The Five Star Weekend by Elin Hilderbrand

HerKentucky Whiskey Glass Rating: 🥃🥃🥃🥃🥃

Publisher’s Synopsis: Hollis Shaw's life seems picture-perfect. She's the creator of the popular food blog Hungry with Hollis and is married to Matthew, a dreamy heart surgeon. But after she and Matthew get into a heated argument one snowy morning, he leaves for the airport and is killed in a car accident. The cracks in Hollis's perfect life--her strained marriage and her complicated relationship with her daughter, Caroline--grow deeper.

So when Hollis hears about something called a "Five-Star Weekend"--one woman organizes a trip for her best friend from each phase of her life: her teenage years, her twenties, her thirties, and midlife--she decides to host her own Five-Star Weekend on Nantucket. But the weekend doesn't turn out to be a joyful Hallmark movie.

The husband of Hollis's childhood friend Tatum arranges for Hollis's first love, Jack Finigan, to spend time with them, stirring up old feelings. Meanwhile, Tatum is forced to play nice with abrasive and elitist Dru-Ann, Hollis's best friend from UNC Chapel Hill. Dru-Ann's career as a prominent Chicago sports agent is on the line after her comments about a client's mental health issues are misconstrued online. Brooke, Hollis's friend from their thirties, has just discovered that her husband is having an inappropriate relationship with a woman at work. Again! And then there's Gigi, a stranger to everyone (including Hollis) who reached out to Hollis through her blog. Gigi embodies an unusual grace and, as it happens, has many secrets.

The Five-Star Weekend is a surprising and captivating story about friendship, love, and self-discovery set on Nantucket. It will be a weekend like no other.

HerKentucky Review: The Five-Star Weekend is built around an interesting premise: Can you build a successful girls’ weekend around the women who knew you best during the distinct decades of your adult life? It’s an idea that most of us find both intriguing and, at the same time, a bit cringeworthy. Could your high school bestie and your current confidante find common ground? Could your friend from the college bar hang with your friend from barre class? It could be the time of your life or your worst nightmare. For Hollis Shaw, Elin Hilderbrand’s latest Nantucket-based protagonist, the Five-Star Weekend is a little bit of both.

In her latest novel of summertime drama, Ms. Hilderbrand introduces us to Hollis, a Nantucket native turned food blogger who plans the titular weekend in the wake of her husband’s death. Tempers flare and secrets are spilled as the weekend’s schedule of nostalgia and bonding unfolds. Decades-old grudges are rehashed, more than a few secrets surface and Hollis learns that her friends aren’t necessarily who they seem to be. The Five-Star Weekend intertwines Ms. Hilderbrand’s signature views of Nantucket boutiques, bars and restaurants with sharp social commentary on cancel culture, influencers and the reality behind social media friendships and the socioeconomic divides that often fragment friend groups. It’s a fun and compelling summertime read that’ll have you texting long-lost sorority sisters and spin class friends to catch up.

Purchase a copy of The Five Star-Weekend via Bookshop.org or Amazon.

Please note that I received an Advanced Review Copy via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review of this work. This review contains affiliate links; I will receive a small commission for purchases made through the links in this post. This commission does not impact the purchase price of the item.

The Beach Club by Elin HIlderbrand

HerKentucky Whiskey Glass Rating: 🥃🥃🥃🥃

Publisher’s synopsis: In The Beach Club, the juicy first novel by talented newcomer Elin Hilderbrand, a series of personal dramas are played out during one summer at a Nantucket Beach Club. It's about the love of summer, summer love, and the special feelings we all have for that special summer place--in this case, a hotel and an island.

Mack Petersen, manager of the hotel, has been working at The Beach Club for 12 summers. Only this summer is different. His boss, the owner of the hotel, Bill Elliot, shows up in the spring with a new set of demands. His girlfriend Maribel is pressing Mack to get married and Vance, the African-American bellman, who has hated Mack since the day Mack stole his job 12 years ago, threatens him in a deadly scene. Mack knows something's got to give.

Love O'Donnell, the new front desk person straight from the slopes of Aspen, is desperately searching for a stranger to father her child. The bellman, Jem Crandall, who posed as Mr. November in his college calendar, is on his way to LA to break into agenting, until he falls in love with Maribel. Emotions are at a peak when a hurricane threatens to wash away The Beach Club and all it stands for.

HerKentucky Review: This is Ms. Hilderbrand’s first novel, which draws heavily on her then-husband’s experiences managing a Nantucket beach club. It’s an enjoyable, fast-paced read and, as with many books in the Hilderbrand universe, will be revisited in subsequent books. It’s a fun beach book and a great introduction to “The Queen of Summer”, Elin Hilderbrand. Purchase The Beach Club on Amazon or Bookshop.org.

