The five-star weekend

Elin Hilderbrand

Large print - 2023

Hollis Shaw's life seems picture-perfect. She's the star of the popular food blog, Hungry with Hollis, and is married to Matthew, a dreamy heart surgeon. But after she and Matthew get into a heated argument one snowy morning, Matthew leaves for the airport and is killed in a car accident. The cracks in Hollis's perfect life-her strained marriage and her complicated relationship with her daughter, Caroline-grow deeper. When Hollis hears about something called the "Five-Star Weekend"-a woman invites her best friend from her teenage years, her twenties, her thirties, and mid-life-Hollis decides to host her own "Five-Star Weekend" on Nantucket. But her weekend won't be the Hallmark movie one might expect.... Hollis's childhood friend, Tatum, invites Hollis's first love, Jack Finigan, to spend time with them, stirring up old feelings. Meanwhile, Tatum is forced to play nice with Dru-ann, Hollis's best friend from UNC Chapel Hill. Dru-ann's career as a prominent Chicago sports agent is on the line after her comments about a client's mental health issues are misconstrued online. Brooke, Hollis' friend from their thirties, has just discovered that her husband is having an inappropriate relationship with a woman at work. Again! She runs into an old "friend," Electra, a troublemaker who had ousted Brooke from the Wellesley mom friend group where Brooke and Hollis met years before. And then there's Gigi, a stranger to everyone (including Hollis) who reached out to Hollis on her blog. Gigi carries an unusual grace and, as it happens, has many secrets. It will be a weekend like no other.

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Subjects
Genres
Domestic fiction
Fiction
Romance fiction
Large print books
Novels
Published
New York : Little, Brown and Company [2023]
Language
English
Main Author
Elin Hilderbrand (author)
Edition
Large print edition
Physical Description
498 pages (large print) ; 24 cm
ISBN
9780316565974
Contents unavailable.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

In this stunning, sun-drenched mix of romance and women's fiction from bestseller Hilderbrand (The Hotel Nantucket), famous food blogger Hollis Shaw gathers one important woman from each decade of her life for an unforgettable girls' trip to Nantucket. Reeling from her husband's sudden death in a car accident, Hollis is trying to make sense of their marriage, which had been failing; cope with her teen daughter's resentment; and figure out plans for her upended future when she stumbles across the idea for a "five-star weekend" online and sets about recruiting friends. Her best friend from childhood, Tatum, who still lives on Nantucket, is reluctant to renew their friendship, particularly when she knows that Hollis's college roommate, Dru Ann, a high-powered sports agent whom she fought with at Hollis's wedding, will be in attendance. Meanwhile, Hollis's friend from her 30s, Brooke, always tries too hard to fit in, filling her with anxiety that colors her interactions with the other, seemingly more self-confident women. Hollis also invites an internet friend whom she connected with through her blog and has never met in person. Hilderbrand makes the most of gathering these big personalities in Hollis's small, photograph-ready abode; as they navigate their differences, the women discover things about themselves--and may even find love along the way. This should become a beach bag staple. Agent: David Forrer and Michael Carlisle, InkWell Management. (June)

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Review by Kirkus Book Review

A dreamy Nantucket house party given by a meticulous hostess goes off the rails. "When Hollis posts a potato and white cheddar tart with a crispy bacon crust, her foodie community breaks the one-million-member milestone. (Leave it to bacon!)" And leave it to Hilderbrand, in her 30th book of Nantucket-based fiction, to cook up more literary bacon, this time focusing on female friendship, female "friendship," and the power of the internet and social media. When Hollis Shaw's doctor husband dies in a crash on the way to the airport, she steps back from Hungry With Hollis, her popular website. After moping around her house in "Swellesley" for a while, she returns to Nantucket for the summer, planning a kick-out-the-stops weekend party that will involve one girlfriend from each phase of her life--youth, college, motherhood--plus her favorite internet follower, an Atlanta-based airline pilot, whom she's never actually met. Two of these old pals are definitely not as close to Hollis as they once were, one of them has done her secret harm, and Hollis dramatically increases the potential for trouble by paying her angry 20-something daughter to document the weekend on film. Add two bottles each of Casa Dragones tequila, Triple 8 vodka, and Veuve Clicquot, plus some Hendricks gin and Mount Gay rum--what could possibly go wrong? Known for gently inserting social commentary into her plots, Hilderbrand here highlights the ridiculous fickleness of cancel culture when one of the characters--Dru-Ann, an extremely successful Black sports agent--almost loses her clients, her job, and her boyfriend when a video clip of a private conversation in a restaurant is posted on social media. Everyone says there's no way forward without a self-effacing apology. Dru-Ann says pass the Casa Dragones. Meanwhile, Hollis is about to learn that friendships forged on the internet are not always what they seem. Hilderbrand has announced plans to retire in 2024. Wait--that's next year! No! The people in her books may screw up, but Hilderbrand always gets it right. Kind of amazing. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.