Many people will pick up this novel expecting a lighthearted beach read. “Cape May” is not that book. This novel is an in-depth character study of a young married couple on their honeymoon in Cape May. There is much to contemplate while reading this novel and “studying” these characters. This was an enjoyable read but, at times, a bit heavy due to the themes and the somewhat unlikeable characters.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40121926

I was excited to read this book after hearing so much buzz about it for so long- I won't say that I was disappointed after finishing it, but it did not blow me away either. Cape May is the story of newly married couple Effie and Henry, high school sweethearts who have come to Cape May to honeymoon, as Effie had fond memories of it from her childhood. Having arrived at Cape May during the off-season, the town in not how Effie had remembered it, and just as they are getting ready to leave early and head back home, they run into Clara, who Effie remembers from her childhood. The young couple befriend Clara, and her lover, Max, as well as Max's younger sister Alma, and get sucked into their world, of glamorous parties and the older couple's socialite lifestyle. Cape May is the story of the young, naive (sexually and other-wise) couple's slip into Clara's world, a world that they had never known, and the effects that it has on their relationship with each other. Cape May is a quick read, and the writing creates a very visual story for the reader, though I wish he had gone more-in-depth with Henry and Effie's relationships, then focusing on the details of the drinking and the sex. It wasn't bad, but for me, it didn't live up to all the hype that I have seen about it up to its release.

Thank to New Galley and Celadon Books for providing me with an advance copy of this book to read in exchange for an honest review.

{My Thoughts}
What Worked For Me
Naiveté that Fit the Era – Cape May tells the story of Effie and Henry a very young couple on their honeymoon in a largely deserted beach town. It’s September of 1957 and the two are just as you might expect a pair of recent high school graduates from a small town to be. They know little of the world, little of themselves and even less of each other. But, they’re not afraid to explore what’s out there. Effie spent summers in Cape May and is eager to share her love of the resort town with Henry who is on his very first foray outside of Georgia. After the awkwardness of their first sexual encounter, the two venture forward with gusto and find desire is something they share. They also find that they have little to say to each other. This is a couple who got married not for great love, but because it seemed the next thing in life to do. With long empty days, the stress of being always alone nearly sends them home early, until one evening they stumble upon a raucous party right down the street. With just a little convincing, these two naïve southerners quickly find themselves swept up in a world they never could have imagined.

The Rich Behaving Badly – What’s more fun than the very wealthy throwing caution to the wind and kicking up their heels in high style? Chip Creek did this so well with his characters, Clara, Max and Alma. This little pack fills their days and nights with pitchers of gin and tonics, boating, music, dancing, games, and laughter, only sleeping when they can absolutely carry on no longer. After days of boredom and loneliness, Effie and Henry are thrilled to be included in the carefree world of their newly found friends and are quickly up to speed with the others. Even the affair going on between Clara and Max only scandalizes the two for a short time. Quiet, loner, secretive Alma, the enigma in the group, completely mesmerizes Henry. This is a whole new world for Henry and Effie and they love it! Returning to Georgia begins to look pretty dull.

Lost Innocence – As one might expect, playing hard and pitchers of G & T’s day after day can lead to some ill-advised choices. Clara and Max are accustomed to bending the rules for their own pleasure, but for Effie and Henry it’s a whole new game. I enjoyed watching the rapid dissolution of this couple’s moral compasses. With the freedom of no one looking over their shoulders combined with a vast menu of new experiences, their world naturally expanded with sometimes shocking results.

“He was at the top of a hill, where he could see his past, present, and all of his futures, and every future was real, because he had not chosen any one. He would have to choose at some point, he knew, but for now they were all arrayed before him, so present he almost felt like he could touch them.”

What Didn’t
A Bit One Sided – Though using third-person, Chip Cheek chose to tell his story from the perspective of Henry. For me this did a disservice to Effie, whom I would have liked to know a little more about. Her changes were perhaps even more interesting than Henry’s, but as a reader I was too often left wondering what she was really thinking and why she made certain decisions. I also found her treatment at the very end of the book a little harsh and perhaps not fair.

{The Final Assessment}
Overall, I enjoyed Cape May very much, though there weren’t many layers to it. It was a simple story of an ill-planned vacation that turned a honeymoon awry, but it was fun to watch all the crazy goings on. I’d have liked to see the end tied up a little differently, but even with that I think Cape May will make a great light summer read for your own beach vacation. Grade: B

Note: I received a copy of this book from Celadon Books and NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

This started out so sweet and innocent with great characters. Henry and Effie seemed to be such a nice young couple, newly married and in love. As they fell in with a group of older people on their honeymoon, the tone of the book changed dramatically. I'm not sure I totally believed Henry could change so much so fast - and then Effie too fell into the trap of debauchery. I thought perhaps there was more graphic sex than necessary and some of Henry's shocking behavior was a bit hard to believe. By the time the book ended, showing Effie and Henry in later years, it was totally depressing.

