Beautiful Day by Elin Hilderbrand
| Beautiful Day by Elin Hilderbrand | |
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| Category: Women's Fiction | |
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Reviewer: Zoe Morris
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| Summary: Nantucket nuptials feature in this stunning summer read that takes you right to the heart of the action. Simply delightful. | |
| Buy? Yes | Borrow? Yes |
| Pages: 416 | Date: July 2014 |
| Publisher: Hodder Paperbacks | |
| ISBN: 978-1444724004 | |
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Jenna is getting married and no one would be more excited than her mother Beth. But Beth passed away before she could see the baby of the Carmichael family happily hitched. Knowing she wouldn't live to see the day, she drafted The Notebook, a guide to help Jenna plan her nuptials with wise, motherly advice on every aspect.
As we join the Carmichaels, it's Thursday, the start of the wedding weekend. Every plan has come together, every wish fulfilled. There’s really not much left to do. Until things start to unravel. Beth left a few words of wisdom on how to deal with wedding crashers, affairs, secrets and skeletons. As both families try to pull together in time for the wedding of the summer, it’s hard to know whether, as planned, it will be a Beautiful Day.
No other author screams summer read more than Elin Hilderbrand. Her novels ooze saucy, sandy, sunny secrets and the setting of Nantucket is blissful. I've never stepped foot on the island and yet I feel like I go every year in these stories. It’s a wonderful place of class and wealth, where the people are polished, the hair is shiny and money talks. As an escapist read for a sun lounger, it just can't be beaten.
This story is fast-paced and action-packed, with lots of events, good and bad, crammed into each day of the weekend. Jenna never tells her story, but she has others who fill us in, from sister Margot to her father, Doug and although it’s supposed to be Jenna's day, each has more than one crisis of their own to bring distraction. The voices are distinct in both age and sex and the unusual combination of father and daughter, with the odd interloper, works well to tell different sides of the story. As you would hope, excerpts from The Notebook are interspersed throughout, so Beth’s voice also shines through. I enjoyed these more than a typical diary entry because they were especially poignant, and it was fun to see how Jenna and her sisters had interpreted the words, often down to the letter but occasionally more loosely.
This was such a fun book to read, and I ploughed through it. The only bit I felt let down by was the ending, not because it wasn't well done (it was) but because it meant the book was over. I really did want it to go on forever, and I cannot wait for the next Nantucket adventure to come my way.
Thanks go to the publishers for supplying this book.
Once you've enjoyed this, we would recommend The Castaways and Winter Storms, both by Elin Hilderbrand
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You can read more book reviews or buy Beautiful Day by Elin Hilderbrand at Amazon.co.uk Amazon currently charges £2.99 for standard delivery for orders under £20, over which delivery is free.
You can read more book reviews or buy Beautiful Day by Elin Hilderbrand at Amazon.com.
Beautiful Day by Elin Hilderbrand is in the Top Ten Women's Fiction Books 2014.
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