Customer Reviews

Nantucket Nights: A Novel

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(11)

 

 

After having loved Hilderbrand's first book, The Beach Club, I couldn't wait to get my hands on Nantucket Nights. This book did not dissapoint. Despite having fewer characters, fewer pages, and fewer parrallel stories, this book was a far more complex book then her first. Aside from that the two are completely different entities, for which Ms. Hilderbrand should be commended. Too often, authors get burdened by publisher deadlines and churn out formulary stories, but not her.

This is an intricately woven story of family, of friendship, and of our perceptions of the truth. It is the story of instincts and judgements, and of identity.

Kayla, the story's protagonist, is a complex woman who struggles with insecurity in her marriage, and insecurity with who she is. She identifies herself as a mother, a wife, and a friend until the story unravels and all of that comes into question.

This is the story of three unlike women who, for twenty years, get together one night of Labor Day weekend for a ritualistic midnight swim, truth telling and end of Summer celebratory night. Well, on the twentieth anniversary of this night the unspeakable happens and their friendship -- amongst so many other things -- becomes unravelled when one of the women disappears before sharing a dark secret.

As Kayla searches for the truth about that secret, she begins to learn things about her friends and her family that she never would have imagined. As the pages turn towards the end, the reader is drawn in and Kayla learns so much about perception versus reality. She learns about herself, her family and who she has to be in order to render the strength to move on.

This book is fantastic, and I cannot wait to read more by this talented author. If you want a fast but intelligent and interesting read that delves into the human psyche and relationships, pick up one of her books. You will be captivated.

This was definitely a light beach read --- a romance shrouded in a bit of mystery. I read it in just a few hours, enjoyed it while reading it, and found it quite a page-turner. But at the end I wondered why it appealed to me and why I even read it.

Thinking about this, I realized that the book was appealing because Hilderbrand pushed a lot of *hot* buttons: interracial relationships, extramarital sex, murder, women's friendship, female bonding, etc. She targeted an audience and reached it - the hallmark of a good marketing plan.

Almost every single situation bordered on preposterous....from Antoinette's "disappearance", to the ridiculous way the police acted, to the affair between an 18 and a 40 year old, to Kayla's behavior -- but I sped through it, so what does that say about me?

Guess I just needed something light to read at that particular time and this story reeled me in!

As the old saying goes, "With friends like these, who needs enemies." That's exactly what NANTUCKET NIGHTS' central characters - Kayla, Antoinette and Val - discover on the twentieth anniversary of Night Swimmers, their annual celebration of life and friendship.

Once a year, for two decades, the three women have made a sacred pilgrimage to a secluded Nantucket beach, where they share decadent food and tantalizing secrets (two cornerstones of women's friendships). But, this year, betrayal and heartbreak (two more cornerstones of women's friendships) have come along for the ride. And when tragedy strikes the calm waters of their annual skinny dip, the two remaining friends are forced to deal with the far-reaching consequences on an island with a low tolerance for scandal.

Hilderbrand ambitiously explores the meaning of life's most intangible concepts - truth, love, loyalty, happiness and a sense of place - with a cast of unexpectedly human characters. Her greatest success in this book lies in the well-constructed contradictions that make Kayla's story impossible to put down. Her friends are her greatest source of strength, and her ultimate downfall. To punish her loved ones for hurting her, she ruins her own life. She loves an island that can't/won't love her back. And through her teenage son's eyes, she defines herself as both a good mother and a horrible mother.

Don't make the mistake of thinking NANTUCKET NIGHTS is merely light beach reading - the wine-cooler of the literary world. There's a lot more to this book than a fluffy mystery and scads of steamy sex. Kayla's downward spiral is inevitable, but irresistible. And NANTUCKET NIGHTS is a supremely satisfying read.

I was between books when I picked this up. What I should have done was go to store and buy another book. The story is absurd and the characters are ridiculous. I didn't even bother with the last page and a half. Just a really bad book.

I picked up this book because I wanted some light reading for a trip to the mountains. Sounded like an interesting premise--three female friends with a 20 year history and the disappearance of one of them to add a bit of mystery. I love books about relationships but there was no substance or real connection among these women. How pathetic must Kayla be that she needs the so called friendship of Val and Antoinette? Val is totally selfish. Antoinette is completely withholding and incapable of any kind of warmth. And yet Kayla speaks of "the strength of their friendship" and calls them her "best friends." The book is an insult to women who know the depth, intimacy and support of real friends. A totally unsatisfying read.

The cover of this book, Adirondack chairs on the edge of the water, and the title, NANTUCKET NIGHTS, would lead the buyer to believe that they are, in fact, purchasing a light beach read. Through the writing skills and storytelling abilities of the author, this book is not a "light" beach read but a "GREAT" beach read.

Told through the voices of three of its main characters, NANTUCKET NIGHTS explores the depths of conflict within a town, a family unit and a close-knit group of friends when one event starts the ball rolling on a downward spiral. While the main story deals with three close friends who have rendezvoused for twenty years at midnight on the eve of the Labor Day weekend, all the underlying stories will now come to the forefront as everyone's secrets are revealed as a result of one Nantucket night.

