The Love Season [Paperback]

Elin Hilderbrand (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 17, 2007

It's a hot August Saturday on Nantucket Island.  Over the course of the next 24 hours, two lives will be transformed forever.
 
Marguerite Beale, former chef of culinary hot spot Les Parapluies, has been out of the public eye for over a decade.  This all changes with a phone call from Marguerite's goddaughter, Renata Knox.  Marguerite has not seen Renata since the death of Renata's mother, Candace Harris Knox, fourteen years earlier.  And now that Renata is on Nantucket visiting the family of her new fiancé, she takes the opportunity, against her father's wishes, to contact Marguerite in hopes of learning the story of her mother's life--and death.  But the events of the day spiral hopelessly out of control for both women, and nothing ends up as planned.
 
Welcome to The Love Season--a riveting story that takes place in one day and spans decades; a story that embraces the charming, pristine island of Nantucket, as well as Manhattan, Paris and Morocco.  Elin Hilderbrand's most ambitious novel to date chronicles the famous couplings of real lives: love and friendship, food and wine, deception and betrayal--and forgiveness and healing.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Hilderbrand's fifth book is a fulfilling tale of familial excavation and self-exploration. Marguerite is a lonely chef on Nantucket Island who hasn't cooked for anyone since she sold her restaurant 14 years ago, following the death of her best friend Candace and her own brief stint in a psychiatric hospital. A quirky, endearingly insecure recluse, Marguerite is startled from her solitude by a late-night phone call from Renata Knox, whose question, "Aunt Daisy?" sends Marguerite scrambling to come to terms with her past. Nineteen-year-old Renata is Candace's daughter and Marguerite's estranged goddaughter, visiting the island with her wealthy fiancé. The novel takes place over the day Marguerite spends preparing a meal to welcome Renata, whose own problems include an overbearing mother-in-law-to-be and an incomplete sense of her own mother. Desperate for nurturing and guidance, Renata turns to Marguerite, the woman who knew her mother best—and whom Renata has been forbidden to see most of her life. The story is crafted as expertly as Marguerite's dishes, seasoned with well-measured flashbacks and convincing details of island life and the restaurant business. It's a refreshing, resonant summertime treat. (June)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

Despite her father's warning, Renata Knox wants to go to Nantucket with her new fiance to meet her godmother, Marguerite, who has been a mystery to her. Finally, she can visit the place where her parents met and fell in love--and where her mother died. Renata also experiences the superficial, upscale world of her fiance's family. Marguerite's solitary life is turned upside down. As the former restaurateur prepares for one of the most important dinners in her life, she reminisces about her flawed past and worries about what to tell the daughter of her beloved friend. Hilderbrand intertwines the separate discoveries of the two women as they examine what is important to them and consider who they want to please and what pleases them. Hilderbrand's sensitive portrayal of a young, motherless woman on a journey of self-discovery, and her guilt-ridden godmother's attempt to find the courage to confront the past, is very moving. Patty Engelmann
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin (April 17, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312369697
• ISBN-13: 978-0312369699
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.7 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (31 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #60,563 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Elin Hilderbrand lives on Nantucket with her husband and their three young children. She grew up in Collegeville, Pennsylvania, and traveled extensively before settling on Nantucket, which has been the setting for her five previous novels. Hilderbrand is a graduate of Johns Hopkins University and the graduate fiction workshop at the University of Iowa.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good but no Bistro, June 8, 2006

By 

E Anderson (Pennsylvania) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Love Season (Hardcover)

I do love Elin Hilderbrand's books and can never wait for the next to come out, but this book didn't quite live up to my expectations. Don't get me wrong, it was a spellbinding story, but a little too depressing. It reminded quite a bit of the Blue Bistro; taking place, through memory, in a popular, exclusive restaurant in Nantucket. The main character is the eccentric chef, Marguerite, who was lured to the island by her lover, Porter, while working in Paris. Marguerite beomes best friends, and a bit obsessed, with Porter's much younger sister, Candace. The story is reminiscent through a 60 year old, lonely and reclusive Marguerite and eyes of the late Candace's 19 year old Daughter, Renata, when Renata visits the island for the first time in years with her new fiancé, Cade. Within the length of a day, both Renta and Marguerite go through channels of emotions that change their lives forever and tell the story of the death of Renata's mother and how Marguerite got to live the life she now lives alone. The two meet for the first time in 15 years to share the story. It's very well written and keeps you wanting more, it's just a little more depressing than the other books by Hilderbrand.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Book that measures life in love, August 23, 2006

By 

S. Denmark (USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Love Season (Hardcover)

Elin Hildebrand's latest entry is a complex, haunting novel that centers on the various themes of love that manifest throughout life. Romantic love, friendships, and sexual relationships are explored through the eyes of two main characters, Marguerite and Renata. Marguerite's life is told in flashbacks that cover decades, while Renata's story evolves over the course of 24 hours. Both women encounter love in its many forms, and as their lives intersect at the end of the day to resolve unanswered questions about the past, the reader is propelled to the climax. Never sappy, this novel is truly a pleasure.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars more than beach reading -- unforgettable, June 28, 2006

By 

Kelly Andrews "kellyjand" (Wynnewood, PA United States) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Love Season (Hardcover)

Elin Hilderbrand's work is hard to characterize, but it's impossible to forget. Her descriptions of island life from the perspective of both visitor and local are evocative and perfect for vacation reading (or reading that makes you feel like you're on vacation) but her characters have very true-to-life motivations and believable histories that would hold up in any setting.

As Hilderbrand's fifth novel, The Love Season builds on her previous achievement in The Blue Bistro, but differs from the wider sweep of her earlier efforts with its tight, even claustrophobic construction. The events of the The Love Season unfold during one day, as reclusive chef Marguerite prepares an elaborate meal for her teenage goddaughter Renata. While Marguerite reflects on her past, Renata races forward, bringing her own relationship to a crisis point that can only be resolved by revealing long-hidden secrets.

While Renata and Marguerite use the jewel-like island setting as an escape, the truth comes to the surface, like buried wreckage on a beach. The Love Season is a mature, fascinating, and thoroughly satisfying story with an ending that left me stunned and thoughtful.