Review & Giveaway: Summerland by Elin Hilderbrand

To the wealthy and the wannabes of the East Coast, Nantucket is a summer place, a place to relax and swim, to see and be seen, and to escape the heat of the city. For those who live on the island, it's a place just like any other. Kind of.

It's the perfect place to raise a family: quiet streets, small classrooms, no crime. But isolation isn't always a good thing. Parents forget to be vigilant and children are blissfully ignorant. One June evening Zoe Alistair, single parent of teenage twins, learned the hard way that Nantucket couldn't protect her kids.

In Summerland, Elin Hilderbrand starts with the night of high school graduation and the horrible car accident that killed Penny Alistair and left her twin, Hobby, in a coma. The two other passengers--Penny's boyfriend, Jake, and another friend, Demeter--survived with minor physical injuries but with lasting psychological scars.

Through the course of the summer, the three families cope with the aftermath of the accident. What led Penny to drive Jake's car off the embankment at top speed, despite the pleas of the other kids? Why was she so upset? Hobby, Jake, and Demeter have their own thoughts about what happened, and each vacillates between feeling guilty and placing blame. The adults assess their pasts, their parenting skills, their marriages, and their interwoven relationships. Everyone has a secret.

Hilderbrand is known for her island novels, which use the small community of Nantucket to explore issues of family, love, infidelity, and parenting as well as forgiveness, acceptance, and redemption. Fans will not be disappointed by Summerland.Told from the viewpoints of several characters, the story is tangled and revealed slowly, as secrets are combed out one by one. By the end of the summer, each person involved with Penny will have changed, although not everyone will find a fairy tale peace and happiness.

The Giveaway: Thanks to the publishers, I am able to offer three of my readers one copy each of Elin Hilderbrand's Summerland. To enter, you need to have a USA/Canada mailing address (no P.O. boxes) and to fill out the following form. I'll pick a winner via random number generator on June 29. Good luck!



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Published by Little, Brown / Reagan Arthur Books, June 26, 2012
ISBN-13: 9780316099837
Source: Review (see review policy)
Rating: B
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