The Five-Star Weekend

Elin Hilderbrand — 2023

Hollis Shaw, creator of the popular food blog, Hungry with Hollis, is shocked when her heart surgeon husband, Matthew, is killed in a one-car accident on a snowy February morning. In Hollis's search for comfort, she hears about something called the "Five Star" weekend - a woman invites her best friend from each stage of her life - her teenage years, her twenties, her thirties and mid-life. Hollis decides she will host such a weekend on Nantucket--but her weekend won't be the Hallmark movie that one might expect... There's Tatum, Hollis's best friend from growing up on Nantucket, whose husband invites his childhood best friend and Hollis's first love, Jack Finigan, to spend time with them, stirring up old feelings... ...Dru-ann, Hollis's best friend from from UNC Chapel Hill, now a prominent Black female sports agent in Chicago whose comments about a client's mental health are misconstrued and land her in hot Twitter storm, making her in danger of losing her job and her boyfriend right before the weekend... ...Brooke, Hollis's best friend who helped raise her kids with Hollis during their thirties in Wellesley, MA, who was previously ousted from the Wellesley mom friend group by the leader, Electra, and will be meeting up with Electra this weekend for drinks on Nantucket to make amends... ...and Gigi, who reached out to Hollis on her food blog to become "internet besties." (No one knows Gigi, not even Hollis.) All the while during their stay, Hollis's daughter Caroline - an NYU documentary student - is filming the entire weekend and conducting interviews with each of the women in the hopes of making a short film. Caroline has just ended her first adult relationship, an affair with Ghanaian documentarian Isaac Opoku, and she bumps into her teenage crush Dylan McKenzie (Tatum's son) at the airport. With so much unresolved within each of Hollis's friendships and her daughter, and amid Hollis's own turning point after losing Matthew, what could potentially go wrong? Filled with the emotional depth and trademark cast-of-characters perspective of Hilderbrand's novels, The Five-Star Weekend promises a story of a remarkable weekend between friends--old and new--like no other.

Reviews

Paige Paul@ppaul13

Jul 22, 2024

I loved the atmosphere that this book created ! The ultimate vacation book with the location and the drama

Jennifer Gosnell@jennifereveann

Jul 19, 2024

I really enjoyed the plot, and the range of characters. I found the narrative telling of the story strange, though, and it took me awhile to adjust to it. So many random POVs… when I got to the *DOG’s* POV, I was like what are we *doing*? But overall, a fun summery read with some tragedy (just the way I like it, lol)

Katie Buchanan@katieirene

May 2, 2024

The beach vibes were immaculate, the tea was piping, and the characters were hot messes.

🌞Laur🌞@laurb410

Jan 7, 2024

I think this author might not be for me. I finished listening to this while shoveling and was just waiting for it to be over. The plot and sub plots were just not it for me.

This review contains a spoiler

Kerry Kalinoski@busywithmybooks

Dec 4, 2023

A lovely beach read! I love Elin Hilderbrand and her Nantucket books. This one wasn’t my absolute favorite of hers but I still truly enjoyed it! I like more of the typical Nantucket characters but understand that she has to branch out from that a little bit. I think this was a great self discovery story for many of the characters and loved that aspect of it. I couldn’t personally relate to these women and their children issues but I still found it to be an impactful story.