The Castaways (Elin Hilderbrand)

I’m slowly working my way through Elin Hilderbrand’s repertoire, my latest being The Castaways.  The setting, as usual, is the author’s hometown of Nantucket; after reading so many of her novels, I really need to get there!  Part soap opera, part unsolved mystery, The Castaways is the perfect mental escape.

Four couples have become the best of friends since meeting on the island.  Some are related (Tess and Andrea), some have even dated each other in the past (Jeffrey and Andrea), but all have secrets.  After an accused infidelity, Tess and Greg are trying to repair their marriage by taking a sailing trip.  Unfortunately, they do not come back alive, causing a sordid web of backstory and grief.  Hilderbrand lets each character (except Tess and Greg) narrate as the huge puzzle they’ve all gotten themselves into slowly comes together.

While I enjoyed The Castaways and found it difficult to put down, I was not enthralled with the ending.  You never really know the true story of how Tess and Greg died; Hilderbrand lets the theories of the other characters influence your conclusions.  I’m all for open endings, but in a supposed mystery, this is ridiculous.  How did a piece of Tess’s hair get ripped out?  Why did Greg have cuts and bruises? 

However, the soap opera of the novel is what truly keeps it going.  Some characters are more likable than others, but all have interesting stories to tell.  This is a great, breezy read for vacation…just not a sailing trip!

MY RATING - 3

Nantucket Nights (Elin Hilderbrand)

Nantucket Nights…just the name sounds like it should have Fabio on the cover and give Fifty Shades of Grey a run for its money. It practically screams Don Johnson running down the street with a pastel t-shirt and white jacket. If you think all of this sounds dumb, that’s because Nantucket Nights is a dumb novel. While there is a plethora of intelligent chick lit out there (Hilderbrand’s latest books, Silver Girl and Summerland are two examples), this is not one of them.

Kayla is a Nantucket housewife married to Raoul with four children (one of which is a central character). Val, Kayla’s friend, is a high-powered attorney. Antoinette is…um, just someone that they both know (You can’t really call her a friend because in her words “she doesn’t want to have any friends.").  Twenty years ago, these three women started a ritual where they went swimming on the Friday before Labor Day and shared their innermost secrets. They named themselves the “Night Swimmers.” Now, it’s time again, with all three having big secrets, to grab lobsters and champagne and go swimming! But one decides to dance straight into the water, and lo and behold, goes missing! Did she drown? Did something more sinister happen?

Does that paragraph entice you to read Nantucket Nights? Probably not. However, just because the plot leaves a lot to be desired doesn’t mean Hilderbrand isn’t a great writer. I’ve given plenty of her books a 4 or 5 and am reading one now that I love. While there are some exciting parts, the storyline and extremely unsympathetic characters make this novel one I wouldn’t recommend.

MY RATING - 2

One Breath Away (Heather Gudenkauf)

Numerous blurbs on the back of Heather Gudenkauf’s latest, One Breath Away, describe Gudenkauf as the next Jodi Picoult.  Picoult has taken the idea of multiple narrators and practically created an entirely new writing style.  The payoff is immensely satisfying when it’s done correctly, as it creates a truly completed puzzle.  While not as successful as  her debut novel, The Weight of Silence, Gudenkauf has written a worthwhile and powerful read in One Breath Away.

Gudenkauf takes every parent’s worst nightmare, an intruder in his/her child’s school, and creates a riveting narrative (so, ironically, did Picoult in Nineteen Minutes).  Each narrator adds a slice of the pie to the horrible hours when the incident took place.  Augie, sent to live with her grandfather after her mother’s accident; Will, Augie’s grandfather; Holly, Augie’s mother; Meg, a police officer at the school whose daughter is thankfully not there that day; and Mrs. Oliver, the third-grade teacher whose classroom the intruder is holed up in.

Gudenkauf wisely writes short chapters, which causes the “just one more” syndrome.  At times, I couldn’t put it down and kept reading long into the night.  Gudenkauf builds suspense with making the reader guess the intruder’s identity and hoping against hope that everyone will get out safely.  However, the identity is easily guessed, so the reader shouldn’t expect any big surprises there.  That part needed much more drama and felt a little too amateurish.  The lead-up to the big reveal and the afterword was wonderfully written. The actual reveal…not so much.  However, don’t let that stop you from picking up One Breath Away.  The heroics of the key players and general suspense keep you wanting more.

MY RATING - 4

One Day (David Nicholls)

I’ve been going through a phase where I’m reading books that other people have raved about…what some would call “modern-day classics.”  I usually focus on newer books on 1776books, but there are some novels on the aforementioned lists that I haven’t read yet.  A few months ago, I picked up Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go which I really disliked.  I saw David Nicholls’s One Day on the shelf at my local library and decided to give that one a go as well.  The numerous blurbs from prominent authors and publications made it seem like the second coming of The Great Gatsby.  So many people I talked with loved it and said Anne Hathaway’s movie ruined it.  Well, having neither read the novel nor seen the movie, I was looking at it with a clean slate.  And the one thing I took with me from reading One Day night after night…make my own darn decisions about the books I read.

