Under the Stars

Beatriz Williams brings us back to Winthrop Island, the location of her previous novel, Husbands and Lovers, for a captivating summer read. This beautiful backdrop is the setting for a story filled with family secrets, complicated relationships, and a little bit of mystery.

Narrated across dual timelines, present day and 1846, the novel draws inspiration from the real-life 1846 wreck of the steamship Atlantic off the coast of Fischer's Island.

As the plot unfolds, Williams masterfully balances romance and family drama, ensuring the story remains engaging throughout. The characters are complex and flawed, which deepens their emotional connections. I found this novel thoroughly enjoyable.

Audrey Fisher has struggled all her life to emerge from the shadow of her famous mother by forging a career as a world-class chef. Meredith Fisher's glamorous screen persona disguises the trauma of the tragic accident that haunts her dreams. Neither woman wants to return to the New England island they left behind and its complicated emotional ties, but Meredith has one last chance to sober up and salvage her big comeback, and where else but discreet, moneyed Winthrop Island can a famous actress spend the summer without the intrusion of other people? Until Audrey discovers an old wooden chest among the belongings of her estranged bartender father, Mike Kennedy, and the astonishing contents draw the women deep into Winthrop's past and its many secrets . . . attracting the interest of their handsome neighbor, Sedge Peabody. How did a trove of paintings from one of America's greatest artists wind up in the cellar of the Mohegan Inn? And who is the mysterious woman portrayed on every canvas?

On a stormy November night in 1846, Providence Dare flees Boston and boards the luxury steamship Atlantic one step ahead of the law . . . or so she believes. But when a catastrophic accident leaves the ship at the mercy of a mighty gale, Providence finds herself trapped in a deadly game of cat and mouse with the one man who knows her real identity - the detective investigating the suspicious death of her employer, the painter Henry Irving. As the Atlantic fights for her life and the rocky shore of Winthrop Island edges closer, a desperate Providence searches for her chance to escape . . . before the sea swallows her without a trace.

In Under the Stars, the destinies of three women converge across centuries, as a harrowing true disaster at the dawn of the steamship era evokes a complex legacy of family secrets in modern-day New England. Williams has written a timeless epic of mothers and daughters, of love lost and found, and of the truths that echo down generations.

Ballantine Books | July 29, 2025 | 368 Pages | ISBN: 978-0593724255 | Historical Fiction

1. The novel opens with a death, which apparently involves Audrey and Meredith. Did that plotline resolve the way you expected? Did it hook you immediately?

2. The sea is a looming character of its own in this novel. How did you interpret each woman's relationship with the island and the water around it?

3. Guilt and personal responsibility are common themes throughout the novel, especially for Providence and Meredith. How did the various characters feel about their power to change the course of their own lives, and the decisions they made?

4. Audrey quotes Queen Elizabeth II when she says, "Grief is the price we pay for love." How do you think that relates to each woman's journey in the novel? Does that phrase resonate with you?

5. If you could assign the concept of "doubt" to one character - Providence, Meredith, or Audrey - who would it be, and why?

6. Why do you think the novel is called "Under the Stars"? Which of the three women's journeys do you think that theme develops most powerfully the most?

7. All three women make decisions out of desperation at certain times. Do you think those decisions, and their outcomes, were inevitable? How much control do we have over our own destiny?

8. Secrets play an important role of all three women's lives, but which reveal was most shocking for you? What is your understanding behind each woman's decision to keep the secrets she did? Do you think any of them owed their secrets to the people in their lives?

9. Who do you think was the rightful owner of the paintings found at the Mohegan Inn?

10. In your opinion, which love story was the most impactful in this novel? Who did you root for? Was there anyone you didn't root for?