EH characters in this book are also referenced in The Hotel Nantucket.

This review contains affiliate links; I will receive a small commission for purchases made through the links in this post. This commission does not impact the purchase price of the item.

Barefoot by Elin Hilderbrand

HerKentucky Whiskey Glass Rating: 🥃🥃🥃

Publisher’s synopsis: Three women--burdened with small children, unwieldy straw hats, and some obvious emotional issues--tumble onto the Nantucket airport tarmac one hot June day. Vicki is trying to sort through the news that she has a serious illness. Her sister, Brenda, has just left her job after being caught in an affair with a student. And their friend Melanie, after seven failed in vitro attempts, is pregnant at last--but only after learning that her husband is having an affair. They have come to escape, enjoy the sun, and relax in Nantucket's calming air. But into the house, into their world, steps twenty-two-year-old Josh Flynn.
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Barefoot weaves these four lives together in a story with enthralling sweep and scope--a novel that is as fun and memorable and bittersweet as that one perfect day of summer.

HerKentucky review: Three women arrive at a Nantucket cottage to sort through their dramatic lives. Vicki faces a grim diagnosis, her sister Brenda is in professional turmoil, and their friend Melanie has recently learned that her husband is unfaithful. This is a perfectly pleasant beach read.

Purchase Barefoot on Amazon or Bookshop.org.

This review contains affiliate links; I will receive a small commission for purchases made through the links in this post. This commission does not impact the purchase price of the item.

A Summer Affair by Elin Hilderbrand

HerKentucky Whiskey Glass Rating: 🥃🥃🥃🥃

Publisher’s synopsis: Claire has a problem with setting limits. All her life she has taken on every responsibility, assumed every burden, granted every request. Claire wants it all—and in the eyes of her friends, she has it: a devoted husband, four beautiful children, even a successful career as an artist. So when she agrees to chair the committee for Nantucket's social event of the year, she knows she can handle it. Claire can handle anything.

But when planning the gala propels her into the orbit of billionaire Lock Dixon, unexpected sparks begin to fly. Lock insists on working closely with Claire—often over a bottle of wine—and before long she can't ignore the subtle touches and lingering looks. To her surprise, she can't ignore how they make her feel, either. Claire finds the gala, her life, and herself spinning out of control.

A Summer Affair captures the love, loss, and limbo of an illicit romance and unchecked passion as it takes us on a brave and breathless journey into the heart of one modern woman.

HerKentucky Review: Glass sculptor Claire agrees to chair a large charity gala and soon finds herself emerged in a torrid affair with the charity’s director. This novel had some beautiful imagery, but I found it really hard to believe that someone with so little event planning expertise would be picked to chair a gala. It seriously struck me as less believable than the idea that her high school boyfriend grew up to be a famous rock star. Pedantic retired Junior Leaguer analysis aside, this is a fun novel about summer flings.

Buy A Summer Affair on Amazon or Bookshop.org

This review contains affiliate links; I will receive a small commission for purchases made through the links in this post. This commission does not impact the purchase price of the item.

The Castaways by Elin Hilderbrand

HerKentucky Whiskey Glass Rating: 🥃🥃🥃🥃🥃

Publisher’s synopsis: With rumors of infidelity straining Greg and Tess MacAvoy's marriage, the couple head out on their sailboat one early summer day to celebrate their wedding anniversary, hoping the roughest waters are behind them. But in an accident off Nantucket, they mysteriously drown, leaving behind two small children as well as three couples who have long been their closest friends. Tragedy brings to the surface long-simmering conflicts and emotions, and the MacAvoys' six grieving friends find themselves unprepared for the revelation of secret upon secret as they struggle to answer the question: What happened to Greg and Tess?

The Castaways probes the boundaries of friendship and forgiveness as it tells a page-turning story of passion, betrayal, and suspense, filled with the perfect details of summer island life that have made Elin Hilderbrand's novels beloved bestsellers.

HerKentucky Review: Four couples — the MacAvoys, Kapenashes, Drakes, and Wheelers — are best friends and pillars of the Nantucket community. When the MacAvoys die in a sailing accident, a series of secrets and lies emerge. This one is fantastic soap opera-style drama, and establishes Police Chief Ed Kapenash as a recurring character in many of Ms. Hilderbrand’s subsequent novels.

Purchase The Castaways on Amazon or Bookshop.org.

This review contains affiliate links; I will receive a small commission for purchases made through the links in this post. This commission does not impact the purchase price of the item.