Elin Hilderbrand

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.

28 Summers

Celine

Jake's fortune: Feeding a cow roses does not get extra appreciation.

She thinks about Doris, in the movie, saying, "I knew..that no matter what the price, I was willing to pay it," 

What does it take to know a person? Time it takes time

 "Have you considered that maybe what draws you to Ursula is that she makes herself unavailable? And I’m too available."

this is what happens when you grow up: paths diverge, people lose touch.

"Mal means bad in French," Jake said. "But you must be the good kind of bad,"

You all know I love Elin, even when her books are committing crimes against humanity, like this one. Jake is a two-faced c*nt and Mallory is a masochistic doormat. Everyone else has issues I won’t even get into.

I’ll also add: 9/11 chapter surprisingly moving, Supreme Court nom chapter absolutely no thank you. Kitty and Senior would NEVER change their own tire, after a show at the Kennedy center, no less. Honestly the entire back half gets out of hand.

Anyway, ate that shit up per usual, but twas not satisfying.

Margo Koss

You all know I love Elin, even when her books are committing crimes against humanity, like this one. Jake is a two-faced c*nt and Mallory is a masochistic doormat. Everyone else has issues I won’t even get into.

I’ll also add: 9/11 chapter surprisingly moving, Supreme Court nom chapter absolutely no thank you. Kitty and Senior would NEVER change their own tire, after a show at the Kennedy center, no less. Honestly the entire back half gets out of hand.

Anyway, ate that shit up per usual, but twas not satisfying.

I actually hated they couldn’t be together after the first summer & the cheating trope frustrated me, but I looked past it and I enjoyed this book. It took me a little bit to get to know the characters, after that I was hooked. This was my first Elin Hilderbrand book, I can’t wait to read her other ones!

Chloe Yeargan

Bella Koch

what a beautiful story about love, loss, compassion, friendship, family, and Nantucket. although completely different to my last Elin read, she still captivated me and had me falling in love with all the characters. some might say jake and mallory’s love is controversial, but i was hooked from summer 1. the ending was heart wrenching and had me in full sobs. Elin Hilderbrand does it again🫡🫶

Gaby Menendez

Karissa

Wow… just wow. Mal and Jake forever! 
I loved this book so much! I’m sitting here crying so hard. This was such a wonderful story. The character development, the way all the characters connected to each other. It was just perfect. 
I loved the topics and issues they discussed. Mal was such a great mom! UGH!!! 
I wish I could read it again for the first time.

I generally love her books. I just had difficulty finishing this one. It felt like it had too much fluff. I was getting annoyed with the MFC, like she put her life on hold except for one weekend every single year. She came across weak and she really didn't stand out. Not my favorite read, but I will continue to read all her books because I really have loved all the others. 

Katie Heiser

Caitlin Moore

Elon has such a way of making me care about characters. They feel real. I was so invested in the “same time next year” relationship between Mallory and Jake. when I first heard the concept of the novel, I was worried about how it would keep my intention during the other 362 days out of the year, but somehow she seamlessly tied it together in a beautiful and interesting way.

Ashley

Tracy Tran

4.5
Definitely took some getting used to in terms of the perspective the book was told in

Katelyn Sykes

I like the concept of the book, I just found I really didn’t like the characters and I just didn’t see why they couldn’t just be together. I spent the first 70% of the book being annoyed with all of the characters. The last 30% I started to enjoy more. It just wasn’t my favourite.

The story wasn’t that original, but still sooooo beautiful and beautifully written. There was a lot of crying involved. 

Gisela Ayala 

3.5 because the narration was AMAZING. It made the story captivating and I thoroughly enjoyed the beginning of each and what was happening in history and pop culture to really set the mood of the chapter. 

The one thing that kept this from being 4 stars for me was the main relationship of the story, the center of it all, Malory and Jake. They had an obvious attraction, perfect chemistry, so it did not make one sense why they didn't stay together? Obviously, we wouldn't have a book or a story if they did stay together. BUT I think the author really needed to add something more to their predicaments to make it more urgent why they couldn't be together. I also found the times when they were apart more interesting than when they were together. 

At one point I kept asking myself why I didn't really find Malory's character that enthralling and then her friend points it out in a chapter (NOT A SPOILER) and calls her passive and I was like, "AH HA! THAT'S IT!" She's just so passive to me. She lets things happen to her and it almost felt like Jake was taking advantage of the situation by having the best of both worlds. 

Beautiful writing and narration but the meat of it, I just couldn't wrap my head around it.

A "captivating and bittersweet" novel 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 (People). 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.

