Bittersweet Book Summary

In 'Bittersweet,' Miranda Beverly-Whittemore weaves a captivating tale of friendship, secrets, and the complexity of love. The story revolves around the enigmatic and powerful Darrow family and their summer invite to the seemingly perfect world of their estate. As the protagonist, Vanessa, navigates her feelings of admiration and envy, she uncovers dark truths that challenge her heart and worldview. This rich exploration of identity and belonging draws readers into a web of desire and deceit. What will Vanessa choose when confronted with the bittersweet reality of her dreams?

By Miranda Beverly-Whittemore

Published: 2015

""In the spaces between joy and sorrow, we find the essence of our humanity.""

Book Review of Bittersweet

Suspenseful and cinematic, New York Times bestseller Bittersweet exposes the gothic underbelly of an idyllic world of privilege and an outsider’s hunger to belong. On scholarship at a prestigious East Coast college, ordinary Mabel Dagmar is surprised to befriend her roommate, the beautiful, wild, blue-blooded Genevra Winslow. Ev invites Mabel to spend the summer at Bittersweet, her cottage on the Vermont estate where her family has been holding court for more than a century. Mabel falls in love with midnight skinny-dipping, the wet dog smell that lingers near the yachts, and the moneyed laughter that carries across the still lake while fireworks burst overhead. Before she knows it, she has everything she’s ever wanted: friendship, a boyfriend, access to wealth, and, most of all, for the first time in her life, the sense that she belongs. But as Mabel becomes an insider, a terrible discovery leads to shocking violence and reveals what the Winslows may have done to keep their power intact--and what they might do to anyone who threatens them. Mabel must choose: either expose the ugliness surrounding her and face expulsion from paradise, or keep the family’s dark secrets and make Ev's world her own.

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"In the spaces between joy and sorrow, we find the essence of our humanity."

Bittersweet

By Miranda Beverly-Whittemore