The Island: A Novel

A little predictable and slow to start, but a nice beach read. All four women are having life crises and a month at the familey beach house is the perfect time to sort them out.

I enjoyed this story very much. A family story with curves and twists that occur in quite a few families. Would suggest other women read this .

The four women’s time on Tuckernuck is supposed to bring them respite from their troubles. Chess is by far the most troubled, a fact her mother has recognized, and about which she is deeply and understandably alarmed. Prior to leaving for the island, Chess has seen a therapist every day who has recommended that she write her thoughts and feelings in a journal. As she does so, readers gradually learn out the real story behind her breakdown.

Chess is easily the most compelling of the four characters, as well, simply because her mental condition seems genuinely fragile. Sure, the others have problems, but they pale in comparison to the fact that Chess is experiencing the first real crisis of her life . . . and it’s a doozie. Although she is portrayed as a bit of a whiner at the outset, Chess is reminiscent of Robert Redford’s “Hubbell” in The Way We Were: Everything has always come too easy to her. She is bright, beautiful, outgoing, competitive. She has attained every goal she ever set for herself and gotten everything she ever wanted. Until, that is, she met Michael and his brother, Nick, and realized for the first time that love can be complicated, hurtful, and impossible to disregard. As her secret is slowly revealed, it becomes clear that Chess is weighed down by guilt and that weight is fueling her retreat from life. But should she feel guilty? Did she do anything wrong? Was she — along with Nick — responsible for Michael’s unhappiness? Or his fate? And where does she go from here? After all, life on Tucknernuck is nothing more than a temporary retreat, not a permanent solution.

India is tough, having survived a tumultuous, if loving, marriage to artist Bill, as well as his suicide and its aftermath. She is looking forward to being a grandmother soon, but her recent experience with Lula has proven deeply unsettling for a variety of reasons. She is attempting to maintain a professional and appropriate distance from Lula, who is plainly interested in much more than a business relationship with India. She is concerned not just about the actual implications of launching a relationship while Lula is a student, but, rightfully, the potential perception of impropriety. More importantly, Lula has stirred feelings in India that she has never experienced before and, although she wants to pursue them — if she can clear the professional hurdles — she is fearful of what her family and friends will think.

Tate has been in love with Barrett since she was a teenager. But back then, he only had eyes for Chess. He was smitten with her older sister as, it seemed, all the boys were, even though Chess had no interest in him. Their father even arranged a date for Chess and Barrett which turned out quite badly. In the thirteen years since Tate has seen Barrett, they have both matured. Tate is a successful businesswoman, while Barrett has taken over his father’s maintenance business. He is a widower with two young sons to raise. Will Barrett finally notice and appreciate Tate? Or will his old feelings for Chess be rekindled when he sees her again, especially now when she is so vulnerable and in need of support?

Lastly, there is Birdie, who divorced Grant because he was more married to his career than to her. She knows that her feelings for Hank are not right — he is, after all, still married, even if his wife is incapacitated with no hope of recovery. Hank has wined and dined her, showering her with the kind of attention she longed for from Grant. But with Grant she has the comfort and familiarity that comes with having been together for over three decades, during which they raised two beautiful daughters. Their time has passed . . . hasn’t it? Grant will never change. He’ll always be obsessed with his career . . . won’t he?

Author Elin Hildenbrand has created four female characters and placed them in an entrancing setting. Her descriptions of Tuckernuck are rich with detail and imbued with loving vignettes about the island, its traditions and inhabitants. It is a place any reader would want to visit, sheltered from society and accessible only by boat, even though the house is somewhat crude, lacking hot water and only generating enough electricity for a few small appliances. No cell phone reception? No problem. A brisk walk to the end of the island where there is reception is good exercise on a warm summer day, and a wonderful opportunity to further explore the island.

After a month at their island hideaway, it is no wonder that by the time the book concludes, all four women are feeling better about themselves and their lives, rested and rejuvenated after lying on the beach, eating light meals, taking walks, and sleeping as much as they want while contemplating their problems, and pondering solutions. With the possible exception of Chess, none of the four women are facing very serious issues, and all are fortunate in that they have complete financial stability. Still, each character is well-developed, her history fleshed out in sufficient detail to place her current concerns in context. And each is at a crossroads — none of their lives will be the same after they leave the island and return to their “real” lives and responsibilities. By the end of their vacation on Tuckernuck, has each woman learned something about herself? Yes, and that makes the read worthwhile.

