Colony by Anne Rivers Siddon

There was a time when people "summered".  The men in the family worked hard making money or managing family fortunes while the women and children escaped the heat of the eastern cities in small exclusive oceanside communities.  This was the world of Peter Chambliss and his aristocratic Bostonian family.  It was not the world of 19 year old Maude Gascoigne of Charleston, South Carolina.  But when these two fall passionately in love and marry, Maude must learn to manage the social minefield of Retreat on the Maine coast.  While she learns to love the ocean and the wilderness around Retreat, she bristles at the inequality of the communities social mores.  Maude tells this generational story from the perspective of the aged doyenne of  Retreat with pride of place ownership of the best rocker on the yacht club porch.  But wealth did not guarantee happiness and there were many struggles along they way.  The exquisite description of the Maine coast and the accessibility of the characters make it more wonderful escapism than a total romantic beach read.