Golden Girl by Elin HIldebrand – 384 pages 

ARC provided by Netgalley and Little, Brown and Company for an honest review 

Book Blurb:

On a perfect June day, Vivian Howe, author of thirteen beach novels and mother of three nearly grown children, is killed in a hit-and-run car accident while jogging near her home on Nantucket. She ascends to the Beyond where she’s assigned to a Person named Martha, who allows Vivi to watch what happens below for one last summer. Vivi also is granted three “nudges” to change the outcome of events on earth, and with her daughter Willa on her third miscarriage, Carson partying until all hours, and Leo currently “off again” with his high-maintenance girlfriend, she’ll have to think carefully where to use them.
From the Beyond, Vivi watches “The Chief” Ed Kapenash investigate her death, but her greatest worry is her final book, which contains a secret from her own youth that could be disastrous for her reputation. But when hidden truths come to light, Vivi’s family will have to sort out their past and present mistakes—with or without a nudge of help from above—while Vivi finally lets them grow without her.

My Review: 4 stars

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Golden Girl was touted as THE summer read by a fellow book influencer. I’ve read Elin Hildebrand before, and enjoyed her work, but I’m not the drop everything right this minute so I can read her newest release type of fan. With such a strong recommendation from my friend, I moved it up on my TBR list. 

Honestly, I was sucked in immediately. I loved the premise about where you go when you die, getting assigned a “person”, your Pinterest board coming to life and the ability to make nudges to those you love. This story read quickly and as always, brought Nantucket to life through Hildebrand’s descriptions of the land, the incredible seafood and the people that summered there. There was also an interesting mystery running through the plot. Honestly, it was a terrific summer read until I was affronted by an off the cuff, flippant joke about Anne Frank. 

As a Jewish woman, I am no stranger to funny jokes or mean jokes, inappropriate remarks and simple ignorance when it comes to my religion. So, I was quite surprised when I read the line on page 144, “You’re suggesting I hide here all summer? Like…Anne Frank?” I kept reading on, but that line kept nagging at me. Of all the comparisons Hildebrand could’ve used, why did she lean on the one of the most famous victims of the Holocaust in a joking manner? 

Obviously, with the horrifying rise of anti-Semitism in the US, it’s these small one-liners, off- hand remarks that begin to add up into something much bigger. Let me be clear, I do not believe for one minute that Hildebrand is anti-Semitic, but I do think that her editor and/or sensitivity readers should have 100% called this out. Perhaps ten years ago, I would’ve let it slide and not even mentioned it, but the world is a scary place right now, and jabbing (even slightly) in the face of an iconic Jewish diarist and victim was wrong. 

Obviously, this bothered me, but as a whole, I really enjoyed the book. 

Quotes I liked:

The summer is a newborn; it’s still innocent, pristine, a blank page.” 

“Nothing in this world feels as good as hope.”