STAFF PICKS – The Rumor by Elin Hilderbrand

To me nothing shouts out “beach read” like an Elin Hilderbrand novel. Her latest The Rumor is no exception. In this her 15th novel, Hilderbrand returns to her favourite setting, the island of Nantucket off the coast of Massachusetts, where she also happens to live.

Her books are populated by beautiful people who are wealthy, sexy, and fashionable. Of course, these people often lead messy lives that make for great summer reading.

The Rumor’s two main characters are women who are best friends: Madeline, a successful author desperately in need of a new book idea and Grace, a homemaker with gorgeous teenage twin girls, a successful real estate developer husband named Eddie and a handsome landscape architect, Benton Coe, in her garden shed.

As the story develops we learn that Madeline and her loving pilot husband Trevor are having money troubles. She invested her $50,000 book advance with Eddie and now regrets her decision. Her best friend Grace confides her affair to Madeline as she is the only person she can trust with this secret. As Madeline continues to struggle with writer’s block she decides to write what she knows: a hot, steamy romance between a famous landscape architect and a beautiful woman who lives in a grand house with extensive grounds. Sound like anyone you know? Rumors start to spread like wildfire on the island of Nantucket, some with more truth in them that the locals might like.

If you enjoy this type of story you might also want to make room in your beach bag for some of these:

Louise