Tag / Elin Hilderbrand

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Book 35 (of 52) – Trouble In Paradise

Trouble in Paradise – Elin Hilderbrand

With most of their assets seized by the FBI, the Steele family finds themselves scattered around St. John, trying to rebuild their lives.  After reading Rosie’s journals, Irene’s anger resurfaces and she leaves Huck, both the job on the boat and his house, moving in to Baker’s new villa.  When she runs into the mysterious Marilyn Monroe, she learns the truth about Todd Croft and how he used and trapped Russ as his fall guy, leading to his ultimate death.  After everyone reunites with their respective new loved ones, a hurricane hits the island and destroys nearly everything.

Troubles in Paradise, released in 2020, is the third and final entry in Elin Hilderbrand’s Paradise trilogy.  Well, I wouldn’t quite say that I got the satisfying resolution that I had hoped for, the series overall was a net positive.  This probably could have been trimmed down to two books, and the whole hurricane plot that wrapped up this one seemed oddly placed, though I understand the reason for doing so.  At least this once again has me thinking of vacations to the Virgin Islands, though that seems unlikely at this point.

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Book 14 (of 52) – What Happens In Paradise

What Happens In Paradise – Elin Hilderbrand

When each goes back to their regular lives, the Steele family individually finds themselves drawn back to St. John.  Irene leaves Iowa City and her magazine job behind, taking a job with Huck on his fishing boat.  Cash, having missed out on potential seasonal jobs out west, signs on to work with Ayers on the tour boat.  Finally, Baker, after learning his soon-to-be ex-wife is moving to Cleveland, decides to relocate with his son in the hopes of wooing Ayers.  Aside from the growing pains of their new, strange relationships, they have one other thing to worry about: the FBI.

What Happens in Paradise, released in 2019, is the second entry in Elin Hilderbrand’s Paradise trilogy.  It’s been about six months since I read the first installment, so it took me a while to remember who all the characters were and where we left them.  While this once again has me thinking of vacations to the Virgin Islands, I must say I didn’t enjoy this as much as the first one.  It kind of felt like a lot of rehashing where things left off followed by padding to get to what I assume will be a satisfying resolution in book number three.  Which, I will add, is already reserved at the library, but looks to have a several month wait.

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2025: The Year In Books

As 2025 comes to a close, my fifth full year of remote working, I managed to once again surpass my previous records by completing a whopping 66 books, five books more than my previous high set last year and my fifth consecutive year completing the 52 books in 52 weeks challenge.  I completed the challenge in mid-October and surpassed last year’s total in early-December.  I read 25,279 pages, by far my highest total of all time and just the third time I’ve managed to surpass 20.000 pages.

Of those books, only two were non-fiction and, of the remaining 64 novels, only six were tied to a TV show, either as the source material or as a tie-in.  None of the books came out of my dwindling “to-read” drawer, with two hard covers, three paperbacks, 61 e-books and no audiobooks.  I was forced to switch my library card from the Chicago Public Library to my local library, which slowed me down a little but still led to 55 of the books I consumed throughout the year.

Over 71% of the books I read this year were by authors I had read before. The 21 authors that I read for the first time this year were:

Coco Mellors Aisling Rawle Stephen Graham Jones
Liz Moore Natalie Sue Kaliane Bradley
Max Brooks Mary Shelley Paul Tremblay
Nathaniel Hawthorne Kelly Bishop Tanya Pearson
Liane Moriarty Benjamin Stevenson Ashley Winstead
Ashley Elston Alison Espach Alice Feeney
Ali Land Lindsay Jamieson Jeneva Rose

Karin Slaughter, Laura Lippman, Kathy Reichs, Lee Goldberg, Stephen King, Emily Henry, Elin Hilderbrand, and Rebecca Forster were the authors that I read multiple titles from during 2025, accounting for nearly 35% of my total.

22 of the books I read were released this year, while none were released during the 20th century.  Two came from the 19th century, with the oldest first published in 1818.

Finally, the breakdown by month, which was fairly consistent across the entire year. Continue reading →

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Prolific Authors Wrap Up

Way back in December of 2011 (and again every other December since), we’ve taken a look at the authors I have read the most, dating back to high school. This year, I’ve far surpassed my previous record for books read in a year, so I thought it would be nice to take a deeper dive into all of those books I’ve read through August of this year. Since our last check-in, I’ve read an additional 114 books, so there should be some movement over the past two years.  Without further ado, it’s time to take another look and see if my “favorite” authors have changed much over the years.  Today, we wrap things up with a look back at the 109 authors I’ve read more than once.

Largest Increase (since 2023)

Pieces of Her – Karin Slaughter

Karin Slaughter – 7
Stephen King – 6
Laura Lippman – 6
Jeffery Deaver – 4
Lee Goldberg – 4
Elin Hilderbrand – 4
Kathy Reichs – 4

Largest Increase (since 2011)

Solitude Creek – Jefferu Deaver

Karin Slaughter – 19
Jeffery Deaver – 18
Erle Stanley Gardner – 14
Richard Castle – 13
Stephen King – 12

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Prolific Authors – Six Books

It is time once again to take a look at the authors I have read the most, dating back to high school.  This year, I’m once again on pace to set a new record for books read in a year, so I thought it would be nice to take a deeper dive into those books I’ve read through August of this year. Since our last check-in, I’ve read an additional 114 books, so there should be some movement over the past two years.  Without further ado, it’s time to take another look and see if my “favorite” authors have changed much over the years.  We continue today with the four authors I’ve read six times, two more than two years ago.

Swan Song – Elin Hilderbrand

Elin Hilderbrand

The best-selling author of novels set on her home island of Nantucket added four new novels to my read shelf these past two years.

