When I was younger, we used to spend almost a month on Martha’s Vineyard every summer. We had no cable, no computer, and definitely no Wi-Fi. I had always been an avid reader, but these summers became my time to take my love of reading to the next level. I would devour books. I’d start a book when we woke up and read as my parents had their coffee. I’d read in the water at the beach. I’d come home and read while my parents were cooking dinner. I’d read as we sat and watched the sunset. More often than not, I’d finish the book that evening, and I would ask my dad for $20 for a new book and some ice cream in Edgartown. We repeated this process for about two weeks of the vacation until finally my dad said, “You’re reading me out of house and home! Pick a book that we have here at the house.” And it was the best thing he could have ever done for me. I walked over to the shelf of older dog-eared paperbacks at the beach house and I picked up a book that changed my life. I was probably too young to be reading it, but by chance I picked up an Elin Hilderbrand book, and the rest is history.
Since then, I have read every single book by Elin, I have met her once, and I like to believe I’m one of her biggest Instagram fans (I comment YAS QUEEN on far too many of her pictures). I’m now a high school English teacher, and every year I have my kids make a heart map. If you don’t know what a heart map is, it’s when you draw a heart and break it up into sections and label each section with what takes up space in your heart. (It’s a cute activity, try it sometime if you’re feeling conflicted about your life. It helps.) Anyways, Elin Hilderbrand’s novels always take up a very large chunk of my heart map. If you don’t know about Elin Hilderbrand, all of her novels take place on Nantucket (except for her most recent winter story, Winter in Paradise). She has been called the “queen of beach reads” and what makes her so great (in my opinion) is that she writes what she knows. A lot of times authors write stuff out of their realm of knowledge, and I hate that. Elin nails it every time with her beautiful writing about the island she calls home.
Elin, if by any chance you read this, thank you for the joy that you’ve brought into my life. My love of reading grew tenfold when I started reading your novels that summer day on Martha’s Vineyard, and I’ll forever be indebted to you. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
So without further ado, here is my definitive ranking of all of Elin’s 23 books:
23. A Summer Affair: Claire is a mother of four living on Nantucket. She begins an affair with a friend’s husband while planning an annual gala held on the island. I’m not a mom, but I’m sure I could relate to a lot of Claire’s struggles if I did have kids. This story has drama and a lot of heart. I read it in one beach day, and it was wonderful!
22. The Beach Club: This is Elin’s first ever book that she published. Spanning the course of the summer season, this book follows the staff at the Nantucket Beach Club and Hotel. This book takes a lot of turns that you don’t expect, and follows characters with stories that leave you wanting more. Each character is more relatable than the last in this one, and the book is filled with emotion.
21. The Rumor: Listen, I love mess. I’m like that Marie Kondo picture where she straight up just says, “I love mess!” because I love messy and drama filled situations. Gossip (or hot gossy as we affectionally call it in my family) and scandal fill this book. Madeline is messy and it helps drive the story to a very interesting plot. I know all of Elin’s books are great summer reads, but this one is the perfect can’t-put-it-down, read-it-in-one-day kind of summer read, especially if you’re like me and love the gossy and the drama.
20. The Island: In my family we have a habit of saying, “sisters, sisters!” to highlight just how crazy our relationships are with our sisters. We stole this from the song Sisters in White Christmas. Look it up if you have to. Especially if you have a sister. It will make much more sense when you see it. Anyways, this story is about sisters and mothers and daughters and the crazy relationships we all have with the women in our lives. Between Tate and her sister Chess, and Bridie and her sister India, the sister drama and mom drama is enough to keep this story fresh and interesting all the way through.
19. Here’s to Us: This is my sister Mollie’s favorite of Elin’s books. If you’ve ever seen The Other Woman with Kate Upton, Leslie Mann, and Cameron Diaz, it’s kind of like that but way better. When three women head to Nantucket to say their goodbyes to their ex-husband, they find out secrets and truths are revealed. Elin’s the queen at managing to tell the stories of very different women without pitting them against each other, and that’s another reason why she’s my favorite author.
18. Barefoot: This was the first book of Elin’s I ever read. The one that I picked up on The Vineyard that day and never looked back. I was too young to truly grasp the severity of the book when I was younger, but once I read it for the second time I found even more reasons love Elin’s books and what it was that drew me to them in the first place. This story finds three women on Nantucket for the summer. One with breast cancer, one pregnant, and one jobless. As they all try to navigate through their own problems, they come together in a sad but sweet story of love and loss. (Sorry, that sounds cliché but it’s true.)
17. The Castaways: When Cheif of Police Ed Kapenash (a staple in a few of Elin’s books and a true and genuine precious gem of a man) has to investigate the death of his best friends Greg and Tess, secretes and lies come to light in a way that he never thought possible. I love teaching dramatic irony to my students, and this story has plenty of it. You want to shout to certain characters, “BUT YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT HAPPENED! I KNOW!” throughout the course of the book. It’s a twisty story about four couples and the tangled webs they weave.
16-13: The Winter Series: In Hilderbrand’s four books in this series, she tells the stories of the members of the Quinn family. The first three books in this series were so good, that Elin’s publisher convinced her to write a fourth one! The patriarch of the Quinn Family, Kelley, owns the Winter Street Inn on Nantucket. The novels follow Kelley and his four children and the complicated lives they lead. Unlike all of Elin’s summer books, this one is best read on a cold December night with a fuzzy blanket and some hot chocolate. Wait to read these until the time of year is right. You can thank me later!
