Identical twin sisters Tabitha and Harper have been estranged for the past 14 years, when Tabitha's infant son died. Prior to that, when the girls were 17 their parents divorces. Harper went to live with their father, Billy on Martha's Vineyard and Tabitha went to live with their mother, Eleanor in Boston and on Nantucket. The other main character is Ainsley, Tabitha's precocious sixteen year old daughter. All three of these females are flawed and as the story unfolds we find out what happened in their past that contributed to who they are. When Harper and Tabitha were split apart they lived with very different parents. Eleanor was a debutante who became a famous designer. She is haughty, stuck up and a perfectionist. Billy was an electrician who was very good at his job. He is sociable and very laid back. The book opens with Billy dying of congenital heart failure which brings this family back together for his memorial service. This forces many decisions, life changes and confrontations that move the story along once you get past the introductions.

When the story begins, the plot is a bit slow, but do not quit reading. Once I got into this story, I couldn't wait to see what would happen next. I also did not like the four main women in this story at the beginning. Again, as the story progressed the transformations they all had were wonderful and believable. There is some drama, some romance and wonderful settings that Elin Hildenbrand is know for. A great family drama that many readers will enjoy.

Tabitha and Harper Frost may look alike, but that is where their similarities end. Tabitha is chic and stylish - helping their famous designer mother run her empire. When they were teenagers their parents divorced and a game of rock, paper, scissors determined which girl was going to go with their father, Billy. Harper "won" and left Nantucket for Martha's Vineyard with their father. The girls remained close until fourteen years ago when a tragedy permanently destroyed their relationship.

Fast forward to present day - the Twins are closing in on forty, their dad just died, and their lives are a mess. Harper is working a dead-end job and having an affair with her father's married doctor. Tabitha recently broke up with her boyfriend of four years, her mother's store is hemorrhaging money, and her sixteen daughter is a pot-smoking delinquent. In an interesting twist to The Parent Trap, the sister's switch lives. Harper goes to Nantucket to run the store and look out for Ainsley while Tabitha goes to the Vineyard to get Billy's house ready to sell. Will this life-swap be what it takes to repair the sister's damaged relationship?

It took me a minute to get into The Identicals because at first both Tabitha and Harper were pretty dreadful characters. Tabitha was a horrible parent and Harper was sleeping with a married man. They did the "life-swap" and it took that change for me to start to see some redeeming qualities. More so in Harper than in Tabitha - Tabitha was still hard for me to like. There wasn't ever one moment where Tabitha owned up to her mistakes, it was like she just decided to let it all go. Ainsley, Tabitha's teen daughter, also went through some redemption with the help of her Aunt Harper. She was also pretty dreadful at first. Once the redemption started I could barely put the book down. Things wrapped up pretty tidily and I loved how the final words were spoken from the viewpoint of Harper's dog, Fish. It added a degree of charm that wasn't there before.

Bottom line - Nantucket is a favorite summer location for not only tourists but authors, as well. Every author brings their own flavor of Nantucket. Elin Hilderbrand definitely brings more "meat" to her stories than other authors, but that is one of the reasons why I love her books. Life is dirty and messy - even on Nantucket.

Details:



The Identicals by Elin Hilderbrand
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Pages:432
Publisher: Little, Brown, and Co
Publication Date: 6/13/2017
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I feel like I 'know' Nantucket after reading Elin Hilderbrand's books; someday I might even get there!

Tabitha and Harper are estranged twins, with Tabitha spending most of her teen years on Nantucket with her demanding and snobby mother, and Harper living on Martha's Vineyard with her electrical contractor father. Tabitha has a teenage daughter and had a son who died as a baby, most likely from SIDS, but she blames her sister for it as they'd been having an evening out enjoying themselves. Harper has managed to involve herself in a relationship with her father's married doctor. The twins end up swapping places to manage things on both islands: Tabitha decides to renovate her newly-deceased father's house instead of selling it as a tear-down, Harper goes to the island to stay with her teenaged niece and run the mother's shop while the latter is recovering from surgery. Things happen to all of the women that cause them to 'look inward', I guess the saying is.

