CANR
WORK TITLE: Swan Song
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE: http://elinhilderbrand.net/
CITY: Nantucket Island
STATE:
COUNTRY: United States
NATIONALITY: American
LAST VOLUME: CANR 330
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Born in Collegeville, PA; daughter of Robert and Sally Hilderbrand; married Chip Cunningham, 1995 (divorced, 2015); children: Max, Dawson, Shelby.
EDUCATION:Johns Hopkins University, B.A., 1991; University of Iowa, M.F.A.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Writer. Worked as a paralegal for attorney Richard Loftin, Nantucket, MA; Nantucket Preservation Trust, Nantucket, director; University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop, teaching/writing fellow.
WRITINGS
Also author of novellas The Surfing Lesson and The Tailgate. Contributor to journals, including Massachusetts Review and Colorado Review.
ABC is adapting Hilderbrand’s Paradise Trilogy into a TV series; Netflix is adapting The Perfect Couple (2018) as a miniseries.
SIDELIGHTS
Elin Hilderbrand is the author of numerous novels that are all set on the historic island of Nantucket, which is also her home. As Hilderbrand noted in an interview with Rachel Deahl for the Boston Globe Online, she began writing her novels set on Nantucket when she was far away from that place, a student in the prestigious University of Iowa graduate writing program. She noted in the interview that she felt somewhat out of place in the Midwest and “wanted to connect with Nantucket while not being there, so I started writing about it, to feel closer to my adopted home.” She had dreams of becoming the “chronicler of Nantucket in the summertime.”
Hilderbrand’s first novel, The Beach Club, features Mack Peterson, a man originally from Iowa who has been managing the Nantucket Beach Club and Hotel for eleven years. As the new season begins, he considers whether he would like to buy the hotel from owners Bill and Therese Elliot, the parents of rebellious eighteen-year-old Cecily. Mack has a beautiful girlfriend, Maribel Cox, who is hinting about a wedding, an elderly friend named Lacey Gardner, and an enemy, Vance Robbins, who once vied with Mack for his job but who is now a bellboy. Other characters include a new receptionist who has a special reason for finding a man and another man who gives Mack competition for Maribel. The relationships between the characters are complicated when a hurricane threatens the resort.
A Publishers Weekly reviewer wrote: “Though somewhat predictable, these summer escapades have a strong emotional pull, and readers will remain absorbed until the surprising denouement.” Booklist contributor Deborah Rysso considered The Beach Club to be a “delectably dramatic debut novel.”
In Nantucket Nights, the main characters are Kayla, Antoinette, and Valerie, three women who have known each other for two decades. The novel is about their relationships as they continue their tradition of celebrating over the Labor Day weekend with lobster, champagne, skinny dipping, and soul baring.
This story was followed by Summer People, which also features a woman character and a vacation tradition on Nantucket. Beth Newton and her teenage twins, Garrett and Winnie, are beginning their annual Nantucket vacation without their father, Arch, as the book opens. Arch is not there with them because he perished in a plane crash. However, before he died, he had invited Marcus, the son of a black woman he was defending in a murder trial. Added to this mix during an unusual vacation for the family is David, an old love of Beth’s who is showing new interest in her. The story was characterized as “more entertaining beach reading” by Booklist contributor Beth Leistensnider.
The eatery in The Blue Bistro is an exclusive oceanside restaurant owned by Thatcher Smith, who plans to close it after the season ends. His talented chef is the reclusive Fiona Kemp, with whom he eats dinner every night after the restaurant closes. Into their lives comes Adrienne Dealey, a seasonal worker newly arrived from Aspen who is looking for employment. Although she has no restaurant experience, Thatcher hires her, and she proves to be a quick learner. She soon finds herself falling in love with Thatcher, but she is confused as to why Fiona is so abrupt with her. The question of why such a fabulous, popular restaurant is closing also figures into the novel. Other characters include a handsome bartender and an ambitious pastry chef.
As with her previous novels, Hilderbrand provides more than a story as she describes the beautiful island of Nantucket and all that it has to offer. Joanne Wilkinson, writing in Booklist, called the novel “fun, stylish, and absorbing vacation reading.”
The Love Season also focuses on characters on Nantucket, this time following young Renata and her fiancé, Cade, as they visit the island so she can meet Cade’s rich parents. While on the island, Renata arranges a meeting with her godmother, Marguerite, who was somehow involved in Renata’s mother’s death when Renata was a child. Marguerite, in turn, nervously prepares to meet her goddaughter and wonders how to explain the past to the young woman. Some critics found the interaction between the two women compelling and fascinating.
Certain passages in The Love Season are “very moving,” wrote Booklist contributor Patty Engelmann. Others were pleased with the story’s pace and attention-grabbing plotline. The book is a “good page-turner,” noted Ann H. Fisher in a review for Library Journal.
Hilderbrand’s next novel, Barefoot, tells the story of three women, the two Lyndon sisters and their friend Melanie, as they attempt to escape the issues they face in their real life by taking a summer vacation at the Lyndon family’s summer retreat on Nantucket. Vicki has just learned that she has stage-two lung cancer, a deep blow for the busy mother of two. Sister Brenda also has problems, though hers are of her own making; she has recently been fired from her teaching job at Champion College in the wake of an affair she had with a male student. Her own academic research has failed to yield any true discoveries, and that combined with the scandal makes it unlikely she will find gainful employment in academia anytime soon. She plans to spend her summer working on a screenplay adaptation of the novel she has been writing, in the hope that it will jump-start a new career, but she also knows this is at odds with the reality of supporting her sister through her illness and helping with her children. Melanie, who is Vicki’s friend, is escaping a society marriage to a cheating husband and has just discovered that she is pregnant, the final irony in her life given the years she has attempted to have a baby through various medical means. The trio’s relaxing summer is anything but, particularly thanks to the arrival of Josh, a handsome twenty-something Vicki ultimately hires to watch her two boys. Hilderbrand paints a chaotic summer of discovery, pain, and friendship.
Bronwyn Miller, in a review for Bookreporter.com, wrote that the book “has all the ingredients for a perfect summer read: a beautiful setting, conflict, romance, passion, friendship, fear and characters facing unthinkable odds.” A contributor to Kirkus Reviews commented that the plot of the book is “nothing original, but in Hilderbrand’s hands it’s easy to get lost in the story.” A writer for the Midwest Book Review remarked that “this deep character study will hook the audience who will want to know what is happening to each of the women.”
A Summer Affair is Hilderbrand’s next offering after Barefoot. The book follows the misadventures of talented glassblower Sheila Crispin Cook, a mother of four, who volunteers to serve as cochair for the local Children’s Summer Gala on Nantucket. Unfortunately, she soon discovers that the event is more than she can handle. Sheila starts promising one thing after another, buoyed by her success in retaining rock star Max West, her former boyfriend, to play at the gala.
Between the pressure of the event itself and juggling all of her different duties, as well as the presence of Max and her new affair with the executive director of the charity, Sheila has a hard time keeping everything moving in the right direction.
In 2009 Hilderbrand published the novel The Castaways. The Kapenashes, Drakes, and Wheelers come together after the MacAvoys’ boat is found capsized and the pair missing. Each couple holds a piece of the puzzle to figure out if this tragedy could have been prevented in the troubled MacAvoys’ life.
A contributor to Publishers Weekly suggested that “readers of women’s fiction who don’t mind digressions should be satisfied with this tale.” Booklist contributor Engelmann opined that “Hilderbrand provides the perfect summer read as she explores love, loss, and, ultimately, absolution.” A contributor to Kirkus Reviews remarked that “Hilderbrand has a master’s touch at characterization, making the novel’s players seem so familiar that the revelation of their secrets is irresistible.” The same contributor found the novel to be “great fun, and with a few poignant moments too.”
The following year Hilderbrand published the novel The Island. Recently divorced Birdie is busy planning her daughter Chess’s wedding. When they break off the wedding and the erstwhile groom commits suicide, Birdie and Chess return to their family home at Tuckernuck to cope with circumstances.
A contributor to Publishers Weekly mentioned that Hilderbrand’s “never-never land portrait of the rich and randy will please” readers interested in finding “a satisfying beach read.” A contributor to Kirkus Reviews claimed that “Hilderbrand’s portrait of the upper-crust Tate clan through the years is so deliciously addictive that it will be the ‘It’ beach book of the summer.” Leah Greenblatt, writing in Entertainment Weekly, found the novel to be “consistently smarter and more compelling than it needs to be.” Writing in the Houston Chronicle, Catherine Mallette concluded that the novel “goes down as easily as a cold glass of white wine on a hot summer day. The characters are believable and likable.”
In Hilderbrand’s 2011 novel, Silver Girl, the author focuses on estranged friends who are reconciled through personal loss. Connie and Meredith were friends since childhood, but that friendship fell apart suddenly a few years ago. Now events in both women’s lives bring them back together. Connie’s husband dies, and she subsequently loses contact with her daughter. Meanwhile, Meredith’s investment broker husband, Freddy, becomes involved in a Ponzi scheme that ruins their material life and their marriage. While Meredith’s husband has been sentenced to 150 years in prison, she becomes a virtual prisoner in her Park Avenue apartment, hiding out from and fearful of the vengeance of defrauded investors. But soon her penthouse and possessions will be confiscated. She is saved by a call from her former friend, Connie, who insists she come to her Nantucket beachfront home. Even on Nantucket, however, Meredith cannot escape from angry investors. Told from the points of view of both Meredith and Connie, the novel takes the readers into the background and history of both characters. Meredith ended up marrying Freddy after having her heart broken by Connie’s brother. Connie, for her part, still grieves for her dead husband, Wolf, lost to cancer, and regrets that Ashlyn, her daughter, and she do not have a better relationship. Partly this is Connie’s fault, as she does not approve of Ashlyn’s lesbianism. A new beau is also in Connie’s life, but she is not sure whether she is ready for this. On Nantucket, both women attempt to heal wounds and rebuild their friendship.
A Kirkus Reviews contributor was not impressed with this offering from Hilderbrand, noting that “although the timely premise titillates, the story soon degenerates into just another redemptive middle-aged reconciliation of past and present.” The same contributor dubbed Silver Girl “beach-ready reading.” Other reviewers, however, had a much higher assessment. A Publishers Weekly writer termed the novel a “timely, touching story of loss, love, friendship, and forgiveness.” Similarly, Booklist reviewer Engelmann called the book a “winner,” further observing that this “sensitive and suspenseful tale succeeds in portraying a seemingly unlikable character, besieged Meredith, and making her human.” Further praise for Silver Girl came from Luxury Reading website contributor Jenn Leisey, who felt that Hilderbrand “expertly crafts two characters—as deeply flawed as they are loving—into a beautifully provocative storyline of relationships and self-love.”
Hilderbrand examines the effects of a tragedy on several Nantucket families in Summerland. The plot here centers on a traffic accident on graduation night. Penny Alistair and her twin brother, Hobson, known as Hobby, have a bright future ahead of them. She has an excellent singing voice, and he is a star athlete; both have colleges courting them. But driving home from a beach party, all this is ended. Penny is driving her boyfriend Jake’s Jeep. In the car along with those two are Hobby and another friend, Demeter. Suddenly Penny simply drives the car off a dead end road. The resulting accident kills Penny and leaves Hobby in a coma; Jake and Demeter are uninjured. When Hobby comes out of his coma, he learns that his days as an athlete are over. The community and the twins’ single mom, Zoe, are stunned by the tragic accident. No one knows what made Penny lose control of the car, but it seems that Demeter may have said something to her that caused Penny to become agitated. Demeter is saying nothing, retreating to alcohol instead. Penny’s boyfriend, Jake, fears Demeter may have told Penny that another girl was attracted to him, while Hobby thinks Demeter may have told her that he got a girl pregnant. The three families involved are deeply affected by these events. As Demeter’s socially prominent family attempts to come to terms with her drinking, Zoe closets herself from the community, focusing on Hobby’s injuries and recuperation. Meanwhile, Jake’s parents decide on a change of scenery, moving to Jake’s mother’s native Perth, Australia. For Jake’s father, Jordan, this is also a chance for a new start, for he has been carrying on an extramarital affair with Zoe for a number of years.
A Kirkus Reviews contributor offered qualified praise for Summerland, writing: “Despite some well-worn plot expedients and an unduly preachy denouement, [this offers] a sensitive glimpse into the lives of damaged people groping their way toward healing.” Similarly, Library Journal writer Amber Woodard felt that the novel “touches on heavy subject matter but has a satisfying conclusion.” Higher praise came from Booklist reviewer Carol Gladstein, who found it an “engaging story wonderfully illustrating the often complex lives of young people struggling toward adulthood.” A Publishers Weekly contributor also had a positive assessment of Summerland, noting that the author “has a gift for building tension, and the reader will be willing to do just about anything to discover the real reason [for the accident].”
Jenna Carmichael and Stuart Graham endure their stressful wedding in Beautiful Day. First, Jenna must deal with her dead mother’s extensive written instructions for her ceremony. Also, multiple uncomfortable situations arise among both families, including Jenna’s sister’s affair with her father’s law partner, Jenna’s father’s impending divorce, and Stuart’s father’s mistress’s presence at the ceremonies.
Writing on the Oklahoman website, Betty Lytle described the book as “an entertaining read.” Library Journal critic Amber McKee called it “another summer delight for fans of women’s fiction.” Sarah Eisenbraun, a contributor to the RT Book Reviews website asserted: “This beautiful and fun novel promises to entertain.”
Dabney Kimball Beech, the protagonist of The Matchmaker: A Novel, sees pink auras around perfectly matched couples. In addition to matchmaking and running Nantucket’s Chamber of Commerce, Dabney negotiates her feelings for her former flame and deals with breast cancer. In an article on the Huffington Post website, Hilderbrand noted that she was diagnosed with breast cancer herself not long after completing The Matchmaker. She commented on the unexpected similarities between herself and Dabney, stating: “I cannot help but draw parallels with the protagonist of The Matchmaker, Dabney Kimball Beech. I spent many months trying to put myself in Dabney’s penny loafers, asking myself: What would it feel like to find out you had cancer? How would you react? Would you do things differently? Would you do things the same? I tell my audiences that I don’t write from real life, and yet I had Dabney handle her situation the way I thought I would have.”
“Readers are bound to remember this novel long after finishing it,” remarked Eisenbraun on the RT Book Reviews website. Wilkinson, writing in Booklist, commented: “Hilderbrand has crafted another of her delectable beach reads.” “Hilderbrand has a way of transcending the formulaic and tapping directly into the emotional jugular,” stated a contributor to Kirkus Reviews.
Hilderbrand launched her “Winter” series with the 2014 novel, Winter Street. Christmas in Nantucket is the setting for this novel, and the action focuses on the Quinn family, owners of the Winter Street Inn. Wife Mitzi has run away with her lover, son Peter is under investigation for insider trading, and son Bart is serving in the military in Afghanistan. Of Hilderbrand, a Kirkus Reviews critic stated: “Her skill at creating character is present, but the plot feels constrained and a little predictable.” Other reviews were more favorable. On the RT Book Reviews website, Eisenbraun described the book as “charming” and “a treat that can be enjoyed year-round.”
Winter Stroll continues the series with Kelley Quinn, owner of the Winter Street Inn, composing a Christmas missive to friends and relatives, recounting the events of the past year. Kelley is now divorced from his second wife, Mitzi, and building a better relationship with his first wife, Margaret. Meanwhile, their son Kevin is celebrating the birth of a new baby, and their daughter Ava has finally found a nice guy. Just when things seems settled down and the family is looking forward to the traditional Nantucket Christmas Stroll, old lovers start showing up and causing tension. Booklist contributor Susan Maguire termed this a “slice of holiday life … from a master of domestic fiction, in which nothing feels tawdry, and the pages fly.” A Kirkus Reviews critic also had praise, noting: “Although some of the Quinns’ problems are resolved, many are not, happily promising a third installment next year.”
That third installment, Winter Storms, finds the Quinns preparing for still another Christmas season on Nantucket Island. The family is struggling with matters of love and loss. The youngest Quinn, Bart, is still missing in Afghanistan and Kelley is undergoing treatment for prostate cancer while Ava continues her quest for the right man. “Hilderbrand grabs you from the very first page and never lets you go,” noted a contributor in the online SusanLovesBooks. A Publishers Weekly reviewer was less impressed, remarking that “readers looking for a light read will be disappointed by this emotionally-wrought, scattered” series installment.
