It’s not summer until I’ve read my annual EH novel 👏🏼

every time I read one of these books I’m ready to plan a trip to Nantucket … eventually one day I’ll get there 😅

I thought the premise of this one was really unique! After tragedy strikes, Hollis Shaw plans a weekend in Nantucket with four friends from different stages of her life. She plans their entire itinerary and one of the “friends” is someone she hasn’t even met before. This was the perfect beach read and I even saved this one so i could read it on the actual beach!

EH novels are soap operas in book form and I can never get enough of them. I recommend not reading this book while hungry because some of the food descriptions are just *chef kiss* — Overall this won’t go down as my favorite EH novel but it was still a fun one!

Elin Hilderbrand never misses! Another great summer book by the Nantucket queen herself. This was fun, salacious, and easy to read.

Elin Hilderbrand has written another wonderful book about women, friendship, and life on Nantucket! This one had a good plot line with lots of sub-stories going on, along with interesting, diverse, and well-developed characters. I love the author’s writing style - she manages to include just enough description of people, places, and things – food and clothes, stores and houses and bedrooms and kitchens! - and she doesn’t spend paragraphs describing the sunset! I always look forward to reading Hilderbrand’s next novel!

Thank you to NetGalley for sharing this ARC with me!

Decent read overall, but I didn’t quite connect to this storyline or cast of characters the way I have with other Elin Hilderbrand books. Plenty of summer favorites, but sadly this one was a miss.

Hollis is a food blogger, wife and mother. She grew up in Nantucket but moved to Wellesley, MA. After her husband suddenly dies, she decides to plan a 5-star weekend in Nantucket. An idea that she read about online. She invites her best friend from 5 decades of her life for a girls weekend, all planned and paid for by Hollis. Some of the friends know each other, some do not. Some don't even like each other, but they all come for Hollis. One guest is an online friend who Hollis met through her food blog.

This story unfolds in true Elin Hilderbrand fashion as a great beach read. There is friendship, heartache, family bonds, romance and of course Nantucket, MA. I really enjoyed The Five-Star Weekend, just as I enjoy all of Elin's novels. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to read an advanced copy of this novel.

3.5 stars!
Hollis runs the lifestyle blog called Hungry with Hollis that went viral during the pandemic. She is married to Matthew and has one daughter who is in university. When she receives a phone call that Matthew has died in a car accident, her world is flipped upside down. As part of her grieving process, she decides to host a five-star weekend to try and cheer herself up. This involves inviting friends from all parts of her life to her home in Nantucket for the weekend, to have a girls getaway.

I read one Elin every summer and this was my pick for this year. It was perfectly atmospheric as Elin’s reads always are. The food and beverage descriptions and the settings were absolutely dreamy. There was lots of tension as the reader was able to get invested in all of Hollis’ guests' problems and drama. I just didn’t love the characters as much as I usually do and I found it was missing that romance that Hildebrand can write in so well. I still really enjoyed it and was very grateful to @littlebrown and @netgalley for my review copies.

THE FIVE STAR WEEKEND

Elin Hilderbrand is back with a new book, so it must be summer! Every single year I wait with bated breath for Elin’s latest to publish and once again this book did not disappoint!

Hollis Shaw runs the popular food blog, Hungry with Hollis, and from the outside her life seems picture perfect. When her husband, Matthew, suddenly passes away the cracks start to surface - life suddenly doesn’t seem so perfect, especially with her strained relationship with her daughter Caroline. When Hollis hears about something called a “Five-Star Weekend” she knows that’s just the thing she needs. She gathers four friends from her teenage years, her twenties, thirties, and midlife and brings them to Nantucket for a Five Star Weekend of fun, friendship and self discovery.

Hilderbrand tells this story set in Nantucket in only a way that she can! Each character was so interesting and had a new perspective to bring to the storyline. The character growth in this book as fantastic and I loved getting to know each of the girls! I also really liked the alternating points of view and inner monologues we got from them. So many of the scenarios felt real - from the jealousy that someone is “better” friends with Hollis to the drama, and secrets! As always I devoured this one and couldn’t get enough of the writing, the descriptions, and the characters.

After Hollis’s husband dies, she goes to Nantucket and spends time with her daughter and plans a girls’ weekend with friends from each phase of her life. While it appears Hollis has the weekend meticulously prepared, nothing at all goes as planned. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to be an early reader in exchange for my review.

After her husband's death Hollis decides to have a getaway weekend with people from different phases of her life. Little did she know she invited her husbands mistress. I enjoyed the book but once the reveal was revealed I didn't get the interaction between the two I was looking for.

I quite enjoy Elin Hilderbrand's novels, and the Five-Star weekend does not disappoint. In fact, it might be one of my favorites of hers!

I loved The Five-Star Weekend! I shouldn’t be surprised Elin’s books are always favs for me. I loved returning to Elin’s Nantucket as well!! The storyline and characters was also amazing!!!

