Winter Street by Elin Hilderbrand Published by Little, Brown and Company on October 14th 2014
Pages: 352
Goodreads
In bestseller Elin Hilderbrand's first Christmas novel, a family gathers on Nantucket for a holiday filled with surprises.
Kelley Quinn is the owner of Nantucket's Winter Street Inn and the proud father of four, all of them grown and living in varying states of disarray. Patrick, the eldest, is a hedge fund manager with a guilty conscience. Kevin, a bartender, is secretly sleeping with a French housekeeper named Isabelle. Ava, a school teacher, is finally dating the perfect guy but can't get him to commit. And Bart, the youngest and only child of Kelley's second marriage to Mitzi, has recently shocked everyone by joining the Marines.
As Christmas approaches, Kelley is looking forward to getting the family together for some quality time at the inn. But when he walks in on Mitzi kissing Santa Claus (or the guy who's playing Santa at the inn's annual party), utter chaos descends. With the three older children each reeling in their own dramas and Bart unreachable in Afghanistan, it might be up to Kelley's ex-wife, nightly news anchor Margaret Quinn, to save Christmas at the Winter Street Inn.
Before the mulled cider is gone, the delightfully dysfunctional Quinn family will survive a love triangle, an unplanned pregnancy, a federal crime, a small house fire, many shots of whiskey, and endless rounds of Christmas caroling, in this heart-warming novel about coming home for the holidays.
As I was doing some much needed computer work I realized I had a few reviews of books that I bought/borrowed that I never shared with you so I thought it was time to add them to my blog finally.
I remember picking up this book last year and reading it right away and I fell in love this this trilogy and had to read the other books in the series. The other books in the series are: Winter Stroll, Winter Storms and Winter Solstice. So in reality this is no longer a trilogy and I am so happy that I got to read this series.
This is Elin Hilderbrand’s first Christmas story. It takes place in Nantucket with the Quinn family. They run a family inn and every year they through a huge Christmas Eve party with a Santa and all. The house is decorated from top to bottom.
The hosts are Kelly (the dad) and his second wife, Mitzi. Kelly is looking forward to spending Christmas with his kids from his first marriage even though financial troubles are hanging over head. He is determined to make this a great Christmas until he catches his wife kissing Santa. But Kelly is shocked when he finds out its been actually going on for years and what he saw wasn’t the first time. Mitzi decides she would rather be with Santa then Kelly and packs up and leaves.
Everyone in this family has drama and it all unfolds within this book. Such as the oldest son, Patrick being investigated for unethical practices and his wife leaves taking the kids with her to go to her parents causing him to head down a downward spiral. If thats not bad enough Kevin is not happy and has a secret romance that he has been hiding from his family but decides he needs to come clean and finally the youngest child Ava who is struggling to hold onto her boyfriend and hopes that he will propose but little does she know that he doesn’t exactly feel the same way about her. Finally Bart, the son he had with Mitzi is currently in the Marines and deployed in Afganistan is missing. No one knows where he is.
As you read this you will probably think that this is going to be a Christmas to remember well in some ways it is going to a be Christmas to remember and not in a good way. This is the story if anything can go wrong it will go wrong.
The book is told in a basically a few days span with its told in several points of view from the Quinn family, Kelly, Mitzi, Margret, Ava, Kevin and Patrick. This was a great way to get to know the characters in a short amount of time.
I loved how even though Kelly and Margret are divorced she is still actively involved in and with the family and that she is still included in family events. I know sometimes divorces can be tricky but it was nice to see that yes they had issues in the past they were able to over come them.
I really enjoyed the book and it was such a fun and quick read just the thing to sort of get you into the holiday mood. Thankfully I was able to pick up the other books in the series quickly from the library so that I could continue this.
The one thing I have to say is going into the book I knew it was a trilogy so the way it ended so quickly I knew I had to read the next book right away. Reading it it honestly felt like the publisher just cut it to make a second book. So you were left hanging.
If you plan on reading this then I highly recommend you have all the books in the series before you begin.