Library Journal
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Graver's (Awake) family saga spans the latter half of the 20th century. The wealthy Porters have a summer home in Ashaunt Point, MA, which plays a significant role in the lives of the family. The novel's point of view varies among Bea, the Scottish nanny for the Porter's youngest daughter; Helen, the oldest and wildest of the Porter girls; and Charlie, Helen's oldest child. Bea narrates one summer on the island in 1942-but is it about her or the children? Helen's letters and diary entries dominate the middle section, which is followed by her son Charlie's struggles to find himself on the Point in the 1970s. VERDICT The last section brings us to the near present and ties up the loose ends, but doesn't really answer the question, Who is the subject of the novel? The way in which the narrative perspective switches between characters may not be for everyone but makes this an excellent choice for book clubs. [See Prepub Alert, 9/10/12.]-Pamela Mann, St. Mary's Coll. Lib., MD (c) Copyright 2013. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Publishers Weekly
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It's 1942, and the Porters are coming back to Ashaunt, Mass., the piece of the New England coast they've always come back to, no matter that the Army is building barracks and viewing platforms there. Graver (Awake) opens her fourth novel with a beautifully evoked glimpse of the very first arrival at Ashaunt-that of the Europeans-and the native people's eventual sale (or, alternately, "bargain, theft, or gift") of the land. She then moves omnisciently and believably through the minds of Bea, the Porters' Scottish nanny, and the wild Helen, the oldest daughter. As 1942 gives way to 1947, 1961, then 1970, and finally 1999, Graver also moves fluidly across time, all on this same beloved piece of land. Bea is a wonderful character, and Graver is incredibly good at evoking past, present, and future, and the ways in which they intersect. Unfortunately, the latter sections of the book, which focus mostly on Helen, no longer a wild girl, and her adult son Charlie, aren't quite as strong, perhaps because the issues of generational strife, blowback from drug use, and land development are more familiar. That said, Graver's gifts-her control of time, her ability to evoke place and define character-are immense. Agent: Richard Parks, the Richard Parks Agency. (Mar.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Kirkus
Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

This multigenerational story of a privileged family's vacations on Massachusetts' Buzzards Bay is as much about the place as the people. In 1942, wheelchair-bound insurance executive Mr. Porter (shades of FDR), his stoic wife, three daughters--beloved oldest son Charlie is off training to be a pilot--and gardening expert mother, along with assorted staff, are one of the few families summering at Ashaunt Point, where an Army base has been temporarily set up nearby. Graver (Awake, 2004, etc.) introduces the family members, particularly the bright, slightly rebellious 16-year-old Helen, in sharp, nuanced sketches while focusing on Bea, the family's Scottish nursemaid, who is devoted to youngest daughter, Jane. After the first true romance of her life, 34-year-old Bea turns down a soldier's marriage proposal in order to remain with the Porters. By 1947, Helen takes the story's center stage. Studying abroad, newly in love with ideas and a man, she writes reflective but girlishly innocent letters home. By the '60s, when Hurricane Donna hits Ashaunt, all three sisters have married. While Jane seems conventionally happy and middle sister Dossy suffers from bouts of clinical depression, Helen is still trying to find her way. Pregnant with her fourth child while enrolled in graduate school, she feels torn between love of family and growing intellectual ambitions. A decade later, Helen's troubled oldest son, Charlie, named after the uncle who was killed in World War II and always Helen's favorite, moves into a cabin on the peninsula, which he finds threatened by encroaching development. Helen and Charlie's difficult but enduring motherson relationship is particularly moving, but every character is given his/her emotional due. As one generation passes to the next, Ashaunt Point remains the gently wild refuge where the Porters can most be themselves. A lovely family portrait: elegiac yet contemporary, formal yet intimate.]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Book list
From Booklist, Copyright © American Library Association. Used with permission.

*Starred Review* For generations, the wealthy Porter family has sought refuge in its vacation home at Ashaunt Point along Massachusetts' rocky coastline. It's a place where Helen and her siblings can run wild and free under the watchful eye of Bea and her fellow coterie of Scottish caregivers. All is well until WWII erupts and an army outpost is installed nearby. Soldiers lure Helen to dances, seduce Bea into a hasty romance, and rob Helen's sister Jane of her innocence. Then word comes that her brother has been killed in action, and the world can no longer be held at bay. When Helen returns decades later as a young wife and mother, she tries to re-create Ashaunt's former simplicity for her emotionally fragile son, but the Vietnam war and the counterculture take their toll. At the end of her life, as cancer ravages her body, Helen finds Ashaunt equally threatened by environmental disasters and encroaching development, and the outrage becomes too much to bear. With a style and voice reminiscent of William Trevor and Graham Swift, Graver's powerfully evocative portrait of a family strained by events both large and small celebrates the indelible influence certain places can exert over the people who love them.--Haggas, Carol Copyright 2010 Booklist