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A review by caleighh
The Hotel Nantucket by Elin Hilderbrand
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
<b>— 3.25 stars ✰</b>
i’m having a really hard time rating this. i really enjoyed some parts, but others i really hated. a part of me thinks 2.5, or maybe 3, a 3.5? a 3.25 is the best rating i can come up with.
<b>summary:</b> the hotel nantucket has a long past. it’s had ups and downs, and even has a ghost that inhabits it now. so when a billionaire comes along to restore the hotel back to life, the island is beyond excited. lizbet keaton is hired as general manager and, fresh off a breakup, she sees this as the new start she needs. after hiring a variety of people to fill positions at the hotel, operations get under way, but there’s so many secrets and a whole lot of drama still to come.
the first half of the book was atrocious. i mean that in the full sense of the word. it was slow, the characters were boring, and i really didn’t care about anything that was happening.
➳ the author also tried <i>so</i> hard to work gen z terms into the story. we get a whole spiel about an older woman knowing who pop smoke and polo g are, and understanding terms like bet and sneaky link. an ongoing joke throughout the story is how the young guy with the rich parents is named chadwick, because he’s a total chad. oh you didn’t laugh? me neither.
➳ there were SO. MANY. CHARACTERS. it’s written in third person, but we still get the perspectives of different characters and it just became too much. trying to keep track of who had what going on got overwhelming, especially for the side characters that were mentioned here and there but weren’t all that important. on top of that, most of them felt shallow and maybe even underdeveloped, which made it hard to connect with or care about them.
➳ one of the characters, grace, was a ghost. you read that right. she’s been haunting the hotel since she died in a fire back in 1922. so you might think she’d offer valuable insight into the history, since we’re reading her perspective, but no. all she did was float around the halls and eavesdrop. sometimes she moved a curtain to spook guests. but overall it felt very awkward reading from her pov. i felt like i shouldn’t have been there, you know? i like the idea of a friendly ghost haunting the hotel - it did bring publicity - but i didn’t need to read from her pov.
➳ the story just felt very choppy - one paragraph would be about lizbet and her love life but the next section we’re suddenly following the ghost around. there was an attempt at cliffhangers because of this setup, but i found myself more annoyed than curious. i wish there would’ve been shorter chapters from each character’s perspective rather than long ones that jumped around like this.
now it probably sounds like i hate the book (i did at first), but the second half was <i>far</i> better.
➳ i grew to like some of the characters, and i was thoroughly interested in their stories. alessandra, mostly. but also kimber, chad, edie, and occasionally lizbet (i could not have cared less about her disastrous love life). i wouldn’t say i was <i>invested</i>, but i definitely found myself more excited to read about them.
➳ the plot itself got really intriguing. my favorite part about the book was reading about the hotel and how the daily work went. the descriptions of the rooms, the cleaning and cooking, handling the guests - it was entertaining. i found myself really hoping the hotel got five keys by the end. (this is probably because i’ve had a minor obsession with working at a hotel since i was five years old)
➳ i’ll admit, the “twist” got me a little bit. i had my suspicions but i liked how it all came together. it was fun and a little unpredictable.
a lot of people say elin hilderbrand’s novels are perfect summer reads. but this was my first book of hers and we aren’t off to a great start. i didn’t <i>hate</i> this. but it also didn’t live up to my expectations, which i guess were pretty high because i thought the premise sounded amazing.
i’m having a really hard time rating this. i really enjoyed some parts, but others i really hated. a part of me thinks 2.5, or maybe 3, a 3.5? a 3.25 is the best rating i can come up with.
<b>summary:</b> the hotel nantucket has a long past. it’s had ups and downs, and even has a ghost that inhabits it now. so when a billionaire comes along to restore the hotel back to life, the island is beyond excited. lizbet keaton is hired as general manager and, fresh off a breakup, she sees this as the new start she needs. after hiring a variety of people to fill positions at the hotel, operations get under way, but there’s so many secrets and a whole lot of drama still to come.
the first half of the book was atrocious. i mean that in the full sense of the word. it was slow, the characters were boring, and i really didn’t care about anything that was happening.
➳ the author also tried <i>so</i> hard to work gen z terms into the story. we get a whole spiel about an older woman knowing who pop smoke and polo g are, and understanding terms like bet and sneaky link. an ongoing joke throughout the story is how the young guy with the rich parents is named chadwick, because he’s a total chad. oh you didn’t laugh? me neither.
➳ there were SO. MANY. CHARACTERS. it’s written in third person, but we still get the perspectives of different characters and it just became too much. trying to keep track of who had what going on got overwhelming, especially for the side characters that were mentioned here and there but weren’t all that important. on top of that, most of them felt shallow and maybe even underdeveloped, which made it hard to connect with or care about them.
➳ one of the characters, grace, was a ghost. you read that right. she’s been haunting the hotel since she died in a fire back in 1922. so you might think she’d offer valuable insight into the history, since we’re reading her perspective, but no. all she did was float around the halls and eavesdrop. sometimes she moved a curtain to spook guests. but overall it felt very awkward reading from her pov. i felt like i shouldn’t have been there, you know? i like the idea of a friendly ghost haunting the hotel - it did bring publicity - but i didn’t need to read from her pov.
➳ the story just felt very choppy - one paragraph would be about lizbet and her love life but the next section we’re suddenly following the ghost around. there was an attempt at cliffhangers because of this setup, but i found myself more annoyed than curious. i wish there would’ve been shorter chapters from each character’s perspective rather than long ones that jumped around like this.
now it probably sounds like i hate the book (i did at first), but the second half was <i>far</i> better.
➳ i grew to like some of the characters, and i was thoroughly interested in their stories. alessandra, mostly. but also kimber, chad, edie, and occasionally lizbet (i could not have cared less about her disastrous love life). i wouldn’t say i was <i>invested</i>, but i definitely found myself more excited to read about them.
➳ the plot itself got really intriguing. my favorite part about the book was reading about the hotel and how the daily work went. the descriptions of the rooms, the cleaning and cooking, handling the guests - it was entertaining. i found myself really hoping the hotel got five keys by the end. (this is probably because i’ve had a minor obsession with working at a hotel since i was five years old)
➳ i’ll admit, the “twist” got me a little bit. i had my suspicions but i liked how it all came together. it was fun and a little unpredictable.
a lot of people say elin hilderbrand’s novels are perfect summer reads. but this was my first book of hers and we aren’t off to a great start. i didn’t <i>hate</i> this. but it also didn’t live up to my expectations, which i guess were pretty high because i thought the premise sounded amazing.