The Rumor by Elin Hilderbrand
I was in the mood for some good summer fluff and The Rumor filled the bill nicely.
Is it the best book EH has written? No, but she was undergoing cancer treatment so I laud her
dedication to actually creating and completing a book under the circumstances.
What I did like about the book was that it showed the negative power of gossip, especially in a small environment like Nantucket. Everyone in town seems to be passing along half-truths and misinformation without considering the possible consequences.
Madeline and Grace are best friends. Someone starts a rumor that Madeline and Eddie, Grace's husband, are having an affair (not true). Someone else speculates that Grace is pregnant by her landscaper, the hunky Benton (also not true). And on and on it goes while the main characters are dealing with actual problems (money problems, kid problems, legal problems)--some of which actually manage to escape the rumor mill for an unbelievably long time. At one point I wondered why Madeline or Grace, after being the subject of so many rumors, didn't just start a few rumors of their own about the people spreading the rumors, just to give them a taste of their own medicine. But that apparently never occurred to them.
What I didn't like about the book was that some of the characters seemed kind of shallowly drawn.
Madeline's husband, Trevor, for example was a pilot and a romantic but that's about all we ever find out about him. Eddie's sister and work partner, Barbie, is described as a "mystery woman" and so she remains to the reader. Even Benton, the hunky landscaper who is setting the hearts of all the females in Nantucket aflutter, kind of seems like someone who wandered in from a romance novel.
That being said, I read the book over one weekend and did enjoy it.
But I'd say, if you're new to EH, give some of her earlier books a look.
Is it the best book EH has written? No, but she was undergoing cancer treatment so I laud her
dedication to actually creating and completing a book under the circumstances.
What I did like about the book was that it showed the negative power of gossip, especially in a small environment like Nantucket. Everyone in town seems to be passing along half-truths and misinformation without considering the possible consequences.
Madeline and Grace are best friends. Someone starts a rumor that Madeline and Eddie, Grace's husband, are having an affair (not true). Someone else speculates that Grace is pregnant by her landscaper, the hunky Benton (also not true). And on and on it goes while the main characters are dealing with actual problems (money problems, kid problems, legal problems)--some of which actually manage to escape the rumor mill for an unbelievably long time. At one point I wondered why Madeline or Grace, after being the subject of so many rumors, didn't just start a few rumors of their own about the people spreading the rumors, just to give them a taste of their own medicine. But that apparently never occurred to them.
What I didn't like about the book was that some of the characters seemed kind of shallowly drawn.
Madeline's husband, Trevor, for example was a pilot and a romantic but that's about all we ever find out about him. Eddie's sister and work partner, Barbie, is described as a "mystery woman" and so she remains to the reader. Even Benton, the hunky landscaper who is setting the hearts of all the females in Nantucket aflutter, kind of seems like someone who wandered in from a romance novel.
That being said, I read the book over one weekend and did enjoy it.
But I'd say, if you're new to EH, give some of her earlier books a look.
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