Elin Hilderbrand’s storytelling is in top form with The Five-Star Weekend, an intricately plotted, juicy novel about a popular, internet food blogger who hosts a girls’ weekend of food, fun, and togetherness.
After Hollis Shaw’s husband of 23-years dies
in a car crash, the affable food blogging sensation tries to stabilize her
life by inviting four women from different phases of her life to her
picturesque home in Nantucket. The guests includes Tatum McKenzie, a local
islander; Hollis’s friend since they were teenagers. Dru-Ann Jones, Hollis’s
college roommate, who is now a premiere sports’ agent for professional female
athletes. Brooke Kirtley, a friend from the prime of Hollis’s life—a woman
instrumental in helping Hollis through the profundity of her grief. And Gigi
Ling, a pilot from Atlanta, Georgia, whom Hollis has never met—the two
have become online friends via Hollis’s blog. Hollis also invites her
rebellious daughter, Caroline, with whom she shares a contentious relationship—one
she’d really like to heal. As a film student at NYU, Hollis pays Caroline
to attend the weekend, encouraging her daughter to film the event.
Hilderbrand (The Hotel Nantucket) delivers a five-star read that
beautifully traces the essence of contemporary women and the complexities of
their lives. Readers will be fascinated by the surprising drama of bringing--and
braiding--together such disparate personalities. In the end, it’s not just
Hollis at a crossroads. Each woman faces trials, challenges, and changes in
which readers will identify and be eager to invest in.
The Five-Star Weekend by
Elin Hilderbrand
Little, Brown and Company, $30.00 hardcover, 9780316258777, 384 pages, Publishing Date:
June 13, 2023
To order this book on INDIEBOUND/Bookshop.Org, link HERE
NOTE: This review
is a reprint and is being posted with the permission of Shelf Awareness. To read this review on Shelf Awareness: Reader's Edition (June 16, 2023), link HERE