Dramas & Plays
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Rock the Boat: A Novel
"[A] witty, heartfelt debut novel about a belated coming-of-age."-The New York Times Book Review (Editors' Choice)
Old friends discover how much has changed (and how much has stayed the same) when they reunite in their seaside hometown for one unforgettable summer-from the New York Times bestselling author of From the Corner of the Oval
When Kate Campbell's life in Manhattan suddenly implodes, she is forced to return to Sea Point, the small town full of quirky locals, quaint bungalows, and beautiful beaches where she grew up. She knows she won't be home for long; she's got every intention (and a three-point plan) to win back everything she thinks she's lost.
Meanwhile, Miles Hoffman-aka "The Prince of Sea Point"-has also returned home to prove to his mother that he's capable of taking over the family business, and he's promised to help his childhood best friend, Ziggy Miller, with his own financial struggles at the same time. Kate, Miles, and Ziggy converge in Sea Point as the town faces an identity crisis when a local developer tries to cash in on its potential. The summer swells, and white lies and long-buried secrets prove as corrosive as the salt air, threatening to forever erode not only the bonds between the three friends but also the landscape of the beachside community they call home.
Full of heart and humor-and laced with biting wit-Rock the Boat proves that even when you know all the back roads, there aren't any shortcuts to growing up.
Old friends discover how much has changed (and how much has stayed the same) when they reunite in their seaside hometown for one unforgettable summer-from the New York Times bestselling author of From the Corner of the Oval
When Kate Campbell's life in Manhattan suddenly implodes, she is forced to return to Sea Point, the small town full of quirky locals, quaint bungalows, and beautiful beaches where she grew up. She knows she won't be home for long; she's got every intention (and a three-point plan) to win back everything she thinks she's lost.
Meanwhile, Miles Hoffman-aka "The Prince of Sea Point"-has also returned home to prove to his mother that he's capable of taking over the family business, and he's promised to help his childhood best friend, Ziggy Miller, with his own financial struggles at the same time. Kate, Miles, and Ziggy converge in Sea Point as the town faces an identity crisis when a local developer tries to cash in on its potential. The summer swells, and white lies and long-buried secrets prove as corrosive as the salt air, threatening to forever erode not only the bonds between the three friends but also the landscape of the beachside community they call home.
Full of heart and humor-and laced with biting wit-Rock the Boat proves that even when you know all the back roads, there aren't any shortcuts to growing up.
Editorial Reviews
"Lively [and] intelligent."-People
"The perfect . . . read for anyone who craves a smart story with a happy ending."-Oprah Daily
"It'll hit you right in the feelings. Beck, will you please write a sequel?"-HelloGiggles
"Whip-smart and perfectly capturing that delicate balance between your younger and adult selves, Dorey-Stein's book will have you-gasp!-craving a reunion with your high school pals."-E! Online
"Sharp, irreverent, and compulsively readable-about how the best stuff in life is always what you didn't plan."-Lauren Weisberger, New York Times bestselling author of The Devil Wears Prada and Where the Grass Is Green and the Girls Are Pretty
"Beck Dorey-Stein's buoyant first novel is about finding out who you are and what matters most when everything tips sideways. It's about rediscovering what love costs and finding your way back to the people who truly mean home. Funny and effervescent, hope and heart-filled, Rock the Boat is a breath of delicious and utterly fresh air."-Paula McLain, author of The Paris Wife and When the Stars Go Dark
"Brimming with wit and warmth, and peopled with a terrifically vibrant cast of characters, Rock the Boat is a delightful, whip-smart page-turner with an expansive heart."-Claire Lombardo, author of The Most Fun We Ever Had
"What a cocktail of a book, topped with frothy, delicious wit. Beck Dorey-Stein nails the pathos and comedy of that slippery, sideways path to (sigh) adulthood. We can be awful to the people we feel safest with-those who love us and who have known us the longest-and Dorey-Stein captures that truth beautifully. I'm wildly grateful to have discovered a novelist who delivers this amount of sheer pleasure&...
