Review #27: The Castaways, by Elin Hilderbrand

When Tess and Greg MacAvoy mysteriously drown on a sailing trip on their twelfth anniversary, the remaining members of their group of friends - the Castaways - struggle to absorb and accept their loss.

We are introduced first to the men: the Chief, Ed Kapenash, Nantucket's chief of police; Addison Wheeler, the millionaire real estate agent; and finally Jeffery, the quiet and solid farmer. Then we meet the women: Andrea, the Chief's wife and Tess's older cousin, mother of two nearly grown teenagers; Delilah, the slightly wild wife of Jeffrey, third in command at the local restaurant, and mother of two young boys; and Phoebe, Addison's perpetually drug-numbed wife.

Through their stories, we learn about Tess and Greg, the kindergarten teacher and the high school music teacher, parents of young twins Chloe and Finn. The six voices tell the group's history, and we watch as everyone meets. We go on group vacations with them, we relive their miscarriages, their family deaths, the births of their children. And slowly, slowly, we discover their secrets: resentment, pain, love, jealousy, hidden alliances, hidden affairs.

Hilderbrand employs an interesting style, giving each of the six characters a voice, so that the reader is able to see all sides of the story. Each character feels responsible for Tess and Greg's deaths, and the individual reasons are all revealed towards the end of the novel. Unfortunately, once those secrets come out, the novel wraps up far too quickly and neatly. With a different ending, this novel would have stayed with me, but instead, it left me disappointed.

Review #39: A Summer Affair, by Elin Hilderbrand

A Summer Affair is the story of Claire Crispin, a wife and mother of four, who embarks on a year-long affair with Lock Dixon, the millionaire head of the local children's charity. Claire is vaguely acquainted with Lock - she was friendly with his wife Daphne before a devastating car accident changed Daphne's personality - when he asks her to not only co-chair the Nantucket Children's Summer Gala, but to provide the auction item, a blown glass chandelier. Claire hasn't been in her glass studio in over year, since a fall caused her to go in to premature labor with her youngest son, and she surprises everyone, including herself, by agreeing.

To plan the gala, Claire begins spending evenings with Lock, and it isn't long before they begin an affair. As their relationship becomes more serious, Claire pulls away from her husband, her family, her friends. She struggles with guilt and jealously, and goes so far as to accuse her husband of having an affair. Eventually, things come to a head at the gala, and Claire realizes she must end the game of limbo and make a decision.

This novel left me feeling a little flat. I never really sympathized with any of the characters, and struggled to find redeeming qualities in any of them. I wanted to either root for Claire and Lock to beat the odds and find a way to be together, or be angry at them for breaking their marriage vows, but I honestly couldn't care enough about them to feel one way or the other.

I've read other books from Hilderbrand, and this was definitely not my favorite.

Review #48: The Castaways, by Elin Hilderbrand

I read this a few months ago, but I, like so many of you, am woefully behind on my reviews, so I'm not 100% sure I'm remembering the story accurately.

The Castaways introduces the reader to a close-knit group of six friends - three couples - who are reeling from the sudden and mysterious deaths of the other two members of their circle of eight, Tess and Greg MacAvoy. The group consists of Eddie, the local police chief, and his wife Andrea, who was Tess' older cousin, Jeffrey, a farmer, and his party girl wife Delilah, and the very wealthy Addison and his secretly pill-addicted wife Phoebe, who lost a brother in New York on September 11th. Also left behind are Tess and Greg's twins - a boy and girl - who wind up with Eddie and Andrea.

During the investigation into their deaths, secrets are uncovered, affairs are revealed, and long-harbored resentments are brought to light. 

This is vintage Hilderbrand: a beach read with some heft to it. I have to say, I'm pretty neutral about the story. I can't quite remember any of the scandals, except someone was secretly having an affair, someone else was not-so-secretly having an affair, and nobody appeared all that happy. Hildebrand is pretty good at capturing the mundaneness of life, of the daily grind, the feelings of being trapped and bored even though your life is much better than most people's. In other words, first world problems kind of stuff, but the kinds of issues I think we can all identify with.

Download this when it's $1.99 or grab it at the airport bookstore this holiday season.

Review #45: The Matchmaker, by Elin Hilderbrand

Note: There will be spoilers in this review.

In general, I like Elin Hilderbrand. Sometimes she's a little schlocky and a little too saccharine, and I feel like all her characters probably wear Lily Pulitzer all the time, but overall, I consider her a pretty good writer. If I see something of hers haven't read, I usually pick it up, because she's generally a sure thing. Except this one. I just couldn't fall in love with it.

Set on the island of Nantucket, The Matchmaker tells the story of Dabney Kimball Beech, who runs the Nantucket Chamber of Commerce (I think? Maybe it's the visitor's center. I honestly can't remember) and is Miss Nantucket. She's a pillar of the community, someone that everyone admires, and as if that weren't enough, she's apparently an awesome matchmaker, and not like the Patty Stanger kind, but the kind that just knows how to put couples together. She's got 42 happy couples under her belt, and is working on more. (And somehow nobody hates this woman? I feel like surely there's a cadre of Nantucket women who don't like her and her perfect headband and pearls. Where are the mean girls? Grown up mean girls are the worst.)

Dabney's perfect little life is rolling along quite nicely. Her husband John, a celebrated economist who works in the city four days a week, is doing well at work, the chamber is hopping, and her daughter Agnes has come back home for the summer to figure out whether she really wants to marry the dolt she's engaged to. But then Clendenin Hughes, Dabney's first love, comes back in to town, and his arrival rocks Dabney to the core. She hasn't seen him since he left when she was eighteen, and his presence back in her town tilts her world on its axis.

Of course, they begin an affair. They can't help it. They're in love. They always have been. It's their second chance, don't you see? It's meant to be. 

Um, no.

This is where Hildebrand lost me. 

I'm not one of those women who can't read about affairs. Admittedly, it took me a little while to be able to stomach it after my own personal experience with a spouse with a wandering eye and wandering pants, but there's a way to write about affairs, and this just wasn't it. Or maybe I just didn't like Dabney. I don't know. What I do know is that I couldn't get on the Dabney + Clen 4eva train, and that left me feeling cold and more than a little duped, because I was supposed to like Dabney and Clem, and supposed to root for them, and I just couldn't stand them. And that left me wondering what was wrong with me, and while a good book should make you think, it shouldn't make you feel the way I felt when I was done reading this one.