The Matchmaker: A Novel
Dabney Kimball Beech is Nantucket’s biggest booster. As director of the island’s chamber of commerce, she is a constant presence at, and an enthusiastic booster of, the island’s many celebrations, whether it’s Daffodil Weekend or the Cranberry Festival. But this year, things are different. She’s just learned that her high-school boyfriend, Clendenin Hughes, the love of her life and the father of her child, is set to return home after a decades-long stint as a foreign correspondent. Despite the fact that she has been married for many years to a Harvard economist and is well known as a matchmaker, with 43 happy couples to her credit, her own love life has proved problematic. She’s afraid to see Clen again, and with good reason; almost as soon as they meet up, their love affair reignites. Hilderbrand has crafted another of her delectable beach reads, complete with a fairy-tale romance. And her depiction of a perfect Nantucket summer day will have readers inhaling a plate of  Kumomoto oysters and downing a cold glass of good white Bordeaux right along with Dabney. Delicious. --Joanne Wilkinson