Hilderbrand provides a further slice of Nantucket Island life in The Rumor, in which a pair of families have a emotional collision course. Eddie and Grace Pancik have a beautiful house and two teenage daughters, but their life begins to fall apart as Eddie’s real estate ventures begin to tank. This causes problems for friends Madeline and Trevor Llewellyn, who have sunk most of Madeline’s last advance into one of Eddie’s schemes. This is doubly difficult for the Llewellyns, as Madeline’s writing is suddenly blocked. Grace begins an affair with her landscape gardener and tells Madeline, who decides to make it copy for her new novel, and then Eddie is seen visiting Madeline, which begins a rumor that they are having an affair. Soon the entire island is caught up in gossip mania.
A Kirkus Reviews critic had a high assessment of The Rumor, noting: “Once again, Hilderbrand displays her gift for making us care most about her least likable characters.” Writing in Booklist, Mary Ellen Quinn similarly observed: “Hilderbrand does her usual expert job of evoking the Nantucket setting and portraying flawed but likable characters.” Likewise, Library Journal reviewer Melissa DeWild commented: “Readers will be hooked as they get a glimpse into the messy lives of the beautiful people who only seem to have it all on this island.” Further praise came from an online Literary Treats writer who called the novel a “fun, breezy read that becomes surprisingly action-packed towards the end,” while New York Journal of Books Online contributor Nancy Carty Lepri noted: “Hildebrand offers a riveting plot with charming characters along with colorful and apt descriptions of Nantucket.”
In Here’s to Us, Hilderbrand focuses on a piece of somewhat rundown but nevertheless valuable Nantucket real estate, a beachfront cottage called American Paradise. The cottage belongs to well-known chef Deacon Thorpe (and to his creditors), and when he dies, he leaves a peculiar will: the house is bequeathed to his widow and his two former spouses. Gathered for the reading of the will, these people must figure out what to do with such a bequest. “No one captures the flavor and experience of a summer place—the outdoor showers, the seafood, the sand in the floorboards—like Hilderbrand,” noted a Kirkus Reviews critic of this novel. DeWild, writing again in Library Journal, also had praise, noting: “Hilderbrand … writes another juicy, beachy family drama set against the beautiful backdrop of Nantucket. Her stories are as alluring as the island itself.”
The Identicals is, as the title implies, the story of identical twins, Tabitha and Harper. Their parents divorced just as they were going off to college, and during the summers Tabitha would live with their mother on Nantucket while sister Harper would spend her summers with their father, Billy, on Martha’s Vineyard. The two would then visit opposite parents for the holidays. Now they are thirty-nine and have been more or less estranged for years. The death of their father, however, brings the twins back into contact in interesting ways. A Kirkus Reviews critic commended this novel, noting: “This beach read doesn’t shy from the grittier side of all that sand. Intelligent escapism with heart.” A contributor to Stephanie’s Novel Fiction website was also impressed, commenting: “Hilderbrand writes a wonderful story of second chances, renewal, love, friendships, transformations, and family dynamics at their best and their worst. I highly recommend The Identicals. It’s the perfect summer read!”
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Hilderbrand changes up her traditional Nantucket location by placing her new “Paradise” trilogy, starting with Winter in Paradise, in the sunny Caribbean. Magazine editor Irene Steele has received news that her beloved husband Russell has died in a helicopter crash on St. John in the U.S. Virgin Islands. There, with her sons, Baker and Cash, she learns that Russell led a secret life in a $15 million villa with a younger woman named Rosie Small, who also died in the crash. As Irene cares for Rosie’s daughter, Maia, she uncovers secrets, betrayals, and romance amid the vibrant island culture. “Hilderbrand delights in studding her fiction with the real” sending her characters “to actual shops, hotels, restaurants, and bars, with food and drink described in detail,” observed a Kirkus Reviews critic. Despite unanswered questions that will be resolved in future books in the series, Susan Maguire remarked in Booklist: “with engaging characters on a picturesque island, this is the perfect escape.”
Hilderbrand published her first historical novel set in America’s most tumultuous year in Summer in ’69. Kate expects to visit her matriarch mother, Exalta, on Nantucket island with her brood of adult and teenage children, but not everyone can make it. Blair is stuck home pregnant in Boston, Kirby is embroiled in the civil rights movement, and son Tiger is being deployed to Vietnam. Only 13-year-old Jessie accompanies Kate, but she’s bored at Exalta’s country club until she meets caretaker’s son Pick Crimmins. Blair’s controlling MIT astrophysicist husband, Angus, works at Mission Control for the Apollo 11 lunar landing. Packing in the historical events of 1969, Hilderbrand “hits all the right notes about life in a tightly knit family, and this crowd-pleaser is sure to satisfy,” noted a Publishers Weekly critic. In Kirkus Reviews, a writer remarked: “Hilderbrand’s characters are utterly convincing and immediately draw us into their problems, from petty to grave.”
In an interview with Sarah Laing at Globe & Mail, Hilderbrand remarked on Summer of ’69 being her first book to debut at number one on the bestseller list: “In 2019, the whole focus was Summer of ’69. It was the year I turned 50, and it was the book I wrote for my twin brother and my mom. It was super sentimental and important.” Acknowledging that she is the “the queen of the beach read,” Hilderbrand explained that she adds depth and insight into human behavior: “I have that literary background which is character-focused, and I get very deep in my characters… I’m consistently trying to come up with very specific drama, and that’s another hallmark of my novels.”
28 Summers begins a duology based on the 1978 film Same Time, Next Year, in which the romance of a one-weekend-per-year affair has consequences. In Baltimore, Mallory Blessing has left her son deathbed instructions to contact someone named Jack McCloud, Mallory’s secret lover she has spent every Labor Day weekend with in Nantucket for the past 28 years. Complicating matters is the fact that Jack is married to senator Ursula DeGournsey, the popular politician likely to win the upcoming presidential election. Hilderbrand follows Mallory and Jack through the years with pop-culture references and nostalgia. With sailing, sunsets, and cold gin and tonics, “Hilderbrand gets everything right and leaves her ardent fans hungry” for more, according to a Kirkus Reviews critic. Library Journal reviewer Sonia Reppe called the book “Less a story about a secretive affair and more a tale of sweet nostalgia and fate.”
In The Five-Star Weekend, Hilderbrand celebrates female friendship with added commentary on social media trends. Hungry with Hollis blogger Hollis Shaw is reeling from the sudden death of her heart surgeon husband from a car accident. She decides to organize a “five-star weekend” inviting a girlfriend from each stage in her life—childhood, teenage years, twenties, thirties, and midlife—to a weekend in Nantucket. But the friends aren’t necessarily keen on rekindling their relationship with Hollis or fitting in with Hollis’s other, sometimes volatile, friends. In this emotional drama, “Hilderbrand sets up seemingly impossible odds, then manages a convincing happy ending,” according to Susan Maguire in Booklist. “Hilderbrand makes the most of gathering these big personalities” as the “women discover things about themselves—and may even find love along the way,” noted a Publishers Weekly reviewer. Hilderbrand announced that she would retire from writing in 2024.
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BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Booklist, May 15, 2000, Deborah Rysso, review of The Beach Club, p. 1730; March 15, 2002, Beth Warrell, review of Nantucket Nights, p. 1211; June 1, 2003, Beth Leistensnider, review of Summer People, p. 1743; May 15, 2005, Joanne Wilkinson, review of The Blue Bistro, p. 1636; April 15, 2006, Patty Engelmann, review of The Love Season, p. 32; May 1, 2008, Patty Engelmann, review of A Summer Affair, p. 73; June 1, 2009, Patty Engelmann, review of The Castaways, p. 30; May 15, 2011, Patty Engelmann, review of Silver Girl, p. 17; June 1, 2012, Carol Gladstein, review of Summerland, p. 38; June 1, 2014, Joanne Wilkinson, review of The Matchmaker: A Novel, p. 40; September 1, 2014, Mary Ellen Quinn, review of Winter Street, p. 48; June 1, 2015, Mary Ellen Quinn, review of The Rumor, p. 45; September 15, 2015, Susan Maguire, review of Winter Stroll, p. 29; September 15, 2018, Susan Maguire, review of Winter in Paradise, p. 24; April 15, 2019, Susan Maguire, review of Summer of ’69, p. 36; April 15, 2020, Susan Maguire, review of The Hotel Nantucket, p. 32; September 15, 2022, Susan Maguire, review of Endless Summer, p. 17; April 15, 2023, Susan Maguire, review of The Five-Star Weekend, p. 31.
Boston, July 1, 2005, Erin Byers, review of The Blue Bistro, p. 20.
Entertainment Weekly, June 30, 2006, Leah Greenblatt, review of The Love Season, p. 166; July 18, 2008, Tina Jordan, review of A Summer Affair, p. 69; July 23, 2010, Leah Greenblatt, review of The Island, p. 89; July 1, 2011, Beth Johnson, review of Silver Girl.
First for Women, September 27, 2010, review of The Castaways, p. 112.
Globe & Mail, September 30, 2023, Sarah Laing, “Elin Hilderbrand Has Mastered the Beach Read.”
Houston Chronicle, August 8, 2010, Catherine Mallette, review of The Island, p. 14.
International New York Times, June 4, 2022, Michelle Ruiz, review of The Hotel Nantucket.
Kirkus Reviews, May 1, 2000, review of The Beach Club, p. 585; March 1, 2002, review of Nantucket Nights, p. 278; April 1, 2005, review of The Blue Bistro, p. 374; April 15, 2006, review of The Love Season, p. 370; May 15, 2007, review of Barefoot; May 15, 2008, review of A Summer Affair; May 15, 2009, review of The Castaways; May 15, 2010, review of The Island; April 15, 2011, review of Silver Girl; June 1, 2012, review of Summerland; June 1, 2013, review of Beautiful Day; May 15, 2014, review of The Matchmaker; September 1, 2014, review of Winter Street; June 1, 2015, review of The Rumor; August 1, 2015, review of Winter Stroll; May 15, 2016, review of Here’s to Us; April 15, 2017, review of The Identicals; September 1, 2018, review of Winter in Paradise; April 15, 2019, review of Summer of ’69; April 15, 2020, review of 28 Summers; September 1, 2022, review of Endless Summer; March 1, 2023, review of The Five-Star Weekend.
Library Journal, April 15, 2006, Ann H. Fisher, review of The Love Season, p. 66; June 1, 2012, Amber Woodard, review of Summerland, p. 94; June 15, 2013, Amber McKee, review of Beautiful Day, p. 82; June 2020, Sonia Reppe, review of 28 Summers, p. 80.
Midwest Book Review, April 29, 2008, review of Barefoot.
Publishers Weekly, May 29, 2000, review of The Beach Club, p. 51; May 27, 2002, review of Nantucket Nights, p. 39; May 30, 2005, review of The Blue Bistro, p. 40; April 10, 2006, review of The Love Season, p. 48; April 17, 2006, review of The Love Season, p. 165; April 2, 2007, review of Barefoot, p. 34; May 4, 2009, review of The Castaways, p. 30; May 17, 2010, review of The Island, p. 27; April 11, 2011, review of Silver Girl, p. 27; April 30, 2012, review of Summerland, p. 110; August 22, 2016, review of Winter Storms, p. 87; April 22, 2019, review of Summer of ’69, p. 76; April 24, 2023, review of The Five-Star Weekend, p. 49.
Xpress Reviews, June 12, 2015, Melissa DeWild, review of The Rumor; May 20, 2016, Melissa DeWild, review of Here’s to Us.
ONLINE
AllReaders.com, http://www.allreaders.com/ (January 10, 2006), Sandra Calhoune, review of The Blue Bistro.
Beth Fish Reads, http://www.bethfishreads.com/ (June 18, 2012), review of Summerland.
Blogcritics, http://blogcritics.org/ (June 28, 2011), April Decheine, review of Silver Girl.
Book-Club-Queen, http://www.book-club-queen.com/ (November 7, 2010), author interview.
Booking Mama, http://www.bookingmama.net/ (July 19, 2011), review of Silver Girl.
Bookreporter.com, http://www.bookreporter.com/ (June 14, 2007), Carole Turner, review of The Love Season; Bronwyn Miller, review of Barefoot.
Boston Globe Online, http://www.bostonglobe.com/ (July 14, 2012), Rachel Deahl, “Elin Hilderbrand on Her Latest Nantucket Novel.”
Elin Hilderbrand Website, http://www.elinhilderbrand.net/ (May 5, 2017).
Every Little Thing She Does, http://everylittlethingshedoesblog.com/ (December 29, 2016), review of Here’s to Us.
Huffington Post, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ (August 12, 2014), article by author.
Literary Treats, http://literarytreats.wordpress.com/ (July 22, 2012), review of Summerland; (July 10, 2015), review of The Rumor.
Luxury Reading, http://luxuryreading.com/ (July 12, 2011), Jenn Leisey, review of Silver Girl.
Nantucket Preservation Trust Website, http://www.nantucketpreservation.org/ (June 14, 2007).
New York Journal of Books, http://www.nyjournalofbooks.com/ (May 5, 2017), Nancy Carty Lepri, review of The Rumor.
Oklahoman Online, http://newsok.com/ (September 1, 2013), Betty Lytle, review of Beautiful Day.
Review from Here, http://reviewfromhere.com/ (June 18, 2012), review of Summerland.
RT Book Reviews, http://www.rtbookreviews.com/ (April 20, 2015), Sarah Eisenbraun, reviews of Beautiful Day, Winter Street, and The Matchmaker.
Silver’s Reviews, http://silversolara.blogspot.com/ (June 12, 2011), review of Silver Girl.
Stephanie’s Novel Fiction, https://stephsfictionandfamilylove.wordpress.com/ (May 18, 2017), review of The Identicals.
SusanLovesBooks, https://susanlovesbooks.wordpress.com/ (September 11, 2016), review of Winter Storms.
Upstate Ramblings, http://www.upstateramblings.com/ (June 22, 2012), review of Summerland.
Elin Hilderbrand is the author of twenty-eight novels, including the forthcoming THE HOTEL NANTUCKET (June 14, 2022). She is a proud 1991 graduate of Johns Hopkins University where she majored in Writing Seminars. In her senior year at Hopkins, Elin had her first short story, “Misdirection,” accepted for publication in Seventeen Magazine.
After a short stint working in publishing and teaching in New York City, she moved to Nantucket permanently in 1994. She attended the University of Iowa writers workshop and earned her MFA in 1998, and published her first novel, THE BEACH CLUB, in the summer of 2000. Her 2019 novel, SUMMER OF ’69 was her first novel to debut at #1 on the New York Times bestseller list. She is the mother of three children and loves riding the Peloton, cooking, and going to the beach. She will retire with her summer of 2024 book and plans on becoming a book influencer.
Elin Hilderbrand
USA flag
Elin Hilderbrand lives on Nantucket with her husband and their three young children. She grew up in Collegeville, Pennsylvania, and traveled extensively before settling on Nantucket, which has been the setting for her five previous novels. Hilderbrand is a graduate of Johns Hopkins University and the graduate fiction workshop at the University of Iowa.
Genres: Romance, General Fiction, Historical
New and upcoming books
June 2024
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Swan Song
(Nantucket, book 4)September 2024
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Natural Selection
Series
Nantucket
1. A Summer Affair (2008)
2. The Castaways (2009)
3. The Perfect Couple (2018)
4. Swan Song (2024)
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Winter
1. Winter Street (2014)
2. Winter Stroll (2015)
3. Winter Storms (2016)
4. Winter Solstice (2017)
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Paradise
1. Winter in Paradise (2018)
2. What Happens in Paradise (2019)
3. Troubles in Paradise (2020)
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28 Summers
1. 28 Summers (2020)
2. The Sixth Wedding (2021)
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Novels
The Beach Club (2000)
Nantucket Nights (2002)
Summer People (2003)
The Blue Bistro (2005)
The Love Season (2006)
Barefoot (2007)
The Island (2010)
Silver Girl (2011)
Summerland (2012)
The Matchmaker (2012)
Beautiful Day (2013)
The Rumor (2015)
Here's to Us (2016)
The Identicals (2017)
Summer of '69 (2019)
Golden Girl (2021)
The Hotel Nantucket (2022)
The Five-Star Weekend (2023)
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Collections
Reunion Beach (2021) (with others)
Endless Summer (2022)
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Novellas and Short Stories
The Surfing Lesson (2013)
The Tailgate (2014)
Summer of '79 (2020)
Natural Selection (2024)
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Omnibus editions hide
One Summer (2013)
The Elin Hilderbrand Collection Volume 1 (2014)
The Elin Hilderbrand Collection Volume 2 (2014)
High Tide (2016)
The Blue Bistro / The Love Season (2017)
Elin Hilderbrand Bids Farewell to Nantucket
BY Marion Winik • June 19, 2024
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Elin Hilderbrand Bids Farewell to Nantucket
Elin Hilderbrand. Photo by Beowulf Sheehan
Like legions of other Elin Hilderbrand addicts, I panicked when I heard that Swan Song (Little, Brown, June 11) would be her last novel. The Kirkus critic, in a starred review, clearly shared our concern, reporting, “Though Hilderbrand threatens to kill our darlings with this otherwise delightful final installment, an afterword reassures us it’s just ‘for now.’”
