Silver Girl

For the past few days I have been humming and singing Bridge Over Troubled Water by Simon and Garfunkel. All because of Elin Hildebrand's newest book, Silver Girl. Peaceful Reader happened to bring up the subject of Hildebrand's books the other day when we met up at the pool, asking me which ones I had read and enjoyed. Embarrasingly, I have read only two or three. I own several others and have enjoyed them so I was surprised to realize how few of these books I had actually read.

The plotline of Silver Girl centers around Meredith Delinn who has lost everything. She and her husband had it all - at least everything money could buy. When his Ponzi scheme is revealed and he is arrested, Meredith is left with nothing and no real friends, either. Her longtime girlhood friend, Connie Flute, decides to let Meredith stay with her at her home on Nantucket Island, even in spite of their falling out a few years before. While there Meredith tries to remain out of the media spotlight, someone on the island knows she is there and commits several different crimes to show her dislike of Meredith and what she feels she is guilty of. While Meredith may look guilty to much of the world those who know her best realize that Meredith was also a victim of her husband, Freddy Delinn. While Connie and Meredith did have a falling out, the two manage to resurrect their friendship. Connie, widowed for the past two and a half years, finds a widowed gentleman whose friendship she enjoys, and Meredith is also in for a surprise of her own.

I have read a few reviews of Silver Girl that have felt Hildebrand's plot was not overly imaginitive - seemingly based on the Bernie Madoff scandal that made headline news a few years ago. While I will admit those images came to mind while reading, I didn't mind a fictionalized account of what once consumed the news. I enjoyed Island Girl a great deal, took it with me to the pool a few times (where I was approached by a woman wondering if this would be a good read), and finished it on our trip to Des Moines on Friday where we spent the day at Adventureland with college friends. Now that I have another Elin Hildebrand book to add to my reading log, I will admit that I want more of her work. I have four books of hers stacked on my TBR pile as we speak and am looking forward to them.