
Author: Elin Hilderbrand
Published by: Little Brown and Company on Jun. 16, 2020
Genres: General Fiction, Women's Fiction
Pages: 432
Format: Paperback, ARC
Source: HBG Canada
Book Rating: 10/10
By the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Summer of ’69: Their secret love affair has lasted for decades — but this could be the summer that changes everything.
When Mallory Blessing’s son, Link, receives deathbed instructions from his mother to call a number on a slip of paper in her desk drawer, he’s not sure what to expect. But he certainly does not expect Jake McCloud to answer. It’s the late spring of 2020 and Jake’s wife, Ursula DeGournsey, is the frontrunner in the upcoming Presidential election.
There must be a mistake, Link thinks. How do Mallory and Jake know each other?
Flash back to the sweet summer of 1993: Mallory has just inherited a beachfront cottage on Nantucket from her aunt, and she agrees to host her brother’s bachelor party. Cooper’s friend from college, Jake McCloud, attends, and Jake and Mallory form a bond that will persevere — through marriage, children, and Ursula’s stratospheric political rise — until Mallory learns she’s dying.
Based on the classic film Same Time Next Year (which Mallory and Jake watch every summer), 28 Summers explores the agony and romance of a one-weekend-per-year affair and the dramatic ways this relationship complicates and enriches their lives, and the lives of the people they love.
Review:
Poignant, pensive, and nostalgic!
28 Summers is a lush, intimate tale that sweeps you away to the shores of Nantucket island and into the life of Mallory Blessing, a young woman who after inheriting a cottage from her late aunt and falling in love with her brother’s best friend from college in 1993 spends the next twenty-seven years fondly anticipating and savouring the last weekend of summer when she gets to spend three days of joy and pleasure with the one man who will always own her heart.
The writing is rich and emotive. The characterization is spot on with a cast of characters that are multilayered, genuine, and humanly flawed. And the compelling plot is a delightfully clever blend of moral dilemmas, family drama, relationship dynamics, and lighthearted beach read.
Overall, 28 Summers is another immersive, touching, astute tale by Hilderbrand that highlights once again her innate ability to delve into all the messy emotional and psychological entanglements that exist between family members, friends, and lovers, and proves why year-after-year she’s the queen of the must-read novel of the summer.
This novel is available now.
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Thank you to HBG Canada for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review.