Review: Summerland by Elin Hildebrand

Secrets, lies, teenage angst, depression, and heartache lead to even more heartache for small town high school kids in Nantucket. One night of drinking after graduation and secrets divulged, and many lives are changed forever.

Synopsis: A warm June evening, a local tradition: the students of Nantucket High have gathered for a bonfire on the beach. What begins as a graduation night celebration ends in tragedy after a horrible car crash leaves the driver, Penny Alistair, dead, and her twin brother in a coma. The other passengers, Penny's boyfriend, Jake, and her friend Demeter, are physically unhurt--but the emotional damage is overwhelming. Questions linger about what happened before Penny took the wheel. As summer unfolds, startling truths are revealed about the survivors and their parents--secrets kept, promises broken, hearts betrayed. Elin Hilderbrand explores the power of community, family, and honesty, and proves that even from the ashes of sorrow new love can take flight.

Review: Elin Hilderbrand has a style that works for her and there's no reason to change it. She does an excellent job of showing how despite how things might look on the outside, things can actually be drastically different than what meets the eye. Penny and Hobson are the "golden children" of Nantucket High. Penny is destined for Broadway or an otherwise equally famous destination with her beautiful singing voice. Jake, her highschool sweetheart, would do anything for her. Hobson inherited his father's athletic abilities on the football field and is expected to "make it" at any of the college's he so chooses to attend. One night around the time of graduation, Penny is driving Jake's Jeep home from a party with Jake and their friend Demeter in the back and her brother in the front. She is clearly upset about something Demeter had told her earlier in the evening and they can't seem to calm her down.

It isn't until the end of the book that really know the full story of what was going through Penny's mind in the moments leading up to her death. We learn that Hobson, also called Hobby, didn't know his twin sister as well as he thought he did. Zoe, their mother is second, triple and even quadruple guessing everything she did in raising her twins. She withdraws from her friends and focuses all of her energy on Hobson's recovery.

Demeter falls into a deeper depression and resorts to drinking on the job and stealing from her company's clients homes to drown out her feelings. Jake’s father, Jordan, and his mother Ava have been having marital problems, partly related to Ava's desire to move back to her native home of Perth, Australia, made especially stronger over the last decade since their younger son died of SIDS. Penny's death gives Jordan the motivation he needs to give into Ava's longing to go home. He thinks that Jake needs a fresh start away from the reminders of Penny's death, despite Nantucket being the only thing Jake has ever known. Ultimately, Jordan's primary motivator is his need to distance himself from Zoe, his lover since his marriage to Ava has suffered.

Life on Nantucket isn't always what it seems as Hilderbrand easily paints in her stories. The ending of this story left me wondering what's next for these particular characters and how they survive the traumatic loss of a promising young person. Maybe we will see them again in another one of her novels.

I highly recommend this to anyone who needs an easy, summery, beach type read at any time of year. 5 out of 5 star rating.

**
Review: Summerland by Elin Hildebrand
Format: Audiobook
Published: June 26th 2012 by Hachette Audio
Dates Read: August 31, 2018 to January 5, 2019