Elin Hilderbrand, the reigning “Queen of the Beach Reads,” writes characters I long to befriend. Characters who pull their old boyfriends out of 30 years of depression, characters who set jealousy aside to befriend their ex-husband’s new wife, characters who cheat on their spouses in such a relatable way that you can’t help but forgive them, characters who refuse to leave one, tiny beautiful island: Nantucket. I discovered Elin Hilderbrand on a gorgeous Labor Day weekend on the same Massachusetts island. One of the town’s small bookstores had plastered its windows with the cover of her latest book — a blonde woman on a beach. I was a blonde woman on the beach myself, so I figured I’d pick it up for a quick read. It was so much more than a light weekend experience, though; I had no idea I was falling in love.
Hilderbrand’s stories are good versus evil, but with a twist. Good guys die. Good guys lose. Good guys give up. Good guys do bad things. But she manages to get the reader invested in her characters in so little time, using just the right details to paint a full, illustrative picture, that you’re almost instantly hooked. She can simplify the human experience for the page without her characters losing depth. And no matter how silly their problems may seem — plenty of her characters are very rich women looking to find themselves — she still makes them worth rooting for. Also, it doesn’t hurt that most of these stories are set in Nantucket, and I love Nantucket. Sue me!
On June 11, Hilderbrand’s Swan Song will come out — the one she describes as her last. It’s already garnering positive reviews; as she wrote on Instagram, ”My final Nantucket book has received a beautiful starred Kirkus review and, as they say in show business, that’s a wrap.” I can’t pretend I’m not a bit heartbroken. So, to pay homage to one of my favorite authors, I wrote up a full guide to her books — all of which I’ve read. Here’s to Elin Hilderbrand, whose retirement is immensely well earned. Thank you for the hundreds of hours of joyful reading.
24. The Winter Series: Winter Solstice, Winter Street, Winter Stroll, and Winter Storms make up Hilderbrand’s winter series about the Quinn family and their inn. Truthfully, these get the last spot on my list because I’m most into her beach vibes. Still, they’re cozy! You don’t even have to read this series in order; all the context is given in each book.
23. Summer People — about a wealthy New York family reeling from the loss of their patriarch — wasn’t bad, just a little forgettable.
22. The Castaways is an ensemble book about a group of friends figuring out what happened to some other friends who recently died at sea. Again, just slightly forgettable. Hilderbrand is wonderful at writing female friendships, but this book covers friendship between couples, and I found it harder to get invested in the characters.
21. The Paradise Series: Winter in Paradise, What Happens in Paradise, and Troubles in Paradise make up Hilderbrand’s Caribbean series, where protagonist Irene Steele has to put her life back together after her husband dies. This series wasn’t the most memorable, to me, because the series lacks Nantucket-ness. Still, I enjoyed getting to spend so much time with the same characters, who genuinely developed throughout the trilogy. It’s also not necessary to read this series in order; I started with the last one before realizing there were two prequels.
20. A Summer Affair is the perfect book to make you question whether or not women can truly “have it all”: the four kids, the art career, a social life, the time to take a shower, and a rock-star ex. The answer: Not really, but you can have a hot affair with a man whose disabled wife you feel responsible for. Even though I empathized with the protagonist’s predicament, I found her just a bit whiny.
19. The Beach Club is Hilderbrand’s first, and I do think her writing gets better over time. There are scenes where I wasn’t totally sure why her characters were behaving as insanely as they were (pulling a gun on a minor rival, for example). But overall, a delight.
18. Summer of ’69 is one of Hilderbrand’s most famous titles, but I can’t say it’s my favorite. Maybe because it’s historical — it follows an extended family during, you guessed it, summer 1969 — and I prefer her writing in the present? That said, most people adore this one. NPR described it as “simple, sassy, and continuously engaging.” So what do I know!
17. Barefoot tells a sad, sweet story that feels like it’s from another time (though it’s set in 2007), as three women take to Nantucket for the summer to escape the tumult in their lives. A recurring motif in Hilderbrand’s books is the healing power of the island — here, while the island can’t cure diseases or cheating husbands, it does bring the women some much-needed peace.
16. The Identicals is split between Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket. The story follows twins who separated as teens and are now thrust back together. Hilderbrand has a thing for rival twins who end up saving each other, and this one is probably her twin-iest.