"The perfect . . . read for anyone who craves a smart story with a happy ending."-Oprah Daily
"It'll hit you right in the feelings. Beck, will you please write a sequel?"-HelloGiggles
"Whip-smart and perfectly capturing that delicate balance between your younger and adult selves, Dorey-Stein's book will have you-gasp!-craving a reunion with your high school pals."-E! Online
"Sharp, irreverent, and compulsively readable-about how the best stuff in life is always what you didn't plan."-Lauren Weisberger, New York Times bestselling author of The Devil Wears Prada and Where the Grass Is Green and the Girls Are Pretty
"Beck Dorey-Stein's buoyant first novel is about finding out who you are and what matters most when everything tips sideways. It's about rediscovering what love costs and finding your way back to the people who truly mean home. Funny and effervescent, hope and heart-filled, Rock the Boat is a breath of delicious and utterly fresh air."-Paula McLain, author of The Paris Wife and When the Stars Go Dark
"Brimming with wit and warmth, and peopled with a terrifically vibrant cast of characters, Rock the Boat is a delightful, whip-smart page-turner with an expansive heart."-Claire Lombardo, author of The Most Fun We Ever Had
"What a cocktail of a book, topped with frothy, delicious wit. Beck Dorey-Stein nails the pathos and comedy of that slippery, sideways path to (sigh) adulthood. We can be awful to the people we feel safest with-those who love us and who have known us the longest-and Dorey-Stein captures that truth beautifully. I'm wildly grateful to have discovered a novelist who delivers this amount of sheer pleasure&...
Readers Top Reviews
Nancy HartillRach
Once Thomas clicks off his education and courtship of Kate, he dumps her. She heads home to all her friends and tries a new career after a stagnant 12 years. What experiences and friends she had, come rallying to give new perspectives as she mulls over the possibility of getting her old boyfriend back. Big changes are happening to everyone Kate associates with.
JANancy HartillRa
Great story about locals in a beach town. The characters are relatable in their wants and wishes as well as disappointments and triumphs. The conversations between the characters are the best parts of the book - very now. Lots of beach town traditions create a great background for locals and visitors to this facinating setting. I didn't want this book to end.
SamJANancy Hartil
I read Rock the Boat in one sitting. It perfectly captures summertime and is the feel-good get-away I didn't know I needed. Complicated characters, quirky small-town vibe, and a coming-of-age story for the generations. I'll be buying copies for all my friends.
Well Read Nana 1/
This book was hard for me because I liked it and it frustrated the heck out of me. The author tells this story at a turtle's pace, much more dialogue about surroundings and places than character interaction. I will say that when the author moved the story along and was having the characters interact I enjoyed it .It was a bit annoying these three failure to launch friends but they grow into your heart in a fun and annoying way. The ending was a bit non descriptive for what I was hoping for but it was still okay .I could deal with it .I hope this author reads her reviews because I think she is a talented writer and she has a good sense of humor and heart and it shows but she just has to work on her flow of the storyline. Move it along, better flow for the beginning, middle and end .More character interaction , I wouldn't have minded all the surroundings detail if we were getting alot more from the characters as well. There are so many characters in this book there didn't need to be so much lag time.I did appreciate the fun facts about turtles etc... and I'm a Jersey girl so I was appreciative of some of the overdone details but if your not a Jerseyite you might get more frustrated than I did .So 3.5 stars from me but again a hell of alot of potential for sure with this author so I will definitely try her again .Not a bad choice of a book just needed more action .
Kerry RoseWell Re
I’ve been waiting for Dorey-Stein’s novel since her debut with From the Corner of the Oval, and Rock the Boat blew me away. I laughed out loud repeatedly at brilliant one-liners and hilarious/scathing social commentary, and became deeply attached to her expertly developed and very humanly flawed characters. Every character in the book felt like someone you’ve known your entire life, with deep, complex emotions, and very real (and relatable!) problems. A masterful plot and fastidious character development are bundled up together into a package of super smart, readable, heartfelt prose. I didn’t want it to end, and when I closed it, I missed my new friends Kate, Zeke, and Miles immediately (and desperately needed a paloma). I’m already impatient for her next novel!
