The Five-Star Weekend

Elin Hilderbrand

Jun 2023 · Sold by Little, Brown

About this ebook

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Hotel Nantucket: After tragedy strikes, food blogger Hollis Shaw gathers four friends from different stages in her life to spend an unforgettable weekend on Nantucket.

Hollis Shaw’s life seems picture-perfect. She’s the creator of the popular food blog Hungry with Hollis and is married to Matthew, a dreamy heart surgeon. But after she and Matthew get into a heated argument one snowy morning, he leaves for the airport and is killed in a car accident. The cracks in Hollis’s perfect life—her strained marriage and her complicated relationship with her daughter, Caroline—grow deeper.

So when Hollis hears about something called a “Five-Star Weekend”—one woman organizes a trip for her best friend from each phase of her life: her teenage years, her twenties, her thirties, and midlife—she decides to host her own Five-Star Weekend on Nantucket. But the weekend doesn’t turn out to be a joyful Hallmark movie.

The husband of Hollis’s childhood friend Tatum arranges for Hollis’s first love, Jack Finigan, to spend time with them, stirring up old feelings. Meanwhile, Tatum is forced to play nice with abrasive and elitist Dru-Ann, Hollis’s best friend from UNC Chapel Hill. Dru-Ann’s career as a prominent Chicago sports agent is on the line after her comments about a client’s mental health issues are misconstrued online. Brooke, Hollis’s friend from their thirties, has just discovered that her husband is having an inappropriate relationship with a woman at work. Again! And then there’s Gigi, a stranger to everyone (including Hollis) who reached out to Hollis through her blog. Gigi embodies an unusual grace and, as it happens, has many secrets.

The Five-Star Weekend is a surprising and captivating story about friendship, love, and self-discovery set on Nantucket. It will be a weekend like no other.

Ratings and reviews

I absolutely loved this book! hated putting it down. Elin is one of my favourite authors, and I look forward to a new book from her with great anticipation. This book as usual, did not disappoint. This book makes you realize what a mask we each wear, hiding from everyone, including those closest to us, our worst flaws and deepest fears. It also shows how through social media we continue to only show the world the best part of ourselves, always hiding the pain or problems we are dealing with every day. We present only perfection and happiness to the world. Each character in this book finds a way to face their secret fears and embrace them. To move forward. You learn to love each of them and root for them to find their way to their own path of happiness. My feelings about how Hollis handled Gigi's news, mixed! A part of me wanted it out there so everyone knew. But the other part of me admired Hollis's restraint and her ability to still be relatively gracious. Thank you Elin!!!!

felt the sample was so so. Too much info about all of the characters too fast, I did not feel compulsion to continue. It feels cookie cover and I did not feel curious enough to read on,

Really great read. I loved every page.

About the author

Elin Hilderbrand lives on Nantucket year-round where she enjoys going to the beach, cooking for her young adult children and occasionally dancing front-row at the Chicken Box.  She is a grateful nine-year breast cancer survivor.  The Five-Star Weekend is her twenty-ninth novel.