The story opens with a jarring prologue, which sets the tone for the summer months ahead. Not only for the family but for the nation as a whole.

Summer of '69 brings readers into the lives of the Levin/Foley family for what is poised to be a defining time. A time that’s near and dear to the author's family-the very summer she and her twin brother said hello to the world-providing the inspiration. And this year, continuing that trend of branching out, Hilderbrand takes a stab at historical fiction, transporting readers to Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard during the pivotal summer of 1969. A book that not only proved to be one of her strongest yet, but earned a coveted spot among my very favorites. Last year, Hilderbrand pulled off quite the feat with the delivery of her first suspense novel, The Perfect Couple. People who bare their hearts and truths as if we’ve always been the closest of friends.

Her work eliciting an eager reader ready to jump on a ferry to Nantucket for a dose of scenery, local eats, and unparalleled people. And while many authors contribute to this genre space, for me it is Hilderbrand’s smart and often relatable approach to the “beach read” that has become synonymous with summer. More than anything else, it’s the people Elin Hilderbrand brings to life among her pages that have me chomping at the bit for her annual ( June and now October!) releases. In her first historical novel, rich with the details of an era that shaped both a nation and an island thirty miles out to sea, Elin Hilderbrand once again earns her title as queen of the summer novel. As the summer heats up, Ted Kennedy sinks a car in Chappaquiddick, man flies to the moon, and Jessie and her family experience their own dramatic upheavals along with the rest of the country. Thirteen-year-old Jessie suddenly feels like an only child, marooned in the house with her out-of-touch grandmother and her worried mother, each of them hiding a troubling secret.

Only-son Tiger is an infantry soldier, recently deployed to Vietnam. Middle sister Kirby, caught up in the thrilling vortex of civil rights protests and determined to be independent, takes a summer job on Martha's Vineyard.

But like so much else in America, nothing is the same: Blair, the oldest sister, is marooned in Boston, pregnant with twins and unable to travel. Every year the children have looked forward to spending the summer at their grandmother's historic home in downtown Nantucket. It's 1969, and for the Levin family, the times they are a-changing. Welcome to the most tumultuous summer of the twentieth century. Four siblings experience the drama, intrigue, and upheaval of a summer when everything changed, in New York Times bestselling author Elin Hilderbrand's first historical novel

Summer of 69 book series