Review: Cape May

Cape May by Chip Cheek
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is one of the first books from the new Celadon imprint, so I've had it for a while but was waiting to read it until closer to its publication date. A quick weekend trip to the rainy coast was the perfect setting.

It's 1957 and Henry and Effie are newlyweds, headed to Cape May (NJ) in late September for their honeymoon. Of course they are practically the only people there in the off season and the weather is miserable. Effie grew up going to Cape May in the summers, but didn't realize what it would be like in the fall.

The narrative perspective is largely that of Henry, a somewhat naive goody two shoes kind of virgin, who assumes his new wife is as inexperienced as he is. When one of her old summer nemeses shows up down the street, all sorts of drama and shenanigans start to play out.

I couldn't put it down, I read it all in a day. This reads like really gossipy dishy contemporary romance of the steamy variety but written by a man (this is really obvious because of the number of times bowel movements are mentioned, ha!)

I would almost call it "women's fiction" but I think it has more sex than most "women's fiction" does. The author captures the complete awkwardness of brand new marriage when all of the sudden it's just the two of you with a lifetime ahead of you, and then uses that to the advantage of the story and the conflicts/encounters with the other people who show up. It was a very visual story and I could easily see it translating to film as well.

I received access to this title from the publisher through NetGalley. It comes out April 30!

View all my reviews