#23 The Five-Star Weekend
“You can be more than one kind of person in your life.”
The Five-Star Weekend by Elin Hilderbrand, 2023. Genre: Women’s fiction.
Happy March! Although spring is on the horizon, it doesn’t always feel like nicer weather is just around the corner. So for this month’s feature book, we’re channeling summer escapist vibes with a pick by one of our favourite authors, Elin Hilderbrand.
The Five-Star Weekend continues our Year of Food-related Writing (did you catch last month’s feature book, the stellar Taste by Stanley Tucci?) with the story of food blogger Hollis and her mission - after experiencing a devastating loss - to host a weekend retreat for four friends from different eras of her life. Of course, the weekend doesn’t exactly go as planned…but the women do eat very, very delicious food amidst all the drama.
And in exciting news, it was recently announced that The Five-Star Weekend will be a TV miniseries starring Jennifer Garner!
Come for the standard Hilderbrand heart - she excels at funny, frank, and thoughtful depictions of women of all ages and the (mis)adventures they get into - and stay for the mouthwatering descriptions of meals (like a peach cobbler with a hot sugar crust topped with fresh whipped cream and squares of Japanese chocolate)…and Nantucket, of course!
We were dreaming of summer after reading The Five-Star Weekend and we think you will be too!
Grab your best friends, slip into something hot pink or orange (or both!), meet us at the Chicken Box, and get ready to have your own Five-Star Weekend of reading.
Katie’s Rating: 4/5
This is Elin Hilderbrand’s penultimate Nantucket book, and it definitely makes my top 10 list of Hilderbrand books. I really like how the novel examines the “behind the scenes” of an influencer’s picture-perfect life, and lifts the curtain on what we don’t see when someone’s life looks amazing online. Hollis’s struggles with her marriage and as a mom felt authentic and made the plot much deeper than a standard beach read. At the same time, Elin’s signature mix of humour and pathos really shines through with some of the characters, particularly Blonde Sharon and Brooke!
I love the depictions of friendship at different ages and stages of life. It’s fun to reflect on the friends we’ve had in various seasons and what they brought to our lives - and hopefully what we brought to theirs! - at times we needed it the most.
Last weekend, I went to a new friend’s birthday brunch. There was a friend of hers she’s known since she was five years old growing up on Long Island, a friend she met through work here in DC, another friend from her grad school years…and then me, the friend she met at prenatal pilates! We all loved getting to meet each other - it felt a bit like we were pieces of a puzzle that filled us in more on who our friend in common is, and I left the brunch feeling like I had a much richer and more nuanced idea of who my friend is and has been. I’ve had a lot of friends with kids tell me that the “mom friends” you make once you have a baby are so special. I like thinking about which friends I would invite to my own Five-Star Weekend - and where we would go!
Julie’s Rating: 4/5 stars
In times of uncertainty and austerity give me an Elin Hilderbrand book!
There is nothing like an escape to Nantucket, and The Five-Star Weekend delivers. Again, Hilderbrand offers her usual vivid descriptions of Nantucket life with the places we’ve come to know, the memorable characters, and of course, oodles of mouth-watering food and aspirational lifestyle and home decor descriptions. A big dose of coastal comfort chic.
This time Hilderbrand gives us a little more to chew on. I appreciated the examination of the complexities of female friendship, the nuances of the mother-adult daughter relationship, the power of social media in our lives, and how human loss and grief is a great equalizer. There's also a second chance with an ex, because who hasn’t imagined how that would play out?
This was a fun book to read. It certainly had me, too, considering who I would choose to represent the different stages of my life, what a weekend with those women would look like, and what I would be preparing and serving at my own Five-Star Weekend. Wicked Island Bakery Morning Buns for the win!
“There was the golden age, the years our children were nine, ten, eleven. Fourth and fifth grade.” Brooke pauses. “Of course you never realize it’s the golden age until it’s over.”
~ Elin Hilderbrand, The Five-Star Weekend
How about a Five-Star Weekend of your own?
We think planning a Five-Star Weekend of our own is the perfect pairing. We’ve provided some inspiration in the form of a mood board to get you started. You can create your own mood board, or start pinning some Five-Star Weekend ideas to a Pinterest board.
A Five-Star Weekend playlist
A multi-generational Spotify Playlist for getting ready to, and for a night of dancing at The Chicken Box.
Extra Credit
In the first epidode of her podcast, Books, Beach, and Beyond, Elin talks with cohost Tim Ehrenberg about The Five-Star Weekend.
Let us know what you think - about the book, your thoughts on a five-star weekend, the friends you’d invite, and your go-to “getting ready” song … we’d love to hear!
Whenever possible we feature books from our own personal collections, or books that we purchase at independent local bookstores, or borrow from our public library.
You had me at Wicked Island Bakery!