Customer Reviews

The Blue Bistro

5 star:		(39)
4 star:		(20)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

Elin Hilderbrand's, The Blue Bistro, was a fun book to read in the summer. The story takes place in Nantucket which is always a great location to read about in the summer months.

The Blue Bistro is a fine dining restaurant located directly on the beach of Nantucket. The author presents inticing images of Nantucket.
The owners of this magnificient restuarant are Thatcher Smith and Fiona Kemp. They are long-time friends from childhood and they have a powerful bond to one another. Thatcher, a very conflicted character in the novel, loves Fiona deeply, as a friend, but his love runs so deep that this unique friendship has interfered with his love interests. Girlfriends cannot compete with Thatcher and Fiona's friendship -- it can be isolating and infuriating to others. Fiona suffers, since childhood, with Cystic Fibrosis. An outsider cannot compete with Thatcher and Fiona's relationship nor with Fiona's illness.

Fiona, although small in stature, is a tough, strong-minded individual. Fiona is the exceptionally talented chef at the Blue Bistro and Thatcher is her business partner, and this is the final year for the restaurant. Fiona's health is suffering; she is on the list for a lung transplant, and she and Thatcher both need a rest.

Adrienne Dealy, escaping from a drug addicted boyfriend who stole her life savings, arrives in Nantucket with the sole purpose of making money and paying off her debts. Her mom died from Pancreatic Cancer when she was a young girl and she and her dad (a very loveable character) have been running ever since. Adrienne has been working all over the world in the hotel industry. She has made numerous poor choices in men, her last boyfriend being the last straw.

It is really Adrienne's story, even though there are many stories taking place at the same time. Adrienne is hired by Thatch to run the front of the restaurant. There also is a love interest between them, and Adrienne has to cope with this unusual friendship between Thatcher and Fiona.

There are many varied characters in the book. Each has a very interesting story to tell.

It was so interesting learning about the restaurant business and being part of all of the hustle and bustle. Additionally, the food is described so deliciously -- the reader longs for a sampling. The author clearly shows her love of Nantucket. You want to make the trip there, if only for the descriptions of the food and the sunsets on the beach.

I loved the book, but found the ending flat. There were story-lines left hanging. Adrienne needed to be given more of a voice. I don't need endings tied up in a bow, but it felt as though the story was leading to a big climatic ending, but it never materlized. It is hard to end a book that way.

his has been the most emotional of Elin's books. The Blue Bistro is an upscale, totally different restaurant where the staff is a family. There are a few visits from the staff at the Beach Club, Elin's first novel, which really helps to build the vision of the town, having never been there.

The book starts off by a young girl coming moving to town with no money or much of anything in her life, being taken under the wing by the co-owner of the restaurant and then falling in love with him. The relationships within the Blue Bistro are so complex and emotional, it's hard to put this book down!

I loved this book even more than Hilderbrand's other books. After reading Blue Bistro I wanted to visit the restaurant, her vivid descriptions of the sunsets on the beach, the food sounded wonderful. I thought the story was very touching about a friendship that could be broken by nothing else (Thatcher and Fiona). I grew up in Massachusetts and never visited the island of Nantucket, I now visit it through Elin's books, I have read them all and I feel like I am there each time. Maybe one of these summers I will get there!

Elin Hilderbrand is a talented writer and I've now bought and read all her books. She never disappoints me. THE BLUE BISTRO was no exception. I particularly love the Nantucket settings Hilderbrand specializes in, and in BISTRO there was the added bonus of a restaurant background with all the details and inside information that's so much fun to read. I took this book with me on a river cruise to Europe last summer and left it on the ship for others to read when I'd finished it. I feel sure subsequent readers enjoyed it as much as I did. RECOMMENDED.

I grew up in and around the local Nantucket restaurants scene.
Ellen nails the feel of working and playing in a seasonal summer restaurant, where love, money, food, drugs, sex, travel and alcoholl, are all part of creating a passion play that lasts all but a few short months.

A chef on the rock.

I have enjoyed all of Elin Hilderbrand's books but this is the best so far! Her books are vivid reminders of the wonderful place that is Nantucket but more importantly her character development is exquisite. The characters in all her books have drawn me in but none more than Adrienne Dealey. While the book is a page turner, I hated for the book to end.

I look forward to the next adventure and love story form Elin.

I finished this book several days ago and have yet to open another book. Normally when I finish a book, I immediately start on another. However, these characters got into my heart, and I can't stop thinking about them. I want to go back and check on them. I want to peek into their lives again and see how they are doing, what they are doing... I am an avid reader like so many, and this story is the one I now carry with me. I have read other Hilderbrand books and loved them all. However, this is the one that touched me the most.

Having worked in a restaurant throughout college, I found the restaurant parts of the book interesting. In fact, reading about the crowded restaurant stressed me out at times! It made me recall those busy nights when you thought you would never get it all done. I am curious to know, to the readers who never worked in a restaurant, was it hard to follow? That being said, the rest of the book was good and bad. I like how the relationships formed at the bistro...it was very realistic. But, relationship between Fiona and Thatcher was a little weird. The flashbacks to their childhoods were not enough to understand the depth of their relationship. Although I admire the loyalty that Thatcher and Fiona each other, it was a little ridiculous. The ending was pretty bad. It was kind of abrupt, and it had me thinking, "now what?"

I love Elin's stories of Nantucket. I thoroughly enjoyed this book, especially the well researched insight into the restaurant business, however, I thought the protagonist to be self-centred, shallow and very boring. I couldn't have cared less what happened to her at the end. The end, unfortunately, was rather flat and I'm still trying to figure out what "going for breakfast" meant. I thought the way Elin weaved details of Fee's disease throughout the story very well done as this is no easy task without sounding contrived. My main criticism would be weak character development of the two main players. The restaurant actually had more of a personality. I'm giving it a four as it still beats other "beach reads" by far.

I loved reading this book. I learned quite a bit about the restaurant business and my mouth was always watering reading about the delicious meals prepared and served. I'm a huge fan of Elin Hilderbrand's novels. However I felt unsatisfied the way she left the characters relationship hanging at the end of the book. For a novel that I read in one day this was a huge disappointment to me. I suppose we,the readers, are expected to conger up our own ending.

If you enjoy reading novels with an ending that leaves the reader hanging, this is the one for you!