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Rhode Island Books: Best Books Set in the Ocean State
By: Angela & Melissa
Updated:
As an Amazon Associate and member of other affiliate programs, we may earn a referral fee from qualifying purchases.Whether you’re participating in our Read Around the USA Challenge or simply found your way to our website researching books set in Rhode Island, we’ve curated a diverse list of highly-rated titles about the Ocean State!
Rhode Island is the smallest state in the US, but it boasts more than 400 miles of coastline.
During the Gilded Age of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, many of America’s wealthiest families spent their summers in the seaside town of Newport, Rhode Island. They built extravagant mansions that have been historically preserved and now draw a million tourists a year. It’s no surprise that many of the books about Rhode Island are set in Newport or other islands, including Block Island.
The Best Novels Set in Rhode Island
Polite Calamities
Book Summary
In 1960s Newport, the lives of three women were about to collide. Winifred is different than the other society wives in her circle. She’s colorful, opinionated, and blunt. When her wealthy husband dies, she throws expectations out the window and begins hosting parties for the clerks and waiters who serve the town instead of for the elite.
Marie is a struggling artist, trying desperately to forget her painful past and make her dreams of the future come true. An unexpected friendship with Winifred may be the key to her success.
June is a high-society housewife who suffers from debilitating chronic pain. She has no patience for Winifred’s attempt to disrupt Newport’s social order and will do anything to stop her.
A Hundred Summers
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Book Summary
It’s Memorial Day 1938, and New York socialite Lily Dane has returned with her family for another summer in the oceanfront community of Seaview, Rhode Island. But when Lily’s former best friend, who is newly married to Lily’s former fiance, shows up at the beach, the summer no longer looks as peaceful and relaxing as planned.
Amid gossip and an impending hurricane, buried emotions and unexpected truths bubble to the surface.
Also Featured on These Book Lists:
The Wedding People
Book Summary
For years, Phoebe has dreamed of visiting the iconic Cornwall Inn in Newport, Rhode Island. She looked forward to shucking oysters and sailing into the sunset with her husband. But instead, she arrives alone and plans to stay in the most expensive room for one night.
As it turns out, Phoebe is the only guest at the Inn who is not a part of a big wedding party. The bride, Lila, thought she had accounted for every possibilty in her effort to host the perfect wedding, but she couldn’t have predicted Phoebe’s arrival.
Phoebe and Lila are complete opposites, but sometimes chance meetings turn into the most unexpected friendships.
The Book Girls Say…
While this synopsis sounds light and the book is humorous at times, there are also plenty of deep topics. Be sure to check trigger warnings before reading if needed.
Reviewers note that the audiobook is especially well done.
Also Featured on These Book Lists:
The Lighthouse Keeper’s Daughter
Book Summary
Twenty-two-year-old Grace has called a lighthouse in England home for all of her life. She has a quiet life until she and her father rescue shipwreck survivors. Grace gains fame and respect throughout the country, and even becomes the subject of poems, ballads, and plays. This earlier timeline is based on the story of the real-life Grace Darling.
One hundred years later, in 1938, 19-year-old Matilda disgraced her family by becoming pregnant. She is sent from Ireland to live with a reclusive relative who is a lighthouse keeper in Rhode Island. With a deadly hurricane approaching, Matilda and Grace’s lives – a century apart – will become linked by their acts of courage and love.
A Well Behaved Woman: A Novel of the Vanderbilts
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Book Summary
Alva Smith had a decent society name, but her family has lost all of their money. When she married into the newly rich, but socially scorned Vanderbilt family, she knew only half her problems were solved. She had more money than she could ever spend again, but her new last name was not respected in the city.
When the Academy of Music denied her a box, she founded The Met to prove she wouldn’t handle rejection quietly. But how much can she work around the strict rules of New York society? And will there be consequences for pushing the boundaries?
The Book Girls Say…
If you enjoyed the HBO series, The Gilded Age, you might recognize aspects of the storyline as the show, and this book both draw from New York society history.
Also Featured on These Book Lists:
In a Jam
Book Summary
When Shay inherits a tulip farm, it comes with strings attached. First, she has to move home to Friendship, RI. That is manageable, but the second stipulation that she be married within one year is much trickier. Her fiancé just called off their wedding, and she has no desire to jump into another serious relationship.
