The Girls of August — Anne Rivers Siddons

Every August, four women would gather together to spend a week at the beach, renting a new house each year. The ritual began in their twenties when their husbands were in medical school, and became a mainstay of every summer thereafter. The only criteria was oceanfront and isolation, their only desire was to strengthen far-flung friendships. They called themselves the Girls of August. But when one of the women dies tragically, the group slowly drifts apart and their vacations together are brought to a halt. Years later, a new marriage reunites them and they come together once again on a remote barrier island off the South Carolina coast. There, far from civilization, the women make startling discoveries that change them in ways they never expected.