Adult fiction.
Henry is 20; Effie is 18. He lives on a farm near Macon, Georgia; her family has money and her father is the mayor. They have grown up together and marriage seems to have been just what they thought they should do. It's 1957 and they go for a two week honeymoon to an uncle's house in Cape May, New Jersey. They really don't know each other very well and, after a week, they talk about going home. Effie remembers the place as bustling and fun when she was a child, but it is too late in the season, and now seems lonely and abandoned.
Then, they meet Clara, a just older and more worldly woman, that Effie remembers from her childhood. Clara is married to Richard, but dallies with Max. Max's sister, Alma, is young, beautiful, and provides temptation for Henry. The group explore houses up and down the deserted street, drink themselves into unwise actions, and form new liaisons among themselves. The resulting scenes affect the rest of Effie and Henry's lives.
The town itself is almost a character in the story. Cheek does a masterful job of describing the landscape, the houses, both interior and exterior, and the atmosphere. He does even better in telling readers about the characters themselves. At first, we are drawn in with sympathy for the clueless young honeymooners. But, with all the sex scenes, and the introduction of the older, but maybe not wiser couple and Alma, the pace and the sex get even steamier.
While readers do find out what happens to Effie and Henry, the other characters are like people you might meet on a vacation and seem to disappear from their lives. Literally, this is a beach book.