This 54-year-old author has earned a sparkling string of stars and raves over the course of 30 island-inspired volumes: “Who needs Nantucket? It could hardly be more fun than this book.” “The people in her books may screw up, but Hilderbrand always gets it right.” “Print the bumper sticker—I’D RATHER BE LIVING IN AN ELIN HILDERBRAND NOVEL.” With 23 million copies of her books sold globally, and multiple TV deals in the works (more on that later), the praise seems to be universal.
I caught up with Hilderbrand on Zoom while she was being driven from a library event in Syracuse to a meeting with her publishers in New York City. Busy lady.
Our conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
So are you retiring or not? And if so, why?
I’m going to take a full year off from the business plan that I’ve been on, no contracts of any kind. Professionally, I feel myself coming to the end of my material. I’ve done all the holidays, all the traditions, every part of the island, and I feel like I’m going to start repeating myself. The level at which I was writing for The Perfect Couple, Hotel Nantucket, The Five-Star Weekend, and Swan Song—I just can’t sustain that, and I never want to be one of those authors who starts putting out books that are just not as good.
The other piece of it is my kids. Dawson is in college at the University of Miami, and Shelby will join him next year. This feels like my last chance to spend quality time with them before they become adults and go on to have their own families. So I’m moving to Miami this winter. I’ll get a place close to campus and be their errand girl, take them out, cook for them, let them come over and do their laundry. My oldest son, Max, works on Nantucket in the summer and travels in the winter, so he can come down and hang out, too.
I heard you and Shelby are working on a book together.
Yes, Shelby’s graduating from boarding school at St. George’s in Newport, Rhode Island. Ever since she got there sophomore year, I’ve been getting five or six phone calls a day telling me all the stuff that’s going on. And the stories are outrageous. I said, “We must write a novel”; she said, “Sure.”
We’re doing a two-part series; the first one is junior year, then we follow them as seniors. There are multiple points of view and many different storylines braided together. I’m writing the head of school and the teachers; we’re each doing some of the students. Her most important job is filling in all the details and providing the Gen Z voice and attitude. It’s almost done, and it’s so good—so juicy!
Do you know the title yet? When will we see it?
The Academy, fall of 2025.
Let’s talk about Swan Song. What inspired the plot?
I had this dream that I was going to be able to write a “long con” thriller, like an Anna Delvey story. I was going to focus it on a younger couple on the make. They come to Nantucket and hook up with this older wealthy couple, but the older couple is actually the one doing the grifting.
Unfortunately, it turns out, I can’t write a thriller. I’m not a plot-forward writer. But I was still intrigued by the idea of a couple nobody knows coming to Nantucket, because one of the annoying things about Nantucket is that everybody knows everybody. This couple appears out of nowhere and turns old-school Nantucket society on its head.
How do you decide which recurring characters are going to appear in a book?
I knew Ed Kapenash, the police chief, was going to retire, and his plotline would be wrapped up. I wanted Fast Eddie, the real estate agent/reformed pimp, because there’s a big real estate deal in the plot. I brought back the characters from The Castaways, favorites of mine from long ago, and Jennifer Quinn from the Winter Street series.
And Blond Sharon, who becomes a writer. Going meta there?
I invented Blond Sharon back when I wrote The Rumor. At that time, there was so much gossip going around Nantucket, and I was so annoyed by it, that I decided to write a novel called The Rumor, and everybody who gossips on Nantucket would be in it. I always say I don’t put real people in my books, but this was an exception.
Blond Sharon was based on a woman who is blond and whose name is not Sharon, but it’s close. If this woman’s not talking about someone, she’s not talking. Blond Sharon returned in other books, and in Hotel Nantucket I gave her a sister named Heather. Well, I have a sister named Heather. Blond Sharon and Heather appeared again in The Five-Star Weekend, and now in Swan Song Sharon decides to try her hand at writing. After gossiping about all these Nantucket people for so long, she realizes she should be writing it down. At this point, the original gossipy woman has been left behind, and she’s morphed into a version of me.
I remember hearing that you didn’t have a great experience at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. Is that right?
My brand of fiction was not appreciated, you might say, and this is even before I started writing about Nantucket. Everybody else was very serious, very dark, very literary, and they looked at me as like this little chirping bird. I don’t know what they think now.
I think they’re green with jealousy. You have all kinds of TV stuff happening, right?
Well, Netflix has a gag on me for the main story. But I can tell you that The Perfect Couple, starring Nicole Kidman, Liev Schreiber, Dakota Fanning, and Eve Hewson, is in postproduction right now, and you should be seeing it in 2024.
Peacock is developing The Five-Star Weekend with writer Bekah Brunstetter, who just got nominated for a Tony for The Notebook.
The Winter Street series is in development with the same writer who did The Perfect Couple, Jenna Lamia; Summer of ’69 is with Sony 3000; Swan Song has been optioned as well, but I can’t say by whom since it hasn’t been announced.
Well, you’re about to dominate my TV, which is fine with me. Tell us a little about your podcast.
Books, Beach, and Beyond started last year, a little prematurely, since it was supposed to be after I retire, but my partner Tim Ehrenberg got excited about the idea and couldn’t wait. On Season 1, we had Colleen Hoover, Taylor Jenkins Reid, Ann Patchett, Jennifer Weiner, Kristin Hannah, Jodi Picoult, and Sunny Hostin, among others. Coming up is Emma Straub, Claire Lombardo, Liane Moriarty, Emily Henry, and Emily Giffin. What I found out is that people will not say no to me!
Marion Winik hosts the NPR podcast The Weekly Reader.
Why Elin Hilderbrand Wants to ‘Embrace the Moment’—Plus, Her Exclusive Book Picks for The Sunday Paper
by STACEY LINDSAY
If an author writes a captivating book, the readers will remember. If an author writes a captivating book once a year for two decades straight, the readers will follow—loyally. Best-selling author Elin Hilderbrand has done just this. With her 27 published novels, most of which have landed on the New York Times best-sellers list (the last four debuted at number one), Hilderbrand has established herself as a dependable creator of romantic escapism. For so many, summer relaxation means toes in sand and the new Elin Hilderbrand book between fingers.
This fervor for her work might explain why when Hilderbrand recently mentioned her plan to retire in 2024 it evoked a groundswell of curiosity. (It did for us at The Sunday Paper.) Why the end? What does she have in store? What about her readers? I asked her all of this—and more—recently on the phone. “I spent the first part of my career trying to get it off the ground,” Hilderbrand tells me. “Then for a while, I was flying and only intent on flying higher and higher. Now that I’ve reached my ceiling, I need to figure out how to get safely down without anyone saying I crashed.”
A Conversation with Elin Hilderbrand
You’ve recently released your latest book, Golden Girl, which was an instant best-seller. It’s your 27th book in a long line of best-sellers, most of which are based in or around your home of Nantucket. So why retirement?
I’m going to retire in 2024 very intentionally. When I say retire, what I mean is I’m going to stop doing the one Nantucket summer book a year. I had been doing two books a year for seven years: I did a winter series and the summer books. It’s very, very hard to sustain the quality of the storylines. Nantucket is small. I’ve done a lot of things and I don’t want to repeat myself. I don’t want the quality of the books to drop. I want to go out while I still feel that I’m doing my very best work.
Has this change been on your mind for a while?
I honestly wanted to retire with Golden Girl. Then I got to the point of Golden Girl where I wasn’t quite ready and my publisher wasn’t ready, and they were very emphatic about me continuing. So I agreed to three more books. I have ideas for three more and I’m excited about those ideas. It’s not impossible that I will get yet another idea and think to extend. But at this point, I want to prepare my readers. You can go out one of two ways: You can either spin the thread until it snaps, or you can very intentionally decide to stop doing what you’ve been doing—and that is my plan right now.
For so many readers, your annual new book is an unofficial punctuation of summer and escapism. This is wonderful but perhaps it also comes with great expectation. Regarding your planned retirement, how are you handling people’s expectations and even their disappointment?
One of the things that’s driving the decision is that I really try to make each book better than the last or, at least, different in some way. I’ve done a lot of different things like in the last five to six years: I wrote a murder mystery; I did a vintage-historical novel. The idea for my new book, Golden Girl, came out of nowhere and The New York Times said it’s my best book. So that adds pressure, pressure, pressure because the last thing I want to do is move backwards. What I’m telling my readers is I don’t ever want you to pick up one of my books and say, ‘it just wasn’t as good as the last one.’
My career is very ritualistic, just like people’s reading habits are. I write the books the same way. I revise them the same way. I tour basically the same way. I do everything the same and that is going to continue for the next three years. Then after that, I’m going to take a break, take stock and think where do I want to go from here? I’m going to reevaluate. There is a lot of room for me to grow, as a person. My work life is all encompassing. I’m constantly thinking about the books that I’m writing. I have three kids that I’m trying to launch. It’s a lot of work and I would love to have a life, as well.
You’ve been open about a few potential projects that interest you, including possibly writing a cookbook one day and also recommending books. Tell us about that.
I want to do a lot more reading, and I want to make sure that really good, well-written books are getting the attention they deserve. I look at what Oprah initially did, what the morning shows have done, and what Reese Witherspoon has done: They’ve put a focus on reading and reading collectively. I love that idea and I’m hoping that there’s room for a writer to offer book recommendations or to do some book influencing. I want to promote books that may get overlooked. And, again, I am going to focus on really, really good writing.
As you look ahead to a shift, what is some insight on life and change that you’re willing to share?
When I started out, I didn’t know where I was going. I wanted to get my first book published and I got my first book published. I was really in the moment with each book and then it just sort of accumulated and became a career and something that people really loved and valued. It took me a long time to be like, okay, now I’ve built this; I’ve created a thing.
I had breast cancer in 2014, and since I was sick, I got some perspective not only on my career but also on my life: I need to just enjoy the moment and embrace the moment. I think by putting a parameter on with my retirement, that it’s going to allow me to really savor the next three years and savor my relationship with the readers. And then I’m going to think very carefully about what I’m going to put out into the public sphere next.
30 books and 25 years later, Elin Hilderbrand is ready for a vacation
Hilderbrand chats with TODAY.com about the next chapter in her remarkable literary career.
Courtesy Beowulf Sheehan / Amazon
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June 11, 2024, 4:34 PM EDT
By Kelly Vaughan
After two decades of taking her readers on vacation to Nantucket, Elin Hilderbrand is ready for her own getaway.
The author of bestselling novels including “Barefoot” tells TODAY.com that her 30th book, "Swan Song," out June 11, will be her last Nantucket-based novel. She previously wrote on her website that she would retire after her 2024 book and “plans on becoming a book influencer.”
She first announced her plans in a 2021 interview with the Associated Press. “A lot of people will follow a writer for a long time and then inevitably they will turn out a book that is not as good as the others. I’ve always said to myself, ‘I will not do that. I will make each book better and better or different in some way.’ I feel myself coming to my natural end of my material," she said.
Hilderbrand, 54, published her first book, “Beach Club” in 2000 and since then, has come out with a new book every year — sometimes, even two.
Below, she opens up to TODAY.com about what retirement really looks like, and whether it involves writing.
Is Elin Hilderbrand really retiring? How she’s saying goodbye
Hilderbrand isn't retiring from writing altogether — but she says she is stepping back from Nantucket-centric books.
“I have achieved a certain standard. And so to keep up with that standard is really the challenge. The reason I’m retiring is because I know it’s not sustainable. And this is going to be it. There’s enormous satisfaction in saying, ‘OK, “Swan Song” is my last Nantucket-based novel,’” Hilderbrand says.
Many of her novels bring readers into the cobblestone streets of Nantucket, past weathered shingle homes and through annual fixtures like the Daffodil Festival and the Figawi Race Weekend.
Nicknamed “Billionaire’s Isle” by Boston.com, the island 30 miles off the coast of Massachusetts welcomes wealthy vacationers each summer. About 14,000 year-round residents call it home year round. One of them is Hilderbrand.
After 24 years, Hildebrand says writing about the summer enclave has become increasingly challenging.
Landscape image taken from shore in Nantucket, MA.
Many of Hilderbrand's novels take place in Nantucket.Getty Images
“I’ve woken up in the middle of the night and I’m like, ‘This book isn’t gonna work. I can’t make it work,’” Hilderbrand says.
Just as her imagination about The Grey Lady is waning, Hilderbrand wants to stay home more.
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“My kids are getting older, and I realized I only have a certain number of months or years before they move out and get their own families. So I want to be home more,” Hilderbrand says. “The irony is that I spend a lot of time off Nantucket promoting my books, and I really just want to be home.”
She felt the pressure to “get it right” with “Swan Song,” a literary farewell to the island — and a swan song itself, so to speak.
The novel has all the hallmarks of a Hilderband book: A mystery-thriller element related to an exorbitantly wealthy couple and their personal concierge, multiple love triangles, scenes spent abroad glossy yachts and in the passenger’s seat of a Land Rover, and plenty of high-end brand name callouts.
A few of Hilderbrand’s most beloved characters return for the finale, including Nantucket’s fictional chief of police Ed Kapensash, Fast “Eddie” Pancik and the always gossipy Blonde Sharon.
“The ending is really, really poignant and bittersweet. And every time I read the ending, I cry. It really feels like an end to an era,” Hilderbrand says.
Elin’s prologue
Hilderbrand’s origin story is nearly as famous as Brant Point Lighthouse.
Raised in Pennsylvania, Hilderbrand spent most summers vacationing on Cape Cod with her father, stepmother and five siblings. Those “magical summers” came to an abrupt end when her father was killed in a two-person plane crash in 1986 when she was 16. Shortly thereafter, she found herself working 40 hours a week in a factory that made Halloween costumes.
“What I needed, really, at that point was an Elin Hilderbrand novel,” she says.
Hilderbrand went on to study creative writing at Johns Hopkins University. After graduation, she tried her hand in the publishing industry, and then spent a few years as a public school teacher in New York. She felt confident that she wanted to be a writer but she didn’t know what professional career track would allow her to become one.
“I went to my writing professor, Madison Smartt Bell, and I said, ‘What do I do? Like, I want to be a writer? Do I get a job? Write? Do I go to graduate school?’” Hilderbrand recalls. “He said, ‘To be a writer, Elin, you have to go out in the world and live.’”
Determined to get her summers back, Hilderbrand decided to spend one season on Nantucket in between teaching jobs. “I fell madly in love with the island. I just was like, ‘Oh my God, this is my home,’” she says.
In 1994, she moved to the island permanently. There, she met her now-ex husband Chip Cunningham, with whom she shares three children. (Hilderbrand now calls Cunningham “a very dear friend of mine”).
Together, Cunningham and Hilderbrand traveled throughout southeast Asia, Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, South America, Latin America, the Galapagos Islands and Costa Rica.
“When I got back feeling like I had sufficiently gone out and lived,” she says, mimicking Bell’s advice, “I applied to graduate school at The University of Iowa — Writers’ Workshop.”
Hilderbrand was accepted to the prestigious graduate-level creative writing program, but it wasn’t the supportive environment she dreamed of. She recalls feeling “miserable” in the competitive environment. “I was writing things that had a lot more surface energy and I really did not feel appreciated,” Hilderbrand says. She started attending counseling, where she received one piece of advice that would change her life.
“The therapist said, ‘I think it’s pretty obvious what you need to do.’ And I thought she was going to tell me to quit, which I found strange. She said, ‘You need to start writing a book about Nantucket,’” Hilderbrand says.
On the final day of the program, a literary agent named Michael Carlisle visited Hilderbrand’s class. He had read a draft of Hilderbrand’s book, “The Beach Club,” and inquired as to which of the class’s students lived on Nantucket. She raised her hand, not yet knowing that doing so would be the start of a 25-year working relationship with Carlisle, who has represented her ever since.
Carlisle tells TODAY.com that what attracted him to Hilderbrand’s story was that it took place on the coastal island.
