It took me quite a few years of trial and error reading to really start nailing down the kinds of books I want to read. Short stories? No. Thrillers? Almost always no. I know certain romance tropes that I just get annoyed by. That also means I know quite a few genres that often work for me AND, even better, I've found MANY authors that I really like and can consistently enjoy all their books. I've been highlighting these authors all year (Sara Ackerman, Kristin Harmel, Taylor Jenkins Reid). It's wonderful to have many authors whose books I am almost guaranteed to really like. I appreciate some good anticipation AND, especially, a good reading experience.
Beatriz Williams has been another one of those authors for me for quite awhile, longer than most others on that list. I confirmed in my Goodreads that A Hundred Summers was her first book I read (the second she published). Like most books, I have NO IDEA how I came across it (it was 8 years ago) but now that one in particular is most often my favorite book. I read it every year around New Years and have read it 8 times in the past 8 years. Yes, once a year. I'm committed.
Unfortunately, with that being her second book I didn't have a good back list to deep dive but she has consistently put out at least one book a year since, all of which I've read fairly close to their publication. I've read 17 books by her, 4 of which she co-authored, and given them an average rating of 3.88. That's not too bad.
All of her books have a historical element, many of them flashing between sometime in the 21st century (or late 20th century, maybe) and then also back to the 1930s, 1940s, or 1950s. They almost always focus around 2 women, one in each time period, as the modern day one slowly unravels details and the story of the one in the past, whose story also unfolds in her time line. It's a popular story telling format for historical fiction but one Beatriz Williams does very well. I am almost always nearly equally invested in both story lines and am eager to keep turning pages since she usually alternates chapters between the two. I LOVE a good, meaty novel I can get a bit lost in and that keeps me very interested in turning the pages.
Nearly all of her books feature some overlapping characters, particularly in the past, almost all mentioning the Schuyler family and, frequently, aunt Julie. She writes a couple of trilogies that are helpful to read in order but otherwise those characters that pop up from other books are just a nice bonus if you are familiar with her cast of characters. I keep thinking that SOMEDAY I will reread all of her books and take notes to figure out how all the families and characters fit together because it does drive me a tiny bit crazy that I can't figure it all out (since I'm not rereading all of her books back to back). If someone on the internet has figured that out, I would love to see it!
She might be the author I own the most hardcover books of, although a couple of those came from library 25 cent sales mainly to pad my bookshelves (I am a sucker for a blue spined book). I'm going to highlight my 3 favorites but if you like slightly complicated women with somewhat complicated and usually very interesting lives and historical fiction, that I definitely would recommend Beatriz Williams.
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A Hundred Summers
If this sounds familiar to you but you haven't read it, maybe you've seen me mention it in my January Quick Lit for the last...many years. Even though it has "Summers" in the title, I find this to be a perfect read around New Years since a decent portion of the book actually takes place on New Years Eve and New Years Day. Plus, late December, post-Christmas, IS when I want to really start to think about summer.
This, like many of her books, is told through dual timelines but this one follows the same protagonist in each, Lily Dane of Seaview, RI, Manhattan, and Smith College, all the best places. The two timelines are in the early 1930s, when she is in college and her childhood friend, Budgie, drags Lily along to a football game to see Budgie's latest boyfriend. Lily meets Nick Greenwald and they quickly begin a relationship that goes through the fall semester before the aforementioned New Years Eve. I, clearly, wasn't alive in the 1930s but the book feels fast paced and witty like movies portray that time to be. There is that optimism from before the Great Depression and the fact that things were, slowly, changing for women.
The second timeline is the late 1930s when those 3 characters are back together again for the first time in years but not quite in the same way they were before. Lily also has her tagalong little sister to look after and there is a war brewing on the other side of the ocean. Life isn't quite as breezy as it was ~8 years ago. And then there is a hurricane.
I LOVE the time period, that it's historical without being (mostly) set around a war. People are making bad choices maybe but you can feel, most of, their motivations. I am nearly always interested in reading about the lives of the super rich, especially many years ago, especially especially in Manhattan. I know exactly what is happening in this book but I still really enjoy picking it up every year.
Along the Infinite Sea
Unlike A Hundred Summers, I've only read this one twice. Technically it is the third in a series about the Schuyler sisters but you really don't lose much by reading them out of order. I've read them all but still don't have all the connections fully figured out (and how they connect to the characters in A Hundred Summers).
This one has Nazis, Florida in the 1960s, an antique and expensive car, and two women piecing together their stories. The first timeline is on the brink of World War II when Annabelle is living in Germany and ends up with a husband, who happens to be a Nazi. This offers then a comfy life but also, he's a Nazi. I don't believe she knew that when she married him but eventually figures it out. She also has a Jewish lover which, maybe, is a major complication when your husband is some high position within the Nazis. That expensive car comes into play and how she escapes this strange life she has made for herself in Germany.
The second timeline is the 1960s and Pepper finds herself pregnant by a man who can't claim the baby (married, congressman) and in order to support hers and the baby's life, she takes up restoring an old car that she finds in a barn. And then she gets a very interested buyer in Annabelle, Annabelle who used this same car ~30 years earlier to escape Germany.
The cover of this book is dreamy with the Mediterranean coast and is long enough to get lost in these women's stories without getting bogged down by the length. It is exactly the type of book I love to lose myself in, romance, a little bit of mystery, real stakes with the war happening, and lots of adventure and bravery necessary to make it through.
The Forgotten Room
This is the first of, soon to be, 4 books Beatriz Williams has co-authored with Karen White and Lauren Willig. It is definitely my favorite of the 4. This one spans not just two timelines but THREE. The 1890s, 1920s, and 1940s. Three different women who all find themselves spending time in a forgotten room at the top of a mansion on the Upper East Side of Manhattan.
In the 1890s it is Olive who is a maid in this mansion and finds a bit of an escape in this mysterious locked room. In the 1920s it is Lucy who is living in the mansion which has now been turned into a female boarding house where the only room available is the attic room. And in the 1940s the building has been remade again when Kate is a nurse there. Three women who all live in the same building, in different decades, each time with a different purpose for needing a room to escape to.
The later women find connections to the former ones in this room. This is the book I always remember making a flow chart of to keep straight the first time, how everyone was connected because there are also men and different parts of their family trees showing up across the time lines too. So slightly confusing but also so fun to keep an eye out for so many connections and try to piece together what happened to each of these woman and WHY was the building remade so many times?
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