28 Summers by Elin Hilderbrand

By the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Summer of '69: Their secret love affair has lasted for decades -- but this could be the summer that changes everything.

When Mallory Blessing's son, Link, receives deathbed instructions from his mother to call a number on a slip of paper in her desk drawer, he's not sure what to expect. But he certainly does not expect Jake McCloud to answer. It's the late spring of 2020 and Jake's wife, Ursula DeGournsey, is the frontrunner in the upcoming Presidential election.

There must be a mistake, Link thinks. How do Mallory and Jake know each other?

Flash back to the sweet summer of 1993: Mallory has just inherited a beachfront cottage on Nantucket from her aunt, and she agrees to host her brother's bachelor party. Cooper's friend from college, Jake McCloud, attends, and Jake and Mallory form a bond that will persevere -- through marriage, children, and Ursula's stratospheric political rise -- until Mallory learns she's dying.

Based on the classic film Same Time Next Year (which Mallory and Jake watch every summer), 28 Summers explores the agony and romance of a one-weekend-per-year affair and the dramatic ways this relationship complicates and enriches their lives, and the lives of the people they love.

My Verdict

Is this book predictable? Yes. It falls in the romance genre and as such it follows romance tropes. It is a quick, sweet read with a PG-13 rating. It takes place over the span of 28 years and each chapter opens with a small recap of the most popular and newsworthy items and people of that particular year. This was one of my favorite things about the book and a detail that made the book unique. It was an instant flashback to my own life and where my own life was during that time in history and it gave me perspective as to how much happened and changed over the course of their relationship.

As much as I liked the book, though, I must say one thing. Infidelity is wrong and I really wish that Jake was’t married although I do understand the dimension it brought to the overall story. If that is a deal breaker for you, though, you might want to choose another book.

I enjoyed my final read of 2023 and I give this book 4 stars.