Wasp's Nest
A Novel
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5.0 • 1 Rating
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
"Could not put it down, and a great pick for anyone looking for a book to bring to the beach this summer." —Jordy's Book Club
A modern retelling of The Philadelphia Story, Wasp’s Nest is a witty, gripping love triangle unfolding over the course of seven chaotic days at a Cape Cod wedding
Tess wants nothing more than for her upcoming society wedding to overshadow the failure of her first marriage. Her fiancé Warren, a steady soon-to-be state senator, is nothing like her first husband. Tess’s relationship with working-class artist Peter was a passionate crash-and-burn, and a chapter of her life that she's ready to forget.
Peter hasn’t seen Tess in five years, so he’s shocked to receive an invitation to her wedding. But he’s moved on too, and it wouldn’t hurt to prove it by showing up with a handsome younger man as his plus-one. Mitch, an aspiring writer, is intrigued by Peter and jumps at the chance to pry into the lives of his Waspy ex-in-laws. What he’s not bargained for is developing serious feelings for both Peter and Peter’s ex—Tess, the bride. But Peter and Tess have complex desires of their own, and Mitch is dangerously close to uncovering them.
Wasp's Nest is a fast-paced, humorous, and heartfelt exploration of the shape of our affections that proves real love triangles connect on all sides.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
This sparkling romantic comedy turns a posh Cape Cod wedding into a deliciously tangled story about the many forms that love can take. Five years after their divorce, Peter is shocked to receive an invitation to his ex-wife Tess’ wedding to an aspiring politician. Determined to prove that he’s moved on, he turns up with a handsome younger man, Mitch, on his arm. And honestly, that’s just the beginning of how messy things get. As the last-minute wedding chaos unfolds, old feelings resurface, new attractions emerge, and everybody’s carefully ordered lives start to unravel. Author Kat Stoddard has a sharp eye for her upper-class New England setting, finding both wicked humor and unexpected pathos in a world where appearances matter more than honesty. And as much as we loved the overlapping, unpredictable desires between Tess, Peter, and Mitch, we also wouldn’t mind a sequel focused on Tess’ well-meaning chaos-goblin brother, Sebastian. Wasp’s Nest is an irresistible summer read about the risks of listening to your heart.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Stoddard debuts with a breezy if superficial retelling of The Philadelphia Story set on modern-day Cape Cod. Tess Lowell, a Manhattan art agent and socialite, divorced her ex-husband, Peter Hyun, an artist, five years ago, over his alcohol abuse. Peter, sober for the past few years, is surprised to receive an invitation not only to Tess's wedding but to the preceding week of festivities. He arrives on the cape with his acquaintance, Mitch, an aspiring writer, and pretends Mitch is his boyfriend, but it turns out the joke is on them: the invite was sent as a prank by Tess's brother. Despite the Lowells' longtime disapproval of Peter, they offer him and Mitch the use of their guest house. Over the disastrous week, Mitch, a stalwart member of the working class, verbally spars with the Lowells and Tess's fiancé, a centrist politician and "safe" choice for her future, with whom she lacks the spark she had with Peter. While Peter and Tess remember what drew them to each other, Mitch falls for both of them. The novel's epigraph borrows a line delivered by Katherine Hepburn: "The time to make up your mind about people is never." Unfortunately, Stoddard's characters never surprise the reader, hewing to stereotypes throughout. This one never quite takes flight.
Customer Reviews
Wow what a force of chaos
Tess is marrying Warren, a politician currently running in the present election for the Massachusetts Senate. They’re in the midst of running a campaign that’s nearly at its end and the election is just around the corner. His campaign manager Reese, feels that Warren should have postponed this wedding until after the wedding but Tess has her heart set on getting her marriage to Warren behind them so she is able to have a marriage of success and moreover, one that she can prove was not the guilt ridden mess of her decisions and the events that unraveled her first marriage that she shamefully walked out of while her husband was in rehab for his alcoholism. She had promised him when she delivered her intervention and also her ultimatum that he was to go amd get himself together and when he was done with his months away working on himself, they could discuss the details of their marriage and work out where they’d go from there. Yet, she did what has always weighed on her. More so in the earlier days and years than she has felt in years.
When her ex husband, Peter who was a remarkably talented painter who’s passion for his art embed his very essence and as an art historian, Tess should acquire him as her first client, she has plans to have an agency representing new and up coming artists and connecting them to all the reputed art professionals and gallery owners whose interest in any of her clients work can get their career on an upward and very successful trajectory. And she did this for Peter as well. The difference beyeeen then and now was her personal interest, deep attraction and her conviction of his talents and was they not only become a professional team, he did artist and Tess the agent. Her genuine belief in his talent was even apparent to Peter after she’d secretly bought a few of his works from him. She would also elope with him, Tess begin the one to suggest the marriage and the business partnership. They had such a passionate and profound connection together with the exception that they came from entirely different worlds. Tess was a trust fund woman. The wealth from her family’s success, her rather hotelier, having both built and acquired fleets of hotels,Her mother, wealthy and absolutely brilliantly skillled in her own right, a highly awarded and successful physician. The sheer largesse of Tess’s family’s Cape Cod compound, a mere part time home they’d summer at when she, her sister Georgia and their brother Sebastian were small. The siblings arranged elite boarding schools and attended even more exclusively elite/ivy schools for college. Their parents were rarely home, their father traveling constantly did his work, their mother spent more time in the hospital and her career was first priority over everything, especially the children. They had hired chefs, housekeepers, land keepers and a gated oceanfront summer house. During the academic year, they remained in Manhattan and began attending boarding schools getting the top notch educations that was expected of those of their pedigree and had learned to grow up souls the sort of parents that raised them like several of their other friends had been fortunate enough to had known the love and support of their own parents.
When Tess and Peter eloped, her mother was aghast and wasn’t thrilled she hadn’t been invited let alone even saw a photo of the day they’d gone to the wedding