15. Nantucket Nights is a beautiful story of female friendship, as three friends who gather annually lose one to the waves. Hilderbrand writes about female friendship more gracefully than romance, in my opinion. Her female protagonists sometimes get together with men they don’t have chemistry with, but I never feel like they fall into female friendships that aren’t meant to be — and I certainly did not with this book.
14. Summerland is ideal if you’re looking for a novel that skews more YA. This sob story about high-schoolers trying to figure out why their friend died made me so invested in the kids’ recovery and grief that I couldn’t put it down.
13. Silver Girl, about the ex-wife of a Bernie Madoff type fleeing to the one place she can hide, feels like the perfect post-divorce book, especially if your husband embezzled millions of dollars. Caveat: I’ve never been divorced or dated anyone with millions of dollars, but still. Very good read.
12. The Love Season plays with time in a really fun, inventive way. A newly engaged college student is on the island where her mother died. She seeks out her godmother — a retired chef she barely knows — to get the full story, as each of them fall apart then come back together over the course of one day.
11. The Island actually takes place on Nantucket’s tiny sister island, Tuckernuck, which lacks amenities. The story is about a family helping their daughter and sister put her life back together after calling off her engagement. The characters find the lack of electricity so purifying that it made me want to go rough it for a few months.
10. Here’s to Us boasts a tenacious setup: A recently deceased man has forced his three wives (two ex, one current) to spend time in his old house. Literally everyone cheats on everyone, and yet they’re all still lovable. Think Love Island but with a southern belle and vivid descriptions of food.
9. The Blue Bistro shows Hilderbrand’s range. While Nantucket is associated with rich summer residents, she excels in writing about young drifters who’ve fallen in love with the island and are willing to do anything to stay. This is the story of Adrienne, who stumbles her way into a job at Nantucket’s hottest restaurant. Published in 2005, it also features the rare unloaded, casual reference to “Mar-a-Lago.”
8. The Five-Star Weekend is Hilderbrand’s most recent, aside from Swan Song, and it follows a food influencer who brings her best friends to the island for a weekend. Hilderbrand loves food; her descriptions often leave me hungry. I mean, just try reading “cilantro-and-lime-marinated swordfish with avocado sauce, a summer squash tart with goat cheese and mint, a large green salad, and homemade baguettes with black pepper butter that, yes, her mother churned herself like a pioneer woman. This will be followed by peach cobbler with a hot sugar crust topped with fresh whipped cream, and tiny squares of Japanese chocolate” and not pulling up UberEats (though it won’t be as good).
7. Beautiful Day is one of very, very few books to ever make me want to get married. Jenna — the youngest daughter of a family that recently lost their mother — is planning a wedding, but she can’t quite imagine the ceremony without her mom. The story is charmingly innocent, right down to the references. For example, to signal that Jenna’s finance-guy fiancé has become a “good guy” for her, the other characters keep insisting, “But he donated to Greenpeace for you. He registered as a Democrat for you.” And I was convinced!
6. The Rumor: After you read this one — about a writer who uses her friend’s affair for content — go back and Google the real-life story behind it. Elin is a drama magnet!
5. The Hotel Nantucket is one of Hilderbrand’s signature ensemble pieces: a group of zany Nantucketers running an upstart hotel. There’s an incredible twist at the end that I won’t spoil, but trust me, you will be panicked at the prospect of this hotel getting shut down.
4. The Perfect Couple is the title I’m most likely to recommend to a person who’s not all that interested in Hilderbrand or even beachy books. A wedding weekend is disrupted by a dead body washing up onshore? Something for mystery and rom-com lovers.
3. Golden Girl is about a mother who passes away and has a few months left to influence her children before she’s in heaven for good. Hilderbrand rarely uses magical realism, but in this case, it totally works. Everything that happens on earth is believable, and you leave with the sense that the protagonist is leaving her children in a good — or, at least, survivable — place.
2. 28 Summers is impossible to dislike. It somehow makes you root for a couple having a decades-long affair without demonizing their spouses. Plus, it’s educational: The story spans 28 years and features a brief history at the start of every chapter.
1. The Matchmaker is the one that made me fully sob. Dabney Kimball Beech, a woman who’s afraid to ever leave Nantucket, has a special skill that allows her to tell when a couple is a perfect match. When Dabney’s high-school sweetheart returns decades later, he totally upends her life just as Dabney is battling health problems. I spent the whole book holding my breath to find out what Dabney, who’s written with such depth that I felt like she was a close friend of mine, decides to do.
