Barefoot: A Novel by Elin Hilderbrand Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Barefoot: A Novel
Book Review: Perfect summer read.
Summary: 5 Stars
Honestly, I didn't have too many expectations for this book. I bought it because I was supposed be at work for 12 hours on 4th of July. But once I started reading, it was hard for me to put down the book. This is my first review I'm writing, and I want anyone who is questioning whether to buy the book or not, to go ahead and buy it. It's absolutely perfect for summer.
I couldn't wait wait to get home to continue reading. I started to feel like I was there with the characters. I even looked up pictures of Nantucket to better visualize the story. Overall I loved it, and I am passing it on to a friend of mine who I know will love it too. Do yourself a favor, and grab this book.
Book Review: Good
Summary: 3 Stars
I love women's fiction and was looking forward to reading Barefoot by Elin Hidenbrand. I usually read the more 'chick lit' type books, but this book sounded great and I am happy to say it did not disappoint.
Vicki, Melanie and Brenda are all bright, intelligent women, but they are also each struggling with some personal demons and when they decide to spend the summer together at the beach in Nantucket, they will find that friendship and love can really help them get through their pain and confusion.
In this charming and heartwarming story, we find our three friends in the midst of cancer treatments, cheating husbands, unplanned pregnancies and illicit love affairs. Through beautiful prose, we experience each of their pain as if it were our own - I loved the emotional descriptions that Elin Hildenbrand brings to her storytelling and I often found myself with tears in my eyes.
Our unlikely hero and ultimate wild card, Josh is well written and although he is at times, a tad "male", he fits right in with these women and together they find the love and support they all so desperately need, although at first, I wondered why he had been introduced to us at all. It all becomes clear quite early on that Josh will become the center these women are looking for and although this could have been intrusive to the storyline, the author manages to introduce it in a perfectly logical and seemless way.
Yes, this book was a tad predictable, but it was also a great read - bring the tissues with you when you do settle in and enjoy this wonderful tale.
Book Review: I really wanted to like this book...
Summary: 1 Stars
True confession: I'm totally a "judge the book by the cover" type of girl when it comes to picking out books at the store. Looking at this one, I just knew I'd love it. When I found out it took place on Nantucket, I knew I was not only going to love it, but want to savor every last page and wish it never would end.
I didn't.
Not at all. The character development wasn't there. None of the characters were truly likable, which they don't need to be: but not only didn't I like them, I didn't care what happened to them. The storylines, particularly Vicki's, while gripping and something I could relate to, had no oomph. I couldn't wait for this book to be over.
Book Review: Great Summer Read!
Summary: 5 Stars
I took this book along for a twelve day cruise-thinking I'd read it on/off...but let me tell you. I couldn't put this book down no matter where I was and took the book along with me everywhere.
This is a great book-easy to read-hard to put down!!
Book Review: A perfect summer read
Summary: 4 Stars
Ah, summer vacation! Even the words alone can cheer the most world-weary soul. Memories of smoky barbecues, lingering walks on the beach and warm sand between your toes all minister to one's badly battered spirit. And this is exactly what the Lyndon sisters --- Vicki and Brenda --- along with friend Melanie are counting on when they venture to the family summer house on Nantucket. Each woman is anxiously trying to escape her own life and problems.
Vicki, the driven, thirty-something mother of two, has just been diagnosed with Stage 2 lung cancer. Her doctor hopes that with chemotherapy and possibly surgery they may have a viable shot at remission. Her mother has always sworn that "...any ailment in the world --- physical or emotional --- could be cured by a little Nantucket sand between your toes." This is exactly what Vicki is hoping for.
Vicki's sister, Brenda, has just been let go from her job as a teacher at Champion College, where she had an affair with a handsome male student. The foundation of her career up to that point had been studying a little-known novel of a mediocre Early American writer; now, in the wake of the scandal, her academic career is hanging by a thread. With some encouragement from a writer friend, Brenda hopes she can adapt the book to which she has devoted her life into a screenplay and salvage what's left of her career. A tranquil summer at the beach could help with that. She also realizes she should concentrate on her ailing sister and help her with the children. Can she put her illicit entanglements behind her and focus on what's important?
Melanie is a friend of Vicki's from Darien, Connecticut, where she has left behind her shattered marriage to a cheating husband. And after years of failed in vitro attempts, she's shocked to find herself pregnant. She doesn't want to share this news with her husband just yet --- at least until she can be sure he's left his co-worker girlfriend. Some time away to think is long overdue.
But from the moment the women arrive on the small island, with children in tow, it's anything but peaceful. In fact, it's pure bedlam. Vicki is exhausted and trying to keep her two kids in check. Brenda is obsessing over a lost piece of luggage, and poor Melanie can barely contain her morning sickness. Into this chaos enters Josh Flynn, a 22-year-old local college student who starts working for the women, primarily as a babysitter, but soon becomes an all-important "guy Friday." He's a natural with the little ones, gives Vicki valuable downtime, encourages Brenda with her writing and provides a sympathetic ear to troubled Melanie, who must sort through her feelings and decide if she wants to stay in her marriage.
BAREFOOT has all the ingredients for a perfect summer read: a beautiful setting, conflict, romance, passion, friendship, fear and characters facing unthinkable odds. Elin Hilderbrand once again has chosen the verdant coastline of Nantucket for this, her sixth novel, because she feels it "provides a rich ecological and historical background for her characters." And it certainly provides the reader with a rich jumping-off point to a warm and bittersweet story of friendship and family --- and a little sand between your toes.
--- Reviewed by Bronwyn Miller