summer of 69 by elin hilderbrand reviews

King, landing a man on the moon…there’s so much she packs in! I love the way she incorporated all those elements into the character’s lives without making it seem forced or fake. I love love loved all the events she brought into the storyline: the Vietnam war, anti-war protests, Woodstock, Ted Kennedy and Chappaquiddick, Dr. This is also her first venture into the historical fiction genre. You know, everything I’ve come to expect from a Elin Hilderbrand novel. There’s drama and suspense, action, heartbreak, and love. Which, she realizes and tries to do a couple times, but always seems to end up right back where she started. The kids’ mother, Kate, has enough problems of her own and often times gives in to them instead of remembering that she is actually still a wife and mother (and daughter) and other people need her to get her act together. She quickly learns she may not be the little girl she once was. She feels alone and stuck on the island until she finds an unexpected friend. Youngest sister, Jessie, while technically a half sister, is in the throws of her early teens where a whole summer away could totally jeopardize her standing with her friends. She has marched with Dr King and (not surprisingly) decided to opt for a summer in Martha’s Vineyard, instead of Nantucket with her family. Middle sister, Kirby, is the token hippie.

She’s quickly finding out that married life, stuck in Boston, away from her family is not where she wants to be. His oldest sister, Blaire, is newly married and pregnant with twins. They all realize this summer will be unlike any they’ve had before. Summer of ’69 picks up in the spring of that year when the Levin family’s only son, Tiger, receives his draft notice for Vietnam. But (of course you know this if you’ve ever read any other Elin Hilderband novels) the setting is just as big of a character as any: Nantucket.

It includes several members of their extended family as well as a few sweet friends and a couple villains. In perfect Elin Hilderbrand (yes, she is always first and last name with me) fashion, this story features one pretty normal family with plenty of quirks and mess and tells a story about their summer. She is my junk food author! What is Summer of ’69 about? That’s how I feel about Elin Hilderbrand.

My sister-in-law refers to Agatha Christy novels as junk food: they might not be super meaty, heavy, or thought provoking, but she flies through them and they always leave her satisfied. It came out in 2019 and I bought it as soon as I saw it in paperback. Basically anything that Elin Hilderbrand writes goes directly to my TBR list, and Summer of ’69 was no exception.

Summer of 69 by elin hilderbrand reviews