The Five-Star Weekend

Enjoyed the story … but the ending felt way too abrupt!

Erin Hilderbrand is one of my favorite authors so her books always get 5 stars from me. But this book really made me reflect on my past friendships and how each person came into my life when I needed them the most. A few I don't keep in touch with but I know they would drop everything if I needed them. I think all women need different friends for different reasons.


“The thing I love best about reading fiction is that it gives you a way to connect the experiences of your own life to the larger world,”

Really basic writing that is not very creative. Felt very “real housewife”

A fun read…great story telling. I enjoyed it. LB.

The Five-Star Weekend gathers grief, friendship, betrayal, and extravagant Nantucket living beneath one beautifully arranged roof. Elin Hilderbrand creates a juicy story filled with old friends, complicated marriages, career disasters, buried secrets, and enough expensive food to make the weekend feel ready for its own lifestyle magazine. I simply struggled to care about the women attending it. Hollis Shaw is a successful food blogger mourning the sudden death of her husband, Matthew. Their marriage was crumbling before his fatal car accident. Hollis is left carrying grief, anger, and unresolved questions. She invites four women from different stages of her life to spend a luxurious weekend at her Nantucket home. Each guest arrives with a personal crisis. Hollis’s daughter Caroline films the gathering despite her growing resentment toward her mother. The women are old enough to have decades of perspective, but many of their conflicts feel pulled from a high school cafeteria. They compete for Hollis’s attention, revive ancient grudges, judge one another, and repeatedly reminisce about their teenage glory days. Their emotional immaturity made it difficult to connect with their friendships or believe that the weekend offered meaningful personal growth. Hollis also tested my patience. Her career as a social media personality has consumed so much of her attention that Caroline feels abandoned. Hollis rarely recognizes how deeply her curated online world has affected her family. Matthew appears distant and neglectful through Hollis’s memories. Later revelations complicate the polished version of their marriage. The novel gives Hollis plenty of opportunities for reflection and growth. Her self-absorption often overshadows any healing. The wealth surrounding every problem created another barrier for me. Nantucket vacation homes, elite careers, lavish meals, private travel, and carefully planned luxury made the characters’ lives feel remote from mine. Money cannot prevent grief, illness, betrayal, or loneliness. The novel rarely moves beyond the insulated world of people with extraordinary resources. Their problems are real, but their circumstances still made them difficult to relate to. Hilderbrand’s writing will likely work better for readers who enjoy affluent family dramas, older friendship groups, Nantucket settings, and women rebuilding their lives during midlife. The secrets keep the weekend moving. Each guest receives her own emotional storyline. Readers already drawn to Hilderbrand’s style may find the gathering comforting and dramatic. I finished The Five-Star Weekend feeling like an outsider watching wealthy women drink wine, reopen old wounds, and behave like high school graduation happened last spring. The setting was lovely. The guest list and their behavior was exhausting.