One Day has a very interesting premise, following two people on the same day year after year beginning after their college graduation.  Dex and Emma, the reader is led to believe, are soulmates but do not know it.  No matter whom else they each happen to be with, Nicholls strongly makes the case that they belong together.  Each chapter describes the same day (July 15) every year, and the reader is responsible for filling in the other 364 days between.  This makes One Day a pageturner in a sense, as you want to find out if one person will recover from an illness or two people will stay together.

This novel was a solid 4 until the unbelievable massive turning point.  Then it got so irksome and boring that I just wanted to be done with it already.  Reviews of One Day are very interesting in that people usually give it the highest rating possible or the lowest rating possible.  You either love it or hate it.  I didn’t hate it, but I definitely wouldn’t read it again.  I’m giving it a 2 for solid writing but a pitiful ending.

MY RATING - 2

The Drowning House (Elizabeth Black)

When I first read the synopsis for Elizabeth Black’s The Drowning House, I was immediately intrigued.  It sounded completely like my cup of tea, with the synopsis focusing heavily on a Galveston resident hung by her hair from a chandelier during the Great Hurricane of 1900.  If this was the primary focus of the book, that would be great, but Black is all over the place with her writing…so much so that things get boring after awhile.

The Drowning House tells the story of Clare Porterfield, whose marriage is unraveling due to the accidental death of her young daughter.  Clare is asked to organize a photograph exhibition in Galveston, the place where she grew up until she was sent away because of her part in a tragedy.  During her childhood, Clare became involved with Will Carraday’s son, Patrick, and longs to see him upon her return to her hometown.  However, she must deal with the ghosts in her own closet, including the memories of what happened to her long ago and what happened to Stella, a Carraday ancestor (and supposedly the owner of the “hair in the chandelier”).

I wanted to like The Drowning House so much more than I did.  The characters are unsympathetic, with Patrick being made into this Heathcliff type man.  Black didn’t get me to care about any of the characters’ fates, and I found myself just trying to “get through” this book instead of enjoying it.  I’m not even quite sure what genre Black is going for here, but in any great book, the puzzle pieces must come together.  These pieces, of which there are many, do not.

MY RATING - 2

Barefoot (Elin Hilderbrand)

I picked up Elin Hilderbrand’s Barefoot because I loved her other books so much.  Her latest, Summerland, is outstanding, and I also greatly enjoyed last year’s Silver Girl.  In Silver Girl especially, she had the Jodi Picoult-like knack of making the reader feel for unsympathetic characters.  I read The Beach Club in the last few weeks, which was a nice, breezy summer read.  Barefoot, while not my favorite by-far, still manages to tell a good story.

As is usually the case with Hilderbrand’s books, the setting is Nantucket.  Three women come here to “escape” their problems.  Vicki, diagnosed with lung cancer, brings her two young boys and leaves her husband at home.  Brenda, Vicki’s sister, is just recently fired from her job as a professor due to a liason with one of her students and an accidental case of vandalism.  Melanie, Vicki’s friend, is hurting over her husband’s affair and finds out that she is finally pregnant at the same time.  When these women make their entrance at the Nantucket airport, a worker, Josh, notices that they seem very unhappy.  As Josh finds himself intertwining with their lives, he must make some hard decisions.

Some reviews of Barefoot have been negative because some feel that the characters are unsympathetic.  While this works in Silver Girl, it does not really work here.  While I loved reading Vicki’s story and was anxious to know what would happen to her, I could not find myself wanting to read about Melanie, Josh, or especially Brenda.  However, as is always the case with Hilderbrand, she is a wonderful storyteller, and any book written by her is worth your time.

MY RATING - 3

The Beach Club (Elin Hilderbrand)

Elin Hilderbrand was an author I knew nothing about until I discovered she grew up in a neighboring town.  I started off reading Silver Girl last year and then continued with Summerland this year.  Even though she is a great summer read, she is by no means a frivolous one.  Her stories revolve around characters you truly grow to care about.  More than possibly any other author I’ve read, you can get completely lost in her books, with hours passing before you realize you read half of the novel already.

The Beach Club is an older novel, and, while not quite as good as Silver Girl and Summerland, still an intriguing story.  Mack is the manager of Bill and Therese’s Nantucket hotel/beach club.  Having lost his parents in a tragedy, he must decide what to do with the family farm and with his relationship with his girlfriend, Maribel.  Lacey is an 88-year-old fixture at the hotel, spending every summer there.  Jem, who quickly falls in love with Maribel, is happy to get a job as a bellman under Vance’s watch.  Love comes to the island from Aspen, after Bill offers her a job as a front desk clerk, but she has an ulterior motive.  Each character interweaves seamlessly with the others, creating a story that is summer breezy at times, but has real heart always.

With the exception of a line involving Cecily (Bill and Therese’s daughter) that could have come straight out of a romance novel with Fabio on the cover, I found myself hanging on every word.  I’m reading Barefoot right now and loving it, and I can’t wait to read Hilderbrand’s others.  She is a gifted storyteller whose novels are just right for the beach or a nice summer escape in the dreary cold winter.

MY RATING - 4