Summer on the Bluffs, by Sunny Hostin
“Welcome to Oak Bluffs, the most exclusive black beach community in the country.”
Summer on the Bluffs would make a wonderful beach read, but beneath the surface there’s a lot of substance to this story of one life-changing summer for four women on Oak Bluffs. Ama (Amelia) Vaux Tanner, and her husband Omar never had any children. Ama was one of the first women to work as a broker on Wall Street, earning herself the name of “the wolf of Wall Street”, and her husband was a lawyer. They never had any children of their own, but over the years had “adopted” three girls as God-daughters and shared their lives and their summer home on Martha’s Vineyard with them. With Omar now gone, Ama invites the three adult girls to join her for the summer. Each woman comes with a secret in her life, not realizing that Ama has secrets of her own.
The book deftly handles the societal issues of the last forty years, including women moving into positions of power in the workforce, racial issues, colourism, choosing to remain childless, adoption, and gay relationships, but at its core is essentially a story about love and family, whether by blood or by choice.
Apparently this is the first book in a series, and I’m very much looking forward to the next one! Perfect for fans of Elin Hilderbrand.

Summer on the Bluffs by Sunny Hostin

What a beautifully written and stunning novel. I loved learning all about Ama and her three goddaughters. Each character had such different backgrounds and relationship with Ama that I so enjoyed. As a reader, I really could grasp how much love Ama had for each of her goddaughters. I think this is the perfect beach read for this summer and believe it will be a top seller! The cover is perfect and very eye catching as well. I wish I could escape to the Oak Bluffs like the girls did each summer with Ama. Loved this book and I will recommend to my family and friends.

I received this audiobook as an ARC from NetGalley. As a lifelong lover of Martha’s Vineyard my favorite thing about this audiobook what’s the sense of place. The Vineyard was a character all unto itself. As a reader I truly enjoyed all of the references and descriptions are important places across the island. The story centers around a wealthy black couple who spend their summers in a beautiful home on the Vineyard. The couple raise three girls there each summer, and the novel follows them all as they grow and mature, finding their own loves and lives. Each girl has her own story and we eventually learn their connection to the wealthy couple.

I was excited to read Sunny Hostin’s debut novel and glad to note that it was the first in her “Oak Bluffs” series. Her foray into fiction was a refreshing concept on how three unrelated girls become sisters and appreciative of the Godmother that brought them together.

I received this audio from net galley for an honest review. I was interested in this book because I enjoy Sunny on the view and was interested in the write up of this book. I kept with it because I enjoyed the narrator and it had moments that brought me into the story but I never felt invested in the characters. It felt too rushed at moments where I thought there would be more. Overall it was an ok read for me.

Summer on the Bluffs by Sunny Hostin is a work of audio art! I loved digging into this story and was captivated by the way Hostin wove each character's story together. Move over Elin Hilderbrand, there's a new Queen of the Martha's Vineyard set books. January LaVoy has a beautiful voice and it was enchanting. When I finished the last section I wished there was more to listen to. Summer on the Bluffs will be a classic for many years to come and will be one of the hottest books of 2021. There's love, romance, mystery and intrigue with the beautiful Vineyard setting. Hostin also dives into deeper topics in a way lesser authors may shy away from. This book not only transported me, but encouraged discussion and challenged me in the way only the best books can.

Summer on the Bluffs follows Ama Vaux Tanner and her three goddaughters: Perry, Olivia and Billie. Ama and her husband Omar built a beautiful life together between Manhattan and Oak Bluffs in Martha's Vineyard and opened their hearts to three goddaughters they would host every summer. This summer is different though, Omar has passed and the little girls are all grown up. Ama asks them to spend one last summer on the island and reveals she'll give one of the girls the house she and Omar built to painstaking perfection. Summer on the Bluffs chronicles that summer, but dives much deeper into the past. To moments that shaped each girl and to the way Ama and Omar fell in love and built their impressive careers. I enjoyed this book immensely.

The narrator was spot-on. She covered black male and female, Latina, Creole, white male and female. She was very expressive and added to the story without overshadowing it.

This book covers so many topics; racial injustices, white and light privilege, art, fashion, cuisine, out-of-wedlock babies, adoption, drug abuse, love, sex and friendship. It follows the lives of Ama, her husband, Omar, and their 3 god-daughters, Perry, Olivia and Billie.

