Along the Infinite Sea

September 21, 2015
In Williams’s fifth novel, devotees of her Schuyler sisters can follow the fate of renegade Pepper Schuyler and the aftermath of her affair with a married politician in the fall of 1966. Similar to the author’s other page-turners, there is a parallel story here about another young woman, in this case Annabelle Dommerich, a Christian Frenchwoman whose life in 1935 is upended when her Jewish lover disappears and she ends up marrying a high-ranking German officer. How Annabelle and Pepper cross paths in 1966 is rather contrived—Annabelle purchases the vintage 1936 Mercedes Special Roadster that Pepper has restored, and the car turns out to be the very one that Annabelle and her German husband drove to flee Germany and come to America before World War II began. Unfortunately, the travails faced by Pepper, pregnant with the married politician’s child and on the run from his goons, pale in comparison to Annabelle’s heartbreaking love story and subsequent rebound marriage against the backdrop of Hitler’s rise to power and the horrifying consequences of his regime. Though Williams tries to give both narratives nearly equal weight, Annabelle’s distinctive character and story are far stronger than Pepper’s. Nonetheless, the happy ending will surely satisfy the bestselling author’s many fans.

Starred review from September 1, 2015
A pair of fugitives-one from pre-Nazi Europe, the other from the U.S. Senate Chamber (correction: bedchamber)-meet over a rare 1936 Mercedes Roadster that transports first one, then the other out of a god-awful fix. With the killer charm of a Rogers and Hammerstein score and a touch of DuMaurier intrigue, Williams' latest sexy and enthralling period drama (on the high heels of Tiny Little Thing, 2015, etc.) draws readers into the parallel, luxe worlds of two sparky women in the post-Camelot 1960s: Annabelle Dommerich, a 40-ish widow with a passel of grown stepchildren, who conceals her Baroness title and much else about her past as the mistress of a Jewish resistance agent and wife of a German high-command general (to whit: "whether one man could keep you safe from wanting another"); and Pepper Schuyler, the smart-alecky aide to a powerful politician, who's hard-put to conceal just one secret-the identity of the man responsible for the baby bump beneath her Lilly Pulitzer shift: "I always thought the more, the merrier. Sex and cigarettes." (Fans of Williams' novels will recognize Pepper as the best-dressed and sharpest tongued of the three fictional Schuyler sisters.) The two ladies strike up an irresistible womance when Annabelle shows up at the Breakers in Palm Beach to collect the vintage car Pepper restored then put up at a collectors' auction so she wouldn't have to accept "help" from the father of her baby or her socially prominent (and often comically obtuse) parents. Gliding up the coast of Georgia in that leather-seated roadster toward the beautifully appointed seaside cottage the Baroness has offered Pepper as a safe house, they'll spill all their secrets and sorrows and help each other reclaim lost pieces of their hearts. Imagine The Sound of Music for big girls, flavored with a dash of Mad Men bitters.

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September 15, 2015
Having built The Secret Life of Violet Grant (2014) and Tiny Little Thing (2015) around two of the patrician Schuyler sisters, William now turns the spotlight on the third, Pepper, the most beautiful and most impulsive. Finding herself pregnant after a dalliance with a powerfuland marriedman, Pepper flees to Florida to sell the vintage Mercedes she discovered and restored in a shed on her family's property on Cape Cod. The buyer is Annabelle Dommerich, for whom the Mercedes has a special significance. Annabelle takes a motherly interest in Pepper, for she herself was once pregnant and alone after the abrupt end of her brief but intensely involving affair with Stefan, a mysterious German Jew whom she nurses after he is shot at her father's villa on the French Riviera. On the rebound, Annabelle is swept off her feet by a general in the German army, and both her marriage and her unquenchable love for Stefan plunge her into danger on the eve of WWII. Weaving back and forth from the 1930s to the 1960s, Williams provides an appealing blend of luxury, history, romance, and suspense.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)

September 1, 2015

It's 1966 and Pepper Schuyler is pregnant, the baby's father a married U.S. senator. In dire need of money, Pepper sells her rare and valuable Mercedes. Through the sale Pepper is befriended by the car's mysterious buyer and original owner. Annabelle Dommerich's connection to the vehicle and her juicy backstory--a Nazi husband, a Jewish lover, a relentless will to escape Germany in the chaos of World War II--unfolds chapters that alternate with Pepper's own romantic story. Annabelle and Pepper are indomitable women who form a lasting friendship, face their pasts head on, and are emboldened by romantic relationships old and new. VERDICT With spunky characters full of grace and grit, best-selling Williams's latest is the third stand-alone novel featuring a Schuyler sister (Tiny Little Thing). The swift pacing and emotional twists and turns of the plot will leave readers guessing up to the final pages. Recommended for readers who enjoyed the atmosphere and characters of Jess Walter's Beautiful Ruins. [See Prepub Alert, 5/17/15.]--Emily Hamstra, Univ. of Michigan Libs., Ann Arbor

Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

June 15, 2015

Pepper Schuyler must find a way to support the baby she'll soon bear as the result of an affair with a married politician (so much for the Swinging Sixties), so she restores a rare vintage Mercedes and sells it at auction. Then she's befriended by the purchaser, dazzling Annabelle Dommerich, and learns that the car was used by a Nazi and his Jewish lover as they fled across Europe during World War II. Lots of atmosphere, from the Paris Ritz to a yacht-swarmed Mediterranean to the wealthy enclaves of Georgia and Florida; from the New York Times best-selling author of Overseas.

Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.