The Island is enjoyable, the action moving along swiftly with a few surprises and plot twists thrown in to keep things interesting. It is the perfect book to pack in your tote bag and read on the beach or by the pool. The theme, tone, characters, and pace all combine to make it a delightful “beach read.”

The Island a long story about four women who are trying to work through problems in their lives. The island is a secluded privately owned island off of Nantucket. They all four in the end came to terms and determined to move on in their lives. It took a long time to get to the happy ending. Three stars were awarded to this book because it was just a nice unpredictable unremarkable story.

This was one of the last books my mom got me before she passed and I wanted to like it more. I didn't hate it - it was a compelling story and had a good plot - I just didn't love any of the characters. The Island centers on four women staying a month on a remote island while they all grapple with issues in their lives. Chess has just called off her marriage, quit her job, and is about to receive the biggest blow of her life. Her sister, Tate, has been coasting through life making big bucks as a computer programmer but doesn't have any friendships or relationships to speak of. Their mother, Birdie, has finally met a man after she separated from her husband but she's putting that on hold to spend some time with her daughters. Birdie's sister, India, is escaping a scandal at the art school she's working at. While on the island the only contact with the outside world is Barrett the hot young caretaker who comes once a day to bring groceries and keep the isolated house in working order. While they lick their wounds, they need to us the month to communicate with each other and maybe solve some of their issues. It weaved together well, I just wished I liked or related to the characters more.

I thought the author did an excellent job of keeping the characters separate. It made the book easier to read while the story moved around. I liked the fact that each character was true to their feelings in the end of the story.

I took this book with me to read by the pool in Florida, it seemed like it would be an easy read. I was very wrong. I read a little bit of this book each day but it took awhile to finish. The island of Tuckernuck sounds heavenly. I was really hoping for more of a happy beach read with these four women instead of lots of drama.

This book was full of angst. Birdie and her sister India, grew up spending summers on Tuckernuck. Birdie is now the owner of the house on Tuckernuck, but no one has been there for twelve years. When her daughter Chess is supposed to get married, they plan a two week mother/daughter getaway on the island. When things do not work out, and Chess' life is falling apart it becomes a four woman getaway with India and Birdie's younger daughter Tate joining them for a month instead, to help Chess deal with her depression and issues. This group of woman have so many issues in their life that I am surprised they did not kill each other before the month was over. However, real life is messy, so it was aptly written. There is a lot of anger but there is a lot of love as well. Of course issues do get solved and life works out but I do not want to spoil the story. Just do not think that this is a light beach read.

The story was good - the characters were a little 'whiney' to me at times though.

Even though I have never been close to rich, I did identify with the women staying in this cabin on the island, Tuckernuck. I am a fan of Elin Hilderbrand who wrote this book, The Island. It is a small island close to Nantucket but it is owned privately by families. They all rough if there, no hot water and shops, bathrooms are came in later. I can remember going to both of my grandmothers before either one had indoor plumbing and going to town was a major event.

All of the group of women were taking a break from life to get refreshed or get their bearings back. Birdie was involved with a married man whose wife had a later stage of Alzheimers. She and her husband had parted but she still miss him. Her oldest daughter, Chess was in deep emotional tormoi. Her fiancee had died in a mountain climbing accident. She had recently broken the engagement and quit her job in a food magazine. The younger daughter was more athletic and was a software geek. She wanted to have a long term relationship and was always jealous of her older sister. The last one of the group is India whose husband had committed suicide while depressed in another country. They all were escaping their life on the mainland and were closed lipped about telling what was wrong.

Told by alternating narrators, it was great to see all of them struggle with their problems and make decisions be open to their true selves and binding together at the end.

A good beach read about relationships: Sisters, mothers and daughters, fiances, ex-fiances, boyfriends. Two sisters, their mother and their aunt spend 30 days on a east coast island.

