Summer of '69

Summer of '69 by Elin Hilderbrand

Fiction

2019 Hachette Audio

Narrated by Erin Bennett

Fininshed on July 13, 2022

Rating: 4/5 (Very Good)

Publisher's Blurb:

Four siblings experience the drama, intrigue, and upheaval of the '60s summer when everything changed in Elin Hilderbrand's #1 New York Times bestselling historical novel.

Welcome to the most tumultuous summer of the twentieth century. It's 1969, and for the Levin family, the times they are a-changing. Every year the children have looked forward to spending the summer at their grandmother's historic home in downtown Nantucket. But like so much else in America, nothing is the same: Blair, the oldest sister, is marooned in Boston, pregnant with twins and unable to travel. Middle sister Kirby, caught up in the thrilling vortex of civil rights protests and determined to be independent, takes a summer job on Martha's Vineyard. Only-son Tiger is an infantry soldier, recently deployed to Vietnam. And thirteen-year-old Jessie suddenly feels like an only child, marooned in the house with her out-of-touch grandmother and her worried mother, while each of them hides a troubling secret.

As the summer heats up, Ted Kennedy sinks a car in Chappaquiddick, man flies to the moon, and Jessie and her family experience their own dramatic upheavals along with the rest of the country. In her first historical novel, rich with the details of an era that shaped both a nation and an island thirty miles out to sea, Elin Hilderbrand once again earns her title as queen of the summer novel.

A perfect beach read! I enjoy Elin Hilderbrand's summery novels and this one didn't disappoint. Erin Bennett does a nice job with the variety of voices for the audio narration (I'm always amazed when a female reader nails the male voices) and the family drama kept me interested without being over the top. 

This is not literary fiction, but I thoroughly enjoyed the book, almost as much as 28 Summers. If you enjoy historical fiction (this is Hilderbrand's first), Summer of '69 isn't quite as heavy as those set during World War II. (Ok, it's a bit light and simplistic, but as I said, a perfect beach read.) Plus, there's no alternating time periods, although the POV does switch between the three sisters and their mother. Overall, a worthwhile read. Recommend.

I love that each chapter title is the name of a song from 1969. I plan to put together a Spotify playlist of all these great songs:

Fortunate Son (Creedence Clearwater Revival)

Both Sides Now (Joni Mitchell)

Born to Be Wild (Steppenwolf)

Fly Me to the Moon (Frank Sinatra)

Time of the Season (The Zombies)

Magic Carpet Ride (Steppenwolf)

Those Were the Days (Mary Hopkin)

Suspicious Minds (Elvis Presley)

Young Girl (Gary Puckett & The Union Gap)

Everyday People (Sly & the Family Stone)

More Today Than Yesterday (Spiral Staircase)

Piece of My Heart (Janis Joplin)

Everybody's Talkin' (Harry Nilsson)

Mother's Little Helper (The Rolling Stones)

Help! (The Beatles)

White Rabbit (Jefferson Airplane)

Summertime Blues (The Who)

I Heard It Through the Grapevine (Creedence Clearwater Revival)

19th Nervous Breakdown (The Rolling Stones)

A Whiter Shade of Pale (Procol Harum)

Whatever Lola Wants (Sarah Vaughan)

Sunshine of Your Love (Cream)

Can't Find My Way Home (Blind Faith)

Ring of Fire (Johnny Cash)

All Along the Watchtower (Bob Dylan)

Midnight Confessions (The Grass Roots)

For What It's Worth (Buffalo Springfield)

Get Back (The Beatles)

Someday We'll Be Together (Diana Ross & The Supremes)

28 Summers

28 Summers by Elin Hilderbrand

Fiction

2020 Hachette Audio

Read by Erin Bennett

Finished on July 7, 2021

Rating: 4.5/5 (Very Good)

Publisher's Blurb:

By the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Summer of '69: Their secret love affair has lasted for decades -- but this could be the summer that changes everything.

When Mallory Blessing's son, Link, receives deathbed instructions from his mother to call a number on a slip of paper in her desk drawer, he's not sure what to expect. But he certainly does not expect Jake McCloud to answer. It's the late spring of 2020 and Jake's wife, Ursula DeGournsey, is the frontrunner in the upcoming Presidential election.

There must be a mistake, Link thinks. How do Mallory and Jake know each other?

Flash back to the sweet summer of 1993: Mallory has just inherited a beachfront cottage on Nantucket from her aunt, and she agrees to host her brother's bachelor party. Cooper's friend from college, Jake McCloud, attends, and Jake and Mallory form a bond that will persevere -- through marriage, children, and Ursula's stratospheric political rise -- until Mallory learns she's dying.

Based on the classic film Same Time Next Year (which Mallory and Jake watch every summer), 28 Summers explores the agony and romance of a one-weekend-per-year affair and the dramatic ways this relationship complicates and enriches their lives, and the lives of the people they love.

I remember watching Same Time Next Year many, many years ago and while I don't usually care for books about infidelity, 28 Summers was very entertaining and kept my interest over the course of our 5-week road trip. I don't get a lot of time for audiobooks while we're on the road, especially when it's too hot to go for long walks, but in spite of the long gaps between listening time, I never lost the details of the plot. Erin Bennett does a very nice job with the narration, but I would have also liked to have the print edition so I could linger over the chapter intros ("What are We Talking About In [insert year]"), which brought back a lot of memories about what was going on in the 90s and early 2000s. A beach read? Yes, but with more depth than a mindless romance. Recommend.

I received a complimentary copy from Libro.fm. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Winter Street

Winter Street by Elin Hilderbrand (Winter Series #1)
Fiction
2014 Little, Brown and Company
Finished on December 5, 2017
Rating: 2/5 (Fair)

Publisher's Blurb:

In bestseller Elin Hilderbrand's first Christmas novel, a family gathers on Nantucket for a holiday filled with surprises.

Kelley Quinn is the owner of Nantucket's Winter Street Inn and the proud father of four, all of them grown and living in varying states of disarray. Patrick, the eldest, is a hedge fund manager with a guilty conscience. Kevin, a bartender, is secretly sleeping with a French housekeeper named Isabelle. Ava, a school teacher, is finally dating the perfect guy but can't get him to commit. And Bart, the youngest and only child of Kelley's second marriage to Mitzi, has recently shocked everyone by joining the Marines.

As Christmas approaches, Kelley is looking forward to getting the family together for some quality time at the inn. But when he walks in on Mitzi kissing Santa Claus (or the guy who's playing Santa at the inn's annual party), utter chaos descends. With the three older children each reeling in their own dramas and Bart unreachable in Afghanistan, it might be up to Kelley's ex-wife, nightly news anchor Margaret Quinn, to save Christmas at the Winter Street Inn.

Before the mulled cider is gone, the delightfully dysfunctional Quinn family will survive a love triangle, an unplanned pregnancy, a federal crime, a small house fire, many shots of whiskey, and endless rounds of Christmas caroling, in this heart-warming novel about coming home for the holidays.

Winter Street was a quick and easy read, but far too fluffy, contrived and sentimental, even for a light Christmas novel. Will I continue with the series this coming Christmas? I wouldn't bet on it.