Review: Nantucket Nights by Elin Hilderbrand

by:  Elin Hilderbrand
published by: St. Martin's Paperbacks
publish date:  July 1, 2003

For 20 years, Kayla, Antoinette, and Val have performed their own special summer ritual. Once a year, the old friends put aside their daily, separate lives to drink champagne, swap stories, and swim naked under the Nantucket stars. This time though, one of them swims out from the shore and doesn't return. After the surviving friends emerge from their grief, they realize that the repercussions of their loss go far beyond their little circle, and they begin to uncover layers of secrets, and their connections to each other, that were never revealed on the beach. What has made their friendship strong now has the power to destroy their marriages, families-and even themselves.

Nantucket Nights is told from Kayla's viewpoint.  She is a middle-aged mother of four kids married to a prominent Nantucket contractor.  She spends her days counting calories and worrying about her husband's fidelity.  But the facade of her world comes crashing down around her the night Antoinette disappears in the Atlantic Ocean.

Once again Elin Hilderbrand created a story of Nantucket that utterly captivated me.   Because of her books, I so want to go there.  Or find my own island.  I found that when the story went off island, it lost some of its magic.

I found that this book really probed some of the interesting aspects of the friendships between women.   Those friendships can be complex and not always reciprocal.  The way they change and mellow over time is evident in this book.

Elin Hilderbrand is one of my favorite writers.  I always highly recommend her books.  They're great summer reads.