Review: The Matchmaker by Elin Hilderbrand

The Matchmaker by Elin Hilderbrand 

Published: June 10, 2014

Publisher: Little Brown and Co.

Format: ARC via publisher

Rating: 4/5

Synopsis

Dabney Kimball Beech, the 48-year-old fifth generation Nantucketer, has had a lifelong gift of matchmaking (52 couples still together to her credit). But when Dabney discovers she is dying of pancreatic cancer, she sets out to find matches for a few people very close to home: her husband, celebrated economist John Boxmiller Beech; her lover journalist Clendenin Hughes; and her daughter, Agnes, who is engaged to be married to the wrong man.

As time slips away from Dabney, she is determined to find matches for those she loves most - but at what cost to her own relationships? THE MATCHMAKER is the heartbreaking new novel from Elin Hilderbrand about losing and finding love, even as you're running out of time.

My Thoughts

Elin Hilderbrand is undeniably the queen of summer reads, in my opinion. So it’s no surprised I loved and enjoyed her latest The Matchmaker just as I have her other reads. This one like all the others uses the picturesque Nantucket as its background.

We met Dabney who has lived on Nantucket all her life. She was raised by her father and grandmother after he mother literally left her in a hotel room and never returned. In her teens she meets the new boy in town Clen and her life would never be the same. She was one of those people who was beautiful and popular but yet not snobby, she was friends with everyone. When she met Clen she knew he was meant to be hers forever. He was destiny to be the love of her life. While apart during college they remained together until he got his dream job as a reporter overseas. Dabney wasn’t fond of traveling, she even hated to leave the island so she told him to go and not look back, even though she was pregnant. Time passes and she marries and older professor, her life was fulfilled with all the things she loved, her daughter and her beloved Nantucket. While she loved her husband she wasn’t truly IN LOVE with him. He was good to her and her daughter but truth be told there was not that connection that one wishes for in true love.  Ironic since she is known as “The Matchmaker” on the island, she was brought true love to couples all around her.

During the course of the towns’ celebration she sees Clen. He is back and through a series of his own tragedies is back home to try and mend fences with those left behind. Dabney as hard as she tries, tries to stay away but just like before she can’t for the life of her. She knows it’s wrong but sometimes you can’t help but be drawn to certain people for reasons beyond logic. She soon finds out some tragic news of her own, and sets her sights on redoing the wrongs in her life. She tries to make those around her happy before it’s too late.

The Matchermaker is one of those books that is wonderfully written about love, forgiveness, rebuilding and acceptance. No one brings Nantucket to life like Elin Hilderbrand can. Through her novels I feel like I know the town. She brings the sights and sounds to life, with each novel I have come to know and love it more. This is a book I recommend to anyone who loves to read about love. It’s an awesome summer read and I know you will enjoy it as much as I did.