{"id":96074,"date":"2025-08-25T14:41:12","date_gmt":"2025-08-25T14:41:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/96074\/"},"modified":"2025-08-25T14:41:12","modified_gmt":"2025-08-25T14:41:12","slug":"28-summers-is-elin-hilderbrands-best-book","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/96074\/","title":{"rendered":"’28 Summers’ is Elin Hilderbrand’s best book"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tBooks\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tAfter 6,000 votes in our \u201cBattle of the Beach Reads\u201d bracket, fans chose “28 Summers,” just as Hilderbrand predicted, calling it \u201cthe ultimate summer romance.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tBy Annie Jonas<\/a>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAugust 25, 2025 | 10:08 AM\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

2 minutes to read<\/p>\n

After 10 days and more than 6,000 votes, readers have officially declared a winner in Boston.com\u2019s first-ever \u201cBattle of the Beach Reads<\/a>\u201d bracket, featuring Elin Hilderbrand\u2019s 16 most popular books. <\/p>\n

Hilderbrand\u2019s best beach read is \u201c28 Summers<\/a>,\u201d at least according to Boston.com readers.<\/p>\n

The Nantucket-set romance, which ranks third on Goodreads\u2019 list<\/a>, beat out 15 other fan favorites to claim the crown. In total, 6,159 votes were cast between August 13 and August 22.<\/p>\n

Hilderbrand, often called the \u201cqueen of the beach read<\/a>,\u201d said she wasn\u2019t surprised by the outcome.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was the book I predicted would be the winner,\u201d she told Boston.com. \u201cIt is my most romantic novel. It\u2019s a little like an adventure back in time, because you go back 28 years and visit all the years. I\u2019m just very, very, very proud of that book. It does not surprise me at all.\u201d<\/p>\n

Inspired by the classic play \u201cSame Time, Next Year<\/a>\u201d by Bernard Slade, \u201c28 Summers\u201d tells the story of Mallory Blessing and Jake McCloud, who share a secret love affair over Labor Day weekend every summer for nearly three decades. Hilderbrand said she drew on her own viewing of the play\u2019s film adaptation as both a teenager and an adult for her inspiration.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought I could improve on this in a novel,\u201d she said. \u201cIt is honestly the ultimate romance.\u201d<\/p>\n

Part of the book\u2019s appeal, Hilderbrand added, is the way Mallory\u2019s story resonates with readers.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe more people understand that Mallory is a very complete and happy person by herself,\u201d she said. \u201cShe has a career, she has her family, she\u2019s got her son, she has a house, she has a life, she has friends \u2014 she has a complete circle by herself. And then one weekend a year, she gets to experience this very intense romance. In some ways it\u2019s like such a perfect relationship for her. So I think that must resonate with a lot of people.\u201d<\/p>\n

The author also enjoyed watching the bracket \u2014 the first one done of her bibliography \u2014 unfold. \u201cIt was so much fun,\u201d she said with a laugh.<\/p>\n

While \u201c28 Summers\u201d may have secured the title of Boston.com readers\u2019 favorite, Hilderbrand fans won\u2019t have to wait long for her next release. \u201cThe Academy<\/a>,\u201d a novel she co-wrote with her daughter about an elite New England boarding school, arrives September 16.<\/p>\n

\t\t\"Profile\t<\/p>\n

Annie Jonas is a Community writer at Boston.com. She was previously a local editor at Patch and a freelancer at the Financial Times.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSign up for Book Club<\/p>\n

Stay up to date on local books news, events, and recommendations from Boston.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Books After 6,000 votes in our \u201cBattle of the Beach Reads\u201d bracket, fans chose “28 Summers,” just as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":96075,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[353,49,48,75],"class_list":["post-96074","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-books","tag-books","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96074","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=96074"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96074\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/96075"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96074"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96074"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96074"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}