Elin Hilderbrand

This book was a bunch of hot gossip and I thoroughly enjoyed it. The Academy is about an elite college prep/ boarding school on the east coast. Set over the course of a year, The Academy follows teachers, the dean, the students, the staff, and all the drama. Even though teens are featured heavily, a lot of the focus is on the staff. Illicit trysts, gambling, drinking, envy, and more. There isn't a huge over arching storyline per se, but I found myself eating it all up. It ended with some show more unanswered questions and to my delight I saw that there is a sequel releasing later this year! This book is perfect for those that like books with a wide cast of characters, witty dialogue, and lots of drama. So fun! show less

Summer of ‘69 is the story of a family, holidaying in Nantucket over the summer each year. We’re getting an insight into their life during the eponymous “Summer of ‘69”.

Exalta, the grandparent generation, is the matriarch of the family. Her husband, Penn, passed away years ago and is idolised by Exalta who herself has been a prisoner of the (sometimes questionable) morals of the time but is on her way to make the best of the tumultuous times.

Exalta’s daughter, Kate, is part of show more the parent generation. Her first husband, Wilder, who served in the Korean War, died shortly after coming home while cleaning his gun. Wilder is the father of Kate’s daughters Blair and Kirby and her son Tiger whereas her third daughter, Jessie, is her second husband’s child.
David, Jessie’s father, is a lawyer and made sure Kate got the life insurance payout after Wilder’s death.
David is such a great guy, that instead of talking to his binge-drinking wife, he passive-aggressively avoids her completely - to which she responds by buying something huge…

Tiger has quit college to go to war in Vietnam and finds out that’s what he wants to do. Of course, he’s the good kind of soldier and rescues a young boy whose mother was killed (but she was Viet Cong, of course!) instead of massacring innocent villagers, using Napalm and Agent Orange like the rest of them (cf. My Lai).

Kate is so upset about his leaving that she starts drinking heavily. Well, Kate, wait till you see the pictures of what Tiger and his nice buddies did in Vietnam...

Her oldest daughter, Blair, is married to Angus (whose brother, Joey, she used to date) and is expecting their first child. Angus is mostly married to his job at NASA, though, and is working on the planned moon landing while possibly cheating on Blair.

Blair’s sister Kirby is a bit younger; a young adult with a secret that changed her outlook on life. Kirby strives to be more independent and, thus, finds herself a job on Martha’s Vineyard instead of summering with her family in Nantucket.
From a young age on, Kirby wanted to be a rebel and, thus, went on a march with Dr. King and her teacher. She rather actively “befriends” the police (the nice guys routinely murdering coloured people in the USA, cf. George Floyd) while at it; slightly defeating the purpose.

She’s quite principled as well - unless the guy’s hot in which case she tells him off (his parents might not approve!) to later date him again when nobody will know it...

Finally, there’s Jessie: Jessie has just turned 13 and falls for Pick, 16, the son of the caretaker of her family’s summer home in Nantucket. Unfortunately for her, while he’s trying to get to second base with her, he’s working on another girl in parallel. Once that girl agrees to “go steady”, Jessie’s dismissed. Just in case, though, he keeps in touch with her as her penpal.
Jessie also routinely steals when under pressure but her grandmother, Exalta, quickly fixes that for her to “save face”. Exalta doesn’t really want to know the reasons either, she just grounds Jessie for a week.

There are other characters like Bill, Pick’s grandfather, Bill’s hippie child-neglecting commune-living daughter Lorraine (AKA Lavender), the grabby tennis teacher, the pseudo-feminist tennis teacher, some of the “upper echelon”, etc. etc. but you get the gist.

Why do I tell you all this when I usually just skip to the nitty-gritty? Because you should know what this book is about before you stumble into it, knowing nothing - like I did. I have no idea why this book made it to my “to-read” list and I probably wouldn’t have read it in the first place had I known what I was in for.

By now, you might come to the conclusion that I’m not exactly fond of “Summer of ‘69”. Surprisingly (and somewhat shamefully), that’s not the case. In fact, I really enjoyed reading this multi-generation family soap opera of a book.

Sure, while writing this review, I feel like I should hate every single person that is even mentioned in passing in this book and, yet, it’s a feel-good summer read which is what I wanted. And now a storm is brewing here - must be karma for actually liking this.

A guilty-feeling four stars.


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I dunno who the (expletive) titled this book, but they were on crack.

A frustrating read. Hilderbrand apparently operates under the delusion that a book takes only a few stock characters and a hint of mysterious mystery that isn't explained until the very end, bake at 500 degrees for fifteen minutes stir twice, success!
Why, Elin? (Can I call you Elin?) You had the ingredients for creme brulee au chocolat and you settled for microwave brownies. WHY WOULD YOU DO THIS TO YOURSELF? & more show more importantly, why would you do it to me?

