28 Summers by Elin Hilderbrand

I have very mixed feelings about 28 Summers by Elin Hilderbrand. The writing was good. It was everything I’ve become accustomed to in an Elin Hilderbrand novel. I loved reading about the different restaurants and food and activities in Nantucket.

But I didn’t love the cheating. That’s not a spoiler, because it’s in the summary of the book. I know some people have a hard stop against romance stories with cheating in them, so if that is not something you can tolerate, you won’t enjoy this book.

About the Book

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. (from Amazon.com)

My Thoughts

Well, I said it in my introduction and I’ll say it again. I gave this book 4 stars on goodreads because even though I liked it so much, it’s focuses on a very controversial topic that I’m not very comfortable with. That topic is cheating.

I’ll break this review down into a what I liked and what I didn’t like list. I think that will be easier to convey my thoughts.

What I Liked

• The main characters. Mallory and Jake were both very likeable and I thought it was very sweet how their friendship began. Mallory’s older brother Cooper was in the same fraternity as Jake and so sometimes when she would call her brother on the phone at school, Jake would answer.
• It’s really fun to have a story that covers the span of 28 years. It was cool how we got to know the characters little by little over the years. The only bad part was that obviously Elin couldn’t cover everything that happened to them, or this book could easily be 1000 pages.
• The Nantucket scenery was fabulous as usual. I loved reading about Mallory’s cottage that she inherited from her aunt. I loved reading about their romps at the chicken box and at other restaurants and bars on the island. It all had that magical Elin Hilderbrand feel to it.

What I Didn’t Like

• So many of the characters were unlikeable. I didn’t like Mallory’s best friend. I didn’t like Ursula. Even Cooper was kind of odd, but you’ll find that out when you read the book. Haha.
• I don’t really care for cheating. Honestly, it just made me feel bad for Mallory and Jake’s significant others. I wanted to root for them because they did truly love each other, but at what cost? Mallory didn’t even seem to have any regrets. And Jake was maybe a little remorseful but not enough.
• I don’t know. These characters were just so messy, as was the story.
• It seems pretty unbelievable at times.

When it comes down to it, I did think it was a well written book and Elin did a really good job of covering what was going on in their lives for the 28 summers. But the book was also a bummer.

But that’s just my opinion!

xo Marian