A summer on a remote island filled with revelations and secrets - mothers, daughters, sisters (oh and a man or 2). Ms. Hilderbrand weaves a lovely story. Her characters are enjoyable and at points I loved and loathed each one.

Book on CD read by Denise Hicks

This is just a sappy soap opera set on Tuckernuck Island off Nantucket. Everyone is wealthy. Everyone is unhappy in love, OR, has fallen instantly in love (possibly with the wrong person). Everyone behaves like a 3-year-old or at their best like they’re in junior high.

Here’s a sample:
They had officially been “together” for only nine days, but every day on Tuckernuck was a lifetime, and so it felt like forever. They had made love sixteen times, they had shared eleven meals, they had watched three movies, gone to two restaurants, taken five boat rides, caught two fish.
I don’t know a single high-powered, computer genius professional woman who thinks like this!

The sibling rivalry arguments are even worse. Not only do the two young women carry on like toddlers who can’t share a toy, their 50-something mother and aunt also dig up their own sibling rivalries.

I finished it only because it fulfilled a challenge. It was fast (thank heavens for MP3 players that let you speed up the delivery) and didn’t require much thought. But it was still a waste of time.

This is like a Lifetime movie from 1986. Oh the whining, the spoiled people! Imagine a middle aged woman writing what she thinks is a scandalous romance novel, but she herself only has sex with the lights off and under the covers. I think the voice of the narrator makes it that much worse. It was read so slowly that I sped it up to 1.5x and it still sounded almost normal. It was the only way to get through it!

Not a bad book but nothing too exciting ever happens. I like a little more action but I'm slowly learning not to expect it from Elin Hilderbrand and that's not necessarily a bad thing. In my opinion, she's in the same writing group as Nicholas Sparks.

However, this book is about a family of women [mom and her 2 daughters and their aunt (mom's sister)] who go to stay on Tuckernuck, an island just outside of Nantucket, in house that's very old. They are forced to bond because there's not much else to do but like anytime you get more than one woman in a house - there's drama. In the end, we learn everything happens for a reason.

I would recommend for mindless, easy reading - it was a good story and I like the way it unfolded.

"Awesome story about heartaches, family, and secrets. " Great author~!

There was so much relationship drama and issues going on in the women's lives . I really liked the ending and looking forward to reading more of Elin's books.

2 1/2 ☆

Ugh. This book was up abd down for me. some parts I was so interested in. Others I was Bored.

It took everything in me to finish the book. Once I understood the names were nicknames I got over that. but each point of view was the same. it never felt like that character telling their point of view.

the characters I liked Birdie. I felt India was a little useless but it could I always skimmed her pov it never caught me. Chess just kinda pissed me off. Tate was so immature it was hard to deal with. The only character I liked was Grant lol.

This book seemed like a fun nice light read, but instead it felt long and drawled out to me.

romantic drama. family issues. perfect beach read! love the nantucket setting!

Not bad. Kind of a quick beach read-type. I enjoyed the characters and the story, but as usual with modern fiction, more swearing than I would have liked. I did think the author was a little too intent on giving everyone a happy-Jane-Austen ending, and with four main characters, it was overkill. But whatever.

Absolutely LOVE this book! I have read it probably three times now since I got it about 2 years ago!

Elan Hilderbrand takes us to the East Coast again and does a great job of entertaining us with the Cousins women. Birdie, India, Chess and Tate have come to their vacation home for a month to get space from their regular routines and to mend a broken heart. Chess's newly ex boyfriend has just died. Tate finds herself unexpectedly without a job. Their mother, Birdie thinks the rustic, bare-bones living at their summer place is just what's in order and her sister India comes along, despite her brand new captivating love with a new man----who happens to be married.
I summered on Cape Cod, in a pretty bare-bones cottage like the Cousin's for many years and I tell you; the water, the food, the laid back style of beach owners' lives is a character of it's own in Hilderbrand's books.
Relationships are challenged, also enriched as this Girls' Vacation plays out. Every emotion rises, joy, sadness, jealousy, loyalty, feeling strong and feeling vulnerable.
You'll like these women, like the get-away the story provides and may do a bit of remembering old relationships and introspection of your own. Good read.

