In Wonderland by Joyce Maynard

There’s something about a Maine summer that promises transformation. Long golden days, the shimmer of a lake at dusk, the pull of a world just out of reach. In this gripping new novel, that promise turns dangerous.

In one golden summer, Frances trades her working-class world for an elite Maine lakeside estate—where privilege and betrayal turn into a deadly game.

Frances believes she’s found a ticket to paradise when a wealthy couple hires her for the summer as their mother’s helper at their lakefront home. Vintage wooden boats. Days at the country club. A shiny new bicycle and a tennis racquet. Suddenly Frances has everything her modest childhood lacked. Best of all, she gets to spend the season with Forrest Emerson, her father’s charismatic childhood friend who escaped their old neighborhood when he married into money.

But below the glittering surface of Lake Catherine, nothing is what it seems.

When Forrest’s wife Regina pulls Frances into her private obsession, the girl finds herself witness to the intimate secrets of adult lives. As the summer heat builds, so do the tensions within Wonderland’s walls. By Labor Day, a death will shatter the seemingly perfect family—leaving Frances to question everything she thought she knew about privilege, power, and the price of belonging.

Part coming-of-age story, part slow-burn psychological thriller, this is the kind of book you’ll finish in a single rainy afternoon and then think about for days. A local Maine story that captures the salty allure and quiet cruelty of a summer that changes everything.

Come linger a while. This one belongs on your shelf. We think you’ll love it.

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