Former classmate Noah loved Shay in high school, but he was too shy to ever tell her. These days, he’s a single dad to his niece and runs the family business. He has his hands full with no time for romance…until Shay returns home.
The Age of Innocence
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Book Summary
At the end of the 19th century, Newland Archer is preparing to marry the beautiful and conventional May Welland. But when Countess Ellen Olenska returns to New York, fresh out of a disastrous marriage, Archer falls madly in love with her. He is torn between expectations and passion as he struggles to make a decision. The consequences of his choice could either define his life or destroy it.
This book won the 1921 Pulitzer Prize for its vivid portrait of the Golden Age of Old New York. The wealthy families also summer in Newport, Rhode Island, giving us a glimpse of Gilded Age life outside of the city.
The Book Girls Say…
Like many classics, this novel is slow going at times, but many readers find that the end wraps the story up nicely in a way that makes everything clear. One reader elaborates, “This is not an easy read, due to style and syntax, but it is far ahead of its time in terms of its take on the pretenses of society, the hypocrisy of status and class, and women’s place therein.”
Also Featured on These Book Lists:
Gilded Summers
Book Summary
In the Gilded Age, wealthy New York families like the Vanderbilts and Astors escaped the heat of summer in Manhattan by traveling to Newport for the season. Pearl is the teen daughter of one of these families but yearns for a different life than her social-climbing mom expects.
Ginerva is also in Newport for the summer, but she’s a new immigrant from Italy and joins the household as a servant and seamstress. Pearl and Ginerva become fast friends, but Pearl can’t let her family know she’s befriended a member of the staff. The realities of their approaching adulthood became real when Pearl accepts a “suitable” marriage proposal that will pull her further into society life.
The Book Girls Say…
This is the perfect novel for fans of Downton Abbey if you’re looking for an American twist on the upstairs/downstairs life.
Also Featured on These Book Lists:
My Sister’s Keeper
Book Summary
Sixteen-year old Kate has been fighting leukemia since she was very young. Thirteen year old Anna is the healthy one, yet she’s undergone countless surgeries and transfusions. That’s because Anna was conceived, by way of preimplantation genetic diagnosis, to be a bone marrow match for Kate.
Most teenagers begin to question who they really are, but for Anna, this question is much more complex. That leads her to a decision that has the potential to tear her family apart, and may even have fatal consequences for Kate.
Also Featured on These Book Lists:
The Knitting Circle
Book Summary
Mary is lost in grief after the sudden loss of her only child, five-year-old Stella. She’s shut out her husband, has a distant relationship with her mom, and feels like she’s drowning in sorrow alone.
Her mother has been nagging her to get out, and convinces her to try Big Alice’s Sit And Knit in Providence, Rhode Island. As she knits, she learns about the other attendees, who are each trying to overcome their own dark seasons of life. From terminal illness and a past sexual assault to those trying to heal from losing loved ones on 9/11, the knitters share their past. And as she bonds with them, Mary begins to process her own grief.
The Book Girls Say…
The individual stories that have brought the characters together are dark and depressing. While it’s ultimately a story of new friendship & healing, be aware that it’s not always an easy read.
Also Featured on These Book Lists:
Novels About Quilting, Knitting, and Crocheting
Highly-Rated and Readable 9/11 Books
The Islanders
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Book Summary
Anthony is a rising literary star, but he’s struggling. He borrows a friend’s crumbling beach house on Block Island, off the coast of Rhode Island, hoping that the quiet solitude will be just what he needs.
Joy came to Block Island a decade ago after her divorce to build a new life for herself and her young daughter. She now owns the island’s beloved whoopie pie cafe, but a new-to-town food truck is threatening her business.
Lu and her surgeon husband spend the summer on the island with their sons while he commutes to the mainland hospital. A former corporate lawyer turned stay-at-home mom, Lu, is quietly working on a new project that is increasingly demanding of her time.
Throughout one summer on Block Island, the lives of three strangers become intertwined through romance, well-meaning lies, and secrets – but as June turns to August, the truth will eventually come out.
