It Happens in the Hamptons: A Novel

Written by Holly Peterson

Narrated by Em Eldridge

In the Hamptons, the everyday people are as complicated and fascinating as the millionaires...

When Katie Doyle moves across the country to the Hamptons, she is hoping for summer employment, new friends for her young son, and a chance to explore a new love affair with a dazzling investor. What she finds is a strange cocktail of classes, where society’s one-percenters vacation alongside local, hard-working people who’ve lived in the Hamptons for generations. Though she’s looking forward to their move, Katie is wary about mingling with her boyfriends’ East Coast elite circles. She soon discovers Southampton isn’t all that it seems to be on the surface—and neither are the people who live there.

As George takes Katie on a whirlwind tour of country clubs, haute couture, and lavish events, she is amazed to witness sudden whims become dire needs, extra-marital affairs blossoming right and left, and people purchase friends and loyalties like a pair of shoes. Even the middle-class townspeople maintain a determined façade while maneuvering like sharks among the wealthy summer invaders.

The more Katie becomes immersed, the more she learns the secrets of both the upstairs and downstairs, the upper crust and middle of the road. The combustion between the classes becomes explosive as the summer tears on. Betrayals, a sexual predator, and a missing person lost in murky waves drive the listener on a racing Learjet ride through impossible twists and turns until landing at the shocking conclusion. When she meets Luke, a local surfer and middle school teacher, he makes her question what it is she really wants as she understands the life she’s begun for herself is built on shifting Hamptons’ dunes.

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperAudio
• Release date: Jul 25, 2017
• ISBN: 9780062834218

Holly Peterson

Holly Peterson is the author the May 2017 social satire fiction release, It Happens in the Hamptons. In 2016, she curated an outdoor cooking book, Assouline's Smoke and Fire: Recipes and Menus for Outdoor Entertaining. In 2014, she published The Idea of Him and of the New York Times bestseller The Manny in 2007.  She was a Contributing Editor for Newsweek, an Editor-at-Large for Talk magazine and an Emmy Award-winning Producer for ABC News, where she spent more than a decade covering everthing from trials of the century to global politics. Her writing has been published in the New York Times, Newsweek, Town and Country, The Daily Beast, Vogue, Harper's Bazaar, Elle Decor, Departures and numerous other publications.

Reviews for It Happens in the Hamptons

[lorikboyd · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A very light summer read. I had hoped for much more, so was a little disappointed in the whole story.

[cubsfan3410 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A fun summer read.

[devlindusty · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A great fun romp through the Hamptons! I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. I look forward to reading more by Holly Peterson in future.

[candice_oxo · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

It's so tough for me to give a book that I know someone worked hard to write such a poor review, but unfortunately it just wasn't for me. I didn't feel like the writing had an engaging tone, I didn't feel like the plot or characters had much depth, and I just didn't feel like the novel flowed in any type of cohesive or engaging way. I just found it to be a shallow novel I couldn't finish.

[godsgirl_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Fun story about vacationing in the Hamptons and how the rich people spend their summers. I like a good steamy romance. A little too explicit for me.Will definitely look into other books she wrote. It's a good book and may pass it on to friends.

[katkealy · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I got this book for free from Early Reviewers and I wouldn't have read as much of it as I did if I hadn't gotten it for free. I have a rule about not wasting more than 50 pages on a book and by well over 100 I was STILL not interested in any of the characters or stories. I really tried to like it... I know so many people who used to spend summers in the Hamptons. I thought I'd like the book. It's a quick read, but not really interesting enough to be a great beach read, in my opinion. I'm donating my copy to a library so those who like it will be able to find it. I don't think any of my friends fall into that category. There are so many better options for beach reads...

[erinclark_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This book is definitely a light beach read and not something I usually would choose. But it did keep me interested to the end and I liked the humorous way the author treated many of the characters. Hoping to get a fresh start after her mothers death, Katie Doyle accepts the offer of her current 'lover' to move for the summer with her young son across the country from Oregon to a cottage in the Hamptons. Not fully immersed in a relationship with her beau George, Katie meets a handsome surf instructor, Luke when she enrolls her son in his summer water camp. Things heat up and George becomes more mysterious and aloof as the summer progresses. George is definitely the country club type and Luke is not. Katie is pulled between the two different men, leaning towards one and then the other. Sex and intrigue bring this fun tale together. Recommended for fun.

[bah195 · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

I only read half of this book because I could not get into the story. I didn't like the way the author kept switching the point of views within the chapters.I had high hopes for this book but I was disappointed.

[annwelton · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

First, thank you to LibraryThing (William Morrow Publications) for an advanced copy of this paperback book for my enjoyment and review. If you like a true summer, in-the- beach-bag, chik-lit book – this is truly your read. Most people love summer stories about Cape Cod and the Hamptons, and this book will not disappoint. It is the story of Katy Doyle who moves from Oregon to the Hamptons to spend the summer in a little cottage of a friend (George) of hers, who promises to “leave her alone” and let her settle in. She and her 8 year old son are attracted to many things about the Hamptons, so of course there is romance and fun involved. Enjoy, and put into your beach bag now!!