The characters and descriptions of locale are good and the pacing of the story moves well. The writing is good, especially for a first novel.

I have some mixed feelings about this one, but overall I liked it. Cape May is the story of Henry and Effie, a very young couple from the south in the 50s. While on their honeymoon they fall in with a crowd of more worldly people and experience a loss of innocence.

The story is told from Henry's point of view, and he's a great character, in the sense that he is a complete fucking idiot most of the time, but in ways that you can understand from a 20-year-old who has lived such a restrained life up till now. We don't get as much of a sense of who Effie really is during most of the story, and there were times when I wish we could have gotten into her head as well.

This book was often slow, a little boring at times, but kept me interested enough to keep going. It got more interesting as it went on, and the sex scenes were really steamy and well-done. I liked the story as a vignette in the lives of these characters, but the last chapter, which shows how their lives played out, was incredibly depressing, although it felt very realistic. I think we are supposed to take the message that the events of the honeymoon has long lasting repercussions, but I wasn't sure--I found it hard to see how things would probably have turned out very differently even had this interlude not happened. Henry and Effie were very young and naive, and really didn't know each other when they got married, and I'm not convinced things would have gone swimmingly even if they'd managed to avoid this particular crowd. Don't get married young, folks.

Newly-Weds Discover Decadence in 1950s Off-Season Cape May

Henry and Effie, newly-weds from Georgia, are thrilled to be spending their honeymoon on Cape May. Effie remembers her childhood summers and all the fun she had, but they arrive off-season, and it’s a different, deserted place.

Henry and Effie are inexperienced lovers. They hope the honeymoon will be a fulfilling sensual experience, but they’re shy and the town is boring. They’re ready to leave when they meet Clara, a socialite, her partner, Max, and Alma, his sister. Effie’s not eager to meet up with Clara who bullied where when they were children. However, the only excitement in town is the parties thrown by Clara and Max. The parties turn into gin soaked sex escapades. Not only do they drink, but they break into empty houses and generally behave as if in an erotic dream.

Effie and, particularly Henry, become caught up in the wild parties and casual sex. It changes them and shows what can happen when innocents are thrown into a decadent scene. There is a great deal of sex in the book, and I found the parties rather repetitious. However, the ending pulls the story together and gives it focus.

Henry’s experience and how he changes form the major thrust of the story. Unfortunately, I found Henry a rather uninteresting character. Effie is much in the background. That leaves the wild parties as the main element of the book. It’s an interesting look at 1950s society.

I received this book from Net Galley for this review.

Thanks to NetGalley, Celadon Books, and Chip Cheek for the opportunity to read this debut novel. I'll admit I was drawn to this book because of its location - Cape May, New Jersey. My family and I spent a week's vacation there once and I have such fond memories of all the painted lady houses and quaint shops.

Set in the 1950s, Henry and Effie are very young newlyweds, both virgins, when they decide to head to Cape May for their honeymoon. Effie had a relative with a house there and remembers fondly the bustling town. However, when they arrive, it's September and it's more like a ghost town. Henry and Effie are shy with each other, Effie is sorely disappointed with the town, and they are ready to head back to Georgia when they notice a party going on in a house down the street. They find out it's someone that Effie remembers from her youth there - Clara was older and somewhat mean to Effie then. Clara is there with her lover, Max, and his sister, Alma. Soon the group is inseparable and they spend their days drinking, sailing and partying. Henry and Effie are enthralled with what they feel is the sophistication of the group, so different from their country lifestyle. Then Henry becomes enchanted with Alma, things happen at a party, and life is never the same.

Filled with plenty of sex scenes, most of these characters were hard to like, especially Henry. It does harken back to a time of double standards for behavior between the exes (or is it still happening?).

Was not familiar with this author and this is the first of his books I have read.. Very interesting story line and well written.

