The Beach Club

Yes, I'm a sucker for this kind of book. A fast read, characters who mean well but are flawed, some unusual love stories, a beautiful setting. What's not to like? Mack manages the Beach Club every summer, and nearly everybody loves him. But he's confused about a lot of things. Should he marry his girlfriend? Or is he in love with the woman with the autistic son who comes to the Beach Club every year? Should he sell the family farm, or should he go back to Iowa? I came to care about him, too, and the people intertwined in his life. Some of them I wanted to shake and tell them what to do, but mostly I found myself thinking: I understand; I feel that way sometimes too.

The beach Club I believe was this authors first book.
It was a fantastic summer book. Tightly told story with well developed characters excellent plot and some enjoyable surprises. I will definitely check out some of this authors other books.

Mack Peterson leaves Iowa and his parents' farm at the age of 18 after his parents' deaths. He lands in Nantucket and "hears" the island saying "home" to him. He is mistaken for the new concierge of The Beach Club and does the job for 12 years, always being resented by Vance, the young man who was supposed to have the job. Mack has problems with Mari bell, his live-in girlfriend of 6 years, his attraction to Andrea and her autistic son James, and the fact that he feels he should have a bigger stake in the Beach Club. All these things run through the issues raised by the never ending stream of high-paying guests at the 20 cottages and the local Beach Club members.

I have recently fallen in love with the works of Elin Hilderbrand and have read several now in the last month or so. This is the first of her Nantucket books and while I really enjoyed it, I have loved her more recent ones more.
The beach club started as just that, a beach club for the wealthy to rent,to be able to use a beautiful beach. It has now expanded to also be a 20 room hotel. This novel gets into the lives of the people who work there and those that stay there. Elin's books are all juicy little gossipy treats. Instead of focusing on just a few people, you are thrust into the lives of many people, their emotions, their secrets. Sometimes when there are so many characters, the reader gets lost and confused, to me that is not the show more case with this authors books. They are fast reads, easy to keep up, and they satisfy that part of us that likes to know everyone's business.
I did find that I didn't connect the same with these characters as much as in the other books of hers that I have read. I found some of them; Vance, Maribel and a few others to be not likeable people and I didn't become as invested in them as I have in her other books. Sometimes I can read a book, and fall in love with the characters despite their faults while still enjoying the book, I didn't find that here.
I realize that none of the books she is writing are connected but I do find it a little odd that all of these books take place on Nantucket, an island that isn't all that big, yet so far I haven't noticed any of the same characters or places mentioned in more than just a single novel.
This author writes the best stories for beach reads, so engrossing and hard to put down, yet still fluffy and delightful.
I enjoy her books so much I am torn between slamming through all of her books quickly or trying to hold off and read them gradually. Either way, this woman really knows how to write great stories and I look forward to reading the rest of them. show less

I love how the whole story revolves around the beach hotel and the people who live, work and travel there.

There were a lot of characters in this book that the storyline focused on. It didn't seem possible that they'd all get a conclusion to their storyline. When it got to the very end, I still felt like a couple story lines were a bit open ended.

I enjoyed it plenty despite that.

A series of personal dramas are played out during one summer at the Nantucket Beach club. It’s about the love of summer, summer love, and the special feelings we all have for that special summer place. Mac Peterson the manager has been working at the beach club for 12 Summers. This summer is different. His boss, the owner of the club Bill Elliott shows up in the spring with a new set of demands. Max girlfriend Maribel is pressing him to get married and Vance who has hated Max since day one threatened him in a deadly scene. Love is looking for a stranger to father her child. Gem falls in love with Maribel. A hurricane threatens to wash away the beach club.

The Beach Club is about a hotel/beach club that has belonged to the same owner for years and years. Mack has worked for Bill and Theresa for over 12 years and really would love to get a share of the profits but is too chicken to ask. In fact, Mack is pretty much too chicken to do anything. He wont marry his girlfriend, he wont sell his farm in Iowa, (Elin is originally from Iowa, she went to U of I as well) he wont ask for any profits that the hotel makes. This book was good, but just not as good as it could have been, or not even as good as some of her other books. What's strange is that this was her first book ever written and I can't understand why it's so popular. It really wasn't THAT good. It definitely wasn't "the book" to make a show more career. But hey, every writer has to start somewhere, and if it was good enough to be published that has to say something for the rest of us doesn't it. Anyway, I give this book a C. Hopefully the next one I read will be better than this on show less