Short Excerpt Teaser
Part I
Road to Nowhere
Kate Campbell opened her eyes but couldn't see a thing. It was the middle of the night and, like a young Miss Clavel only less French and more ginger, she knew something was not right. Recalling the details of the previous evening, however, she realized it was just the opposite-nothing was wrong, and everything was finally about to be extremely right.
Kate smiled in the dark as all the evidence accumulated to form an arrow pointing at a singular fact: Thomas would propose to her in the morning. Wriggling back under the covers, Kate grinned as she imagined what everyone would think besides It's about time. Of course it was about time; it had been twelve years.
Despite-or maybe because of-the countless, candid conversations they'd had about how and when to get engaged, Kate was shocked that Thomas would spring this on her. It was impressive, really, to still surprise someone after more than a decade of dating (never mind those two rocky breaks when he was stressed in med school, or those six months his first year of surgical residency, or this second fellowship). They'd agreed forever ago that the only real incentive to marry would be if they wanted to start a family, and they hadn't even discussed children in the last six months because Thomas's fellowship was basically Kill Bill only in long, white coats and with far more blood.
But the end of the fellowship was finally in sight with an offer at the same hospital, and their conversation the night before was undeniable evidence of an imminent proposal. They'd been in a cab crossing back over the Brooklyn Bridge, Kate watching the fare tick up and up, when Thomas had asked if she'd like to go to brunch at Norman's in the morning.
"Before New Hampshire?"
"Mm-hmm," Thomas said, looking at his phone.
"With Aggie and Marta?" Thomas's sister and sister-in-law lived above them in the building Thomas's grandparents owned. They would carpool to New Hampshire together for Easter Sunday, just as they'd done every Easter since they were twenty-two.
"Just us," Thomas had said, as he continued to stare down at his phone. This calculated attempt to plan a casual brunch without Aggie and Marta seemed odd to Kate, like inserting a key only to find the door already unlocked. It momentarily jostled her out of her midnight stupor, but she had been too tired to explore what Thomas's suggestion might mean-until now, hours before dawn, when his odd behavior had, poof, turned into proof.
But proposing in April? Kate wrinkled her nose. April in New York was horrific-an open sewage drain of a month with damp clothes and nagging colds, everyone trudging through the office as bedraggled and psychotic as the Times Square pigeons. Kate had assumed that if this was going to be the year, Thomas would have waited for May, and asked while they were on vacation with his friends.
As the sun rose, however, Kate warmed to Thomas's strategy: He would pop the question now so they could then drive up to New Hampshire to celebrate with the Mosby clan over Easter. She hoped but doubted that Thomas had thought to include her family in some way, which was not his strong suit, only because his family was big and fun and . . . a lot. All three generations and extended branches of Mosbys lived here in the city, mostly on the Upper East Side but everyone in Manhattan, or what Thomas jokingly referred to as "the only island that matters." It was easy enough to forget that Kate did come with her own small family of four from a tiny beach town in New Jersey. Technically, Sea Point was only a three-hour drive from the city-the same distance as New Hampshire-but it felt worlds apart from her life in New York because the rest of the Campbells found the city as daunting as Thomas found Sea Point "quaint."
Kate closed her eyes and hoped the sleepless night wouldn't show on her face when they asked a stranger to snap their picture after she'd said yes-or maybe Thomas had hired a photographer to hide in the bushes for candids? She wondered if he had thought to size his grandmother's engagement ring just before emitting a low groan: She had become the kind of person she despised, and she wasn't sure whether to blame her work, her generation, or herself.
As a rising star at Artemis Public Relations, Kate's craft was bending stories into taglines. Recently, she'd caught herself treating her own life like a client's portfolio, and her online profile reflected her professional life's permeation into the personal-her photos were flawless, her captions simple and clever. Kate envisioned colleagues, acquaintances, and ghosts from the past viewing ...
