434 reviews for:

Beautiful Day

Elin Hilderbrand

3.59 AVERAGE


I read (and enjoyed) several of Elin Hildebrand's novels multiple years back. I liked them enough to put a bunch on my library wishlist. Then the pandemic came, and I stopped reading (and everything else) for awhile. Since I've been back to books again, I keep paging through the available options in my 1000+ book wishlist, and never stopping on these.

I decided to start clearing out some of the older entries, and checked out this one.

I'm not sure why I didn't do so earlier, I really enjoyed reading it.

The characters are complex. They have flaws, but not enough to make them unlikable overall (although most have their moments).

The setting is enjoyably foreign to me. This is not a life I will ever live, which makes it interesting to visit

This book was a love story. Not a romance, but a story of the love of a family, and the different forms it can take.

Elin Hilderbrand is my guilty pleasure. Her books are light and fluffy and fun. Beautiful Day, while totally predictable, was a fun read.

These are really not people that one can like.

There are quite a number of characters in this book. It seems that the author worked very hard to make sure that even though there were so many people, she tried to keep them from being two dimensional.

I do thnk that Jenna took the notebook a little too literally. I thnk her mom wanted to have some part in Jenna's wedding. I think, as she was dying, she needed to feel that she woudl still be connected to her daughters.

Margot and her dad were the most intersting people of the novel. Margot worked hard to help make her sister's wedding went well but then she also seemed to do thngs that would sabatogue the wedding at the same time. I don't know. What was important was that it all felt authentic.

I understood and respected Doug's conflict.
He was an interesting and sympathetic character. I did wish he had given himself enough time to grieve his first wife before marrying again. We are led to think that maybe Pauline manipulated him a little but even if that was true, he was a grown man. He did not have to marry her.
Nothing is told to us that woudl make Pauline likable, not many people in this book were particularly likable but Pauline was so disrespectful of boundaries, I could not really forgive what she did. Even if she was envious, she destroyed something that was important not just for Doug but for his family.

The sons are so on the periphery of this novel that they really don't matter much.

Ann was interesting. I understood her motivation but I do not honestly think that most women would have made the choices she made. There is no way that I woudl have invited Helen to any event, much less somthing as important as this was.

I would read this author again. She can create interesting people (whether one finds them to be likable or not). I would love to see more about these people, what does Doug do after the divorce, he sourly needs. What happens in Margot's own life? Does Rhonda continue to become someone eho is not horrible? That sort of thing.

I have to say, that after reading the first two hundred pages or so of this book, I felt that the woman walking away on the cover would be Jenna's mother and not Jenna. I don't normally pay much attention to covers but I had that thought over and over while reading.

Fun vacation read...I would give it 3.5

I received this book as part of a Goodreads First Reads giveaway. I have really enjoyed Elin Hilderbrand's previous books so I was excited to get the chance to read an ARC copy of Beautiful Day. I liked Beautiful Day. I thought the plot was interesting and engaging. Elin did a fabulous job of illustrating the many complexities of family dynamics. Having been to Nantucket many times growing up, I enjoy reading about some of the familiar locations. The only criticism I really have for the book is that there were almost too many minor characters for me. I found myself having to pause and remind myself how the characters were related to one another. It made it a little harder for me to totally lose myself in the story. I think including family trees or a "cheat sheet" on who each character is would help with that. Overall, I enjoyed this book and would recommend it as a good summer read!

A nice, quick read...cute story...typical Hilderbrand writing.

Always a great story. This one was sad, a bit (mother of the bride dead for 7 years: sad)

I have read/listened to this book multiple times. I love the formatting, and the different narrators flow very well and each have very distinct voices. All of the characters are flawed and still make you root for them. I especially love Ann Graham

Needed another Elin Hilderbrand after Nantucket Hotel but this wasn’t for me.

Fun read! Lots of drama, fun characters and told from different perspectives. You'll want to summer in Nantucket and swing on Alfie with the Carmichaels by the end of the book.