David Mack

All six of his entries come from Star Trek: The Next Generation works I’ve read on my Kindle.

Sarah Pekkanen

She has teamed up with Greer Hendricks for four novels but has branched out on her own again in recent years.

Break No Bones – Kathy Reichs

Kathy Reichs

The creator of the books that were the inspiration for Bones, she has been rising steadily as I’ve gained a newfound appreciation for the novel series.

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Book 44 (of 52) – Winter In Paradise

Winter in Paradise – Elin Hilderbrand

Irene Steele thinks she has it all: a job she loves, a beautiful home, and a husband who adores her.  However, when she gets a phone call from her husband’s mysterious employer informing her that he died in the US Virgin Islands, everything starts to fall apart.  Along with her two sons, she travels to St. John, where she finds that her husband led a second life, owning a multi-million-dollar villa that he shared with his girlfriend and their daughter.  While she tries to put the pieces of her life back together, she, and her sons, find that things may be better in paradise than back home.

Last winter, I looked into vacationing in the Virgin Islands as a closer alternative to Hawaii.  I may way to revisit that plan now that Elin Hilderbrand leaves her familiar island of Nantucket and instead takes the reader to St. John in Winter in Paradise, the first part of a trilogy.  She sets up a mystery and a whole host of potential romances, which I’m sure will get resolved in the next two chapters, which I hope to read soon.

 

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Book 28 (of 52) – The Identicals

The Identicals – Elin Hilderbrand

Although they are identical twins, Harper and Tabitha Frost live completely separate, though parallel, lives.  Harper, never married, lives on Marth’s Vineyard with her father, while Tabitha, also never married but a mother of a teenage daughter, lives on Nantucket with her mother.  When their father dies and their mother breaks her hip returning home from the service, they find themselves on the other’s island: Harper on Nantucket taking care of her niece and running the family business and Tabitha on the Vineyard, rehabbing their father’s house to sell.  Can they get past fourteen years of heartache, bad feelings and resentments to become family once again?

The Identicals, a 2017 Goodreads Choice Award nominee for fiction by Elin Hilderbrand, returns us to the luxurious vacation islands off the coast of Massachusetts for another intriguing beach read.  The split between the sisters is a little far-fetched, but it is still an interesting tale.  The Parent Trap-esque switch between the two islands allows each sister to slough off what everyone expects of them and rediscover who they actually are, or want to be.  The reconciliation at the end came on kind of quick, but, other than that, I can’t complain.  I look forward to continuing my dive into Hilderbrand’s caralog.

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2024: The Year In Books

As 2024 comes to a close, my fourth full year of remote working, I managed to once again surpass my previous records by completing a whopping 61 books, two books more than my previous high set last year and my fourth consecutive year completing the 52 books in 52 weeks challenge.  I completed the challenge in mid-November and surpassed last year’s total in mid-December.  I read 22,622 pages, by far my highest total of all time and just the second time I’ve managed to surpass 20.000 pages.

Of those books, only five were non-fiction and, of the remaining 56 novels, only five were tied to a TV show, either as the source material or as a tie-in.  None of the books came out of my dwindling “to-read” drawer, with two hard covers, two paperbacks, 53 e-books and no audiobooks.  I continued to take advantage of my library card, which helped me procure 46 of the books I consumed throughout the year.

Over 69% of the books I read this year were by authors I had read before. The 19 authors that I read for the first this year were:

Jessica Knoll Isabella Maldonado Kathleen McGurl Lisa Taddeo
Lisa Jewell Millie Bobby Brown J.M. Dillard Lee Goldberg
Avery Cunningham Margot Douaihy R.F. Kuang Jessica Simpson
Jeffrey Lang Dayton Ward Holly Wilson Karin Smirnoff
Walter Beede Michael Connelly Rob Harvilla

Karin Slaughter, Jeffery Deaver, Laura Lippman, Elin Hilderbrand, Jessica Knoll, Michael Connelly, Minka Kent, Lee Goldberg, Rebecca Forster, Stephen King, and Sarah Pekkanen were the authors that I read multiple titles from during 2024.

17 of the books I read were released this year, while only three of them were released last century, with the oldest first published in 1997.

Continue reading →

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Book 60 (of 52) – Swan Song

Swan Song – Elin Hilderbrand

When a new couple arrives on Nantucket, they initially upend the social scene but quickly seem to be wearing out their welcome.  When their live-in concierge, a young woman they met in the Virgin Islands, goes missing off their yacht the same night their mansion burns down, the retiring police chief has one final case to solve: what really happened on that boat?

Elin Hilderbrand first crossed my path two years ago, when The Hotel Nantucket was a finalist for a Goodreads Choice Award.  Two years, three novels, and one short story later, she returns with her final Nantucket beach read, appropriately titled Swan Song.  Many of the characters appeared in her previous works, including a couple I recognized from the few I’ve read, and the retirement of the police chief does seem to parallel her own decision to move away from this location and its characters.  There’s still plenty of her back catalog for me to wade through, though, so the story isn’t quite done for me just yet.

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Book 36 (of 52) – Natural Selection

Natural Selection – Elin Hilderbrand

Stuck on a trip to the Galápagos Islands by herself after her boyfriend suddenly left at the airport, a real estate agent from New York tries to rationalize her relationship while learning to let go and enjoy the solo trip.  When she learns the truth about her boyfriend, she leans into the theories of Charles Darwin, that the species most likely to survive is that which adapts to the world around it.

Natural Selection is a short story from Elin Hilderbrand, one which takes place far away from her usual locale of Nantucket.  Given the short length of the work, there isn’t a whole lot of world building or deep characterizations, but it does tell a complete story, one which maybe could have been blown out to a full-length novel.