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
