When You Loved Me - by Beatriz Williams (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

NATIONAL BESTSELLER - A young widow returns to her late father's New England estate, only to be drawn into the hunt for the rumored pirate treasure that consumed his life, in this thrilling and moving novel from the New York Times bestselling author of Husbands & Lovers.

"Utterly transporting . . . one of the most gorgeous love stories I've read in a long time."--Emily Giffin

Local history insists that a legendary pirate buried his treasure somewhere beneath Windward, the decayed Cooper estate on Winthrop Island, but Lucy Cooper never trusted the fable that broke her family apart. When a widowed Lucy returns with her young daughter to grieve her estranged father, she discovers catastrophe: The property is mired in debt she canʼt repay, and Ben Ressler has unexpectedly turned up on her doorstep.

Thirteen summers ago, the teenaged Lucy never meant to fall in love with Ben, a Dartmouth football star vacationing nearby at the Peabody estate and the object of an all-consuming crush by Laura Peabody, Lucy's best friend. Those few weeks were the best and worst of Lucy's life, dooming her friendship with Laura. Now, after a fatal accident ended his dazzling NFL career, Ben has returned to live quietly in the Peabodys' caretaker lodge. He's also the last person who saw Lucy's father alive.

As Lucy reconstructs her father's troubling final days, she uncovers his research on the frozen winter of 1717, when a desperately wounded pirate sought refuge on Winthrop Island with an enigmatic healer. To Lucy, this history points the way to a different kind of treasure: how to heal from the fractures of the past and earn a second chance at love. But just as Lucy's long-buried emotions sear to the surface, a shocking turn of events reveals that someone else on the island will do whatever it takes to claim the fabled plunder.

A timeless story of love and atonement, When You Loved Me maps both a centuries-old treasure hunt and the intimate territory of the human heart, weaving together past and present as only Beatriz Williams can.

Review Quotes

"An utterly transporting novel, When You Loved Me is a perfect showcase of Beatriz Williams's trademarks: richly drawn characters, buried secrets that echo across generations, and the kind of emotional and moral complexity that lingers long after the final page. This is one of the most gorgeous love stories I've read in a long time."--Emily Giffin, New York Times bestselling author of Love You More

"A beautifully woven story of passion, survival, and buried treasure in all its forms . . . When You Loved Me will both warm and open your heart. I absolutely loved it."--Annabel Monaghan, New York Times bestselling author of Dolly All the Time

"Rich details set the stage in each of the timelines, with compelling characters and lots of plot strings that, in Williams' deft hands, all weave together in a supremely satisfying read."--Booklist, starred review

"Beatriz Williams delivers a thrilling, heartfelt story of love, forgiveness, and the treasures we carry in our heart."--SheReads, "Most Anticipated Historical Fiction of Summer 2026"

About the Author

Beatriz Williams is the New York Times and internationally bestselling author of Husbands & Lovers and many other novels, including four in collaboration with bestselling authors Karen White and Lauren Willig. A graduate of Stanford University with an MBA in finance from Columbia University, Williams has won numerous awards for her fiction, which has been translated into more than a dozen languages. She lives near the Connecticut shore with her husband and four children.