Suspenseful and cinematic, Bittersweet exposes the gothic underbelly of an idyllic world of privilege and an outsider's hunger to belong.
On scholarship at a prestigious East Coast college, ordinary Mabel Dagmar is surprised to befriend her roommate, the beautiful, wild, blue-blooded Genevra Winslow. Ev invites Mabel to spend the summer at Bittersweet, her cottage on the Vermont estate where her family has been holding court for more than a century; it's the kind of place where children twirl sparklers across the lawn during cocktail hour. Mabel falls in love with midnight skinny-dipping, the wet dog smell that lingers near the yachts, and the moneyed laughter that carries across the still lake while fireworks burst overhead. Before she knows it, she has everything she's ever wanted: friendship, a boyfriend, access to wealth, and, most of all, for the first time in her life, the sense that she belongs.
But as Mabel becomes an insider, a terrible discovery leads to shocking violence and reveals what the Winslows may have done to keep their power intact - and what they might do to anyone who threatens them. Mabel must choose: either expose the ugliness surrounding her and face expulsion from paradise, or keep the family's dark secrets and make Ev's world her own.

懸疑劇情宛如電影情節！《Bittersweet》一書揭露外表詩情畫意卻暗藏醜聞的世界，且圈外人卻汲汲營營、想方設法進入的權力圈。平凡無奇的梅布爾‧道格瑪因為獲得獎學金而來到坐落於東海岸、享負盛名的東海岸大學就讀。她萬萬沒想到能與美麗、狂野、出身名門的吉納芙‧溫斯洛成為室友、進而成為朋友。吉納芙邀請梅布爾到比德斯威特莊園過暑假，吉納芙家族擁有這座位在佛蒙特州的莊園已經超過一世紀了。這座莊園就是那種上流社會裡，小朋友會在大人社交、啜飲雞尾酒時，穿梭在草坪上、揮舞仙女棒的地方。梅布爾徹底地愛上這樣的生活：肆無忌憚地在半夜裸泳、遊艇周圍瀰漫的臭味、及權貴們的嘻笑聲伴隨著在湖上綻放的煙火。在她意識到之前，梅布爾已經擁有一切她渴望的：友誼、男朋友、財富，這是她生平第一次體會到歸屬感。隨著梅布爾成為圈內人，她漸漸發現溫斯洛家族為了鞏固家族勢力所做出的驚人舉動，還有對任何威脅所做出的反擊。梅布爾面臨抉擇：揭發這些醜陋不堪的真象、被逐出這個繁華世界，亦或是繼續隱瞞這些不為人知的秘密、成為他們的一份子。