Two young innocents arrive to spend their short honeymoon in a relative’s beach cottage, in the off-season shore town of Cape May, based at the southern tip of New Jersey in 1957. Cape May during this era wasn’t the resort it is today, where the season extends well past Labor Day and there are plenty of places for summer guests to stay, as they bicycle past the old Victorian houses.
Henry is 20 and Effie is 18, having traveled by train all the way from their little country town south of Macon, Georgia. They’ve known each other most of their lives, but only started dating their senior year of high school. Things move much slower out in the country usually following farming schedules rather than what’s fashionable in the rest of the country. That’s why the newlyweds are in a New Jersey beach town in September where most of the businesses closeup after Labor Day. The other, is Aunt Louise’s beach cottage is rent-free for their two-week honeymoon, plus it’s way far from Georgia. Effie spent many summers here as a child and has fond memories.
The beginning of this book is sweet as Henry and Effie awkwardly discover each other and make love for the first time ever, in their young lives. They spend the first week totally immersed with one another and explore tiny Cape May and its beautiful, deserted beaches. They feel the whole town belongs to them alone.
Walking into town one evening they pass a house just down the block from theirs with its lights aglow, cars parked in the drive and in front, with the faint sound of music coming from inside. Effie remembers the house owned by the family of a girl her older cousin, Holly used to play with, sometimes with the younger Effie dragged along. “Claire, I think her name was Claire, but she wasn’t very nice.” said Effie. “Sounds like a party.” says Henry. “Let’s just knock and say hi before we go to dinner.” says Effie. “Fine with me.” says Henry.
That simple exchange between Henry and Effie will be the last pleasant and least-complex words they will say to each other ever again. Once they walk through that door their lives will change forever. They will meet “city folk” like they’ve never met before; easy-talkin’, smoking, drinking all day and night, dancing, eating foods they’ve never tasted, and partying all night long. They were mesmerized! One gin and tonic, a first for both, led to another and several more after that. It was so easy, so much fun!
Her name was Claire and she was about ten years older than Effie, but her husband was probably twenty years older than her! But he wasn’t a problem because he left the next day, but her really, good friend Max stayed around, with his half-sister, Alma. They were all so carefree and fun. Maybe too much fun, especially when …..!
Yes, I’m going to stop here and let your imaginations go wild. The keyword here is wild; it is NOT historical fiction. Other than a few street names, the Light House, and the Coast Guard training center there is not much as far as sightseeing. The book will be fun reading for some, but not so much for this reader. I feel a tiny bit led astray. The last chapter or two brings us to Henry and Effie years later. Yep, they are still together, but that’s all I’ll say about that.
I would rate this 3.5 for the first half and 3.0 for the second, but I cannot not give it a 4.

Thank you NetGalley and Celadon Books for the early read.

Henry and Effie are young (18 and 20!) newlyweds on their honeymoon- and this highly readable novel is all about the, ahem, sex and drinking that goes on. Cape May in the off season in the 1950s is an unusual setting. It's worth keeping in mind that this is the 1950s so how these two react to each other and those they fall in with, is a reflection of that time. It's told largely from Henry's perspective, which is fine but I'd be curious to hear her side of things. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. This is for fans of literary fiction.

I featured this book on my blog and will provide the direct link and details to the publisher during the next stage of this process.

“Cape May” by Chip Creek is a novel set on the New Jersey shore in the late 50’s. The main characters, Effie and Henry, are a young, wholesome just married couple on their Honeymoon that get schooled in debauchery and infidelity when they meet some fellow vacationers from NYC.
I pretty much read the book in one sitting. It started out with promise, but abandoned plot for pointless sex scenes.
I was disappointed, overall.
Thanks to Netgalley for this ARC.

This one started off really well—I was snared by the period 1950s details and the atmospheric and moody setting of a New Jersey beach town in the off season, and the story of Effie and Henry, two young honeymooners from Georgia with limited experience of the world, had that sense of impending doom that reminded me a bit of Ian McEwan’s On Chesil Beach or Graham Swift’s Mothering Sunday, both books that I really loved. Their interactions with the sophisticated New Yorkers Clara and Max, and Max’s sister Alma—nights spent lounging around by a fire drinking gin and tonics and days spent sailing and drinking more of them—made it easy to see how Henry and Effie were seduced by the glamour of a life they hadn’t known before, and kept ratcheting up the tension leading to what would obviously be some sort of betrayal on someone’s part. To me, this fall should have been the climactic emotional high point of the book, but when it inevitably happens, Cape May is only at the halfway point. What follows became a bit difficult to read, as the characters kept complicating things further in a way that began to feel like overkill and that undercut the real emotional wallop of that first betrayal. It might just be that I was hoping for a different sort of story than what debut novelist Chip Cheek wanted to tell, and that’s fine, just disappointing for me that what started out as a nuanced examination of temptation and the psychological fallout of infidelity veered into Fatal Attraction territory.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Celadon for providing me with an ARC of this book in return for my honest review. .

Very well written, and easy to follow. As a debut novel, this was great! Pretty sensual.... which was a SLIGHT turnoff.

