The Hotel Nantucket

by Elin Hilderbrand

Overview

Notes From Your Bookseller

Hotel Nantucket is another fantastic beach read from one of our favorite authors, Elin Hilderbrand. This novel is charming and delightful, following Lizbet Keaton as she attempts to revive the Hotel Nantucket back to its glory days of glamor and prosperity. The drama that enfolds between those involved with the hotel is enough to have you on the edge of your beach chair.

“The queen of beach reads” (New York Magazine) and #1 New York Times bestselling author delivers an immensely satisfying page-turner in this tale about a summer of scandal at a storied Nantucket hotel.

Fresh off a bad breakup with a longtime boyfriend, Nantucket sweetheart Lizbet Keaton is desperately seeking a second act. When she’s named the new general manager of the Hotel Nantucket, a once Gilded Age gem turned abandoned eyesore, she hopes that her local expertise and charismatic staff can win the favor of their new London billionaire owner, Xavier Darling, as well as that of Shelly Carpenter, the wildly popular Instagram tastemaker who can help put them back on the map. And while the Hotel Nantucket appears to be a blissful paradise, complete with a celebrity chef-run restaurant and an idyllic wellness center, there’s a lot of drama behind closed doors. The staff (and guests) have complicated pasts, and the hotel can’t seem to overcome the bad reputation it earned in 1922 when a tragic fire killed nineteen-year-old chambermaid Grace Hadley. With Grace gleefully haunting the halls, a staff harboring all kinds of secrets, and Lizbet’s own romantic uncertainty, is the Hotel Nantucket destined for success or doom?  

Filled with the emotional depth and multiple points of view that characterize Hilderbrand’s novels (The Blue Bistro, Golden Girl) as well as an added dash of Roaring Twenties history, The Hotel Nantucket offers something for everyone in this compelling summer drama. 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780316258678
Publisher:	Little, Brown and Company
Publication date:	06/14/2022
Pages:	416
Sales rank:	1,426
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.40(d)

About the Author

Elin Hilderbrand is the proud mother of three, a dedicated Peloton rider, an aspiring book influencer, and an enthusiastic at-home cook (follow her on Instagram @elinhilderbrand to watch her Cringe Cooking Show). She is also a grateful eight-year breast cancer survivor. THE HOTEL NANTUCKET is her 28th novel. 

Editorial Reviews

06/01/2022

The latest from the prolific and popular Hilderbrand (following Golden Girl) takes a satisfying look behind the scenes of a luxury Nantucket hotel. London-based billionaire Xavier Darling buys and lavishly renovates the long-derelict Hotel Nantucket, hoping to win the coveted "Five Keys" rating from an Instagram travel influencer. When he needs a local general manager, he hires Lizbet Keaton, who doesn't have hotel experience but previously ran a successful restaurant for 15 years, until she was betrayed by her business partner boyfriend. Staff shortages at the Hotel Nantucket (perhaps an oblique reference to COVID-era labor shortages) drive Lizbet to hire a raft of similarly inexperienced workers—disparate characters with slowly revealed backstories and secrets. The hotel turns out to be haunted by the ghost of a young chambermaid who was murdered there a hundred years earlier; to end the haunting, the hotel staff will have to help the ghost get closure. Beyond the intrigue, readers will learn something of the way a luxury hotel runs, including the long hours and dedication of the staff. VERDICT References to pop culture (music, celebrities, social media, fashion) will please a modern crowd, and readers will cheer for Lizbet, the crew of the Hotel Nantucket, and the ghost.—Jan Marry

Library Journal

★ 2022-04-27
Bring on the fresh-baked gougères and the hydrangea-blue cashmere throws: A classic fictional setting—the grand hotel—gets the Hilderbrand treatment.

