Review #14: 28 Summers by Elin Hilderbrand
4/5 Stars! My heart hurt after I finished – which is my telltale sign of a good book! Easy, breezy, beach read. My only regret is that I spent more time reading this one on the train than on the beach, but alas, such is life. 28 Summers is a Same Time Next Year – type plot where our two main characters, Jake and Mallory, meet every Labor Day to conduct their decades-long affair. The novel is cute, emotional, and a quick read. I felt the salt air while reading this one. While as the reader, I felt emotions, I thought this novel was surface level, but not necessarily in a bad way. It literally covers 28 years, so would have been too much to go into any real detail. There were enough little side plots to keep me intrigued while my heart was longing for the two love birds to be together.
Source: elinhilderbrand.net
I will randomly have angry feminist opinions – and by randomly, I mean more than I want to admit – and the takeaway I kept coming back to throughout this book is why does Jake get to have a family and wife while Mallory remains unmarried? (I do not mean to say that she doesn’t have substantial relationships along the way)? I guess the other angry feminists can come at me and ask me why I think a woman needs a marriage to complete her. ALL valid! I just felt like it set Mallory up to be a homewrecker. Whether she is ultimately deemed one is up to you, reader!
Vibe: Hazy summer day, breezy. Definitely a beach read.
Describe the book in three words: Nantucket, marriage, fleeting
Plot: The novel is comprised of 28 chapters, each representing a year in the lives our of characters. The central plot is the affair that Mallory and Jake carry on for one weekend a year, every year, no matter what. Hilderbrand does something cute at the beginning of each chapter, recounting all of the major pop culture moments in each year, which helps the reader travel in time with the characters. Majority of the novel takes place on Nantucket, an island off the coast in Massachusetts, with stops in Baltimore, South Bend, Indiana, and Washington, DC. The reader receives a few anecdotes every year about what the characters are saying, doing, and feeling when the affair isn’t occurring. There are strings that carry different storylines, characters, and plots throughout the entire novel. It is all cute and entertaining, if not a little farfetched at times, but I didn’t sit on the beach with a book all day to be transported to real life.
Characters: Despite the easy, breezy nature of this book, the characters are complex, realistic people. No one is all good, no one is all bad. Hilderbrand enters the thoughts and perspective of multiple characters throughout the book. This was helpful insight, so the reader understood how everyone thought and how the characters each felt about a certain situation. As an aside, the author breaks the fourth wall perse and refers to Mallory as “our girl” which I thought was interesting. Made it feel gossipy and gave the reader a sense of community and camaraderie. I haven’t read other Hilderbrand books, but this could potentially be a thing she always does – will keep you posted – I want to read Summer of ’69 next!
You’ll like this if you like… Nantucket, beach reads, and books that tug lightly (and not so lightly) on your heart strings.
I am going to make the parallel that Hilderbrand’s novels are The Summer I Turned Pretty for grownups. This is an unintelligent opinion as I have only seen one episode of The Summer I Turned Pretty. Let me know if you agree.
