https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/52588078-28-summers
Hilderbrand, Elin. 28 Summers (p. 20). Little, Brown and Company. Kindle Edition.
“Nothing was off-limits, nothing was deemed “too adult,” and nothing took precedence over reading; it was considered the holiest activity a person could engage in.”
It’s an easy read and thoroughly engaging. We can always depend on Elin Hilderbrand to provide entertainment. Mallory, the main character, is well-developed and relatable. She loves Jack, a married man who visits her once per year for 28 summers. Mallory knows that Jack isn’t going to leave his high-profile lawyer/senator/presidential candidate wife, but it doesn’t matter to her. She has romantic relationships that could have been more permanent, but she doesn’t seem interested. Mallory gets pregnant after a one-night stand with her brother’s best friend, a person she has known forever, chooses to keep the baby and raises him as a single mother.
Mallory is also a well-loved high school English teacher and reader. She shares her love of reading with Jack and her students. Mallory experiences life with many peaks and valleys. She inherits a house from an aunt who is estranged from her family and sometimes doesn’t have enough money to maintain it. Her best friend betrays her more than once, yet she develops other lasting relationships. She is kind and thoughtful and almost too nice, as her best friend realizes. She is not overly realistic, but that is what makes good fiction.