Road to Nowhere
Kate Campbell opened her eyes but couldn't see a thing. It was the middle of the night and, like a young Miss Clavel only less French and more ginger, she knew something was not right. Recalling the details of the previous evening, however, she realized it was just the opposite-nothing was wrong, and everything was finally about to be extremely right.
Kate smiled in the dark as all the evidence accumulated to form an arrow pointing at a singular fact: Thomas would propose to her in the morning. Wriggling back under the covers, Kate grinned as she imagined what everyone would think besides It's about time. Of course it was about time; it had been twelve years.
Despite-or maybe because of-the countless, candid conversations they'd had about how and when to get engaged, Kate was shocked that Thomas would spring this on her. It was impressive, really, to still surprise someone after more than a decade of dating (never mind those two rocky breaks when he was stressed in med school, or those six months his first year of surgical residency, or this second fellowship). They'd agreed forever ago that the only real incentive to marry would be if they wanted to start a family, and they hadn't even discussed children in the last six months because Thomas's fellowship was basically Kill Bill only in long, white coats and with far more blood.
But the end of the fellowship was finally in sight with an offer at the same hospital, and their conversation the night before was undeniable evidence of an imminent proposal. They'd been in a cab crossing back over the Brooklyn Bridge, Kate watching the fare tick up and up, when Thomas had asked if she'd like to go to brunch at Norman's in the morning.
"Before New Hampshire?"
"Mm-hmm," Thomas said, looking at his phone.
"With Aggie and Marta?" Thomas's sister and sister-in-law lived above them in the building Thomas's grandparents owned. They would carpool to New Hampshire together for Easter Sunday, just as they'd done every Easter since they were twenty-two.
"Just us," Thomas had said, as he continued to stare down at his phone. This calculated attempt to plan a casual brunch without Aggie and Marta seemed odd to Kate, like inserting a key only to find the door already unlocked. It momentarily jostled her out of her midnight stupor, but she had been too tired to explore what Thomas's suggestion might mean-until now, hours before dawn, when his odd behavior had, poof, turned into proof.
But proposing in April? Kate wrinkled her nose. April in New York was horrific-an open sewage drain of a month with damp clothes and nagging colds, everyone trudging through the office as bedraggled and psychotic as the Times Square pigeons. Kate had assumed that if this was going to be the year, Thomas would have waited for May, and asked while they were on vacation with his friends.
As the sun rose, however, Kate warmed to Thomas's strategy: He would pop the question now so they could then drive up to New Hampshire to celebrate with the Mosby clan over Easter. She hoped but doubted that Thomas had thought to include her family in some way, which was not his strong suit, only because his family was big and fun and . . . a lot. All three generations and extended branches of Mosbys lived here in the city, mostly on the Upper East Side but everyone in Manhattan, or what Thomas jokingly referred to as "the only island that matters." It was easy enough to forget that Kate did come with her own small family of four from a tiny beach town in New Jersey. Technically, Sea Point was only a three-hour drive from the city-the same distance as New Hampshire-but it felt worlds apart from her life in New York because the rest of the Campbells found the city as daunting as Thomas found Sea Point "quaint."
Kate closed her eyes and hoped the sleepless night wouldn't show on her face when they asked a stranger to snap their picture after she'd said yes-or maybe Thomas had hired a photographer to hide in the bushes for candids? She wondered if he had thought to size his grandmother's engagement ring just before emitting a low groan: She had become the kind of person she despised, and she wasn't sure whether to blame her work, her generation, or herself.
As a rising star at Artemis Public Relations, Kate's craft was bending stories into taglines. Recently, she'd caught herself treating her own life like a client's portfolio, and her online profile reflected her professional life's permeation into the personal-her photos were flawless, her captions simple and clever. Kate envisioned colleagues, acquaintances, and ghosts from the past viewing ...
