Elin Hilderbrand's The Five-Star Weekend had been sitting on my bookshelf (horizontally, as all my as-of-yet-unread books do), since Christmas. It's Hilderbrand's second-to-last novel, and I wanted to savor it. Kind of like how you "savor" a box of salt water taffy by hiding it in your pantry for months and then plowing through it all in one sitting. Because that's what happened once I finally cracked Weekend. I couldn't put it down until I'd greedily gobbled the last lobster roll, swim, and sunset.
Newly widowed Nantucket influencer Hollis Shaw is looking for a way to break free from her funk. So when she hears about something called the "Five-Star Weekend," she's game. The idea is to invite one friend from each decade of her life: her teens, '20s, '30s, and midlife (in her case, '50s). So that's what she does, even though her relationships with these women are shaky. She's semi-estranged from one, two are enemies of each other's, and one she met only online. What ensues is three days of fabulous food, fashion, and --of course -- fireworks.
My favorite thing about Hilderbrand's books is how she gets inside her characters' heads. I always feel like I know them, flaws and all, making me care what happens. It was the same with The Five-Star Weekend. As the online outlier put it:
' "The thing I love best about reading fiction is that it gives you a way to connect the experiences of your own life to the larger world." '
Precisely.
I guess wisdom can come from Internet weirdos. 😏
4 comments:
Oh, I'm so glad you savored this one. Awesome review. Such a great quote about fiction..and of course, I loved that last line of yours!🍧🩷💙🧁🩷🍧🧁💙🍧Thanks so much for your comments..they did make me smile. Thanks for reading. Of course, I might be presenting just as much confusion for the characters as I am for the readers..at least some of the time. Hope the days are going well. Stormy at times here..and a tornado or straight winds can sometimes hit at 3 in the morning..but the old maple is still standing tall out front. Hope you have a great Memorial Day! All the best to your health and more.
So wonderful to see your post! This looks like a great summer read! It's Graduation Weekend here with a few rain chances. Here's to a great June ahead!
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Oh, such a fun review to read. You make me want to read her books more, but they are always checked out! at our library. Meanwhile, I have been trying to keep it all straight with my storylines..hahahahaha...I am trying to read what is on my Kindle. Some of them, I have just had to delete. So of course, that gives me more time to hopefully write about everyone in the cast. I would hate to neglect Alfie and Gage. Wishing you a wonderful holiday! And all the best to what's to come. I hope everything goes well.
Okay, this book sounds awesome!! I love the concept of bringing together one friend from each decade of the main character's life, and wow, what a colorful plot I'm sure that creates! 📚✨
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