REVIEW A Summer Affair by Elin Hilderbrand

 

This book checks off two challenges that I'm doing this summer! Look at me go!

In this book, the first of the Nantucket series (also, who knew Elin Hilderbrand was so prolific), Claire is the protagonist.  She seems to be a happy, married, mother of four who lives full time on the island of Nantucket with her family. Claire is widely known to have been in a relationship with Max Dust, a famous rock star, when they were both teenagers. Claire is asked to co chair the biggest fundraiser of the year as a result, she believes, of that relationship and what the other members of the board of the organization benefits perceive as her ability to get him to perform for free at the fundraiser. Claire is a pretty atypical co chair - she's not very wealthy and she's a professional glassblower by trade. So when Claire is asked to chair the fundraiser by a man named Lock, who is the director of that organization and whose wife Claire believes she single handedly didn't convince to not drink and drive (the wife got into a devastating car accident), Claire agrees. During the course of the gala planning, many things continue to happen, including addiction, affairs, fights, extortion and a number of other things.

I am consistently surprised about how drawn in I get to Hilderbrand's novels.  I didn't expect this of myself given my book snobbery - these books are marketed as easy beach reads for crying out loud!  That's pretty deceptive because this book, told in the various points of view of the main characters, actually reveals the surprising complexity that resides within and between people.  And those complexities are very realistic and not beyond the pale. They are complexities that we, as readers, could have ourselves or see in other people. The novel also struck a chord for me insofar as Claire's need to go back to work and regain some degree of self-expression and creativity. After experiencing an accident during her most recent pregnancy that led to preterm labor, Claire stopped working as a successful glass blower but she goes back to work when she is also tapped to create the main auction item.  That really resounded with me. What she felt and her motivations could have been my motivations and my feelings.

I have The Perfect Couple (which is also a Netflix series) on my list and I'm looking forward to reading it.  This one is a great summer read.