out of all of the ladies from Newport Cove.
One of the things I loved about this book was the humor. My favorite sections in the book were those dedicated to the email trails back and forth between the residents of Newport Cove about neighborhood events and concerns. It was reminiscent of “The Weems Weekly” in Fannie Flagg’s Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Café. In fact, I would consider this book like a hybrid of Desperate Housewives and Fried Green Tomatoes. It was the lives of those in Newport Cove being told about from the women’s perspectives, just like the lives of those on Wisteria Lane and those in Whistle Stop were told from the women’s points of view, with plenty of love, seduction, gossip, and even a murder mystery.
My only complaint about this book was how anti-climactic the ending felt. All this mystery surrounding Tessa and Harry felt like it was leading up to something big, and while we do find out what happened and why, I felt like the ending should be more dramatic. I don’t want to give away any spoilers by going into details, so I will just say that the mystery and suspense felt like it kind of fizzled out and wrapped itself up too nicely. It was a bit disappointing.
Fans of Desperate Housewives and Liane Moriarty’s Big Little Lies will likely enjoy this book. It’s an easy and fun read good for beach reading and book clubs.
I didn’t pull a favorite quote from this book because my favorites were all from the Newport Cove email trail, and pulling one or two out of the trail will make them seem odd. You have to read the book and read them as you go along. They’re a hoot!
Kaitlin Scirri