(64)The Matchmaker by Elin Hildebrand

Wednesday, July 16, 2014

The Matchmaker

Pages: 368

Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
Publication Date: June 10, 2014


To forty-eight year old Dabney Nantucket is home. She grew up on the island and has only left a handful of times over the years, one of them being college.  She came home from Harvard pregnant with the child of a man who wanted to do nothing but wander the world.  Dabney ends up having her daughter, Agnes, and marries a Harvard professor that only lives on the island part of the time.  As the director of the local Chamber of Commerce Dabney gets to share her love of the island every single day.  Her whole world changes though the day that Dabney receives an email from her ex saying he is coming home to the island.  Dabney agrees to see him, but when their relationship starts heating up she struggles to decide who is going to make her happier.  Her husband or the father of her child.  But when Dabney receives devastating news she realizes that her definition of happiness has changed.  

Someday I am going to go to Nantucket.  Elin Hilderbrand just makes it seem so idyllic with her descriptions of blue skies and ocean as far as the eye can see, who wouldn't want to go to paradise?  Every small community has a "Dabney" - someone so full of community pride that it just pours out of them no matter what they are doing or saying. Dabney is a great character because her love of the island comes from a pure place in the heart of the author. Anyone who has read her books knows that she is an "islander" herself.  In a case of life imitating art Elin Hilderbrand underwent a double mastectomy just days after the publication of this book.  Obviously she didn't know that she had cancer as she was writing the book, but I knew it as I was reading the book and it was all I could think about.  When my heart ached for Dabney, it ached for Elin.  I wanted nothing more than to turn the page and read that the diagnosis was a mistake and Dabney was going to live her "forever after" with the man of her life.  I do not want to give away the ending of the book so I will just stop here and say #mamastrong. 

Bottom line, for many readers,  Elin Hilderbrand is synonymous with summer and her books sweep you away to a place that is synonymous with summer.   The Matchmaker is another great summer read!  Everything you have come to expect from Elin Hildebrand and more!  Be sure to pick it up for your beach read and be sure to share your support for the author on her Facebook page

Latest Instagrams

© Charlotte's Web of Books. Design by FCD.