Set in the 1950’s, Cape May tells the story of Henry and Effie, a young, newly married couple from the south, and a honeymoon that will forever alter the course of their lives. They spend their honeymoon in the town of Cape May, where Effie spent many happy summers in her childhood. But they are honeymooning in September, and Cape May is in its off-season. Effie is visibly disappointed, but Henry tries to make the most of it. When the couple run into an old acquaintance of Effie’s, however, their boring honeymoon takes an interesting turn.

This book takes place over the three or so weeks the newlyweds spend in Cape May, and over that short time we see this couple evolve and change into something neither of them recognizes. By the end of the book, we see two totally different characters that what we started out with.

On one hand, it seems kind of tragic, how much the events of the honeymoon change these people and their relationship. However, after thinking about this one for awhile, I came to the conclusion that they were probably always going to end up in the same place, the events of the honeymoon just accelerated things. This was a couple who got married young, after a short relationship/engagement, who obviously didn’t know each other very well.

One thing that was hard for me was that I really didn’t like Henry. He was self-indulgent, selfish, a liar, and a HUGE hypocrite. But, having characters of all types is what makes books interesting.

Still, I give this book a solid 4 stars. Maybe even closer to 5. It was well written, and evokes so much emotion - from longing and desire, sensuality, sadness, anger and loathing, betrayal...it’s all there. I thought it was pretty profound and moving. Very well done!

*Thank you to NetGalley and Celadon for providing me with a free advance review copy in exchange for a fair and honest review. This review appears on GoodReads, Facebook, and will be posted to retail sites when published.*

Cape May was a very different read than I was expecting. I would rate it 2 1/2 stars.The characters never came alive to me - and the over abundance of sexual encounters seemed like just that and didn’t seem to add any depth to the story. It was almost like they were all at a fraternity party with the endless drinking. Each time they took the boat out I was anticipating a crisis that would force them to react and in the process, become more interesting. It was a quick read, but not a fulfilling one for me. Thank you to Chip Cheek, Celadon Books, and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC of this soon to be published read.

Henry and Effie are young, virginal newlyweds on their honeymoon in Cape May in the 1950s. It’s off season, and the only other people in town are people who will change Henry and Effie’s lives and marriage forever. This book is not for people who dislike graphic sex scenes, as there are many in this book. Overall I enjoyed the story and the characters were intriguing to me. Chip Creek is a relented writer and I would read more of his work.

This book was a honeymoon story that, to me, went terribly wrong. When Effie and Henry get married, she really wants Henry to experience Cape May, the place she loved growing up. The problem is that it's the off season and not much going on...until they knock on the door of the house up the street and an old childhood frienemy, Clara, opens the door. From there the story evolves into a lust fest for Henry. I just felt the story dragged in parts and also that the characters were always finding reasons to drink. I didn't relate to any of this story and felt bad that a young couple, on their honeymoon, fell into a web of promiscuity.
I received an ecopy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for my honest review.

I recieved the electronic version of Cap May through Netgalley for my honest opinion.

This is a story of young Henry and his wife Effie, fresh out of high school and on their honeymoon in the 1950's. They plan to cut their honeymoon short because they've arrived in Cape May in the off season and it's pretty desolate. But then they meet a group of rich socialites and there's not much that's off limits.

The book primarily tells you Henry's thoughts and the things he does. I was hoping to learn more about Effie and her thoughts and actions. There's some graphic sex scenes which didn't bother me but I think they are worth a mention in case you are not into reading such detailed scenes.

I did not care for the last chapter. It was rushed and uninteresting and kind of just made me roll my eyes. Otherwise I enjoyed the story and hope to read more from Mr. Cheek in the future!

This is a debut novel by Chip Cheek and it was a great story. It tells the story about a very young newlywed couple, Effie and Henry from Georgia, who have gone to Cape May in New Jersey for their honeymoon. Effie used to go there when she was younger and one of her relatives owns it.

As hey arrive in town the first day effie notices that no one was really around as it is no longer summer season there, but they still stay and get used t each other .

One night, they run into Clara, an old friend of Effie's cousin and she invites them to a party that introduces them to all kinds of things they have never been exposed to. Enough alcohol and time, puts them at ease, and days later, their lives are changed.

This book takes place in the 50's, in an exclusive place with many people who leave their beautiful homes in the winter for Florida. Clara is in residence at her family beach mansion, and her friend Max is there as well, along with his stepsister Alma. this book tells of the interactions of these characters and the end result.

I liked the way this author wrote an the descriptions of the places and homes. I loved the angst between all these people as well, and of course you will have to read to find out how it ends! I gave this book 5 stars!