12. Nantucket Nights: This was the last book I had to get ahold of to finish my Elin collection (aside from her newest one that came out last month)! Three lifelong friends have a once a year ritual of drinking on the beach and swimming under the stars. But during their most recent jaunt, one friend doesn’t return to shore. This dark and twisty story is different from a lot of Elin’s books and I loved it. The secrets come in droves with these ladies, and it makes every moment interesting. The mess is never ending!
11. The Love Season: This one JUST missed my top ten and it was hard for me to put it at 11. I believe it’s honestly one of Elin’s most underrated books. This book takes place over the course of one day, but goes back years and years to tell the story of Marguerite Beale and her estranged goddaughter, Renata. Renata wants to know more about her mother who passed away years ago, and while on Nantucket with her fiancée, decides to contact Marguerite to fill in the blanks for her. If you love food, love, sadness, and friendship (and who doesn’t?) this one is for you.
10. Summerland: Young Adult novels are some of my favorite ones to read. The lives of teenagers are often more complicated than they appear, and Elin highlights that in this complex story about four teenagers and how their lives are changed forever in the blink of an eye. This book is so compelling. I love that word, and now that I’m writing this I feel like I need to go back and read it again. I also feel like I wish there were more numbers so I could rate this book higher. I ALSO feel like I want to give my students a hug so they know that I get how hard it is to be a teenager sometimes.
9. Summer of ’69: This is Elin’s most recent novel that came out this summer. Her books always come out around my birthday, so I always get the newest one as a present to myself. Unfortunately, I usually finish them in about a day so then I’m forced to go without a new story of hers until at least October when her winter book comes out. This story is set in, you guessed it, 1969 on both Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket. It talks about civil rights, women’s rights, and the infamous Ted Kennedy scandal that took place on The Vineyard that summer. The Levin family is complicated and lovely, and each character comes into their own in this fantastic story.
8. Summer People: I’ve said it before, but I love young adult fiction. I think a part of me loves it because I can then recommend the books I read to my students. This story follows a family with teenage twins who take in Marcus, the son of their dad’s client, to live with them for the summer on Nantucket. (The Blindside vibes, IMO.) As the three teens try to deal with their emotions and issues respectively, they come together to repair what’s been broken in all of their lives.
7. Silver Girl: For this one, think of a story about Bernie Madoff told from his wife’s point of view. This story about greed and betrayal leads Meredith Delinn down a road of exile, until her old friend agrees to take her to Nantucket for the summer. The two learn to cope with loneliness and sadness together in another beautiful story by my girl Elin.
6. The Perfect Couple: My guy, Chief of Police Ed Kapenash, is back in this exhilarating murder mystery story. The morning of Benji and Celeste’s wedding, the bride finds her MOH dead. Elin does such a wonderful job placing red herrings and clues throughout the book. Few books have endings that surprise me, but this one REALLY did.
5. Winter in Paradise: This book is the most recent Winter book. It takes place on the island of St. John, and follows a widow as she sorts through the details of her husband’s mysterious death. Her life intertwines with some St. John locals, and that makes this story all the more interesting! This is the first book of what I believe is going to be a trilogy, and just so you know it does end off on a cliffhanger. A lot of my friends who read it were confused because that’s not like Elin to leave us hanging, but book #2 comes out this coming October!
4. Beautiful Day: I cried the entire way through this story. Seriously. I mean if you know me you know it’s not hard to make me cry, but this one had me bawling. Jenna is getting married, and before her mother passed away she wrote out a notebook with all of the details of what the wedding should look like. It would be a fantastic Lifetime movie. (@Elin, make it happen my queen!)
3. The Matchmaker: This story is about Dabney Kimball Beech, who has set up 42 couples in her lifetime that all managed to stay together. This is a heartbreakingly beautiful story about a woman who has always been able to control things around her, and suddenly finds it all slipping away. It’s incredible and unforgettable, and if you’ve never heard of Nantucket’s Daffodil Weekend you’ll find yourself wanting to suddenly book a trip to the island at the end of April just to eat a ribbon sandwich.
2. The Identicals: I mentioned at the beginning of this blog that I used to spend my summers on Martha’s Vineyard, so it’s no surprise that a book set on both Nantucket and The Vineyard is in my top two. Think Parent Trap of the 21st century: two twins switch up locations for the summer, with one sister on Nantucket and one on The Vineyard. Tabitha and Harper have been at odds for almost 15 years when tragedy tore them apart. But then tragedy brings them back together. With a side plot about Tabitha’s 16-year old daughter, it has a gripping young adult quality to the story as well.
1. The Blue Bistro: Here we are! My number one Elin book of all time. I may have been influenced the first time I heard Elin say that this book is her favorite, but it is by and large the best of all of her books. Elin, if you ever stumble across this blog, please make a sequel. I need to know more about Adrienne and Thatch. This story is beautiful from beginning to end. I won’t say too much because if there’s one book I want you to find out about for yourself, it’s this one. However, I will tell you that The Love Season was written because Elin had so much left over material from The Blue Bistro that she decided to write another restaurant book!
So there you have it. My heart and soul poured into one blog. Thanks for reading with me, and if you’re looking for an Elin book to read start with this list. You won’t be disappointed.
Make good choices, be a friend, and don’t go to the bathroom alone.
xoxo,
ABBY
Just Abby to Be Here 