The relationships in this novel are both heartfelt and multi-faceted. At the heart of the story are the relationships between mothers, daughters and sisters. This is also a story about soul searching and reconnecting.

At fifty-seven years old and after thirty years of marriage, Birdie Cousins finds herself divorced and wanting to move on with her life. Her ex husband Grant is a lawyer who was always more involved with is work than with his family.
Birdie's two daughters, Chess and Tate, are all grown up with successful careers. Chess has just broken off her engagement and is going through a tough time in her life, dealing with depression. Being the younger sibling, Tate has always felt misunderstood and like she lived in Chess's shadow.
Birdie's sister India is a widow who runs an art gallery and has several suitors. She's hooked Birdie up with a man named Hank.

All four women decide to reunite at the family's cabin on Tuckernuck Island for the entire month of July. The cabin has been in Birdie's family for generations and she can't wait to get her daughters back for some family time on the remote little island and do some much needed healing.
The rustic cabin is located off on its own private island and is accessible by boat, has no hot water, very limited cell phone reception and is certainly a getaway from the 'real world'.

The caretaker, a man named Barrett Lee, is in charge of bringing the ladies necessitites daily like groceries, and extras such as the daily newspaper and wine. Barrett has been part of Tuckernuck for a while, his father was the caretaker before him. Barrett had a crush on Chess when they were teens. Tate, had a crush on Barrett back then as well. Love triangle?
When Tate finally sees him again after more than a decade has passed, her old feelings arise.

I enjoyed Elin Hilderbrand's storytelling, she really drew me in. As the story flowed, I enjoyed getting to 'know' these characters even better. They each had a story to share, and each story was slowly revealed. The book is told in alternating point of views from the four women.

I found poignant moments within the book and as I read, I found myself more and more invested in these characters.
Chess for example, is suffering from severe depression and decides to quit her job and cut off all her hair before going to Tuckernuck Island for the month. Once at the island she begins to unravel even more as her family tries to help her heal emotionally.

"Before she left for Tuckernuck, she cut off all her hair. And when she said all her hair, she meant all her hair: twenty-six inches of honey blond was wound around the stylist's forearms like a skein of yarn. Chess had made him shave her scalp, and the last bits of downy fluff floated to the polished floor like out-of-season snowflakes."
p.43, The Island


All four women recall several events from the past and the one who intrigued me most was Chess. I was eager to learn her secrets and when the big one was revealed, I gasped.
Tate annoyed me a bit, mostly because she would act childish more often than not.

I enjoyed the romance within the story, some of it was subtle, some of it more intense and I was eager to see how everyone's story would turn out. I enjoy romance where lovers are separated, then brought back together again. One couple however, made me go "Huh?". But oh well I guess, to each his own.

I felt like I was there, on the island as I read. I could almost hear the water lapping at the shore and I could almost feel the sand at my feet.
The Island is the perfect summer read and I look forward to reading more from this author.

I recommend this one if you are in the mood to get involved with a story and its characters and live within its pages for a little while.

"God, the pain of having a sister, another girl, another woman, not you, but nearly you. A friend, a confidante, a rival, an enemy."
p.332, The Island

When it's summer and it's hot and I don't want to think about much, I enjoy a trashy beach read just as much as the next person. The Island, however, is such formulaic trash that it's hard to get past its awfulness to wallow in a good old-fashioned & improbable romance.

Between the irritating characters, the constant product placement (Tori Burch bags, Brooks Borthers, Veuve Clicout, blah, blah, blah,) and endless narcissistic navel gazing, I wanted the whole bunch of them to get into boat and be lost at sea.

Judging by the 3 1/2 stars composite review of this book, I know I'm in the minority in my opinion. But when one if faced with a problem of "so many book,s so little time" it's really a shame to waste a minute on a book like this one.