Hannah

Shan

The perfect summer read that will have you feeling all sorts of emotions. This one reminded me that even when we are quarantined, life still flies by and to hold on to what makes it worth while

Alex Flagg

4.5 stars— I am deeply sad. This book hurt me alot. I want to express that this was a great read, that I couldnt put it down, but I am so sad and unsatisfied that I can’t think of anything else. Why why why??? I want to scream WHY!!! at this author for ripping my heart out the way she did. Save this book for a minute where you can be absorbed and deep in your feelings because I’m ruined for the rest of the weekend. -.5 star because how dare the author not give me MORE at the end

Madeline Waller

Brooke Barnett

It was ok. I cried at the end. I finished it in class and embarrassed myself and cried.

always, annej 〄

I cried. This made me feel so much all at once. Thank you for the good memories.

Katie LaMarre

Not usually a romance fan, but this one had a really interesting premise (though I’m not sure I buy that it would actually work).

Sarah Herring

How did I go this long without reading an Elin Hilderbrand book? I loved it so much. Can’t wait to dig into her back catalog!

Elizabeth Raines

The characters were the highlight of this but also the downfall as well. Is that not strange? They were so realistic and developed throughout the novel. I mean, hopefully they would be as we did experience the majority of their lives alongside them. Mallory is obviously the main character here, even ahead of Jake. This is made clear towards the last quarter as we get less and less Jake and get 'chapters' at his wife's perspective instead of his. I don't think this is a mad thing as we get to see both women and how different they are from each other but I think we still should have had more Jake towards the end. Now, here is why they were the downfall. It might just be because cheating frustrates me, I just don't get why these two could not get together. Later, in the more recent years it makes sense as Ursula, Jake's wife is a famous politician, but before that when they're all young and out of college. Why could they not just start a relationship? I think it is really immature from both our main leads. 

 Elin Hilderbrand does a great job at making the reader visualize Nantucket. I have never been but I did not have a hard time at all picturing the little beach cottage and then the island in my head. I also liked how the majority of the characters were from Baltimore as that is an important place to me. Shoutout to the University of South Carolina representation as well!

Early on the writing felt as though we were reading a gossip column but later I felt as though it got more like a novel, more personal. Again, Hilderbrand is a descriptive writer but she does not go on and on and I really appreciate that. This was fast paced even though this is over four hundred pages, which is huge for a romance novel! I was shocked how fast it went by, sometimes I did not believe that I had read eighty pages. Quick and fun read. 

 I think that I gave enough of my thoughts on the plot in the character category. I just don't understand why this was considered a forbidden romance at the start. I feel like if they really did truly love each other as much as they seemed to, then they would just come clean and become a couple. It just really bothered me. I do not know if it was pride of immaturity that they would not do it, who knows. I do like that we went through this much time with the characters as most romance books last only a week or month but here we went through three decades, pretty amazing. 

I did enjoy this read. The characters did annoy me at times but overall, they were well written and I can see that sometimes just committing to someone is hard for some people. I like that we did get both women's perspectives to see what Jake was trying to choose between. I don't think these characters were likeable but they were real. Elin Hilderbrand can paint a beautiful setting and really immerse you into it. The writing was fast but you never truly felt like anything was left out. I don't think this needed to be a forbidden romance but then it wouldn't be as exciting, would it be? 

Check out my full review here: https://izzyreads.blog/2021/09/25/28-...

Rachael Stromberg

3.5⭐️ it was cute and i liked the way the book was structured

Renee Blankenship

This is the first Elin Hilderbrand I have read in a decade (the last was The Summer Affair, which I didn't particularly enjoy). When I read the synopsis for 28 Summers I was intrigued and hopeful it would make for a great summer love story (I would say "beach read" but I didn't get a trip to the beach OR pool this summer). 

I loved the pacing of this story, how quickly time passed as we followed the characters through their lives (and not just the two main characters, but so many others). I also enjoyed seeing each character's perspective of each other from their own points of view. It seemed to give more of a layered emotional connection overall. The little paragraph at the start of each new year, summing up what was happening in the world at that time, was such a fun perk! Lots of good nostalgia to ground me in the time that the characters were currently living in. Overall, these were the things that kept me reading. 

I did not particularly care for the basis of the story itself, of these two characters continuing an affair for the length of their lives. It left me feeling incredibly sad for Mallory by the end of the book and SO frustrated with Jake for not being man enough to leave his wife whom he clearly didn't love *enough* considering how long he kept meeting Mallory on Labor Day weekend. I was hopeful this love affair would turn into an actual relationship (my hopes when I read the synopsis) but I was wrong. I cannot even imagine this particular scenario let alone two adults (one with a child) not feeling like enough is enough and either ending it or choosing to be together for good after SO MANY summers.

I recommend this one if you aren't bothered by the main theme of the story. It really pulled me in from the beginning regardless and I read it pretty quickly!

28 Summers

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