I love the way the book is told from various viewpoints, and not in formal chapters; just section headings. Takes a bit of getting used to but it works very well. And the epilog is great!

This review will go live on my blog tomorrow. Kellyvision.wordpress.com

When Billy and Eleanor divorce, they each take one of their twin daughters. It sounds like The Parent Trap, right? Except Harper and Tabitha know about each other. They used to be close but after the divorce, it all changes. Now they're adults and each is falling apart. Billy has died and Harper and Tabitha will have to spend time together. And THEN they decide to do a brief life swap. (They won't pretend to be each other, obviously.)

I am a new fan of Elin's (this is the second book of hers I've read) and this book is enough to make anyone fall in love with her.

Even though it's about seriously identical twins, it's easy to tell Harper and Tabitha alike. It's also easy to identify with one (I like to think I'm Harper; I'm totally Tabitha). And even though this book has just as much substance as style, it's also a completely fun book.

I had a great time reading this. You will, too. Recommended.

This is an engaging book about two sisters, but not the book for me. It is told from each of their points of view, which is one of my favorite forms of storytelling, but the book was too gritty for my taste (the first chapter ended with a sex scene, which is where I abandoned ship). People who have read Hilderbrand's other books seem to enjoy this one, so if you're a fan, check it out!

I have enjoyed other books by this author, and this was the case with The Identicals as well. Okay, it is a bit out there to have 40-year-old twins changing places, especially after being estranged for many years. But it works to bring the sister back together, and make the family whole again. As always, Nantucket is the perfect setting - for at least half the time, with Martha's Vineyard starring as well. A great summer read!

I've read quite a few of Elin Hilderbrand's books, and enjoyed them all, but The Identicals has quickly become one of my favorites.
Going into this book, I expected it to follow the typical formula of Hilderbrand's books: set on Nantucket, family drama, some romance/love story. And it did. But it was so much more. I really liked all of the characters and thought they were extremely well developed and relatable. The storyline was interesting, with a few twists and turns, and it kept my attention.
Overall, this was a very enjoyable summer read and I look forward to reading more of this author's work.

THE IDENTICALS by Elin Hilderbrand was good enough. Not my usual genre, it is the first book I have read by this author though I have heard good things prompting me to give this book a read.

It is a light read as I suspect it is supposed to be. The thing that drew me to this particular novel by Elin Hildebrand was the location; I have visited and loved Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket. I must say her descriptions of The Vineyard and Nantucket did not disappoint, truly made me feel as if I were there.

If you are looking for a light and quick beach read this is your book.

I normally enjoy Elin Hilderbrand's summer beach reads but this one was a little underwhelming. I didn't care for the characters and couldn't relate to them. I found the story somewhat boring as well so it was a disappointment for me. Maybe others would enjoy it more, it's just not for me.

Hilderbrand gives her fans another gut wrenching story with two identicals on two seemingly identical locations and ties it up in the nice little preppy bow all of her fans expect from her. Another solid outing for Hilderbrand.

Loved this novel. Great take on having twins and twin islands. Great story

Another great beach read from Elin. In her usual breezy style, she manages to really evoke the atmosphere of Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket, as well as painting great pictures of the main twin characters, and I was left wanting much more by the end. Hopefully there will be a sequel!

Another terrific beach read for fans. Elin Hilderbrand knows how to write a convincing story, that keeps the reader interested.

This was my first Elin Hilderbrand novel. I have seen several of her titles around and was always interested to pick one up. I had heard that this one specifically was a great beach novel, and I couldn't agree more. I devoured over a relaxed summery week, and would recommend it to anyone looking for a good read on a vacation. I really enjoyed the characters. I thought Hilderbrand brought them to life on the pages, and it is what kept me so intrigued with the book. There were moments that I was frustrated at them (Couldn't they just talk out this issue and get past it without all the years of drama?) but overall I felt they were complex and understandable in their quirks. I will be picking up other titles by this author when I see them!

