The Love Season

Genre mystery Author Elin Hilderbrand Publisher St. Martin's Press External Links Official St. Martin's Press Website

If you have fallen in love with Nantucket with the previous four novels, you'll fall in love again with her fifth book, The Love Season. Love can be complicated. A former chef, Marguerite, leads a strange life. With her is a hotheaded teenage goddaughter with their lives so very different and somehow fate has brought them together.

As a freshman in college, Renata becomes engaged to the handsome Cade Driscoll. This wealthy family has a summer place in Nantucket where Cade and Renata visit. While visiting Cade's family, Renata has this urge to once again see her godmother, Marguerite. They have not seen each other for a very long time, nearly 14 years, since the death of Renata's mother. Renata has so many questions and sees this as an opportunity to discover who her mother was, why her father refuses to talk about it and has banished Marguerite from her life.

After Renata locates Marguerite, she arranges a visit. Marguerite is excited but still very nervous about this secret she has been hanging on to for so many years. To prepare for this visit, Maruerite wants to prepare a fabulous meal for Reneta, even if it means going out in public, which she hasn't done in quite some time.

The people of Nantucket thinks she is crazy. They treat her like an outcast artist with something of a destructive nature. She's really not of course, but rumors do what rumors do. None of them know the real truth, they only know that during the height of popularity, she shut down her restaurant and quit being a chef several years ago.

These colorful characters come together in this delightful book. Renata is a bit immature, but perhaps because she is so young. She doesn't feel ready to marry at all. The pressure from Cade and his mother are weighing down on here. She doesn't even want to tell her father about it, thinking he would forbid it completely.

While Cade is out sailing with his father, Renata is feeling alone and abandoned. So, she heads for the beach. She ends up canceling the dinner date with Marguerite.

Soon, Renata discovers her father is coming to Nantucket. Secrets will be revealed, the truth will be out and Renata is caught in the middle of it all. The entire story is set in a day and yet the entire world seems to change in that time period.

This story is wild, unpredictable and amazing. The struggle between Renata and her father, Cade and Marguerite is a twisted tale of love, protection, guilt and regret. The secrets revealed will astound you.

As with the other novels, this one is so beautifully written, you will feel you know Nantucket by heart and have been there for years. It follows the familiar story telling that only Elin Hilderbrand can produce.

Readers hooked on Elin's books will need to pick this one up. This makes for great beach reading or for a single up-all-night story. The characters are wonderful, the setting is lifelike, and the plot is twisted, beautiful and enchanting.