“The connection was a geographical one and a family one. I happen to know the place where she lived and where she set the first book and subsequent 29 books after,” Carlisle says. Together, they went on to sell “The Beach Club” to St. Martin’s Press for what Hilderbrand calls “a very small advance.”
“I got $5,000. And I remember saying to (Carlisle), ‘Is $5,000 a lot of money? Because like, I can’t quit my job.’ And he’s like, ‘Well, this is the only offer we got, we have to take it.’”
Hilderbrand’s first five books were published by St. Martin’s Press before she and her team decided to transition to a new publisher in 2006.
“I had this sort of Cinderella day where I visited all the publishers in New York and I ended up switching publishers. I moved to Little, Brown and they changed my life,” Hilderbrand says.
A beach read empire
“Barefoot,” a novel about three women who travel to Nantucket to escape the trials and tribulations of daily life, was the first of Hilderbrand’s books to be published by Little, Brown and Company.
And then came a wave of astronomical success. Twenty five of her 30 novels became New York Times best sellers and and seven debuted in the No. 1 position on the New York Times hardcover fiction list, starting with “Summer of ‘69” in June 2019. She has sold over 20 million books.
“The way that my career has gone has been so miraculous, honestly, and I’m so grateful to (Carlisle) for believing in me and then to Little, Brown for building me so thoughtfully,” Hilderbrand says.
She published two widely popular series — The Winter Street Series and The Paradise Series — and, along the way, redefined the meaning of a beach read.
Swan Song / The Perfect Couple / The Hotel Nantucket
Amazon
“What Elin has done is she’s invented the elevated beach read. People now will think of a beach read as something that has a great plot and great characters and great dialogue. I think that the escape element is what makes it a great summer read,” says David Forrer, a literary agent who represents Hilderbrand alongside Carlisle.
Carlisle says the setting adds to the feeling of a beach read, but that the books’ plots are more sophisticated.
“I think the fact that it’s a summer place that sings about the joys of summer with whatever the family interaction or drama that takes place in the setup of the book, I think that’s what works. So is it a beach read? Sure. People read it on the beach. It’s set in a summer community. But it’s not always just about surf, sharks and families sitting on a picnic. They’re more complex novels,” Carlisle adds.
Hilderbrand doesn’t mind when people call her books beach reads. What she does mind are people who think what she does is easy, just because her end products are about as easy to consume as an icy lemonade on a hot New England day.
“On the one hand, it’s easy-breezy, but if you don’t care about the characters, you’re not going to turn the pages. So you have to have some skill in writing and have people care about your characters, which is hard,” she says.
Hilderbrand chooses to focus on how much her books have meant to her readers. She tells stories of readers who reached out to her and said her books were a welcome escape for them from troubles like a cancer diagnosis or caring for sick loved ones.
“When it’s their darkest hour, and people are turning to my books, what greater gift for me as a writer to be like? ‘It was my worst time ever and I read your book, and it made me feel better.’ That is a sense of purpose that I have now that I don’t think I had when I started,” Hilderbrand, who is a breast cancer survivor, says.
What’s next after ‘retirement’?
As summer on Nantucket heats up, thousands will descend on the sandy shores of Jetties Beach on Nantucket with a pint from Cisco Brewers in hand. You might find Hilderbrand there, but mentally, she’s getting ready to go back to school. That might sound strange coming from a woman who insists she’s retiring, but like her best novels, there’s a plot twist.
After finding that her Nantucket-based books became increasingly challenging to write, Hilderbrand found new inspiration by working on a two-part book series with her 17-year-old daughter, Shelby Cunningham.
The first book, which is expected to be released in September 2025, is inspired by her daughter’s experience attending boarding school at St. George’s School in Newport, Rhode Island.
“It’s like somebody plugged me into a socket — I’m so energized, so excited to be able to take my writing skills, which now at the age of 54, are pretty, pretty advanced, and be able to take them to a different topic. All of a sudden, writing has become new for me,” she says.
Elin Hilderbrand Steps into New Waters After Retiring from Writing Beach Reads (Exclusive)
The bestselling author, known for her Nantucket-based novels, published her final summer book, 'Swan Song,' on June 11
By Carly Tagen-Dye Updated on June 16, 2024 09:16PM EDT
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Elin Hilderbrand and the cover of 'Swan Song'. Photo: Beowulf Sheehan; 2024 Hachette Book Group, Inc.
At the June 11 book signing for author Elin Hilderbrand’s new novel, Swan Song, the line of devoted readers, who call themselves the "Hilderbabes," wraps around Books and Greetings in Northvale, NJ. The majority of the event’s attendees are women of all ages, all waiting in anticipation of the author who has long been a meaningful part of their own lives.
“My first book, I read on my 50th birthday on a ferry to Nantucket,” one fan tells PEOPLE of Hilderbrand’s novels. “I was like, ‘This is it for me. I love it.’”
“I save [Hilderbrand’s books] for the summers,” another reader says. “That's the only time I read them, because I feel like they just transport me to Nantucket … If you read one of her books, you've gotten a grasp of a lot of them.”
For Hilderbrand, who arrives at the event dressed in a striped, sunset-esque dress — it’s a tradition for each of her book signings to have a theme color — this new novel is both bittersweet and something of a relief. After writing 27 books based on the Massachusetts island of Nantucket, Swan Song, out now, is the last of Hilderbrand's summer-themed novels before she steps away from the genre.
“My retirement, really, is for them,” Hilderbrand, 54, tells PEOPLE, of her fans. “I never want anybody to pick up my book and say, ‘It just wasn't as good as the last one.’ That is not going to happen. I've been watching a lot of people's careers and it's so important how you dismount.”
A beachy beginning
Elin Hilderbrand attends Breast Cancer Research Foundation's Boston Hot Pink Party Honoring Bill Belichick & Linda Holliday at InterContinental Boston on April 23, 2019
Elin Hilderbrand. Paul Marotta/Getty
Hilderbrand still remembers the first time she saw Nantucket. It was 1993, and she was on the ferry into town for a visit. People began to stir on the top deck, and as the author looked out onto the water, she saw the island’s two church steeples and sailboats in the harbor come into view. It was infatuation at first sight.
“I was like, ‘I love it here,’” she recalls. “‘I love it here, and I'm never leaving.’”
At the time, Hilderbrand, who grew up in Pennsylvania, was living in New York. Soon, she would quit her job in book publishing and follow a childhood love of writing (she won Best Author of her second grade class) to study at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. Hilderbrand still remembers her first published pieces as budding writer — her debut publication, a short story called "Misdirection" in Seventeen Magazine, brought in $800.
PEOPLE Picks the Best Elin Hilderbrand Books to Dip into This Summer
“The rest, it just didn't end up being that easy,” she says. Her 2000 debut novel, The Beach Club, boosted by a mention in PEOPLE, sold out its first run of 2,500 copies, but success came more gradually with her other titles. Her first #1 New York Times bestseller was the 2019 historical fiction novel Summer of ‘69.
As a local on Nantucket, where she moved permanently in 1994, Hilderbrand often references real places, and runs into readers on the daily. Pulling fiction from fact, however, is a delicate dance. Her novel, The Rumor, was inspired by a real experience. When Hilderbrand went to receive a biopsy prior to a breast cancer diagnosis (she is now cancer free, per her website), someone saw her at the hospital. Rumors spread about her having cancer before she even got her results, Hilderbrand says.
"I'm like, 'Okay, I'm writing a novel about all these people who gossip and I'm going to put all these real gossippers in the book, which I did," she says. "But you have to change them so much so that they fit the narrative, [so] that nobody knew who they were except for me."
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When she can, Hilderbrand writes her drafts longhand by the ocean. She didn’t change anything about her process for Swan Song – less out of superstition and more out of knowing what works.
“Every book, successively for the last four or five years, has gotten harder for me to write, because Nantucket is small and I have to have fresh takes,” she says. “And it's hard to get fresh takes on number 27.” The novel, which chronicles the arrival of a mysterious couple on Nantucket, brings back some of Hilderbrand’s most beloved characters for one last adventure on the island. Though Hilderbrand ended her Nantucket novels on her own terms, it was still an emotional milestone.
“I was okay until I wrote the last chapter,” she says. “I cried, and then every time I read it, I cried.”
Stepping into fresh waters
Elin Hilderbrand book
Elin Hilderbrand. Elin Hilderbrand/Instagram
For such a longtime literary icon, it’s only natural that Hilderbrand is turning her sights on becoming a book influencer — both through social media, where she often takes to Instagram to promote new authors, and on her podcast, Books, Beach & Beyond, which she cohosts with Nantucket Book Foundation president Tim Ehrenberg.
“I never wanted the listener to feel like they had to go read a book,” Hilderbrand says of the podcast. “I wanted it to be a person [who] they've already read the books.” To date, Hilderbrand has chatted with everyone from Colleen Hoover to Jake Tapper on the program. Sarah Jessica Parker, a dedicated reader who launched her book imprint, SJP Lit, in 2022, recently kicked off season two.
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Hilderbrand, a mother of three, is also writing a book series with her daughter, Shelby. The novels are set in an academy, based upon the boarding school that Shelby attended. Both mother and daughter were fascinated by some of the school’s traditions, including an annual dance that Hilderbrand describes as more akin to a rave.
“At some point in her second semester of her first year, I'm like, ‘We are writing a book about this,’” Hilderbrand says. The two brainstormed characters together, as well as “a universe that's not unlike the Hotel Nantucket.” Hilderbrand recently finished a draft of the first book, and is sending it to Shelby so she can rewrite the dialogue.
“I'm in a new genre world here,’” Hilderbrand says. “It does not sound even remotely realistic if you're not just using the language that the kids use.”
“My kind of novel matters”
Elin Hilderbrand book
Elin Hilderbrand. Elin Hilderbrand/Instagram
Long ago dubbed the “Queen of the Beach Read,” the forthcoming novel series marks a new period in Hilderbrand's career. The author admits that she’s had some quibbles with how the beach read genre, and her Nantucket novels in particular, have been received over the years.
“The [words] ‘easy’ and ‘breezy’ or ‘easy breezy’ just drive me crazy,” she says. “I know what they mean. They mean it's not dark, it's not depressing, it's not gritty … It might not even be construed as important, but if you don't connect with the characters, you're not going to turn the pages.”
Here's What Your Favorite Authors are Reading This Summer (Exclusive)
Hilderbrand, who prefers to read literary fiction in her free time, takes the tools she learned in graduate school and applies them to a beach setting. It’s the reason why her stories are both an escape and, occasionally, an emotional reading experience. Amongst the sun and sand, her characters face death, illness and other tough life factors.
Because of this, Hilderbrand has had many meaningful interactions with fans over the years. A mother whose daughter was killed in the Sandy Hook Elementary shooting told Hilderbrand that her novels got her through that difficult period. A woman revealed that she was reading the author’s 2017 novel, The Identicals, to her aunt when she died from breast cancer in hospice care. Hilderbrand even carries a letter in her bag from a reader who kept her novels close after experiencing multiple miscarriages and postpartum depression, and who was later inspired to join a book club.
“My books got her back out into the world,” Hilderbrand says. “I read that [letter] because it's so inspiring, but it's also proof that my kind of novel matters, and it has purpose and it has value.”
Looking toward the horizon
writer Elin Hilderbrand
Elin Hilderbrand. Beowulf Sheehan
As she welcomes fans in the children’s section of Books and Greetings — taking pictures, complimenting summer outfits and giving her own thanks right back — Hilderbrand is indeed at the end of an era. It’s striking to hear the stories her readers share with her as they come up to her table to have their books signed, and to witness the subtle (and occasionally outright) sadness of one last summer novel event together.
“People have been bringing me presents, which they always sort of brought me presents, but now [they bring] retirement cards, which is so funny because I feel so young,” the author says.
PEOPLE’s Most-Anticipated Summer Books: Best Beach Reads, Thrillers, Fiction, YA and More
But Hilderbrand isn't leaving the Hilderbabes behind just yet. Following her book tour, she will hold weekly signings at Mitchell’s Book Corner on Nantucket throughout the fall for her local devotees. So many show up, however, that the author has had to cap each signing at 135 tickets, in order for her to get out on time. The author is paring down her other events too, like her famous Bucket List weekends, where she joins readers around the island to explore the setting of her books.
“As soon as I get home on June 21, the summer should be very mellow,” the author says. “I do some fun things with my friends and with the kids.” In addition to some much-needed rest, she's also looking forward to the long-awaited TV adaptation of her 2018 novel, The Perfect Couple. The show is set to head to Netflix before the end of the year, and stars Nicole Kidman and Liev Schreiber.
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For Hilderbrand, this last book is also an opportunity to reflect. She thinks back on words of wisdom given to her by a college professor before graduation.
“He said, ‘You got to go out in the world and live,’” she says. “And it is that advice that I give people, and it is that advice that has served me.”
Swan Song is now available, wherever books are sold.
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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Elin Hilderbrand
Born July 17, 1969 (age 55)
Collegeville, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Occupation Author
Language English
Alma mater Johns Hopkins University
Genre Fiction, romance
Elin Hilderbrand (born July 17, 1969) is an American writer, mostly of romance novels. Her novels are typically set on and around Nantucket, where she resides.[1][2][3] In 2019, New York magazine called Hilderbrand "the queen of beach reads".[4]
Biography
In 1969, Hilderbrand was born in Collegeville, Pennsylvania, where she was also raised. She is a graduate of Johns Hopkins University, and was previously a teaching/writing fellow at the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop.[5][6]
Hilderbrand spent her summers on Cape Cod, "playing touch football at low tide, collecting sea glass, digging pools for hermit crabs, swimming out to the wooden raft off shore", until her father died in a plane crash when she was sixteen. She spent the next summer working, doing piecework in a factory that made Halloween costumes; she promised herself that the goal for the rest of her life would be to always have a real summer.[7]
In July 1993, Hilderbrand moved to Nantucket, taking a job as "the classified ads girl" at a local paper, and later started writing.[7]
In 1995, Hilderbrand married Chip Cunningham at The Chanticleer in Siasconset, Massachusetts.[8] They have three children together.[9]
Hilderbrand's first novels, starting in 2000, were published by St. Martin's Press.[10]
With Barefoot, published in 2007, she moved to Little, Brown and Company
Hilderbrand had a double mastectomy in June 2014.[11]
In 2015, Hilderbrand and Chip Cunningham divorced.[8]
The Perfect Couple, published in 2018, was her first murder mystery.[citation needed]
Actress Ellen Pompeo has been working with ABC in adapting Hilderbrand's Paradise Trilogy into a TV series where she would star after her departure as the lead on Grey's Anatomy.[12]
Her novel The Perfect Couple (2018) is being adapted as a miniseries of the same name by television streaming service Netflix, starring Nicole Kidman, Liev Schreiber, Eve Hewson, and Dakota Fanning. Principal photography began in 2023, but no release date has yet been announced.[13]
Bibliography
Novels
Swan Song (2024; ISBN 978-0-316-25887-6)
The Five-Star Weekend (2023; ISBN 978-0-316-25877-7)
The Hotel Nantucket (2022; ISBN 978-0-316-25867-8)
Golden Girl (2021; ISBN 978-0-316-42008-2)
Troubles in Paradise (2020; ISBN 978-0-316-43558-1)
28 Summers (2020; ISBN 978-0-316-42004-4)
What Happens in Paradise (2020; ISBN 978-0-316-43557-4)
Summer of '69 (2019; ISBN 978-0-316-42001-3)[14]
Winter in Paradise (2018; ISBN 978-0-316-43551-2)[15]
The Perfect Couple (2018; ISBN 978-0-316-37526-9)
Winter Solstice (2017; ISBN 978-0-316-43545-1)
The Identicals (2017; ISBN 978-1-473-61123-8)
Winter Storms (2016; ISBN 978-0-316-44948-9)
Here's To Us (2016; ISBN 978-0-316-37514-6)
Winter Stroll (2015; ISBN 978-0-316-26113-5)
The Rumor (2015; ISBN 978-0-316-33452-5)
Winter Street (2014; ISBN 978-0-316-37611-2)
The Matchmaker (2014; ISBN 978-0-316-09975-2)
Beautiful Day (2013; ISBN 978-0-316-09976-9)
Summerland (2012; ISBN 978-0-316-09983-7)
Silver Girl (2011; ISBN 978-0-316-09966-0)
The Island (2010; ISBN 978-0-316-04387-8)
The Castaways (2009; ISBN 978-0-340-91980-4)
A Summer Affair (2008; ISBN 978-0-316-01860-9)
Barefoot (2007; ISBN 978-0-316-01859-3)
The Love Season (2006; ISBN 0-312-36969-7)
The Blue Bistro (2005; ISBN 978-0-312-99262-0)
Summer People (2003; ISBN 978-0-312-99719-9
Nantucket Nights (2002; ISBN 978-0-312-98976-7)
The Beach Club (2000; ISBN 978-0-312-38242-1)
Short Stories
The Sixth Wedding: A 28 Summers Story (2021; ISBN 978-0-316-30917-2)
Summer of '79: A Summer of '69 Story (2020; ISBN 978-0-316-54180-0)
The Tailgate: An Original Short Story (2014; ISBN 978-0-316-37616-7)
The Surfing Lesson: An Original Short Story (2013; ISBN 978-0-316-24286-8)
Hilderbrand, Elin WINTER SOLSTICE Little, Brown (Adult Fiction) $26.00 10, 3 ISBN: 978-0-316-43545-1
Fourth in Hilderbrand's Christmas series about a family-run Nantucket inn.Changes are looming at Winter Street Inn, seemingly portending the end of this Christmas series. Innkeeper Kelley, patriarch of the Quinn family, is in hospice, dying of brain cancer. Kelley's oldest son, Patrick, is struggling to grow a hedge fund after serving time for insider trading. Due to their straitened finances, wife Jennifer, an interior decorator and former addict, hesitates to tell Patrick she lost a sizable account due to a banker client's sexual harassment. Characters from Hilderbrand's recent summer novel, The Rumor (2015), make an appearance: disgraced realtor Eddie Pancik, now out of jail, his wife, Grace, and her erstwhile lover, master landscaper Benton Coe, now returned from temporary exile in Detroit. Kelley's ex-wife, iconic anchorwoman Margaret, is regretting, with near-retirement hindsight, that she allowed his second wife, Mitzi, to raise their three children, Patrick, Kevin, and Ava. A new relationship is working out well for Ava until a visit from her boyfriend Potter's son, PJ--who's over-the-top bratty even by today's standards--threatens to upend everything. Kelley worries about what will happen to Mitzi after he's gone; she has no family except their only child, Bart, a former Marine who suffers from PTSD after two years of imprisonment in Afghanistan. Mitzi is already planning to list the inn for sale with Eddie, and judging how well Nantucket real estate has bounced back from the crash, this promises to replenish the depleted coffers of both. Hilderbrand has quickly put her witty and at times profound stamp on the Christmas genre. In this latest outing, however, the most interesting crises evaporate too soon: Bart's trauma is quickly eased by love at first sight, Jennifer spins addiction dross into reality TV gold, a little FaceTime tames PJ, etc. Perhaps these neatly tied-up plotlines are appropriate at series' end--except that the ambiguous close suggests the end may not be so near after all. Not for those who prefer tarter holiday fare.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2017 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
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"Hilderbrand, Elin: WINTER SOLSTICE." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Sept. 2017, p. NA. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A502192407/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=10124d2e. Accessed 26 Aug. 2024.
