I really enjoyed this one, my one complaint is that it could have been a tad but shorter. Having this in both audio and ebook helped me get through it a little quicker (and I can say that it's good in both formats). I love a story of female friendship, especially one that spans a significant period of time, and this ticked both of those boxes for me. The Maine setting was perfect for an end-of-summer read – it felt like I was right there in the mild temps, surrounded by pine trees, with the water in the distance. Pick this up if you like intricately structured stories about the journey of life.

Slow-moving but rewarding, this novel centers on a peninsula in coastal Maine, where several Philadelphia families have summered for generations. Fellowship Point is a wild, gorgeous place, untamed except for five large houses not far from the water and a more distant one, up on a hill, where the servants live.

But change will come, even to this unspoiled setting, where eagles fly and other wildlife abounds. Developers are sniffing around. Octogenarian children’s author Agnes Lee and her lifelong best friend, Polly Wister, who have been coming here all their lives, mean to stop them and see that the land is preserved. But they face an uphill climb.

Meanwhile, Agnes harbors a secret: she’s also the anonymous author of several novels set amid Philadelphia society, skewering her acquaintances without their realizing who’s slipping the knife in. So when a young editor at her children’s publisher, Maud Silver, suggests she write a memoir, Agnes resists. But Maud refuses to take “no” for an answer.

All this is just the background for a story in which lives will come together in unexpected ways and many more secrets will ultimately be revealed. Dark, a Philadelphia native who grew up spending summers in Maine, lovingly renders the New England setting and strong, determined people without turning them into stereotypes.

Cassandra Campbell, winner of multiple Audie Awards and AudioFile Earphones Awards, provides her usual strong, empathetic reading.