A Sky Painted Gold by Laura Wood (review)

After her beloved sister gets married, seventeen-year-old Lou, a girl in a small Cornish town in 1929, hopes for a different future for herself. She takes refuge, both physical and emotional, in the abandoned Cardew House, and when the wealthy Cardew siblings show up to renovate the old place, they happily welcome Lou into their glittery lives, inviting her to swank parties and boozy beach trips. She finds a loving (if somewhat overwhelming) friend in the glamorous heiress Caitlin, but more excitingly, a worthy verbal sparring partner in Caitlin’s brother Robert, a dashing fellow whose ability to get under Lou’s skin both annoys and intrigues her. Bubbly naïveté and firecracker wit give Lou’s narration the perfect tone as she recounts her foray into the decadence of the Cardews’ bacchanalian lifestyle, and her wide-eyed innocence at their exploits is tempered by her ability to see the insecurities that plague them both. The dialogue between Lou and Robert is as sparkling as champagne, and their will they/won’t they dance is swoony but authentic, true to both their stubborn, independent characters. There’s a buildup to a family secret that doesn’t quite pay off, but the happy ending is sighworthy—readers who would have preferred a more hopeful conclusion to The Great Gatsby will find it here.