Hilderbrand, Elin THE PERFECT COUPLE Little, Brown (Adult Fiction) $28.00 6, 19 ISBN: 978-0-316-37526-9
A wedding on Nantucket is canceled when the bride finds her maid of honor floating facedown in the Atlantic on the morning of the big day.
One of the supporting characters in Hilderbrand's (Winter Solstice, 2017, etc.) 21st Nantucket novel is Greer Garrison, the mother of the groom and a well-known novelist. Unfortunately, in addition to all the other hell about to break loose in Greer's life, she's gone off her game. Early in the book, a disappointed reader wonders if "the esteemed mystery writer, who is always named in the same breath as Sue Grafton and Louise Penny, is coasting now, in her middle age." In fact, Greer's latest manuscript is about to be rejected and sent back for a complete rewrite, with a deadline of two weeks. But wanna know who's most definitely not coasting? Elin Hilderbrand. Readers can open her latest with complete confidence that it will deliver everything we expect: terrific clothes and food, smart humor, fun plot, Nantucket atmosphere, connections to the characters of preceding novels, and warmth in relationships evoked so beautifully it gets you right there. Example: a tiny moment between the chief of police and his wife. It's very late in the book, and he still hasn't figured out what the hell happened to poor Merritt Monaco, the Instagram influencer and publicist for the Wildlife Conservation Society. Even though it's dinner time, he has to leave the "cold blue cans of Cisco beer in his fridge" and get back to work. " 'I hate murder investigations,' [his wife] says, lifting her face for a kiss. 'But I love you.' " You will feel that just as powerfully as you believe that Celeste Otis, the bride-to-be, would rather be anywhere on Earth than on the beautiful isle of Nantucket, marrying the handsome, kind, and utterly smitten Benji Winbury. In fact, she had a fully packed bag with her at the crack of dawn when she found her best friend's body.
Sink into this book like a hot, scented bath...a delicious, relaxing pleasure. And a clever whodunit at the same time.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2018 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
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Source Citation
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"Hilderbrand, Elin: THE PERFECT COUPLE." Kirkus Reviews, 1 May 2018. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A536571212/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=16cd2ffc. Accessed 26 Aug. 2024.
NORAH O`DONNELL: Elin Hilderbrand fans are the most loyal in the whole wide world, and they can expect a twist on the beach this summer. The New York Times best-selling author is known for her Nantucket-based novels. For her twenty-first book Hilderbrand dives into a new genre. The Perfect Couple is her first murder mystery. A bride finds her maid of honor dead in the harbor on the morning of her wedding.
ELIN HILDERBRAND (Author, The Perfect Couple): Scandal.
NORAH O`DONNELL: Yes. The murder investigation uncovers more than just the killer. Elin Hilderbrand, good morning.
ELIN HILDERBRAND: Good morning.
NORAH O`DONNELL: This is so exciting-- you know, I`ve read a lot of your books, and they`re usually great love stories which make them great beach reads.
ELIN HILDERBRAND: Right.
NORAH O`DONNELL: So why murder this time?
ELIN HILDERBRAND: Well, it is my twenty-first book. And I was looking for some new material and I thought to myself I`m going to try to write a murder. And I do use that word, try, because I wasn`t sure it was going to work. I don`t read mysteries.
NORAH O`DONNELL: Yeah.
ELIN HILDERBRAND: And I want-- I wanted to keep all of the elements of my usual summer books. So like the food and the fashion and the beach and the romance.
NORAH O`DONNELL: Yeah.
ELIN HILDERBRAND: But what I found is that starting on page one with the murder really makes you turn pages faster.
JOHN DICKERSON: Yeah.
ELIN HILDERBRAND: It does. It`s a hook.
ALEX WAGNER: It`s a known secret.
ELIN HILDERBRAND: Yeah.
NORAH O`DONNELL: Want to know who did it. Called The Perfect Couple. I mean is there a perfect couple?
ELIN HILDERBRAND: Well, I feel like we can all agree that as soon as you call yourself the perfect couple, something unexpected will happen.
ALEX WAGNER: Yeah.
ELIN HILDERBRAND: So, yeah, I think one of the things that the book explores is a bunch of different relationships that appear perfect on the outside and then once you go beneath the surface you find out that everyone has problems. And-- and really the best we can hope for is to be imperfectly perfect.
JOHN DICKERSON: And really every couple is a mystery.
ELIN HILDERBRAND: Absolutely.
JOHN DICKERSON: You didn`t read mysteries, but then in preparation for this, did you go read some, or did you just say I got this?
ELIN HILDERBRAND: Well, I-- I decided I wanted to try and do it myself. To prepare I went to the Nantucket Police Department and I met with the detective sergeant there. And I have to say he was very, very helpful. But Nantucket doesn`t have a lot of murder. So he didn`t have a lot of cases, stories--
ALEX WAGNER: That`s a good thing.
ELIN HILDERBRAND: --to give me-- yeah, which was a good thing. So I was able to sort of use a lot of artistic license and have it sort of unfold naturally or organically for me. The one thing I will say is that I changed who did it about two-thirds of the way through the book. I wrote two-thirds of it thinking I know-- I knew who did it. And then it was revealed-- I thought, oh, no, it wasn`t that person, it was this person.
NORAH O`DONNELL: So you actually kind of written this book twice.
ELIN HILDERBRAND: Yes, exactly.
NORAH O`DONNELL: Then you changed the person who dies--
ELIN HILDERBRAND: I-- I changed the person who dies and I also changed the idea of who-- who did it.
ALEX WAGNER: A twist on a twist.
ELIN HILDERBRAND: But it`s correct now. I can just say that. Yeah.
ALEX WAGNER: Well, you did the work, going to the P.D. but there are some elements of this that you probably didn`t need to research as much. There is a character in the book who lives on Nantucket, is an author on her twenty-first book.
ELIN HILDERBRAND: That is true. So I did that on purpose. I sort of poked fun at myself. The mother of the groom is a murder mystery novelist. And she`s just written her twenty-first book--
ALEX WAGNER: Mm-Hm.
ELIN HILDERBRAND: --and it gets rejected by her publisher because she still--
ALEX WAGNER: That didn`t happen with you.
ELIN HILDERBRAND: That did not happen. No. She was coasting. And I-- I did that as a little nudge to myself to make sure that I am never coasting and that every book is better than the last.
JOHN DICKERSON: Speaking of co-- coasting, you`re incredibly prolific. You have written twenty-one books at least one a year. You have three children. How do you do-- I mean, are you currently while you`re doing this interview actually writing a book while you`re talking to us--
ELIN HILDERBRAND: Oh, absolutely. Yes, yes. And I write all my novels longhand, so I have my notebook with me in the greenroom.
ALEX WAGNER: Wow.
ELIN HILDERBRAND: Yes. Always working, always writing. And, you know, it`s very stressful, but that`s what I-- I feed off of which is good.
NORAH O`DONNELL: You know you were here just days before your double mastectomy. And you have been a strong supporter of breast cancer survivors, breast cancer research. You dedicate this book in part and talk about breast cancer survivors.
ELIN HILDERBRAND: That`s right. So the mother of the bride in this book has stage-four breast cancer. And four year-- this marks the fourth anniversary of my double mastectomy. I came on the show, I made it very public. And the second that I found that I was healed, I hit the road. And I was like, "What can I do to help?" So I`ve met with countless-- my readers who are, you know, going through treatment, and I speak and I do lunches and benefits to raise money. And the focus on stage-four patients is really inspiring because these women have a very serious part of the disease, and they are living full lives, running marathons, running companies. And so I wrote Karen to honor-- to honor them.
ALEX WAGNER: It is beautiful--
ELIN HILDERBRAND: Yeah.
ALEX WAGNER: --they have such an concrete relationship with your fans is--
ELIN HILDERBRAND: It`s amazing.
NORAH O`DONNELL: Yes.
ALEX WAGNER: Elin, congrats on the-- the latest book.
NORAH O`DONNELL: Thank you for always being here.
ELIN HILDERBRAND: Thank you for having me.
NORAH O`DONNELL: Yes, we love--
JOHN DICKERSON: We`ll see you next year.
ALEX WAGNER: The Perfect Couple is in stores today.
Ahead, Black Panther star Chadwick Boseman uses his Best Hero award to honor a real-life one.
You can hear more of CBS THIS MORNING on our podcast wherever you like to download your podcasts.
(ANNOUNCEMENTS)
ALEX WAGNER: The MTV Movie and TV Awards honored Black Panther star Chadwick Boseman as Best Hero last night. But Chadwick Boseman did not take home the trophy. Instead, he shared it with an actual hero.
CHADWICK BOSEMAN: Receiving an award for playing a superhero is amazing. But it`s even greater to acknowledge the heroes that we have in real life.
ALEX WAGNER: Then Boseman called James Shaw Jr. up on stage. You remember Shaw tackled a gunman who opened fire inside a Waffle House in April saving several lives. Shaw also set up a GoFundMe to help victims of that shooting. Boseman said his golden popcorn award would live at Shaw`s house. "Wakanda Forever."
NORAH O`DONNELL: Yeah. Heroes forever. That`s right. Well done.
ALEX WAGNER: Right on.
NORAH O`DONNELL: --for him to do that.
JOHN DICKERSON: That`s beautiful.
That does it for us. Thanks to Gayle and our team in Texas for their coverage of the immigration controversy.
GAYLE KING: I agree, I agree.
ALEX WAGNER: Right on.
GAYLE KING: I-- I like that-- I love that story. "Wakanda Forever," I love that. I love that so much.
JOHN DICKERSON: Wakanda Forever and Gayle forever.
Be sure to tune into the CBS EVENING NEWS with Jeff Glor tonight. We`ll see you tomorrow on CBS THIS MORNING.
GAYLE KING: See you.
NORAH O`DONNELL: Great reporting, Gayle.
END
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"Elin Hilderbrand is dipping her toe into a new genre." CBS This Morning, 19 June 2018. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A543668919/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=ea7efabc. Accessed 26 Aug. 2024.
The Perfect Couple.
By Elin Hilderbrand.
June 2018. 464p. Little, Brown, $28 (9780316375269); e book, $14.99 (9780316375245).
There's no such thing as the perfect couple, and Hilderbrand's (The Identicals, 2017) beachy latest is chock-full of examples. There's Greer and Tag Winbury, British expats opening their Nantucket estate for their younger son Benji's wedding over the Fourth of July weekend. Greer's mystery-writing career is petering out, which upsets her less than her conviction that Tag is cheating. Celeste, Benji's fiancee, worries that her working-class parents won't fit in with the Winburys, which would be especially cruel since her mother is dying of cancer. All of these issues, though, pale in comparison to the maid of honor washing up on shore on the morning of the wedding, dead. The time line moves between the present, the start of the holiday weekend, and the beginning of Benji and Celeste's relationship, allowing the reader to slowly put the pieces together with the Nantucket police. Or try to. Hilderbrand throws enough curveballs to keep readers guessing, but not too many, maintaining the breezy pace her novels are known for. The mystery element is new, but The Perfect Couple is classic Hilderbrand. --Susan Maguire
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2018 American Library Association
http://www.ala.org/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist/
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Maguire, Susan. "The Perfect Couple." Booklist, vol. 114, no. 17, 1 May 2018, p. 63. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A539647382/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=06b11c4c. Accessed 26 Aug. 2024.
Hilderbrand, Elin WINTER IN PARADISE Little, Brown (Adult Fiction) $28.00 10, 9 ISBN: 978-0-316-43551-2
When a Midwestern businessman is killed in a helicopter crash in the Caribbean, his wife and sons learn that he had a secret life.
The prodigious Hilderbrand (The Perfect Couple, 2018, etc.), author of high-style beach reads set on Nantucket, looks to a new island for her 22nd novel--St. John in the U.S. Virgin Islands. In an introduction, she explains that she has been going to St. John to write for years now and has finally decided to break the mold and share her love of the place in her fiction. However, the story begins in Iowa City, where magazine editor Irene Steele is ringing in the New Year alone, as her husband, Russell, is away on business. The next day she receives a call from a secretary named Marilyn Monroe informing her of his death, and before long, she and her sons, Baker and Cash, are on their way to St. John, a place they've barely heard of, where they will be escorted to a $15 million villa that Russell apparently owned and shared for years with an also-dead longtime lover, Rosie. They will meet Huck, Rosie's stepfather, and Ayers, her best friend, and develop romantic entanglements accordingly. As in the Nantucket novels, Hilderbrand delights in studding her fiction with the real, whether she's telling us what books the characters are reading--the new Curtis Sittenfeld, Lilac Girls, and The Hate U Give, among others--or sending them to actual shops, hotels, restaurants, and bars, with food and drink described in detail. We learn a great deal about the characters' pasts, but little light is shed on the shocking secret at the core of the book, and suspicions raised about Russ Steele's business dealings and the details of the helicopter crash are also left unresolved. Perhaps further volumes of the planned trilogy will tackle all this, but it's a lot to leave up in the air.
The island setting and characters are done in classic Hilderbrand style, but the balance of backstory to resolution seems off.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2018 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
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"Hilderbrand, Elin: WINTER IN PARADISE." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Sept. 2018. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A552175406/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=20f02ea3. Accessed 26 Aug. 2024.
Winter in Paradise.
By Elin Hilderbrand.
Oct. 2018.272p. Little, Brown, $28 (9780316435512); e-book, $14.99(9780316435505).