The beloved beach novelist’s 28th book is another tour de force, deploying all her usual tricks and tropes and clever points of view, again among them a character from the afterlife and the collective “we” of gossipy island residents. Our ghost is Grace Hadley, a teenage chambermaid who died under suspicious circumstances in a hotel fire in 1922. Grace’s lonely days are over when the historic property is purchased and reopened by a London billionaire. As Xavier Darling tells his general manager, Lizbet Keaton, their goal will be to get five out of five keys from Shelly Carpenter, an undercover hotel blogger who has not awarded top honors to any spot visited so far. A gorgeous remodel, a sterling staff, free treats in the minibar, and—of course, since this is Hilderbrand—an incredible restaurant where a disco ball drops from the ceiling every night at 9 p.m. and the chef is hotter than any dish on the menu are all in play as the first guests come streaming in. Which one is the hard-to-please Ms. Carpenter? Other addictive storylines include a rich kid cleaning rooms to expiate some mysterious, terrible thing he did this past spring, an evil beauty breaking up island marriages (instead of a gun in the drawer, there's a half-used Chanel eye shadow in Pourpre Brun), and the desperate attempts of Lizbet’s ex, who sexted with their wine rep, to win her back. One of the special services Lizbet creates for the guests of the Hotel Nantucket is a “Blue Book” containing all her recommended island itineraries. A real-life version is included as an appendix, giving the complete scoop on where to eat, drink, sunbathe, shop, and stay on the island, plus notes on which Hilderbrand novels happened where. If you’re ready to check out Chicken Box or to try the sandwiches on herb bread that lured the author to become a permanent island resident in 1993, the Elin Hilderbrand Bucket List Weekend really is a thing.

Honestly, who needs Nantucket. It could hardly be more fun than this book.

Kirkus Reviews

"Hilderbrand is the absolute queen of the beach reads, and her latest offering is dishy and fun, as a classic Nantucket hotel attempts to reinvent itself with a new billionaire owner. It might look glamorous on the outside, but behind closed doors, there is plenty of dysfunction among the staff, drama on the guest side, and a bad reputation the place can’t shake from a tragic fire in 1922."—Mackenzie Dawson, New York Post

"Hilderbrand, who has perfected the romantic beach read, returns with a summer scandal at a Nantucket hotel, where fresh off a bad breakup, general manager Lizbet Keaton struggles to revive the storied but struggling business–and to write her own second act.”—Barbara VanDenburgh, USA Today

“One of Elin’s best books ever…Packed with great surprises, fabulous writing, and an army of wonderful characters, The Hotel Nantucket will keep you pinned to your beach chair until the very last page.”—Brad Thor, TODAY

"The Hotel Nantucket has lots to love: great food, juicy gossip, secrets and scandals, and that special something that Hilderbrand delivers novel after novel."—Sarah Gelman, Business Insider

"It doesn’t feel like summer unless I read an Elin Hilderbrand book, which I’ve done every year for almost a decade....They’re full of secrets and romantic drama and beaches. I’ve read my fair share of novels involving magic and dragons, but fancy New England island living often feels more fantastical to me than anything from George R.R. Martin.” —Gilbert Cruz, The New York Times

"Bring on the fresh-baked gougères and the hydrangea-blue cashmere throws: A classic fictional setting—the grand hotel—gets the Hilderbrand treatment. The beloved beach novelist’s 28th book is another tour de force...Honestly, who needs Nantucket. It could hardly be more fun than this book."

—Kirkus Reviews

"It's not officially summer until Elin Hilderbrand drops her annual page-turner. In this one, novelist Vivi dies in a hit-and-run and ascends to the Beyond, where she learns she has three "nudges" to influence events on earth. In this touching, scenic story, we learn what it is to let go and let life go on."—Good Housekeeping (on GOLDEN GIRL)

"I like Elin Hilderbrand. You should, too. Her latest is “The Hotel Nantucket” (Little Brown, $29), and like Stephen King, she brings knowing confidence to an abused genre."—Christopher Borrelli, The Chicago Tribune

"It's almost summer, which means Hilderbrand's legions of fans will be anxious for her latest. . . . This is classic Hilderbrand. . . . hopefully, she has many more Nantucket tales in store."—Booklist (on GOLDEN GIRL)

PRAISE FOR 28 SUMMERS:

"Summer on Hilderbrand's Nantucket is never dull. This time she focuses on former lovers who now lead separate lives but share an island idyll once a year. Captivating and bittersweet."—People

"This sweeping love story is Hilderbrand's best ever. . . Her stories are relatable in an aspirational way, but her attention to detail is what makes her characters feel like living, breathing people you want to know. They would never skimp on citronella candles; they would save the least creaky rocking chair for you."—Elisabeth Egan, New York Times Book Review

"Hilderbrand steers this tightly written novel with ease and skill. . . . Less a story about a secretive affair and more a tale of sweet nostalgia and fate, this title will be popular with a wide audience."—Library Journal

"In her 25th novel, Hilderbrand gets everything right and leaves her ardent fans hungry for No. 26. Hilderbrand sets the gold standard in escapist fiction."—Kirkus Reviews

"Stylish, witty and guaranteed to make you feel like a local.”—People Magazine

From the Publisher