Nantucket Nights

Hilderbrand weaves an emotional tapestry of friendship, betrayal, and redemption set against the picturesque backdrop of Nantucket. The island’s timeless beauty serves as both a setting and a character in this tale of women who must confront their deepest fears and desires. Hilderbrand’s nuanced exploration of human connection is both tender and raw, making this a must-read for those who treasure stories about the complexities of relationships and the secrets that bind us. Nantucket readers will feel a profound connection to the landscape and themes woven into this poignant narrative.

Story of three friends--Kayla, Val and Antoinette--who have a yearly tradition of getting together the Friday of Labor Day Weekend for a night swim in the Atlantic Ocean off the island of Nantucket, Mass., sharing champagne, decadent food, and secrets. On this, their 20th anniversary of friendship and "Night Swimmers", tragedy strikes and the ensuing fall-out is disastrous for all involved.

This is my second Hilderbrand novel. She's an excellent writer, and I once again could not put the book down until I was finished. This would have received a higher rating because it was very well written, but I was SO unhappy with these selfish, lying, and sometimes cruel people! It was such a tangled mess of deception, betrayals, outright lies and show more lies of omission.

There were moments in this book that made me want to shake people because their stupid behavior caused even further complications in their lives. As far as the married life of Raoul and Kayla--I don't know how they sustained such a seemingly happy marriage and wonderful family life for so many years when they obviously could not communicate about the important things.

The ending infuriated me. My first words to myself upon closing the book were, "Kayla is an idiot." show less

Three women, once a year on the Labor Day weekend get together down at the lake around midnight for a swim, some good food and to split secrets. This is a big year, as it is their twentieth year getting together and this will also be a night to remember.
Kayla, Antoinette and Val all met in Nantucket and have been friend since. Kayla is a housewife, of a very well made construction local in town. Val is a well to do lawyer, married to a man who also does well handling money for clients, and Antionette is somewhat of the outsider in the group, but it works.
Antionette sticks to herself, in her house that Kayla's husband build out in the middle of nowhere. She has enough money to not have to work, and does not seem to have gotten a grip show more back on life after having found her husband cheating on her, while she is pregnant. She just couldn't do it, so she gave the child up for adoption and even though she knows it was the right decision, she has lived with regret and self loathing since.
Kayla, runs her household well. Four kids, each their very own personality but lately things seems amiss. Her oldest, eighteen has started to have an attitude, is angry, swears at her, and recently ruined her garden with his jeep. Which is not like him. Her husband having gotten a very large contract is working more days, and hours than normal and often her mind is wandering if that is what he really is doing...
Val seems to have it all. Nice house, husband who has a good job, her dream job and no kids to hold them down. But things are not as they seem on the outside. Her husband is not a very well liked man, and every time he has run for an office position, has never been voted in. Val is sick of the town hating her husband and has also found herself in al little bit of a predicament.
The three cannot wait to spill their secrets, as it is like a cleansing for each of them, and they know their secret is safe. Antionette is about to spill a second secret, which is not how it usually goes but then she disappears into the water after Kayla makes a hasty accusation towards her. She never resurfaces and Val and Kayla go into panic mode. Where is she? What happened? She is the strongest swimmer of all of them, did she get caught in a ripe tide or current?
The police are called, as well as water rescue and the search is on, but her body is never found. It's like she disappeared, and if she did get swept out to sea, they may never find her body. They also check her house, just to make sure and find the door wide open, lights are on and the place has been trashed and ransacked. What the hell is going on?
Rumors start circulating town as Val and Kayla are questioned by police, their own families and as secrets start to slip. What three women in their right mind would go to the beach in the middle of the night, to get drunk and swim naked. What kind of ritual or activities really were happening? Finger pointing is happening all over. Will the police ever get to the bottom of it all?
Very fast paced read! The story is told from various character view points, so you see all side of what led up to that night, as well as things that were brewing before hand. I really enjoyed this read, and liked this authors writing style. show less

"You will not be able to put it down...read in one day! " The ties between women can run as deep as the ocean--but so can their secrets. For 20 years, Kayla, Antoinette and Val have performed their own special summer ritual. Once a year, the old friends put aside their daily, separate lives to drink champagne, swap stories and swim naked under the Nantucket stars. But on one of those bonding nights, one of their trio swims out from the shore and doesn't return. After the surviving friends emerge from their grief, they realize that the repercussions of their loss go far beyond their little circle, and they begin to uncover layers of secrets--and their connections to each other--that were never revealed on the beach. What has made their show more friendship strong now has the power to destroy--their marriages, families, even themselves. show less

Great novel told from three points of view - Mom Kayla, son Theo and husband Raoul. Every labor day weekend for 20 years, three women gather for their Night swimming ritual, bonding and sharing secrets. Except this year, Antoinette disappears and can't be found. What happened and why? Kayla finds everything she believed in crumbling.

This book begins with a twenty year friendship. A group of friends celebrating with a night swim and sharing of secrets, as they do every year.
But when one of the women disappears, a lot of secrets come to the surface. They weren't just sharing secrets with each other, they were keeping a lot of secrets from each other too. How well do they really know each other and would they really betray each other?
It kept me wondering till the end what happened to Antoinette and who would be involved in her disappearance or death.

While not as polished (and a bit more sensationalistic) as her later works, Hilderbrand again has written a compelling and readable story about Nantucket and the bonds between women.