Elin Hilderbrand is the Queen of chick lit with the right amount of everything!!! She is literally one of my favs ever and a staple on my book shelf!!

I liked this a lot. I always love the Nantucket setting so much and I liked the premise of different best friends from the main character's life, plus her relationship with her daughter. I'm sad to hear this may be her last book, though that will allow me to catch up on all of the ones I haven't read yet.

It doesn't seem to be the start of summer in the United States until an Elin Hilderbrand novel has come out. This year is no exception. The Five-Star Weekend is Hilderbrand's latest vacation read set in the ever popular island of Nantucket.

Hollis is a well known social media influencer who is very comfortable being "on brand" and living up to her visible and heavily "followed" lifestyle choices online. When her husband dies unexpectantly, her world is thrown into chaos. In order to move on and reflect on her life thus far, she creates a "five star weekend" inviting 4 woman who have played prominent roles in her life, to join her for a girls weekend in Nantucket. What seems like a wonderfully curated and posed weekend is anything but serene when readers discover that each of these women come harboring complicated secrets they would rather keep hidden.

Elin Hilderbrand has a way of writing characters that are much deeper than at first glance. Most of her novels are set in the picturesque world of Nantucket, MA, but she also has a way of bringing her characters down to earth with very real and visceral problems allowing the reader to realize that not all that glitters is always gold. Over all The Five-Star Weekend is another wonderful novel from the world of Hilderbrand and her loyal fans will not be disappointed by the story.

Thank you to NetGalley and Little, Brown and Company for the opportunity to review this novel.

This is a quintessential Elin Hilderbrand beach read - island summer atmosphere, great pace, interesting characters. This book kept me good company through a week-long beach vacation. All the summer vibes.

Thanks to Little Brown and Company, the author, and NetGalley for the free gifted copy in exchange for an honest review.

I will get sucked into literally anything that Elin Hilderbrand writes, I am truly obsessed with the “beach read” type books that center around this Nantucket town.

I know some people don’t love the infidelity trope woven into stories but I think it's fun to have in fiction books for the extra drama and tea. I love how intertwined all the characters are and how they are all connected to Nantucket in some way.

I enjoy the way Elin makes you truly feel like you are on the beach with these characters and how you become deeply entranced in the Nantucket area. It makes me so nostalgic for a beach vacation where I can lose myself in one of her books.

Elin Hildrebrand does another fantastic job in creating familiar characters that the reader will identify with (and always wonderfully set in Nantucket). I love how this novel explored female friendships and how they grow and change over time.

I also loved how each woman found herself by the end of the novel.

Fantastic read and a great summer book!

While some of Elin Hilderbrand's books have been hit or miss for me, this one was definitely a hit. There was all kinds of drama and food and fun and Nantucket! As usual, the Queen of the Beach Read does it again by weaving a tale that keeps you interested and feeling like you were right there on the island. Although I didn't have much of a personal connection with any of the characters, I enjoyed each of them and was sad for the book to end.

Hollis, famous food blogger, is reeling from her husbands sudden death. Months into the grief process she reads about a 5 Star Weekend where one invites and heals with the 5 most influential people from each phase of life. Hollis decides that it’s time to host her own five star weekend on Nantucket. She invites her childhood friend, her college roommate, her friend, from raising children together, and someone from her blog, She also invites her daughter to be the videographer for the weekend. There is bonding, secrets, and personal growth for all of our characters. Hilderbrand is at the top of her game in this novel… I found myself rooting for, wanting to slap, and cheering on each and every one of Hollis’s stars. Hildebrand is the queen of summer!

Thank you Net Galley and the publisher for the ARC of this book in exchange for my honest opinion!

Hollis Shaw has it all: a handsome doctor husband, a smart and successful daughter, two homes and a huge social media presence with a thriving online community. Or she did, until her husband died suddenly in a car accident. Months later and not knowing what else to do, Hollis decides to host a Five-Star Weekend where she invited four friends from different stages of her life to her home on Nantucket. What could go wrong?

Elin Hilderbrand is the queen of summer and friends, she has done it again! I loved this book! The characters all felt so real to me and I was engrossed in their lives and the drama that came with it. I loved how they had their differences and didn't always see eye to eye, but they put those aside to be there when their grieving friend needed them most. There were secrets at every corner and I loved the unraveling. I can't recommend this one enough!

Thank you Little, Brown and Company & Netgalley for the eARC!

I'm a huge Elin Hilderbrand fan and was so excited to get access to this one early! It absolutely did not disappoint. I loved how all the characters' lives were interwoven (typical for Elin!), and thoroughly enjoyed my time spent with them. A great beach read, I loved all the descriptions of the places they visited on Nantucket and the amazing food served by Hollis. Highly recommend, and can't wait for her next book! Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.