The Book Girls Say…
This Rhode Island book is a delicious read perfect for fans of Elin Hilderbrand-style novels.
The Lost Summers of Newport
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
Book Summary
Spanning the Gilded Age to the present day in three different timelines, this novel is set amongst the summer mansions of Newport, Rhode Island.
In the present day, you’ll meet Andie, the producer of a reality show called Mansion Makeover. She’s in Newport to renovate the once fabulous but now slowly crumbling Sprague Hall. However, she has more than construction problems. The mansion comes with a reclusive heiress who still lives in the house but insists that no one speaks to her and that no one touches the boathouse.
In 1958, you’ll meet Lucia, aka Lucky, Sprague, who fled Mussolini’s Italy with her grandmother. They return to her Nana’s Newport house, which she hasn’t seen since 1899. One night in the boathouse, she uncovers a shocking truth that changes everything she thought she knew.
In 1899, mining heiress Maybelle Sprague was taking singing lessons from Ellen, who had been hired to help polish Maybelle for her entrance into society. Maybelle’s stepbrother has just purchased a home among Newport’s elite and hopes to marry Maybelle off to an Italian prince. However, Ellen has a checkered past that the family doesn’t know about.
The Book Girls Say…
Some readers find the triple storyline less enjoyable, while others love the way the characters are connected across a century.
Also Featured on These Book Lists:
Gilded Age Books
Summertime Reads for Historical Fiction Fans
Murder at the Breakers
Book Summary
Emma is a twenty-one-year-old second cousin to Cornelius Vanderbilt. In 1895, she landed an invitation to a grand ball at the Breakers, the Vanderbilts’ summer home. However, she’s not just going for fun. She’s also reporting on the ball for the society pages.
However, her task of observing the party takes an unexpected turn when she sees Cornelius Vanderbilt’s financial secretary plunge off a balcony. Her black sheep brother Brady seems to be the main suspect, but Emma believes he has been framed. Can she gather enough evidence to set him free?
The Book Girls Say…
Murder at the Breakers is the first of 12 currently published books in the Gilded Newport Mysteries series, which follows Emma in her career as a journalist and sleuth. As we’ve seen with other cozy series, the first book is the lowest rated in the series, with reader enjoyment going up after they know the main character.
The latest release in the series is Murder at Vinland, which was published in August of 2024.
Non-Fiction Books Set in Rhode Island
Vanderbilt: The Rise and Fall of an American Dynasty
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
Book Summary
Journalist Anderson Cooper, whose mother was Gloria Vanderbilt, teamed up with New York Times bestselling historian and novelist Katherine Howe to write this in-depth account of the triumphs and tragedies of one of America’s most legendary dynasties from an insider’s point of view.
It all began with Cornelius Vanderbilt, who was known as The Commodore. Throughout the 1800s, he built two empires – one in shipping and one in railroads, becoming the wealthiest man in America. When he died in 1877, his heirs began fighting over his fortune, fracturing the family in ways that would never fully heal.
This book traces the family’s history, and their influence on American capitalism, from the hardscrabble wharves of old Manhattan to their ornate 72-room summer estate in Rhode Island and beyond.
The Book Girls Say…
This book focuses more on the family and less on the business side, and the authors don’t shy away from hard truths. Be aware that this book is not written in a chronological timeline, but most readers say it flows nicely.
Down City
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
Book Summary
This true crime memoir paints a vivid portrait of Rhode Island, where the ghosts of mafia kingpins live alongside a community of stubborn people working hard every day to get by.
Leah Carroll’s story is that of a resilient young woman’s determination to learn the truth about the mother she never knew and the troubled father who raised her. Leah’s mother, a talented photographer, was murdered by two drug dealers with Mafia connections when Leah was just four years old. Her alcoholic father – a man she describes as “both my greatest champion and biggest obstacle” – died when Leah was just eighteen.
This memoir documents Leah’s life from her earlier years in the 1980s through the age of 32.
The Book Girls Say…
As you would expect, this book contains difficult topics.
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Read Around the USA – Books Set in Other States
We hope you enjoyed this book list of books about Rhode Island and found some great titles to add to your TBR. If you’re participating in our Read Around the USA Challenge, be sure to check out our alphabetical index of books set in each state.