I enjoyed this book. An audiobook requires a good reader and I like a story that isn't overwhelmed by dialogue. Antd the dialogue must move the story along. The dialogue should provide enough background but not so much that there is nothing left to uncover for the story. The Island features Tuckanuck Island just off the big island, Nantucket. It is vacation home to Birdie, Chess, Tate and India. Birdie and India are sisters. Birdie is mother to Chess and Tate. Chess is mourning the death of her ex-fiance and Tate is feeling the pangs of first love. Each character is well-developed, and have a storyline that is followed through to completion. The author does not disappoint. It is a light romantic tale and goes quickly. I would recommend it if you are not looking for anything heavy.
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This is not an "exciting" book, but I don't think that it was meant to be. It's the kind of book you would want to curl up with by the fire on a dark cold day. It's a comfortable book.

It's a story of a family, four women, spending time together in an old family cottage that hasn't been lived in for a long time on a small island away from everything.

Each of these women had distinct personalities and are all in different stages in their lives. I felt a closemess to each woman. They were unique from each other. It was a joy getting to know and understand them.

I enjoyed reading this book.The strength was in the characters, 4 interesting, complex women. Although they had very different personalities, each had something I could identify with.But even more than their individual quirks, I enjoyed their relationships-- with their love interests, and especially with each other. The two generations of sisters interacting with each other, the different way each daughter related with her mother, all these added the texture to the book that made it work for me. The love and the tension between them all seemed very real.Sure, I also loved the thought of an island getaway, and the glimpses of life with a lot more money than I'll ever have. My only real problem with this book was with the ending. This is my biggest challenge as a reviewer-- I'd like to give you information to decide if my issue with a book is going to be a problem for you, but I don't want to spoil the book. I'll just say that if you like happy endings, you'll love The Island.

Chick lit -better than many of this genre.

This is the first book I have read by the author. Fun, easy beach reach if that's what you are in the mood for. My only criticism is that it seemed a little too long. However, I probably will read more by the author.

After a slow start, I really enjoyed this book about two sisters, Chess and Tate, their mother Birdie, and their aunt India who share a house on Tuckernuck one summer. Tuckernuck is a remote island off the coast of Nantucket, owned privately, with about 30 houses on it. I was fascinated by this glimpse into a lesser-known corner of the world, and equally caught up in the dramas of the four women. Although Chess was my least favorite for a while, she redeemed herself by the end.

I really enjoyed this audiobook that brought me into the lives of these women that found themselves needing to rely on each other as they were dealing with their own personal problems within their lives. When they decide to go spend a month on the island of Tuckernuck at the family's summer home that barely has running water and no electricity, they really have no idea how much stronger their family bond will become.

Birdie is the divorced mother of both Chess and Tate, who really has never wanted for anything in her lifetime. She has led a very fortunate life married to Grant Cousins, a successful lawyer, but found herself unhappy in the relationship as she was emotionally abandoned. While Grant put all of his time into his career, his family life deteriorated before he knew it and his marriage ended in divorce.

Birdie tried to move on with her life as she is starting a relationship with a gentleman as this novel begins. Even though Birdie is trying to take control of her own life she also wants to try to take care of her daughters in a way that she didn't in the past. As Chess's upcoming marriage falls apart Birdie decides this is a good time to head to Tuckernuck for a little vacation. Birdie is surprised when Chess accepts her invitation to go on vacation with her, but is even more surprised when her other daughter Tate calls her asking if she can go too! Birdie is ecstatic with the possibilities of this girls vacation that lies ahead, but is also a little nervous about it so decides to ask her sister India to join them. Wow, are we in for a ride!

Their little vacation on Tuckernuck grows into a month long hiatus for these ladies and as we are there with them, day in and day out, we get to learn their secrets, hopes, and fears. We learn the reason for Chess's broken engagement and why Tate has never had a true romance within her life. Although Birdie and India are older they learn about each other in a new way. As they discover things about each other they also learn new things about themselves that help them appreciate life in a whole new way.

This was a wonderful audiobook that gave me such a vivid picture of what Tuckernuck must look like. Denise Hicks did a great job narrating by giving a believable voice and attitude to each of the characters. I found that I didn't want their vacation to end because I didn't want to leave Tuckernuck either! With themes of love, family bonds, and carefree living this book is great for both a book club discussion and to bring along on vacation. I highly recommend this book.