Irene Steele's husband, Russ, travels too much for work, but she is happy in their newly restored Iowa City Victorian house. Then, on New Year's Day, she gets a call that Russ has been killed in a helicopter crash in the U.S. Virgin Islands--and she has no idea what he was doing there. Their sons, Cash and Baker, each have reasons to escape their lives for awhile, so they join her to mourn and look for answers. What they find when they get to the island is a multimillion-dollar mansion and news of a young woman, Rosie Small, who also died in the crash. Ayers Wilson was Rosie's best friend, so she commits to staying put for Rosie's daughter, Maia, and Maias widowered stepgrandfather, boat captain Huck. As she does in her books set on Nantucket, Hilderbrand (The Perfect Couple, 2018) excels at establishing a setting (the food! the luxury! the sea turtles!) that will inspire wanderlust. This first book in a planned trilogy ends with unanswered questions, but, with engaging characters on a picturesque island, this is the perfect escape.--Susan Maguire
[HD] HIGH-DEMAND BACKST0RY: Hilderbrand is the queen of the summer blockbuster; her fans will be thrilled that she's looking to take on winter.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2018 American Library Association
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Maguire, Susan. "Winter in Paradise." Booklist, vol. 115, no. 2, 15 Sept. 2018, p. 24. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A556571641/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=d9674941. Accessed 26 Aug. 2024.
Hilderbrand, Elin SUMMER OF '69 Little, Brown (Adult Fiction) $28.00 6, 18 ISBN: 978-0-316-42001-3
Nantucket, not Woodstock, is the main attraction in Hilderbrand's (Winter in Paradise, 2018, etc.) bittersweet nostalgia piece about the summer of 1969.
As is typical with Hilderbrand's fiction, several members of a family have their says. Here, that family is the "stitched together" Foley-Levin clan, ruled over by the appropriately named matriarch, Exalta, aka Nonny, mother of Kate Levin. Exalta's Nantucket house, All's Fair, also appropriately named, is the main setting. Kate's three older children, Blair, 24, Kirby, 20, and Tiger, 19, are products of her first marriage, to Wilder Foley, a war veteran, who shot himself. Second husband David Levin is the father of Jessie, who's just turned 13. Tiger has been drafted and sends dispatches to Jessie from Vietnam. Kirby has been arrested twice while protesting the war in Boston. (Don't tell Nonny!) Blair is married and pregnant; her MIT astrophysicist husband, Angus, is depressive, controlling, and deceitful--the unmelodramatic way Angus' faults sneak up on both Blair and the reader is only one example of Hilderbrand's firm grasp on real life. Many plot elements are specific to the year. Kirby is further rebelling by forgoing Nantucket for rival island Martha's Vineyard--and a hotel job close to Chappaquiddick. Angus will be working at Mission Control for the Apollo 11 lunar landing. Kirby has difficult romantic encounters, first with her arresting officer, then with a black Harvard student whose mother has another reason, besides Kirby's whiteness, to distrust her. Pick, grandson of Exalta's caretaker, is planning to search for his hippie mother at Woodstock. Other complications seem very up-to-date: a country club tennis coach is a predator and pedophile. Anti-Semitism lurks beneath the club's genteel veneer. Kate's drinking has accelerated since Tiger's deployment overseas. Exalta's toughness is seemingly untempered by grandmotherly love. As always, Hilderbrand's characters are utterly convincing and immediately draw us into their problems, from petty to grave. Sometimes, her densely packed tales seem to unravel toward the end. This is not one of those times.
To use the parlance of the period, a highly relevant retrospective.
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"Hilderbrand, Elin: SUMMER OF '69." Kirkus Reviews, 15 Apr. 2019. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A582144221/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=a2788088. Accessed 26 Aug. 2024.
Summer of '69.
By Elin Hilderbrand.
June 2019.432p. Little, Brown, $28(9780316420013); e-book, $14.99 (9780316419994).
In June 1969, Tiger Foley ships off to Vietnam. His desolate mother Kate tries her best to keep things normal, so while her oldest, pregnant Blair, remains in Boston, Kate packs up her other daughters for a summer with her mother, Exalta, at All's Fair. Free-spirited Kirby quickly leaves for Martha's Vineyard for a little independence and a job at an inn in Edgartown, leaving Jessie, 13, stuck taking tennis lessons at Exaltas club and mooning after Pick Crimmins, the caretaker's son, who is unexpectedly living in the guest house. As relationships buckle under the strain of keeping up appearances, the world around Nantucket keeps interfering; civil rights, women's rights, the moon landing, Ted Kennedy and Mary Jo Kopechne, and the dark specter of the war in Vietnam all loom large. Yet Hilderbrand {Winter in Paradise, 2018) still manages to suffuse the novel with her trademark aspirational, escapist trappings (albeit with a little drinking while pregnant), and the chapter titles provide nostalgic readers with a soundtrack to this pleasing, beach-ready read. --Susan Maguire
[HD] HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Hilder-brand's first foray into historical fiction will rouse curiosity in new readers as well as devotees of her annual summer smashes.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2019 American Library Association
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Maguire, Susan. "Summer of '69." Booklist, vol. 115, no. 16, 15 Apr. 2019, p. 36. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A585719006/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=192cc5c4. Accessed 26 Aug. 2024.
Summer of '69
Elin Hilderbrand. Little, Brown, $28 (432p) ISBN 978-0-316-42001-3
Hilderbrand (Winter in Paradise) delivers a superb novel about the goings-on of a family during the summer of 1969 in Nantucket, centered on four siblings. Mother Kate Levin has taken to drinking after her only son, Tiger, is drafted and sent to Vietnam. Kate has agreed to let her family's longtime caretaker Bill stay on their property with his grandson Pick in exchange for using Bill's army connections to keep Tiger safe and away from the front. Blait, the eldest sibling, pregnant with twins, gave up a promising career and a shot at Harvard at the behest of her astrophysicist husband, Angus, who is preoccupied with the upcoming moon landing and has deep spells of depression; Blair flees to Nantucket when Angus says he cheated on her. Middle sister Kirby is trying to clear her head on Martha's Vineyard after getting arrested for protesting and ending an affair with a married man. She finds herself judged by the family of the man she's now seeing, likely, she believes, because of their interracial relationship. Jessie, the youngest, gets a crush on Pick and hits puberty as she bears witness to how shame and propriety drive her family members, and how they suffer because of it. The sisters manage to slay their own demons while finding strength in their siblinghood. Hilderbrand hits all the right notes about life in a tightly knit family, and this crowd-pleaser is sure to satisfy both her fans and newcomers alike. (June)
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"Summer of '69." Publishers Weekly, vol. 266, no. 16, 22 Apr. 2019, p. 76. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A583735839/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=65986786. Accessed 26 Aug. 2024.
Hilderbrand, Elin WHAT HAPPENS IN PARADISE Little, Brown (Adult Fiction) $28.00 10, 8 ISBN: 978-0-316-43557-4
Back to St. John with the Steele family, whose tragic loss and horrifying discovery have yielded an exciting new life.
In Winter in Paradise (2018), Hilderbrand introduced Midwestern magazine editor Irene Steele and her adult sons, Baker and Cash, then swept them off to the island of St. John after paterfamilias Russell Steele was killed in a helicopter crash with his secret mistress, leaving a preteen love child and a spectacular villa. While the first volume left a lot up in the air about Russell's dubious business dealings and the manner of his death, this installment fills in many of the blanks. All three Steeles made new friends during their unexpected visit to the island in January, and now that's resulted in job offers for Irene and Cash and the promise of new love for single dad Baker. Why not move to St. John and into the empty villa? Mother, sons, and grandson do just that. Both the dead mistress's diary and a cadre of FBI agents begin to provide answers to the questions left dangling in Volume 1, and romantic prospects unfold for all three Steeles. Nevertheless, as a wise person once said, shit happens, combusting the family's prospects and leading to a cliffhanger ending. On the way, there will be luscious island atmosphere, cute sundresses, frozen drinks, "slender baguette sandwiches with duck, arugula and fig jam," lemongrass sugar cookies, and numerous bottles of both Krug and Dom Perignon, the latter served by a wiseass who offers one of his trademark tasting notes: "This storied bubbly has notes of Canadian pennies, your dad's Members Only jacket, and…‘We Are Never, Ever, Ever Getting Back Together.' " You'll be counting the days until you can return to the Virgin Islands with these characters in the concluding volume of the trilogy.
Print the bumper sticker--"I'd Rather Be Living in an Elin Hilderbrand Novel."
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"Hilderbrand, Elin: WHAT HAPPENS IN PARADISE." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Sept. 2019. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A597739584/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=5ff26d23. Accessed 26 Aug. 2024.
What Happens in Paradise. By Elin Hilderbrand. Oct. 2019.352p. Little, Brown, $28 (9780316435574); e-book, $14.99 (9780316435567).
After the events of Winter in Paradise (2018), everyone is back where they belong. Irene Steele is in Iowa City with her younger son, Cash; older son Baker is in Houston negotiating a custody arrangement with his soon-to-be ex-wife; and boat captain Huck, free-spirited Ayers, and 12-year-old Maia are still on St. John. But the events of the previous New Year's, when Irene discovered her husband's secret life in St. John after he and Maia's mother, Rosie, were killed in a helicopter crash, are not over, and now the FBI is involved. Irene still feels drawn to the island, so when Huck offers her a job, she jumps right in, joined by Cash and Baker, both of whom are in love with Ayers. Once again, Hilderbrand demonstrates her mastery of immersive escapism with a carefully deployed pineapple-banana smoothie or the blue tile of an outdoor shower. The cautious steadiness of Irene and Huck counterbalances the drama of the younger cast (honestly, Baker!), though there are plenty of complicated feelings to go around, especially when Ayers discovers Rosie's diary. The absolute pleasure of the reading experience combined with a cliff-hanger ending will have readers anxiously awaiting the conclusion to the trilogy.--Susan Maguire
HIGH DEMAND BACKSTORY: One bestseller in Hilderbrand's enthralling trilogy ensures another.
Maguire, Susan
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2019 American Library Association
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Maguire, Susan. "What Happens in Paradise." Booklist, vol. 116, no. 1, 1 Sept. 2019, p. 49. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A601763571/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=2c4d756b. Accessed 26 Aug. 2024.
Hilderbrand, Elin 28 SUMMERS Little, Brown (Fiction None) $28.00 6, 16 ISBN: 978-0-316-42004-4
A Nantucket-ization of the world’s most romantic adultery story.
Inspired by the 1978 movie Same Time, Next Year, Hilderbrand creates her own pair of annual secret lovers—Mallory Blessing and Jake McCloud. Mallory is a Baltimore girl, born and raised in Anne Tyler territory, who inherits a Nantucket beach cottage from her gay aunt. Jake is her brother Cooper’s best friend from his college days at Johns Hopkins. They first cross paths in 1993, when Mallory hosts Cooper’s bachelor party over Labor Day weekend…and the book’s title gives you a pretty good idea of the rest. When they meet, Jake is already the property of a glamorous but coldhearted powerhouse named Ursula DeGournsey—the two grew up together in South Bend, Indiana—who by the end of the book is a U.S. senator running for president. To get to 2020, Hilderbrand paves a lush path of nostalgia, introducing each year with a rundown of headlines, song lyrics, and pop-culture memories, and also slips in an astute commentary on marriage, showcasing various good ones and bad ones along the way. Come for the sailing, the sunsets, and the sweet romance, stay for the cold gin and tonics, the lobster dinners, and truly unparalleled picnics: “rare roast beef, Boursin, and arugula pinwheel sandwiches, chicken and potato sandwiches with celery and chives; a marinated cucumber salad from the Baltimore Junior League cookbook, and lemon bars with a coconut shortbread crust.” In her 25th novel, Hilderbrand gets everything right and leaves her ardent fans hungry for No. 26.
Oh for the days when life was a picnic on the beach: Hilderbrand sets the gold standard in escapist fiction.
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"Hilderbrand, Elin: 28 SUMMERS." Kirkus Reviews, 15 Apr. 2020. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A620268185/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=7fb7f732. Accessed 26 Aug. 2024.
28 Summers. By Elin Hilderbrand. June 2020. 432p. Little, Brown, $28 (9780316420044).
In 2020, Mallory Blessing is dying, and she asks her son to call Jake McCloud, husband of Ursula DeGournsey, who may well become the next president of the United States. Flashback to 1993, when Mallory inherits a Nantucket beach house, and Jake attends her brothers bachelor party. Jake and Mallory have a weekend fling that ends with them watching the movie, Same Time, Next Year. They decide to recreate the story: every Labor Day weekend, Jake will come to Nantucket, no matter what. So begins a long-term secret affair that continues "through the good, the bad, and the ugly." The novel's chapters cover each year, and each begins with a reminder of the hot topics of the time. Readers follow these characters not only while they are together, but also daring their larger lives, including their jobs, friendships, marriages, children, and politics. This propulsive, if a tad long-winded, love story is filled with empathetically portrayed flawed characters. Prolific Hilderbrand (What Happens in Paradise, 2019) has crafted another endearing work of women's fiction sure to be a summer hit.--Jenna Friebel
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2020 American Library Association
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Friebel, Jenna. "28 Summers." Booklist, vol. 116, no. 16, 15 Apr. 2020, p. 29. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A623790284/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=1bd8f854. Accessed 26 Aug. 2024.
Hilderbrand, Elin. 28 Summers. Little, Brown. Jun. 2020. 432p. ISBN 9780316420044. $28. F
Jake has spent 28 Labor Day weekends with Mallory at her home in Nantucket, starting in the early 1990s when they were in their 20s. Taking inspiration from the movie Same Time, Next Year, and because Jake is committed to someone else, they decide to indulge their romantic attraction one weekend a year, which they agree to keep secret from family and friends. Despite their deceitful actions, Jake, a charity spokesperson, and Mallory, a teacher, are portrayed as selfless, good-hearted people who just can't deny their love. Navigating a large cast and long time line, Hilderbrand (The Perfect Couple) steers this tightly written novel with ease and skill, introducing each chapter with the year's current topics. The stakes are raised when Jake's wife becomes a political figure; how long will they be able to keep their secret? VERDICT Because Jake and Mallory meet only one weekend a year, their relationship is rendered, a perpetual holiday. Less a story about a secretive affair and more a tale of sweet nostalgia and fate, this title will be popular with a wide audience. [See Prepub Alert, 12/9/19.] --Sonia Reppe, Stickney--Forest View P.L., IL
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Reppe, Sonia. "Hilderbrand, Elin. 28 Summers." Library Journal, vol. 145, no. 6, June 2020, p. 80. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A625861952/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=a05ad17a. Accessed 26 Aug. 2024.
Hilderbrand, Elin TROUBLES IN PARADISE Little, Brown (Fiction None) $28.00 10, 6 ISBN: 978-0-31643-558-1
The Steele family’s three-volume St. John adventure comes to a poignant end.
As the author warns in the foreword, if you haven’t read the first two books of this trilogy (Winter in Paradise, 2018; What Happens in Paradise, 2019), don’t start here. If you have, read this one slowly, because at the end we'll be saying goodbye to the series' endearing cast of transplanted Midwesterners, their new friends in the U.S. Virgin Islands, and the many wonderful bars, restaurants, estates, bungalows, beaches, and seafaring vessels they frequent. In truth, you may find a leisurely pace easier to maintain than usual. The confounding mysteries and shocking reversals that drove the first two installments are wrapped up here, but the answers are pretty much as expected, and no new excitement is introduced. Threads that could have added a plot boost—a high-powered New York lawyer hired to deal with the devastation Irene Steele suffers as a result of her dead husband’s criminal activity, the FBI investigation into same, an old diary, an unplanned pregnancy—play out gently, or are dropped, instead of picking up the momentum. Hilderbrand’s choice to tell us in the introductory note about her fictionalization of Hurricane Irma takes away any element of surprise that might have had, and she doesn’t use the disaster for much in the way of plot, anyway. Oh, well. There are still plenty of lemongrass sugar cookies and a gorgonzola Caesar with pork belly and wood-grilled sirloin, served with an expensive bottle of cabernet pulled from the cellar of some annoying rich people, reviving the old joke about wine descriptions one last time: “Notes of fire coral, DEET and the Tide Pod challenge.” Just like everything else in 2020, this is not quite what you had hoped for, but, on the other hand, the comfort of a Hilderbrand novel is never something to sneer at.
Like your third serving of a delicious meal—still very good, but not much excitement left.
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"Hilderbrand, Elin: TROUBLES IN PARADISE." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Aug. 2020, p. NA. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A630892424/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=6c31f1fe. Accessed 26 Aug. 2024.