At times I loved this book, and at times I hated this book.
I loved how it showed this white girl a bit of what it is like to be black. And although I have in recent years realized my white privilege, I never considered that the same could be said for light privilege. I also appreciated that Billie calls Olivia out on her bias as a black person against people with white skin. People on each side can have skewed vision. I also loved how Perry decides to work to save her marriage instead of giving up when things aren't easy anymore.

I found it interesting that Ama only bought or listened to things made by colored people. (The frequent name dropping grew tiresome as the book wore on.) Would appreciating something done by a white person somehow make her a sell-out? I was genuinely confused by this.

I did not need the detailed sex scenes. It would have been enough to say that Perry and Damon had a lot of fun in a lot of places while on their honeymoon. I have an imagination.

Does every book these days need to include a homosexual relationship? Even though less than 4% of the US is actually LGBQ.

Also, I was really sad when Ama chose to be selfish and maintain her DINK status quo instead of honoring her best friend's dying wish to raise her baby.

Despite my love/hate relationship with this book (or maybe because of it?) I would rate this book 3.5 stars. Since I can't give a half star, I'll bump it up to 4. Sunny is a very good writer. And she paints an easy to understand picture of struggles that black people, especially black women, have had to endure.

If not for the sex scenes, I would recommend this book to teenagers. As it stands, it is a compelling, and hopefully influential, read for adults.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance copy for review purposes.
The story is about 3 women who were “adopted” by a strong woman who brought them to her house on the Bluff for the summer. After the years she is bringing them back and plans on giving the house to one of them.
I really wanted to like the book but the excessive character development and name dropping made it difficult to wade through.
The narrator (January LaVoy) was wonderful as always and manages to make the story come alive.

Oak Bluffs is a Martha’s Vineyard beach front Black community where the wealthiest, most influential live and vacation. Amelia Vaux Tanner and her husband have called the Bluff home for thirty years and in during that time have hosted some of the most famous and influential people in the country. She also hosted her three goddaughters as first children, now as accomplished adults, one a lawyer, one a Wall Street analyst and the other a marine biologist. This year. Ama announces she will be moving to France….and gifting the cottage to one of the women, all of whom want it desperately. There is almost too much going on here for just one book, it feels like it could have been, or should have been two books. Still the story is a great beach read and LaVoy does a fine job of bringing the story to life

A great debut novel for Sunny Hostin!

The novel develops slowly with each character’s perception of their life unveiled. Amelia Vaux Tanner (Ama) is the grounding force in their family. The family is filled by parents, Ama and Omar, her husband, and 3 goddaughters; Esperanza “Perry” Soto, Olivia Jones and Billie Hayden.

The novel is set in privileged Martha’s Vineyard. Each goddaughter learns secrets that effect their life and learns how to react to them and each other. Relationships are changed forever.
It has an unexpected but pleasing ending, which leads toward the next novel in the series. I’m looking forward to listening to it!

Thank you NetGalley and Harper Audio for providing me the opportunity to review and provide feedback on “Summer on the Bluffs”.

This book dives into the upper crust Black community on Martha's Vineyard. The characters and the setting are sublime. The Ama and Omar have no children of their own, so they choose 3 girls to be their god children to receive the benefits of their wealth and position on the Bluffs.

This book rolls along beautifully. Possibly too slowly for some. The is charm, love, heart ache, and of course secrets to be discovered. The relationships between the girls and those around them are developed well as they grow into women. There are multiple points of view, which adds to the book. The narrator of the audio is superb and does the voices extremely well.

This is the first book in the series and I'm looking forward to the next book.

3.5 stars. This book felt a lot like Elin Hilderbrand, whose work I absolutely love, so I enjoyed that aspect of it. I enjoyed reading about New York City and Martha's Vinyard. And as a native Louisianan, I definitely enjoyed the New Orleans aspect that was thrown into it, even though it wasn't a setting.

At first, it felt like this story was too sweeping, too vast for just one novel. And I still stand by that to an extent. But it did end up coming together better than I expected. One issue I do have though is that there were SO many pop culture references thrown in, I'm afraid it won't age well.

I also had a slight disconnect with the audiobook narrator. January Lavoy, though I absolutely adore her and love her work, did not feel like the right voice for this story. Nevertheless, she did a fabulous job as always.

I got 15% in and I have no idea what the plot is. It is a lot of character building, and backstory. I like back stories because I like getting connected to the characters and start to understand them more. But I need a plot line to go off of so there is something to look forward to. Unfortunately I just don't know what is going on, so I am DNFing this one.