Summary of The Five-Star Weekend by Elin Hilderbrand

By Justin Reese

DISCLAIMER

This book does not in any capacity mean to replace the original book but to serve as a vast summary of the original book.

Summary of The Five-Star Weekend by Elin Hilderbrand

 

IN THIS SUMMARIZED BOOK, YOU WILL GET:

• Chapter astute outline of the main contents.
• Fast & simple understanding of the content analysis.
• Exceptionally summarized content that you may skip in the original book

 

Hollis Shaw, a food blogger and husband to Matthew, is devastated by a car accident and faces strained marriage and complicated relationships. Inspired by the Five-Star Weekend, she hosts a weekend for her best friends from different stages of her life. However, the weekend is not a joyful one, as Tatum arranges for Jack Finigan to spend time with them, while Dru-Ann, a elitist friend, faces a career crisis. Brooke, a friend from their thirties, discovers her husband's inappropriate relationship with a woman at work. Gigi, a stranger to everyone, embodies an unusual grace and has many secrets. The Five-Star Weekend is a captivating story about friendship, love, and self-discovery set on Nantucket.

• Language: English
• Publisher: jUSTIN REESE
• Release date: Jun 17, 2023
• ISBN: 9798223440048

Book preview

Nantucket

Hollis Shaw is the daughter of Tom Shaw, a plumbing contractor, and Charlotte Shaw, a kindergarten teacher. When Hollis was a toddler, Charlotte died of an aneurysm in the shower and Tom was left to raise her alone. Hollis was a good student, an outstanding softball pitcher, and a hard worker. In her senior year of high school, Hollis wrote a letter to her deceased mother, Charlotte, asking her to be proud of the way she turned out. Hollis Shaw was a student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and graduated with a full academic scholarship.

After graduating, she moved to Boston and married Matthew Madden. When her father died in 2007, she inherited the Squam property and became a summer person. She joined the Field and Oar Club, played tennis, and volunteered at the Nantucket Book Festival. During the pandemic, she posted well-edited content on her food blog, Hungry with Hollis, and filmed herself making a meat-loaf sandwich with homemade refrigerator pickles on freshly baked Japanese milk bread. The video went viral, and she became internet-famous.

The most important details in this text are that the sandwich was elevated and affordable, and that the blog's newsletter had over half a million subscribers in a week. The blog's fans responded positively to the recipes and Hollis herself, who presented an unvarnished version of herself with wrinkles, freckles, and a slight double chin. She also wore a crisp cotton blouse with gold hoops and a diamond engagement ring. After posting a video for a potato-and-white-cheddar tart with a crispy bacon crust, her blog's newsletter broke the one-million-subscriber milestone. Hollis Shaw started a website for her blog Hungry with Hollis in 2022 and added two features: an interactive map of the world and the Corkboard, which allowed followers to leave messages, post recipes, review restaurants, critique cookbooks, and ask questions.

In 2022, Hungry with Hollis was as popular as Wordle and the Wicked Island Bakery’s morning buns, and Hollis had 1,670 newsletter subscribers from Nantucket. On Thursday, December 15, Hollis posted a message to the Hungry with Hollis community, asking for privacy as she grappled with her husband's unexpected death. Hollis promised to post easy holiday hors d'oeuvre recipes, but her husband passed away unexpectedly. Ms. Fox searches for her husband, Dr. Matthew Madden, and finds an obituary in the Nantucket Standard and Boston Globe. There are 17,262 Corkboard messages offering thoughts and prayers, some from people who have lost loved ones.

Ms. Fox wonders if Hollis will return to Nantucket for the summer. Hollis Shaw has returned home to Squam after a sudden, unexpected loss. For a few weeks, sightings of her around the island are rare, but she is seen walking her dog Henrietta at dusk. She may spend her summer alone, practicing self-care, and mourning the man she was married to for 24 years. The Five-Star Weekend could be just the thing she needs.

Accident Report I

Hollis Shaw is in her Wellesley home on December 15th, prepping the dough for cheddar tartlets. Her husband, Dr. Matthew Madden, has a ten o'clock flight to Germany and will be gone for five days. Hollis's kitchen is decorated for the holidays with garlands, copper pots, wreaths, and a picture window overlooking her side yard. She pulls a tray of crispy bacon from the oven and her Serbian sheepdog, Henrietta, jingles into the kitchen. She cuts a wedge of quiche and arranges it on a plate with a few slices of bacon and sections of a Cara Cara orange.

When she hears Matthew's footsteps on the stairs, she closes her eyes and takes a sustaining breath. Hollis and Matthew have hosted a holiday gathering every year since they moved to Wellesley, and it's always the third Saturday in December. Matthew has made plans to stay at the conference until the end and then travel to Berlin to visit his mentor Dr. Emanuel Schrader. Despite this, Hollis can't imagine standing in the doorway without Matthew at her side. Matthew arrives in the kitchen wearing a red Vineyard Vines tie printed with Santas in speedboats, and Hollis inhales the scent of his Kiehl's shaving lotion.

She can't believe he's leaving. Hollis and Matthew have been drifting apart since Caroline left for college. Hollis is frustrated that Matthew has been making work, travel, and Dr. Schrader a priority, while Matthew is eager to get out of the door. Hollis has felt like they are nothing more than roommates, and Matthew is just waiting for her to be done. Hollis is tempted to mention how long it had been since they had sex, but that was as much her fault as his.

Matthew clears his throat and checks his watch, and Hollis wipes away her gathering tears. Matthew crouched down to rub Henny's face and gave Hollis a fierce squeeze. He then turned around and said, You've changed. And we've changed. Hollis is now a different person, one who has a hard time experiencing a moment without wanting to document it for her newsletter subscribers. She calls him to apologize for being a bull in an emotional china shop, but he doesn't listen. She then sends a text to him, I love you, Dr. M. You're important to me. We are important to me. She then decides to make a dinner reservation for two at Mistral on New Year's Eve and Uber into the city to drink champagne and buy a new dress.

Hollis is stalked by Jack Finigan, her high-school boyfriend, and Mindy, her longtime girlfriend. When a police officer knocks at her door, she realizes he must be there because of Matthew, who has been killed in an accident involving deer, a mama and baby on Dover Street. Henny comes jingling in and starts licking Hollis's face. Hollis is on the floor screaming and wailing, but doesn't care that a stranger is watching. Hollis hears the strains of a song playing in the kitchen and calls her husband, Matthew.

They bury Matthew next to his parents in the cemetery at St. Andrew's and Hollis faces a house filled with people. Caroline is the only person Hollis cares about, but things with her are strained. She pushes her mother away and questions her decision to hold a reception at their house afterward. Caroline barricades herself in her room and comes home loudly drunk. She stomps upstairs with Henrietta following her.

On one of the first days of the new year, Hollis sort through Matthew's belongings and is interrupted by Caroline. Caroline accuses Hollis of not loving Matthew enough and of not grieving him correctly. Hollis tries to defend herself, but Caroline goes on a rampage and accuses her of not loving Matthew enough. Hollis tries to wait Caroline's rage out, but Caroline storms from the room with the parting shot It's always all about you! She books herself on the Acela back to New York City three days earlier than planned, leaving Hollis stunned and alone. Hollis is devastated by the death of her father, Matthew.

She cannot bear to read the accident report and moves it to a folder labeled MM, where she keeps all of the correspondence related to Matthew's death. Friends and neighbors offer advice, but Hollis refuses to take it. She wonders how her father coped when her mother died so suddenly. Hollis consults Grown and Flown, her favorite website for parenting older children, as she tries to figure out what to do. Hollis is grieving the death of her