The author does a wonderful job of putting the reader right there on beautiful Nantucket island. I've only visited there once in the past, so it was nice to go back, if only through the pages of this book. The three friends are an unlikely group -- Kayla, mother of four and supposedly happily married to Raoul; Val, a successful island attorney stuck in a loveless marriage and Antoinette, reclusive though wealthy as a result of a divorce that occurred twenty plus years ago. What begins as a fun ritual of meeting each year, eating decadent food, drinking champagne, swimming nude and revealing their innermost secrets of the past year, now becomes a "sordid romp" once it is exposed to the authorities and seen through the eyes of its townspeople.

I bought this book three months ago but, as soon as I looked at the cover, I knew it was going to be a book I'd save to read while vacationing at the shore this year. Every year I come upon a book that will always remind me of that particular summer of reading. For the summer of 2002, it will be NANTUCKET NIGHTS -- a book that surprised me with its powerful storyline and well developed characters.

So, can you really tell a book by its cover? In this case, I'm so glad I was attracted to it by its cover but even happier still that I wasn't disappointed with what was on the inside. I'd say that Hilderbrand has a new fan in this reader.

This book has the set-up of a great suspense novel: Three friends go swimming one evening and one of them mysteriously disappears. The intriguing premise, however, quickly devolves into not so much a mystery as a soap opera. Even that would be fine, except that all of these characters are so deeply flawed as to be thoroughly loathesome. I found myself rooting for the worst to happen to all of these people. And, when the big "mystery" is unveiled, the protagonist -- Kayla's -- actions are completely unbelievable and moronic. This is the second Elin Hilderbrand novel I've read and it will certainly be my last. Even Nantucket's charms couldn't save this mess. On a nitpicking note, the author shows a decided lack of imagination. For example, the three friends who go swimming one night each year nicknamed themselves -- wait for it -- the Night Swimmers. YAWN.

Like another reviewer, I, too, wonder why I even read this book. It's mostly a transition book to get me from one great book to another which was on order and so I suppose that's the main reason. There is nothing complex about this story. Silly, perhaps, but not complicated. The story itself is ridiculous and the characterizations are absurd. Kayla and Raoul are shadows of real people; their son, Theo, an overdramatization of a young boy in love with an older woman who has mysteriously disappeared.

These are the things that bother me about this book: 1) Kayla throws glasses into the ocean after Antoinette disappears to destroy the "evidence." 2) Kayla and her "best" friend Val are called down to the police station to be questioned about the disappearance of their other "best" friend Antoinette. Kayla's husband doesn't even bother to go with her and stays at home and gets drunks while she's being harassed by the detective. 3) Val is a lawyer but she's not smart enough to say she's not talking without an attorney present. 4) The community calls them incessantly, leaving phone messages on the answer machine with accusations and questions. Do people really do this? 5) Kayla and Jacob - what was that all about?

Nantucket Nights is one of those books that makes you think you could write a book and get it published because this one just isn't that great. Well, maybe that's a little harsh, but you get my drift.

This book is based on the friendship of three women; Kayla, Val and Antoinette. They have been friends for many years and once a year they get together to go night swimming in the ocean and share secrets. On this particular night, one of the friends goes missing. After this the friendship implodes and secrets are revealed.

I was along for the ride for most of the story, but the ending was a complete disappointment to me. I just felt let down by it, there was no real closure in my mind.

What these women shared between them was not what makes a real friendship. Instead of supporting one another, Val turns out to be completely selfish and while she may think she has her reasons, they are not worth destroying another woman's life for.

Again, I liked parts of this book, but the ending and their friendship, left me cold.

Every Labor Day weekend for the past two decades the three fortyish women drop everything to spend time together at Nantucket. Kayla Montero has four children and believes her wealthy husband probably has mistresses wherever he globally travels on business. Rich from investments Antoinette Riley enjoys her current "crazy sex" fling, but her daughter Lindsey, given up for adoption as a baby, has found her and wants to meet her. Though married and a successful lawyer Valerie Gluckstern, is having an affair that she plans to reveal to the others at the swim tonight.

Antoinette swims out to sea, but never returns. The Police and Coast Guard conduct a search, but fail to find her. The next day Kayla informs Lindsey that her biological mother vanished at sea. With the disappearance a dark secret that ties the trio even more deeply together begins to reveal deceptions leaving no one remaining the same.

Though the behavior of the lead trio sometimes borders on the absurd and surreal, NANTUCKET NIGHTS is an enjoyable soap opera. The story line moves forward rather quickly with some elements of a thriller to propel the plot ahead. However, the enjoyment with Elin Hilderbrand's "Beach Club" read is the constant changing of feelings between love, hate, and pity that the readers will have towards the three middle aged women until the "final secret" completes the ties.

Harriet Klausner