Here is the story that should have been written:

Marguerite (plain; long hair; super-excellent chef) spent fifteen years on the end of the line jerked by Porter (wealthy, pretentious, selfish). He gave her a restaurant; she gave him good sex. Meanwhile, Marguerite is immediate BFF with his sister Candace (blonde; artlessly beautiful). Meanwhile, Candace has married and borne a child (Renata). Meanwhile, Marguerite has fallen in love with Candace.
On the night Porter breaks it off for good, Marguerite realizes/confesses her love to the leggy and ethereal Candace, who is overwhelmed and a bit squicked out -- either by this revelation or by Marguerite's insistence that her sudden desire be returned in kind. Candace decides she needs a breath of fresh air. Candace goes for a run. Candace is hit by a truck.
And so Marguerite wants to die too. She has placed all her emotional well-being in a single basket and it is sunk to the bottom of the reedy river. She has never been beautiful, never been strong or free in the way Candace was, so effortlessly graceful. So she goes to the woods and makes a fire and puts in one of her lovely silver spoons and burns the fuck out of her tongue, because destroying the last remaining joy in her life is the only sacrifice she can make that comes close to the pain of the loss of Candace. It swells up; she nearly dies; she is hospitalized (incarcerated) for a long time; she withdraws from the world and certainly from the restaurant ... until her god-daughter Renata calls and wants to meet her. I'm getting married, she says. I know I'm too young, but I'm in love.
That's wonderful, darling, says Marguerite, desperate to see this girl, this image of Candace, this miracle. Why don't you come over for dinner and we'll talk.
If it's okay, I had some questions about -- about my mum. He never talks about her.
Marguerite closes her eyes even though the child cannot see her. She does not choke. She says, so gently she does not recognize her own voice, it's been stiff from the salt of Nantucket and held-back tears since Candace died and here it is again, almost new, almost whole -- Whatever you want to know. I'm here.
And on opposite sides of the island, the women hang on to the telephone wire like it's the only solid thing in the world.

The real book has various drawn-out dinner parties, nasty rich white people, nasty poor black people, various omg-are-we-lesbians?! friendships, unfinished business, men who exist on the tangent of women's emotional lives and in the foreground otherwise, lots of lobster, and is penned by an author who knows a lot about cooking but very little about baking bread.
I like my version better. show less

“The Perfect Couple” by Elin Hilderbrand had all the makings of a gripping narrative—a murder mystery combined with romance, set against the picturesque backdrop of Nantucket.
The story follows the wedding of Benji and Celeste, a supposedly perfect couple, but things take a darker turn when the maid of honour is found dead on the morning of the wedding.

As the "mystery" unfolds, it's clear that Hilderbrand is more interested in exploring the petty dramas and secrets of the wealthy show more elite than crafting a compelling whodunit. The revelations, when they come, are bog-standard and boring, lacking any real tension or surprises.

The romance was basically nonexistent as Celeste and her love interest simply fall in love at first glance. Yes, it happens, but as a story element, it’s just lazy.

Another problem were the characters themselves: Benji, for instance, emerged as an exceedingly annoying and shallow character. His emotional turmoil following the death on his wedding day only served to accentuate his self-centredness.

»Benji is experiencing a host of very confusing emotions. He is upset, shocked, and horrified just like everyone else. And yet also mixed in there are anger and resentment. It’s his wedding day! His parents have gone to enormous effort and expense to make this wedding unforgettable and now it’s all for naught.«

His response to Celeste the murder of Celeste’s supposedly-best friend was selfish and shallow, and his treatment of Celeste was appalling.

»She was lucky to be here, lucky she had a friend like you, she didn’t deserve you, wasn’t worthy of you, Celeste. And furthermore, she probably did this to herself! You told me once that she stockpiled pills and considered suicide, so what’s to say that’s not what this is? She orchestrated this to ruin our big day!«

What a champ, right?

His fiancée and soon-to-be wife, Celeste, is, to him, like an exotic creature Benji feels compelled to possess. And they first met at the zoo.

»Celeste is like a rare butterfly that Benji was somehow able to capture. That comparison is, no doubt, inappropriate on many different levels, but that’s how he thinks of her in his private mind where no one can judge him, that she’s like an exotic bird or butterfly.«

The portrayal of other characters, too, left much to be desired. Tag, the playboy, and Greer, the snobby housewife, were reductionist caricatures that failed to elicit any emotional engagement.

Celeste herself is a calculating, opportunistic person who is more concerned with money and security than actual emotions.
Merritt, her friend, is little more than a sounding board for Celeste's problems, and even that relationship feels strained and inauthentic.

Celeste’s inner monologue often revolved around whether a particular luxury item or location would be enough to replace love, and her dialogue was peppered with infantile statements about her own insecurities.

»How will it work? Celeste asked Benji. M-M-Money, I m-m-mean. Once we’re m-m-married? I’ll put your name on my accounts, Benji said. We’ll get you an ATM card, a checkbook. Once I turn thirty-five, I’ll have access to the trust from my Garrison grandparents, so there will be that money as well. Celeste has wondered since then how much money is in the Garrison trust. A million dollars? Five million? Twenty million? What is the amount that takes the place of love? What about m-my salary? Celeste had asked. Keep it for yourself, Benji said.«

One might argue that these character flaws are intentional and serve the broader purpose of Hilderbrand’s social commentary. However, even if this were her intent, the execution falls woefully short of crafting a compelling and nuanced narrative. The incessant, somewhat trite observations and paper-thin plot developments were monotonous, testing my patience with each page.

As if to punctuate the already dire state of the narrative, the denouement lacked any semblance of satisfaction, providing neither closure nor contemplation. The novel just falls over and silently dies.

I'm left feeling like I've wasted precious reading time on a narrative that fails to engage on any level. Reading this novel felt like an exercise in endurance rather than enjoyment.

One star out of five.

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