This book is a great addition to any beach read collection. It did not disappoint to entertain and amuse, but go a little deeper than most beach reads.
This story centered on two identical twins that were separated by their parents divorce and living on different islands; one Nantucket and one Martha's Vineyard. When their father passes away their lives start to intertwine as they switch islands to handle take care of things. This was a great story about how families can be torn apart and how they can learn to heal and grow.

Just recently, I saw a television commercial for THE IDENTICALS by Elin Hilderbrand. This book is obviously getting some marketing push and quickly climbing the best seller lists. Since I have yet not read other titles by her, I decided to read this newest one. The cover really says summer and is so relaxing, right?

THE IDENTICALS is about two sisters, Harper (on the Vineyard) and Tabitha (on Nantucket), adult twins who have been estranged since their late teens. One thing that struck me was how manipulative and selfish their mother was and her impact, essentially two decades later, on the sense of self-worth for each of these women. Kirkus called it "Intelligent escapism with heart." Comparisons have also been made to titles by Nancy Thayer.

Happy second Friday of the summer and the cap to my great summer reading week! This one is almost a no-brainer because Elin Hilderbrand is the quintessential light, vacation-reading author and her newest novel, The Identicals is as refreshing and fun as popsicles (or mojitos) next to the pool. In it, identical twin sisters, Harper and Tabitha, are compared to twin New England summer hot spots: Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard. In fact, Harper lives on the Vineyard and Tabitha lives in Nantucket and both would be more than happy to tell you why their location is the better one. They also would not hesitate to share why they haven’t spoken to each other in fourteen years—and their stories wouldn’t match. Things have to be very dire indeed for them to turn to each other for help but that’s exactly what happens at the beginning of one summer.

With two sisters, Hilderbrand creates one complete hot mess. Externally, it is Harper, with her inadvertent involvement in drug trafficking in her youth, lack of career—unless driving a delivery truck counts, and most recently, sleeping with the town’s favorite doctor, who’s married. Tabitha has a bit more shine on her. She’s running her mother’s clothing business, has money and class, but inside she’s miserably unhappy. Her infant son died unexpectedly, she’s raised her daughter, Ainsley, to be an entitled hellcat and she’s just run off her most recent boyfriend. Hilderbrand engineers a plot that means Harper and Tabitha have to come together to help each other out—as much as they’d rather eat their own kidneys than do so. Tabitha goes to Martha’s Vineyard to refurbish their father’s home so it can be sold after his death and Harper goes to stay in Nantucket because Ainsley cannot be left alone and their mother’s fancy store has to be kept running.

There are no great surprises in The Identicals, BUT that’s not to say the novel is predictable or schmaltzy—two characteristics that evoke an automatic DNF (Did Not Finish) on my part. The novel may not be the pinnacle of ingenuity in plot but Hilderbrand has the skills and creativity to put her characters together in situations that make for ideal easy reading. They’re interesting and intelligent and the plots don’t stray into the implausible. My biggest beef with The Identicals? The fact that only Harper bears the stigma for the affair with the doctor. I don’t want to get all pedantic, but she’s single so, while her actions were morally questionable, she didn’t cheat, he did. Why isn’t the popular doctor run out of town? That kind of sexist attitude I always going to yank my chain—even when it’s not a major plot point.

Personal peeve aside, The Identicals was everything I wanted and needed in a summer book. Harper and Tabitha embark on a grown-up The Parent Trap scenario minus the parents but full-on taking over each other’s lives and it works. Hilderbrand employed romance, bitchery, drama, and growing up to keep me engrossed and amused for hours. She defines “easy” reading at its best—a valuable talent for readers looking for complete escape without loss of IQ points. Is the chaos and negativity of today’s world more than you can bear? You wish it was back-to-school time? The soaring temperatures and humidity where you live are fusing you to the pavement? Open The Identicals and suddenly the page will be the only place that has your attention.

I know summer is here because I just finished Hilderbrand's latest novel. My mindset goes into vacation mode with the mention of her name and this summer's "trip" could only be better if it were an actual trip. This book is a vacation of words, a trip for those on a staycation. No deep thought provoking storylines. No real twists and turns or unexpected endings. Just a good book to curl up with and read straight through, because, who really puts down a Hilderbrand novel before they finish it!.