Rich People in Santa Barbara

In Montecito Peak, Barbara Palmer, who is very rich—"I was born lucky"—is a good mother to fourteen-year-old Betsy, the guiding light of Bird of Paradise Books, an involved member of the Concours d'Elegance committee. But emotionally she's treading water. Her husband is a peevish alcoholic. He's a terrible father. No one would think less of her if she divorced him. But he would still always be in her life being a drag. Then one day Barbara falls in love with Mike Brooke. A reciprocated love. The odious husband has to go.

In The Polo Club, Lydia Graham is a garden designer who grew up in Montecito. Her husband is a longboard surfer who's good at making money. He's a great father to their fifteen-year-old daughter. It's a happy marriage. Then Hunter Evans, a man whom Lydia knew when she was fourteen and he was thirty-two, returns to Santa Barbara. Socially connected, still terribly attractive—and a dubious character—he rents a condo at the Polo Club. He understands Lydia all too well, and suddenly he's a danger to her marriage. This cannot be allowed.