Troubles in Paradise. By Elin Hilderbrand. Oct. 2020.352p. Little, Brown, $28 (9780316435581).
In Winter in Paradise (2018), Irene Steele discovered that her late husband, Russ, had a secret family in the Caribbean on St. John. In What Happens in Paradise (2019), she and her grown sons decide to move there permanently, which is fine with boat captain Huck, who is as impressed with Irene's grit as he is with her fishing skills. But in Hilderbrand's latest Paradise novel, Irene's hard-won stability doesn't last. The FBI seizes her assets while they investigate Russ' shady business partner, and her feelings for Huck feel like too much, too soon. Meanwhile, Cash's new girlfriend insists she is not interested in the hippie tech bro who's funding their plans for an eco resort, and Baker and his young son arrive on St. John to discover that Ayers, his island crush, is pregnant. As the Steeles and those in their orbit work things out--amid takeout fish tacos and cold beers--Hurricane Irma picks up steam. Nobody sets a scene like Hilderbrand, and readers will relish the satisfying conclusion to this vividly escapist trilogy that is as aspirational as it is emotional. --Susan Maguire
HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Fans will be more than ready for a new immersion in bestselling Hilderbrand's Paradise series.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2020 American Library Association
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Maguire, Susan. "Troubles in Paradise." Booklist, vol. 117, no. 3, 1 Oct. 2020, p. 26. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A638516124/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=72a758a9. Accessed 26 Aug. 2024.
Golden Girl.
By Elin Hilderbrand.
June 2021.432p. Little, Brown, $29 (9780316420082).
Just when best-selling author Vivi Howe achieves critical success, she's killed by a hit-and-run driver. Then she's whisked away to a boho-chic greenroom, where she can watch her family on Nantucket while she awaits the release of what is now her final novel, Golden Girl. Despite the supernatural twist, this is classic Hilderbrand. Multiple perspectives--those of each of Vivi's three young adult children (Willa, Carson, and Leo), her ex-husband, his girlfriend, the chief of police, and a Greek chorus of Nantucketers, to name a few--reveal inner turmoil and secrets, including the high-school boyfriend nobody knew about who inspired Howe's Golden Girl. The investigation seems to stall when evidence disappears, until a culprit who seems a little too likely appears. But, as always, the plot is secondary to the reading experience as Hilderbrand once again transports readers to Nantucket, from the Oystercatcher bar to the Field and Oar Club, and the Nickel and its mouthwatering sandwiches. The meta aspects of this novel about life and forgiveness read like Hilderbrand's swan song, but, hopefully, she has many more Nantucket tales in store.
HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: It's almost esI summer, which means Hilderbrand's legions of fans will be anxious for her latest.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2021 American Library Association
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Maguire, Susan. "Golden Girl." Booklist, vol. 117, no. 16, 15 Apr. 2021, pp. 29+. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A662574651/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=2bbd5d3e. Accessed 26 Aug. 2024.
Hilderbrand, Elin GOLDEN GIRL Little, Brown (Fiction None) $29.00 6, 1 ISBN: 978-0-31642008-2
From the greenroom of the afterlife—make that Benjamin Moore "Parsley Snips" green—a newly dead Nantucket novelist watches life unfold without her.
In her 27th novel, Hilderbrand gives herself an alter ego—beloved beach-novel author Vivian Howe—sends her out for a morning jog, and immediately kills her off. A hit-and-run driver leaves Vivi dead by the side of the road, where her son's best friend discovers her body—or was he responsible for the accident? Vivi doesn't know, nor does she know yet that her daughter Willa is pregnant, or that her daughter Carson is having a terribly ill-advised affair, or that her son, Leo, has a gnawing secret, or that her ex is getting tired of the girl he dumped her for. She will discover all this and more as she watches one last summer on Nantucket play out under the tutelage of Martha, her "Person," who receives her in the boho-chic waiting room of the Beyond. Hermès-scarved Martha explains that Vivi will have three nudges—three chances to change the course of events on Earth and prevent her bereaved loved ones from making life-altering mistakes. She will also get to watch the publication of what will be her last novel, titled Golden Girl, natch, and learn the answers to two questions: Will the secret about her own life she buried in this novel come to light (who cares, really—she's dead now), and will it hit No. 1 on the New York Times bestseller list (now there's an interesting question). She'll also get to see that one of her biggest wrongs is posthumously righted and that her kids have learned her most important lesson. As Willa says to Carson, "You know how she treats the characters in her books? She gives them flaws, she portrays them doing horrible things—but the reader loves them anyway. Because Mom loves them. Because they’re human.”
If novelists are auditioning to play God, Hilderbrand gets the part.
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"Hilderbrand, Elin: GOLDEN GIRL." Kirkus Reviews, 15 May 2021, p. NA. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A661546045/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=9e893588. Accessed 26 Aug. 2024.
Hilderbrand, Elin THE HOTEL NANTUCKET Little, Brown (Fiction None) $26.10 6, 14 ISBN: 978-0-316-25867-8
Bring on the fresh-baked goug�res and the hydrangea-blue cashmere throws: A classic fictional setting--the grand hotel--gets the Hilderbrand treatment.
The beloved beach novelist's 28th book is another tour de force, deploying all her usual tricks and tropes and clever points of view, again among them a character from the afterlife and the collective "we" of gossipy island residents. Our ghost is Grace Hadley, a teenage chambermaid who died under suspicious circumstances in a hotel fire in 1922. Grace's lonely days are over when the historic property is purchased and reopened by a London billionaire. As Xavier Darling tells his general manager, Lizbet Keaton, their goal will be to get five out of five keys from Shelly Carpenter, an undercover hotel blogger who has not awarded top honors to any spot visited so far. A gorgeous remodel, a sterling staff, free treats in the minibar, and--of course, since this is Hilderbrand--an incredible restaurant where a disco ball drops from the ceiling every night at 9 p.m. and the chef is hotter than any dish on the menu are all in play as the first guests come streaming in. Which one is the hard-to-please Ms. Carpenter? Other addictive storylines include a rich kid cleaning rooms to expiate some mysterious, terrible thing he did this past spring, an evil beauty breaking up island marriages (instead of a gun in the drawer, there's a half-used Chanel eye shadow in Pourpre Brun), and the desperate attempts of Lizbet's ex, who sexted with their wine rep, to win her back. One of the special services Lizbet creates for the guests of the Hotel Nantucket is a "Blue Book" containing all her recommended island itineraries. A real-life version is included as an appendix, giving the complete scoop on where to eat, drink, sunbathe, shop, and stay on the island, plus notes on which Hilderbrand novels happened where. If you're ready to check out Chicken Box or to try the sandwiches on herb bread that lured the author to become a permanent island resident in 1993, the Elin Hilderbrand Bucket List Weekend really is a thing.
Honestly, who needs Nantucket. It could hardly be more fun than this book.
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"Hilderbrand, Elin: THE HOTEL NANTUCKET." Kirkus Reviews, 15 May 2022, p. NA. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A703413914/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=85a6b169. Accessed 26 Aug. 2024.
Byline: Michelle Ruiz
Elin Hilderbrand and Jennifer Weiner deliver their annual installments of salty air, summer love and personal entanglements.
THE HOTEL NANTUCKET, By Elin Hilderbrand
THE SUMMER PLACE, By Jennifer Weiner
The term "beach read" may be evolving from pejorative to praise, as at least some people become less fusty about the value of popular fiction. To me, beach reads are books to linger over on a lounge chair, to lose yourself in while the real (and lately cruel) world slips away. Anything can be a beach read if it truly holds you in its clutches: Amor Towles's "Rules of Civility" was one of the most achingly addictive books I happened to read on a blissful trip to St. Lucia; once, a dear family friend brought a fat history of longitude to the beach - his idea of gripping material.
"The Hotel Nantucket," by Elin Hilderbrand, and Jennifer Weiner's "The Summer Place" try mightily to be beach reads - and, given the authors' well-earned followings, both are likely to be successful as such. There are blue covers with female silhouettes in repose; summery settings (a wedding on Cape Cod and a buzzy new hotel); sprawling casts of Clue-game characters and myriad mini-mysteries. Both go down with the ease of a Dirty Shirley, but neither captured my heart or attained that overused marketing promise of "unputdownability."
"The Hotel Nantucket" opens with a crush of insider-y chatter: "Blond Sharon," a "turbo engine" of gossip, spilling that Lizbet Keaton, an Everywoman who co-ran the popular restaurant The Deck and invented its famed rosé fountain, had discovered "187 sexually explicit texts" from her longtime boyfriend and the restaurant's chef, JJ O'Malley, to their wine rep, Christina Cross. The scandal sparks Lizbet's departure to manage the revival of the "once-grand" Hotel Nantucket, which has fallen into disrepair. As a travelogue, the novel is exquisite, transporting you "on island," as ACK lingo goes. Hilderbrand revels in the granular details of the Matouk-sheet-swathed lodging, which boasts showers thoughtfully tiled in oyster shells and complimentary minibars stuffed with bluefish pëté. The author sets sumptuous scenes - a retro cottage with "frilled toothpicks purchased some time during the Kennedy administration"; a bougie meal of "milk-braised pork with hand-rolled gnocchi in sage and butter." I only wished for the same richness in the characters and their stories.
Hilderbrand's spiky, astute observations - a description of a shifty front-desk manager, Alessandra Powell, as "a broken doll, a smashed mirror"; a lament that JJ's "memory is his superpower and it always made Lizbet feel like he was paying attention" - are too fleeting. There is a plucky 8-year-old sleuth, Wanda Marsh, who tries to solve the mystery of the hotel ghost, a chambermaid named Grace Hadley, but the book is short on Wanda's precocious dialogue. (I had my initial doubts about Grace, but she is largely charming in her supernatural ability to sniff out guests' "rotten" souls.) Others feel thinner, like the hotel's owner, Xavier Darling, an enigmatic billionaire who, implausibly, has the time and will to send cloying, weekly "Hey, ladies!"-style emails to staff members.
High stakes are heaped upon their secrets: Alessandra is "beautiful enough to get away with murder." Chadwick Winslow, a fratty, moneyed son of Nantucket who joins the housekeeping staff, teases a terrible sin he committed for almost the entire 416 pages. Chad has to "do penance," Hilderbrand unsubtly explains. "That's what this job is all about - it's an atonement." But their truths, once revealed, don't deliver on the hype.
Stylistically, Hilderbrand and, at times, Weiner overdo it on distracting, dated internet-y slang ("#relationshipgoals," "bruh," "smoke-show") that barely survived a few quick digital eras, much less the glacial pace of publishing. By summer 2022, the Gael Greene-esque travel Instagrammer whose five-key rating is so coveted by the Hotel Nantucket would probably be on TikTok. (Readers trying to keep up with their own kids' language might empathize.) "Gooiest marshmallow dreams," Hilderbrand's description of the hotel s'more kits, could also apply to the sex scenes between Lizbet and her new love interest, a chef named Mario Subiaco, who may or may not realize he's speaking to her in Joe Cocker lyrics ("You are so beautiful to me"). Hilderbrand describes their "lovemaking" as a "storm," but beyond proximity and mutual cuteness, I'm not sure why, exactly, these two fall for each other.
I'm more than happy to suspend disbelief - the last great book I read was Rachel Yoder's "Nightbitch," about a stifled mother who believes she's morphing into a feral she-wolf. That premise was more convincing to me than much of the plot in Weiner's "The Summer Place," a family saga hinging on more than one 23andMe test result. I struggled to buy that Eli Danhauser, a kindly periodontist, would immediately recognize - on sight and out of context - the son of a woman he slept with 20 years ago. Ditto for the fact that said son, Gabriel Andrews, who grew up across the country, just so happens to be dating Eli's daughter, Ruby. (Even Weiner acknowledges the improbability of this "one in a billion" entanglement.)
Though a wedding is handy for the plot, it seems anachronistic that Ruby, an ambitious, Brooklyn-bred N.Y.U. student, would spontaneously decide she wants to marry Gabe right after graduation, a decision she doubts just as quickly. Still more people fall in undying love for indiscernible reasons; at one point, two characters barely exchange words at a club, hook up and subsequently wake up soul mates. Most compelling is the matriarch Veronica Levy, a formerly famous author whose books are made into movies (evoking Weiner's "In Her Shoes"). But would Ronnie really have said goodbye to all that because an indiscretion from her past made the New York lit world feel icky?
Weiner scratches at class and identity tensions through Ronnie: Her new-money summer place on Cape Cod clashes with those of the entitled "Pond People" who try to lay claim to her swimming spot - even if, as Weiner writes in a sentiment I underlined, "people on the Cape could own land right up to the shoreline" but "they could not own the water, either salt or brackish or fresh."
Once upon a time, "the entire Cape was theirs," Weiner writes; Jewish people were all but barred from buying homes in certain neighborhoods. I adored the indignation with which Ronnie muses, "Maybe they still wish the whole world belonged to them alone." Weiner's take on the Pond People's shoddy entertaining rings all too true: "They had barrels of booze and no food. Nothing to eat except a sleeve of Ritz crackers and supermarket Cheddar." This conflict left me longing for more; the flimsy teen romance between Ronnie's daughter, Sarah, and a Pond boy, Owen Lassiter, doesn't do it justice.
"The Summer Place" meditates on mothers and daughters. Sarah harbors a petulant grudge against Ronnie for the sin of working too much; Ronnie can't understand Sarah's modern-day overscheduling of her boys, why she can't let them run wild and free on the Cape. Their secrets and similarities seep out.
The most elusive of these mothers is Eli's first wife, Annette, who chose her freedom over him and their baby, Ruby, long ago. "The world made space for men who left; walked away from wives and children sometimes more than once," Weiner writes. "Women were not offered any such grace."
Annette never wanted motherhood. She went through with it for Eli's sake, an act that imploded on all three of them. Looking back, Annette remembers that "she'd gazed down at Ruby's tiny face. She'd touched the downy curve of her skull with one fingertip. And she'd felt nothing." That's the sort of biting, delicious, terribly human revelation that makes a beach read.
Michelle Ruiz is a contributing editor at Vogue.
THE HOTEL NANTUCKET, by Elin Hilderbrand | 416 pp. | Little, Brown & Company | $29
THE SUMMER PLACE, by Jennifer Weiner | 432 pp. | Atria Books | $28.99
Michelle Ruiz is a contributing editor at Vogue.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2022 International Herald Tribune
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Ruiz, Michelle. "Beachy, Sun-Kissed Novels Set on Nantucket and Cape Cod." International New York Times, 4 June 2022, p. NA. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A705895458/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=b95dbc35. Accessed 26 Aug. 2024.
The Hotel Nantucket. By Elin Hilderbrand. June 2022. 416p. Little, Brown, $29 (9780316258678).
When Lizbet Keaton finds her longtime boyfriend has been sexting another woman, she needs a fresh start, and she finds it at the Hotel Nantucket. Long viewed as a money pit on the island--and plagued by rumors that it is haunted--the hotel was meticulously renovated by London-based billionaire Xavier Darling, whose goal is to get a five-star review from the elusive Hotel Confidential on Instagram. As Lizbet takes on the role of hotel manager, she hires the staff who become the featured players in this ensemble of characters who are all hiding something, from the front desk manager to the head of housekeeping to Chad who is hired as a cleaner. As the summer bustles on, the staff tries to keep up with demanding guests, Xavier's whims, and, yes, a ghost. Hilderbrand once again captures life on Nantucket, from the beaches to the food to the chorus of locals who comment on the goings-on at the hotel, complete with a travel guide at the end of the book. Readers will be transported by this breezy, engrossing beach read.
HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Fans eagerly await Hilderbrand's Nantucket summer novels, and this one will not disappoint. --Susan Maguire
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2022 American Library Association
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Maguire, Susan. "The Hotel Nantucket." Booklist, vol. 118, no. 16, 15 Apr. 2022, p. 32. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A702054413/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=20277341. Accessed 26 Aug. 2024.
Hilderbrand, Elin ENDLESS SUMMER Little, Brown (Fiction None) $29.00 10, 4 ISBN: 978-0-316-46091-0
Prequels, sequels, and bonus tracks for favorite Hilderbrand novels.
