Barefootby Elin Hilderbrand
Free Book Review

by Queenie D

Barefoot by Elin Hilderbrand - Review

"I knew our paths would cross...It's like it was all part of some greater plan." ~ Josh Flynn

Three women, all very different but sharing one common thought, to get away from their "normal" lives as much as possible even if only for the summer.

Melanie has just found out she is pregnant after seven failed in-vitro attempts. What should be the happiest news of her life has become a tainted mess because she has also just found out her husband is having an affair.

Brenda is running from a terrible situation she left behind in which she has been accused (and found guilty) of carrying on an illicit affair with one of her students and then ruining a three million dollar painting to boot!

Vicki, poor Vicki, is only thirty-one with two very young boys but has been diagnosed with Stage 2 Lung Caner. And she, not even a smoker, doesn't know how to make things matter in her life anymore when it seems like time is quickly slipping away.

Off to Nantucket the women travel together, with Vicki's boys in tow and husband on the weekends, to try and find some inner peace. They quickly encounter a college student, handsome Josh Flynn, also looking for an escape from his day-to-day doldrums who ends becoming their full-time caretaker for the boys.

The relationships that change, grow, bud, and dissipate are the main focus of this family saga that spans only the course of one summer but enough ground to change the lives of those involved forever.

Barefoot by Elin Hilderbrand - Opinion

I read this book at the beach, on the beach, and it was absolutely the perfect setting to do so! The beautiful, serene backdrop of Nantucket leapt off the pages as I sat on the cool sand nearby the green waves of South Carolina.

That said, perhaps I should have been reading in my room because I alternately laughed out loud and sobbed my way through this book. I've said it before and I'll say it again - bonding with the characters is what makes a reader's experience great and propels them to keep reading. At first I wasn't sure I'd be able to do this because there are quite a few main characters in Barefoot. However, I was quickly drawn in, not only by Melanie, Vicki, and Brenda, but by Blaine and Porter and Josh and Walsh. Even Didi dug in and took root in my heart.

I think the thing that makes this particular family-friend-relationship story stand out from the rest is that every character is struggling in some way to be a good person. They may have gotten lost along the way and let life's miseries cloud their judgement, but they are all striving to do the right thing. Even Peter, the cheating husband, seems to be grappling with the huge dilemma of "what do I want out of life." This makes each and every character dear to me. I wanted them all to succeed in finding the happiness they so desperately sought.

Of course there is always a favorite character in novels where there are so many from which to choose. I'm going to have to say that Josh was absolutely my favorite main character because he is still young and finding his way in the world but has a soul old enough to let him realize that his place with this family for the summer is important and life-changing. I hope to raise a boy with that much sense some day!

I also truly loved Walsh. Even though he was a minor character and in more memory clips than present-day action, I found him charming and wonderful - the kind of man a woman like Brenda needs. The fact that he is ready and waiting to be her support system even after months of no contact sealed his perfection for me.

Let's hear it for the men of this novel! Elin Hilderbrand deserves a lot of credit for being able to make her male characters just as compelling and intricate as the women who fuel the action of the story.

Barefoot by Elin Hilderbrand -Discussion Questions