Katie Doyle meets handsome, charmer George Porter, at a teaching conference at the Portland Hilton, where he entices her to escape the seminar and be with him. They click and begin a sexual relationship spending a lot of time together. When he meets, Huck, Katie's 8-year-old son, George treats Huck with affection and lots of special attention. As George is preparing to return to Manhattan, where he is a successful investor, George invites Katie and Huck to spend the summer at his vacant family cottage in the Hamptons.

His offer is rent-free, along with a beat-up car to use, no strings attached. George lives a few blocks away with his mother and would visit them when his schedule permits. It would be a good way to get really acquainted and see what happens? Katie refuses but later thinks it would be a great way for Huck to make new friends and start a new life in a new locale. The recent death of her mother from cancer has left her alone and adrift. Huck's father left before Huck even learned to sit and Katie had no other family and only a few, but not close, friends. It suddenly seemed like the ideal solution to start a new beginning with Huck. Perhaps a new job for Katie and who knows what will happen with George? Katie and Huck begin to pack. Hamptons here we come!

After a six-hour red-eye flight from Portland, an hour and a half Long Island Railroad ride to Southhampton, and 15 minutes in a taxi, they find the small cottage. It looks in need of repairs but the sea air is welcome and invigorating. When she sees a small pail filled with freshly picked cherries sitting on the porch, she knows it is a welcome from George and immediately starts to unpack and explore her new "home."

Many homeowners like the Chase family are among the 1% of the mega-rich who vacation at their lavish homes in the Hamptons. Nate, Julia and their three children arrive in their private helicopter. Once landed, the family waits until the blades are still, their matching nine pieces of Goyard Luggage, costing thousands, is moved into the waiting Cadillac Escalade SUV with the license plate, BEACH 1. Nate has six other personal cars. The family deplanes including Betsy, the white bulldog wearing her own Goyard leash. Driven to their elegant waterfront home, it is time for the Chase family to begin their catered party. A huge guest list, fantastic menu, exotic drinks adding up to an overwhelming price tag. Nate is a show-off and nothing but the best is "on tap" for the kick-off to another season.

The Hamptons is not just a playground for the very rich and famous, it is also filled with families who have lived and worked there for generations. The Tide Runners Camp is owned and operated by native born and bred, Luke, a marine biologist teacher in the offseason, and his Hawaiian buddy and womanizer, Kona. They teach the rich children water safety, how to jet ski, water tube, wind surf, anything about the water at a cost of $150 for three hours. They cater to all ages, from 4 to 70 and have great respect for the power of the ocean. They have rules forbidding reckless behavior and operate a filled to capacity camp.

Holly Peterson transports us to the most elite address on the East coast with delicious descriptions that delight. The story of Kate, Huck, George and Luke is a tale, filled with twists and turns and the addition of many colorful characters who add ZEST to the story. An entertaining beach read that will tempt you to pack a bag and head to the Hamptons. Bravo, Ms. Peterson. IT HAPPENS IN THE HAMPTONS sparkles!

Book Summary

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 reader 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.