Book Review: 28 Summers by Elin Hilderbrand

Book: 57/150

Rating: 4.5/5

Summary: 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.

Thoughts: I absolutely adored this book. I keep teetering between a 4.5 and a 5 star but I'm settling for 4.5 stars,

What I loved:

- Hilderbrand does an amazing job of making the setting its own character. Her descriptions of Nantucket are so vivid and beautiful I felt like I was there.

- At the beginning of every year, she starts the chapter with "what are we talking about that year?", and it was such a cool way to set the scene, take you back and make you feel nostalgic!

- I loved the little political bits in the book as well. This is in no way a political book, but because one of the secondary characters is very active in Washington I loved following along her career and seeing the slimey world of politics.

What I didn't love:

- Of course, the cheating aspect isn't great, but I wouldn't have listened to this one if I thought it would be a dealbreaker. I honestly felt less bothered with it at the beginning, but towards the halfway point I was like really guys? I feel like if you're committed to a 28 year affair and you both believed that you were meant for each other, you would have made it work. But that begs the question, would their relationship work outside of their 'same time last year' set up, or would their passion for each other be the same if they were in a long term monogamous relationship?

Since I listened to the audiobook, I find that narration can always make or break the book. This narrator was fantastic and I was in such an audiobook rut, this one had me doing extra cleaning, going for more long walks, and just laying in bed listening to this book.

Thank you to Libro.fm, Hachette Audio, and Elin Hilderbrand for the advanced listener's copy of 28 summers. This one comes out on June 16 2020, and I highly recommend you pick it up!