One wonders what the author of 28 novels, sometimes appearing at the rate of two per year, does in her spare time. It turns out she writes what might almost be called Elin Hilderbrand fan fiction, creating short stories piggybacking off already-developed characters and plots. Brief introductions to each of the nine stories presented in this collection explain which book it goes with and the circumstances of its creation (most were digital or limited-edition publications; three were unpublished until now). Though it certainly would be best to read each story with its progenitor, as suggested, some can also work on their own. Both "The Surfing Lesson" (which goes with Beautiful Day) and "The Tailgate" (The Matchmaker) have the tight narrative focus and limited character set that make the short form shine. Less successful are the add-on stories "Summer of '79" and "Summer of '89," because if you haven't come fresh from Summer of '69, the large, multigenerational cast and intricate tapestry of the backstories are a little challenging. Fans of Golden Girl, in which Nantucket novelist Vivi Howe dies in the first chapter, will be pleased to see her resurrected here in "The Workshop." Vivi's experiences at the Bread Loaf Writer's Conference in Vermont are based on Hilderbrand's famously terrible time at the University of Iowa graduate writing program. Also fun is "Barbie's Wedding," in which realtor Fast Eddie Pancik's little sister, a bit player from The Rumor, marries the competition, shaking off any latent bad juju from the prostitution ring she helped run.
A generous gift to the fans.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2022 Kirkus Media LLC
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"Hilderbrand, Elin: ENDLESS SUMMER." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Sept. 2022, p. NA. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A715353055/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=0820252a. Accessed 26 Aug. 2024.
Endless Summer. By Elin Hilderbrand. Oct. 2022. 368p. Little, Brown, $29 (9780316460910).
Readers can't get enough of Hilderbrand's signature Nantucket style, and here she obliges their appetites with short stories (and one novella) that revisit some of her most beloved characters. Some are prequels, like "The Surfing Lesson," in which Margot from Beautiful Day (2013) realizes she's ready to divorce her husband, Drum. Some are sequels, like "Frank Sinatra Drive," an unpublished chapter from The Perfect Couple (2018), in which a character envisions a very different perfect ending to that horrific wedding weekend. Not all of them take place on Nantucket; "The Tailgate" brings readers to a mid-1980s Harvard-Yale football game, and standout "The Workshop" finds Vivian Howe from The Golden Girl (2021) attending a writing workshop. All carry Hilderbrand's signature traits, flawed, likable characters and plenty of details about clothing, housewares, and food. The introduction encourages readers to read these stories alongside the novels they expand; sound advice, as those new to Hilderbrand won't fully appreciate the magic that unfolds in her novels and makes readers clamor for more.--Susan Maguire
[HD] HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Hilderbrand's novels are always best-sellers, and all of those readers will be curious to revisit old favorites.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2022 American Library Association
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Maguire, Susan. "Endless Summer." Booklist, vol. 119, no. 2, 15 Sept. 2022, p. 17. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A720255688/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=ff1fb019. Accessed 26 Aug. 2024.
Hilderbrand, Elin THE FIVE-STAR WEEKEND Little, Brown (Fiction None) $27.00 6, 13 ISBN: 9780316258777
A dreamy Nantucket house party given by a meticulous hostess goes off the rails.
"When Hollis posts a potato and white cheddar tart with a crispy bacon crust, her foodie community breaks the one-million-member milestone. (Leave it to bacon!)" And leave it to Hilderbrand, in her 30th book of Nantucket-based fiction, to cook up more literary bacon, this time focusing on female friendship, female "friendship," and the power of the internet and social media. When Hollis Shaw's doctor husband dies in a crash on the way to the airport, she steps back from Hungry With Hollis, her popular website. After moping around her house in "Swellesley" for a while, she returns to Nantucket for the summer, planning a kick-out-the-stops weekend party that will involve one girlfriend from each phase of her life--youth, college, motherhood--plus her favorite internet follower, an Atlanta-based airline pilot, whom she's never actually met. Two of these old pals are definitely not as close to Hollis as they once were, one of them has done her secret harm, and Hollis dramatically increases the potential for trouble by paying her angry 20-something daughter to document the weekend on film. Add two bottles each of Casa Dragones tequila, Triple 8 vodka, and Veuve Clicquot, plus some Hendricks gin and Mount Gay rum--what could possibly go wrong? Known for gently inserting social commentary into her plots, Hilderbrand here highlights the ridiculous fickleness of cancel culture when one of the characters--Dru-Ann, an extremely successful Black sports agent--almost loses her clients, her job, and her boyfriend when a video clip of a private conversation in a restaurant is posted on social media. Everyone says there's no way forward without a self-effacing apology. Dru-Ann says pass the Casa Dragones. Meanwhile, Hollis is about to learn that friendships forged on the internet are not always what they seem. Hilderbrand has announced plans to retire in 2024. Wait--that's next year! No!
The people in her books may screw up, but Hilderbrand always gets it right. Kind of amazing.
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"Hilderbrand, Elin: THE FIVE-STAR WEEKEND." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Mar. 2023, p. NA. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A738705456/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=870fca76. Accessed 26 Aug. 2024.
The Five-Star Weekend. By Elin Hilderbrand. June 2023.384P. Little, Brown, $30 (9780316258777); e-book (9780316259385).
Lifestyle guru Hollis Shaw is still reeling from the sudden death of her husband, but after months of mourning, she needs to do something. So she concocts a Five-Star Weekend, inviting one best friend from four stages of her life on a weekend getaway to her beloved Nantucket, with daughter Caroline along to film it for her website. She invites childhood friend Tatum, who is awaiting the results of a biopsy; college roommate Dru-Ann, a successful sports agent about to be cancelled; prime of life bestie Brooke, who is worried she won't fit in; and a wild card, Gigi, who is a commenter-turned-friend on Hollis' blog. There is immediate tension. Tatum still feels like Hollis abandoned her for life off the island. Brooke is annoying everyone, and Gigi is hiding an incredible secret. Hildebrand's latest is dripping with her signature Nantucket details; the food descriptions alone are enough to get readers to book the next ferry. Readers will be transported both by the setting and the emotional drama as Hilderbrand sets up seemingly impossible odds, then manages a convincing happy ending. --Susan Maguire
HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: It's not officially summer without a novel from Hilderbrand, and she delivers exactly what her readers want--female friendship, family drama, and gorgeous descriptions of Nantucket.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2023 American Library Association
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Maguire, Susan. "The Five-Star Weekend." Booklist, vol. 119, no. 16, 15 Apr. 2023, p. 31. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A747135432/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=29a59401. Accessed 26 Aug. 2024.
The Five-Star Weekend
Elin Hilderbrand. Little, Brown, $30 (384p) ISBN 978-0-316-25877-7
In this stunning, sun-drenched mix of romance and women's fiction from bestseller Hilderbrand (The Hotel Nantucket), famous food blogger Hollis Shaw gathers one important woman from each decade of her life for an unforgettable girls' trip to Nantucket. Reeling from her husband's sudden death in a car accident, Hollis is trying to make sense of their marriage, which had been failing; cope with her teen daughter's resentment; and figure out plans for her upended future when she stumbles across the idea for a "five-star weekend" online and sets about tecruiting friends. Her best friend from childhood, Tatum, who still lives on Nantucket, is reluctant to renew their friendship, particularly when she knows that Hollis's college roommate, Dru Ann, a high-powered sports agent whom she fought with at Hollis's wedding, will be in attendance. Meanwhile, Hollis's friend from her 30s, Brooke, always tries too hard to fit in, filling her with anxiety that colors her interactions with the other, seemingly more self-confident women. Hollis also invites an internet friend whom she connected with through her blog and has never met in person. Hilderbrand makes the most of gathering these big personalities in Hollis's small, photograph-ready abode; as they navigate their differences, the women discover things about themselves--and may even find love along the way. This should become a beach bag staple. Agent: David Forrer and Michael Carlisle, InkWell Management. (June)
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2023 PWxyz, LLC
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"The Five-Star Weekend." Publishers Weekly, vol. 270, no. 17, 24 Apr. 2023, p. 49. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A748227938/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=0b891470. Accessed 26 Aug. 2024.
Hilderbrand, Elin SWAN SONG Little, Brown (Fiction None) $27.00 6, 11 ISBN: 9780316258876
A stranger comes to town, and a beloved storyteller plays this creative-writing standby for all it's worth.
Hilderbrand fans, a vast and devoted legion, will remember Blond Sharon, the notorious island gossip. In what is purportedly the last of the Nantucket novels, Blond Sharon decides to pursue her lifelong dream of fiction writing. In the collective opinion of the island--aka the "cobblestone telegraph"--she's qualified. "Well, we think, she's certainly demonstrated her keen interest in other people's stories, the seedier and more salacious, the better." Blond Sharon's first assignment in her online creative writing class is to create a two-person character study, and Hilderbrand has her write up the two who arrive on the ferry in an opening scene of the book, using the same descriptors Hilderbrand has. Amusingly, the class is totally unimpressed. "'I found it predictable,' Willow said. 'Like maybe Sharon used ChatGPT with the prompt "Write a character study about two women getting off the ferry, one prep and one punk."'" Blond Sharon abandons these characters, but Hilderbrand thankfully does not. They are Kacy Kapenash, daughter of retiring police chief Ed Kapenash (the other swan song referred to by the title), and her new friend Coco Coyle, who has given up her bartending job in the Virgin Islands to become a "personal concierge" for the other strangers-who-have-come-to-town. These are the Richardsons, Bull and Leslee, a wild and wealthy couple who have purchased a $22 million beachfront property and plan to take Nantucket by storm. As the book opens, their house has burned down during an end-of-summer party on their yacht, and Coco is missing, feared both responsible for the fire and dead. Though it's the last weekend of his tenure, Chief Ed refuses to let the incoming chief, Zara Washington, take this one over. The investigation goes forward in parallel with a review of the summer's intrigues, love affairs, and festivities. Whatever else you can say about Leslee Richardson, she knows how to throw a party, and Hilderbrand is just the writer to design her invitations, menus, themes, playlists, and outfits. And that hot tub!
Though Hilderbrand threatens to kill all our darlings with this last laugh, her acknowledgments say it's just "for now."
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2024 Kirkus Media LLC
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"Hilderbrand, Elin: SWAN SONG." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Apr. 2024, p. NA. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A788097128/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=682b11ca. Accessed 26 Aug. 2024.
Byline: SARAH LAING; Special to The Globe and Mail
When Elin Hilderbrand was 16, her dad died in a plane crash.
That next summer, she had a job in a factory that made Halloween costumes. As she worked, she grieved: Her father, of course, but also the golden summers she'd spent with him on Cape Cod, those long weeks away from her home in suburban Philadelphia that felt like something out of a storybook. Folding knock-offs of Rambo's red headband and stapling clown hats onto cardboard forms, she dreamed of somehow escaping back into those dream-like memories.
She didn't know it then, but what she needed was, well, an Elin Hilderbrand book, a nearly 30-strong oeuvre of almost entirely Nantucket-set novels that reliably open a portal for readers into a world of old-money yacht clubs and cutoff jeans, first loves and old secrets, surfers off sandy coves and sticky floors at dive bars such as Nantucket's iconic Chicken Box.
It would take several years - and an epiphany in a campus therapist's office at the prestigious Iowa Writers' Workshop - for Hilderbrand to find her (bestselling, deeply-invested-fanbase-generating) literary calling.
"I was so miserable in Iowa," says Hilderbrand, who had made her way back to Nantucket after college before moving to the Midwest for graduate school.
"The program was so competitive, and my kind of writing wasn't really appreciated. It was a little lighter, and had more surface energy than other people's writing. I kept getting crushed in workshops."
Each week, she'd go to a free counselling session, laden with misery and homesickness. One day, the therapist turned to her and said, "I think it's clear what you must do." Hilderbrand thought she was going to tell her to pack it in and go home. Instead, she told her to start writing about Nantucket, because that was obviously where her heart is.
And so she did. In her second year at Iowa, Hilderbrand wrote a novel called The Beach Club, set on the island in the summertime. It just so happened that in her very last workshop, a literary agent who'd grown up on the ritziest street in Nantucket was there, and asked her to send him a finished draft.
"He called me and he was like, 'I love this. I want to represent you. I'm going to make you lots of money,' " says Hilderbrand.
"Who doesn't want to hear that?
We ended up selling that book for $5,000, which was not a lot, but it got me published."
Since her debut was published in 2000, Hilderbrand has published at least one book a year - often more. Come summertime, she's an omnipresent name on bestseller lists, her brand of island escapism a brand of its own, extending to "Elin Hilderbrand" tours of Nantucket.
"I'm very, very hesitant to say I created the beach read," says Hilderbrand, "but there was no tradition of summer reads at that point."
Here, The Globe chats to Hilderbrand about high-school loves, why she writes and finally hitting No. 1 on the bestseller list after 23 books.
You're known as 'the queen of the beach read.' What's your relationship to that term? Because there is a context where that term is used pejoratively.
I have chosen over the course of my career to see it as a positive, and this is why: I've been doing it for so long that I've heard from so many readers who are like, "My father was dying, and I was at the hospital. I had your book, and it took me some place happier." Or, "I was diagnosed with cancer, sitting in the chemo chair and I read a stack of your books."
People use them as escapes during the worst times of their lives.
I'm not sure that Dostoyevsky felt that way, or he got those letters. People who can't afford to come to Nantucket, or have a beach-vacation period, are able, for 15 bucks on Amazon, to get a piece of Nantucket that they can keep with them.
What's fascinating about your books is that they're not really what they seem. When you actually read one, there's so much depth and insight into human behaviour.
And that's why they're very popular, and why people say I'm the queen. I have that literary background which is character-focused, and I get very deep in my characters. There are topics where I'm like, that is too dark - I don't write about psychopaths, I'm not doing serial killers or incest - but almost everything else is up for grabs. I'm consistently trying to come up with very specific drama, and that's another hallmark of my novels.
Your books are juicy, substantive stories about vibrant people who are not always 28 years old. Is that representation - the idea that life doesn't end when you turn 30 - important to you?
When my first novel came out, I had a six-month-old. When I wrote it, I didn't have any children. Now I'm 54, and I've lived through a bunch of stuff.
My emotional well is way deeper.
In theory, your writing should get better because you know so much more than when you were 30 years old. I tend to write in the demographic in the moment in which I find myself.
Living in the same place where you've created this whole fantasy world, does the fictional landscape ever overlay the real one for you?
I can never do it justice. Do I ever sit in a restaurant and think, "Oh, this is where I set this scene?" Every once in a while, but most of the time I'm just enjoying it. I did get to the Chicken Box once this summer, and I was just so in the moment of being there and listening to the very same band that I put in my novel. It's not like, "Oh, I'm a character in my book!" I always try to be present.
I know I only have so much time in this life, and the more time I spend on this island, the happier I'm going to be.
Summer of '69 was your first book to debut at No. 1. Was that a milestone you'd been working toward?
It was my 23rd book. It took years and years and years! My first five novels, I was with St. Martin's Press, and they underpublished me. I'm not placing any blame.
They just didn't really know what they had. The "beach read" was new, and they didn't capitalize on it. When I went to Little Brown, that's when my career took off. The publisher at the time said, "We're going to bring Elin Hilderbrand to the world," and I thought, "Now there's some hyperbole."
But that's exactly what they did, every year. Barefoot, I think, debuted at No. 18. The next year, it hit in paperback and got to No.
2 in the paperback list for three weeks, and it was on the list for 26 weeks. That was a huge deal.
That's more of the Colleen Hoover-ish thing you see now. Then The Castaways came out, and it debuted at No. 10, I think, and then it was a slow march to the top. In 2017, I'd written The Identicals, and John Grisham had a book out. They told me, "Elin, you're not going to hit No. 1 because Grisham is selling." The next year was super hard because it was The Perfect Couple - which is now being made into a Netflix series - and my own publishers were publishing Bill Clinton and James Patterson, and they were like, "That's going to get to No. 1." That felt bad because it felt like they were picking favourites. I understand it now, but at the time I was a little chafed.
In 2019, the whole focus was Summer of '69. It was the year I turned 50, and it was the book I wrote for my twin brother and my mom. It was super sentimental and important. The book I had to beat was Where the Crawdads Sing, which at that time had been at No. 1 for, like, 40 weeks. I had a big event in Rhode Island with 400 people the night it would be announced, and I told my publicist, "Do not tell me until this event is over." And when it was, she turned to me and said, "You're No. 1." I cried. It was so gratifying, because it felt like it wasn't a fluke, because I had earned it by that point.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2023 The Globe and Mail Inc.
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Laing, Sarah. "Elin Hilderbrand has mastered the beach read; The author reflects on cracking the bestseller list for the first time in 2019 with Summer of '69, and what makes her novels so popular." Globe & Mail [Toronto, Canada], 30 Sept. 2023, p. R7. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A767149209/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=fe837ebb. Accessed 26 Aug. 2024.