Beautiful Day
By Elin Hilderbrand
Review by
K.T Sullivan
Jenna
Carmichael is using her late mother’s notebook as a guide for her wedding. Beth
Carmichael jotted down her thoughts from flowers to music to the wedding night.
Jenna is trying to follow the blueprint exactly. Unfortunately mom didn’t
mention how to handle unruly bridesmaids, a flower girl thief, the groom’s
father’s psycho ex-wife, and her husband’s current clingy wife. Scenic
Nantucket is the venue for the comingling of the tribes. The bride’s family
brings the sorrow of their loss. Beth was the glue keeping her family together.
Her husband and daughters miss her and try to regain her presence through the
notebook. Margot, the matron of honor, divorced older sister, and mother of
three, brings a secret which will hurt her dad and reputation. The groom’s
family is from the South. His mother is focused on appearances and keeping her
sons in line. All must be on their best behavior. Can all of them make it
through the extended weekend without embarrassing themselves and others? The
past is the uninvited guest to the wedding and haunts all who attend. Wedding
planning is like sausage making. The end result is delicious, but the process
can be gruesome.
The
author brings together an eclectic group of guests. She makes it easy to relate
to one, if not more, of the characters. So much emotion and tradition get tied
together in one day. She brings the tension, the misunderstandings, and the
rivalries up to a boil. There is always back story to any wedding. She
highlights the fun and the love. A very enjoyable read.
Elin Hilderbrand lives on Nantucket with her husband and
their three young children. She grew up in Collegeville, Pennsylvania, and
traveled extensively before settling on Nantucket, which has been the setting
for her five previous novels. Hilderbrand is a graduate of Johns Hopkins
University and the graduate fiction workshop at the University of Iowa.
Connect with Elin at:
