Review: Beautiful Day By: Elin Hilderbrand

Beautiful Day by Elin Hilderbrand
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The Carmichaels are ready to have a wedding in Nantucket for the youngest daughter thanks to a handwritten notebook that her deceased mother wrote - a guide listing everything from the registry to the decorations.
Written in different views - Margot, the oldest daughter, her mother wrote "anything I can do, she can do better". Margot has a divorce behind her, a secret affair going, three children that have issues, and a weekend with her family. Trying to live up to what her mother wants and her family's needs, Margot has overlooked herself and at times finds a mess at her feet to clean up. Doug, the Carmichael father, whose wife Beth died seven years ago and yet he loves her still today. Doug, the man whose current wife he sees but doesn't and has found a discontent starting to smother him. He is a divorce attorney that has seen it all yet is sensitive to feel it and know that good or bad "Family is All You Need". Ann Graham, the groom's mother, a politician that had lost her husband to another woman years before only to divorce and than remarry him years later, now has to deal with the tramp for a weekend, along with the son her husband created. Ann's pain, jealousy, and fear is so raw although years have passed and she is as powerful as she is - yet, this woman brings out the worst in her.
Weddings are crazy affairs, if ever after drama - go to one... this is no exception. I loved the different voices and takes on the same incident, the way Ms. Hilderbrand let the reader enter the mind of multiple players. I enjoyed the power and storyline of simply the notebook, and when compounded with affairs, divorces, arguments, flirtations, past engagements -- I simply wouldn't have missed this wedding weekend for the world.

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