Summer People

by Elin Hilderbrand    

I really like reading novels by Elin Hilderbrand (see previous posts for The Island and The Blue Bistro).
How does she pronounce her name, by the way? Is it like Ellen or is it with a long 'e' like Eelin?


Anyway, I found this book at the used book store and thought it would make a really good summer beach read (even if the closest 'beach' to me is Lake Ontario!) While I started reading it on the beach, I finished it in my bed, but the bulk of it was read on my deck with a cold drink in hand. This book (and others written by Hilderbrand) is set in Nantucket and all I REALLY want to do right now is go to Nantucket!! (My good friend is vacationing there right now and I am insanely jealous!) One day when I hit it big with my own novel I will buy a house in Nantucket and live out my summers there....oh, a girl can dream!

To the book....I had a difficult time getting into this one - maybe because there were teenagers involved? - but once I did I really struggled to put it down. Hilderband hit on some real issues facing this family - the death of a spouse, father and friend; teenagers and sexual responsibility; acceptance; forgiveness; family secrets; the past; and the question of how to move on after tragedy. The characters were so perfectly woven together, even their quirks seemed to bind them together by the end of the novel. It affirmed the beliefs that life does not stop for tragedy, and sometimes pain is necessary for growth. This was not a happy, feel-good story, but it does have a happy ending with good closure (as long as you read the Epilogue).

Happy reading!

The Morganville Vampires

Volume 1 (includes books 1 and 2: Glass Houses and Dead Girls' Dance)

A friend recommended this series to me after learning of my fondness (and borderline obsession) with the Twilight series. I didn't know if I would like this book, but I gave it a shot anyway. After the first chapter I was hooked. Maybe it was because I felt I shared a small bond with the main character, Claire, a nerdy girl more interested in academics and learning than other teenage interests. She's so smart, in fact, that she graduates a year early and finds herself off to college at the young impressionable age of 16. Because she is so young, her parents insist that she go to a college closer to home rather than Yale or Caltech (California Institute of Technology). Lucky Claire gets to attend TPU in Texas instead because her parents think she'll be safer there. If only they knew how Claire would be treated there. Black eyes, bruises, and death threats greet Claire at TPU, courtesy of the meanest mean girl around: Monica Morrell. After stumbling upon a classified ad for a roommate, Claire lands herself in the Glass house with new friends Michael, Eve, and Shane. And that is when the fun (and danger!) begins!

I found it extremely difficult to put this book down and am really excited to get my hands on the next volume. Why do I feel like I'm going through withdrawal?

Are vampires REAL? Some people think so.