Tag: beach read

Book Review, Fiction

The Beach Club by Elin Hilderbrand ~ Book Review

Morgan

My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪.5
Genre: Fiction

The Beach Club takes place over a summer at the Nantucket Beach Club. There are a number of narrators, each who have a connection to the club and we watch them from the time they arrive for the summer until the season ends. I liked uncovering each of their motivations and watching how their plans for the summer changed as relationships developed or devolved.

There was a ton of drama in this story and I felt that all the storylines were equally adept at holding my attention and keeping me invested. All the characters are believably flawed and I was impressed at the complexity of each of their storylines and the way it still created a coherent and easy to follow narrative.

I loved the Nantucket setting and could perfectly picture the club and the surrounding areas. Hilderbrand painted a map of the setting so vividly that I could imagine everyone traveling around and exactly where each scene took place.

I didn’t realize until writing this review that this was Elin Hilderbrand’s first book. In hindsight, it checks out. There were some kind of random moments and ideas (someone randomly pulls a gun, two parents want their college-age daughter to marry a thirty year old), and I think she has really refined storytelling in the years since this came out. That said, I still largely enjoyed this read.

Check out my bookstagram: @Treat.your.shelf
Buy The Beach Club at an indie bookstore near you
The Beach Club on Goodreads

Book Review, Fiction, Romance

Beautiful Day by Elin Hilderbrand ~ Book Review

Morgan

My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪🍪.5
Genre: Romance
Read if you liked: The Perfect Couple

Jenna and Stewart’s families gather on Nantucket for their wedding, planned using The Notebook that Jenna’s mom left behind for her before she died. As the ideas in The Notebook come to life, it stirs up emotions for all the family members, leading to reassessments of many of their lives.

This book is classic Elin Hilderbrand, with a primary focus on the lavish setting of Nantucket and the personal drama of the characters (of which there are a lot), without a ton of action. It was exactly what I wanted from a book I read by the pool. Most of the characters are entitled and somewhat unlikable, but I enjoyed watching them tangle and untangle their lives. I ate up the drama as the wedding drew closer.

I liked how messy and complicated this story was, and of course, I loved the way Hilderbrand made Nantucket come alive as she always does.

Check out my bookstagram: @Treat.your.shelf
Beautiful Day on Goodreads
Buy Beautiful Day at an indie bookstore near you

Book Review, Fiction

The Identicals by Elin Hilderbrand ~ Book Review

Morgan

Fiction
My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪🍪

The Identicals tells the story of Harper and Tabitha, grown identical twins who are estranged. They live on Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard and could not be more different. After their father’s death, the two come back together for the first time in years and are forced to face the past that they’ve ignored for so long.

The two sisters decide to temporarily switch places and I really enjoyed seeing the ways that they tried to fit into the other person’s life. The dual settings with very different narratives were both equally interesting and had Hilderbrand’s classic beach-read style that made me yearn for summer.

There are some storylines in this book (particularly about the girls’ childhood) that I found fairly unbelievable and threw me off a bit. Overall though, I enjoyed the switching places style of storytelling and found this to be a fast and enjoyable read.

Check out my bookstagram: @Treat.your.shelf
Buy The Identicals at an indie bookstore near you
The Identicals on Goodreads

Book Review, Fiction, Romance

Every Summer After by Carley Fortune ~ Book Review

Morgan

Berkley
Romance
My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪🍪🍪

It lives up to the hype! Every Summer After was exactly the summer read I was looking for. I grew up going to lakes during the summer and Carley Fortune perfectly captures the essence of hot days by the water, told through Persephone’s view. Persephone (Percy) is returning to the lake where she spent her summers growing up, after over a decade away. Going back means seeing Sam again, her former best friend and first love.

I was obsessed with Sam and Percy’s friendship. The timeline is split between past and present and seeing them bond as kids, share in each others hobbies and passions, and be their authentic selves was so heartwarming. They came across as completely realistic and quirky and I was holding my breath waiting for their friendship to become more.

The chemistry between the two in the present was palpable and I couldn’t get enough of their adult interactions. Throughout the book, the reader is left in the dark about what happened to pull the two apart, and the mystery combined with the breathtaking setting and the romance was the combination I didn’t know I needed.

Prepare for your heart to hurt with this one and for yourself to suddenly long for sunscreen-coated summer days by the water.

Check out my bookstagram: @Treat.your.shelf
Every Summer After on Goodreads
Buy Every Summer After at an indie bookstore near you

Book Review, Fiction

The Hotel Nantucket by Elin Hilderbrand ~ Book Review

Morgan

Little, Brown & Company
Fiction
Release Date: June 14, 2022 (Thank you to NetGalley for my ARC!)
My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪🍪.5

Ah, to be back in Elin Hilderbrand’s world! The Hotel Nantucket transported me instantly to sun-soaked Nantucket and the glamour of the newly renovated and incredibly posh Hotel Nantucket. Lizbet Keaton, hired to be the general manager by the mysteries Xavier Darling, who himself has never seen the hotel, scrambles to hire an eclectic mix of employees to get the place up and running. The cast of characters had such wonderful dynamics with one another. Even though there were a lot of them, each was so unique that I never mixed anyone up or felt confusion over who was who.

I was the littlest bit thrown off by the part of the narrative told by a ghost, but I promise it wasn’t too disruptive to the rest of the story – and I’m not one who usually enjoys that kind of suspension of reality in an otherwise realistic story. Although there was not a ton of action in the day to day goings on of the hotel, the secrets and drama of each individual employee grew and complicated over time in a way that made this book hard to put down.

As always, Hilderbrand’s descriptions of everything from room décor to cocktails leapt off the page and illustrated every aspect of the novel. I felt that things were a little rushed and maybe not entirely thought out at the very end of the story, but other than that, I loved every page.

Check out my bookstagram: @Treat.your.shelf
Buy The Hotel Nantucket at an indie bookstore near you
The Hotel Nantucket on Goodreads