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I previously shared a guest post with my suggestions for summer reading which included a few of my favorite authors including Elin Hilderbrand. Elin Hilderbrand has never disappointed me with her books and I pre-ordered The Matchmaker without reading the synopsis of the plot.
Hilderbrand’s books all take place on Nantucket Island and this novel introduces us to Dabney Kimball Beech. Dabney has successfully connected 42 couples on the island and reports seeing an aura around individuals who should be together. However, she can not say as much about her ability with her personal life. The love of her life, Clen, and the father of her daughter, left the island twenty seven years ago to pursue his own dreams.
Nonetheless, Dabney has created a good life for herself with a good marriage and a successful career as the Director of the Chamber of Commerce. Out of the blue, she receives an email from her past love and thus starts the movement of the story.
Clen has returned home and wants to see her. She successfully avoids him for a time until she can no longer stop the pull. The reader is taken on Dabney’s journey of finding that she continues to feel the same emotions about Clen. Yet she feels torn between the life she has created with her husband and what she feels is right.
As I read this novel, I was well aware that something painful was going to happen as Dabney begins to have physical problems but writes them off as “being lovesick and torn.” It is only after making a decision between her two loves that everyone is told of her terminal diagnosis of pancreatic cancer.
What would you do if your first love returned to your life? Would you walk away from the life you have created for what could have been?
I do not want to spoil this novel for anyone but will share that I was up until 2:00 am because each chapter made me want to read more. As someone who recently loss two loved ones to cancer, I feel that Hildebrand does an excellent job of describing what it must feel like to be given a terminal illness. She addresses the questions of what is truly most important in life and how and with who would you spend the last days of your life. The tears I shed through the last few chapters were therapeutic for me but I feel that most anyone would cry as the writing details the emotions of the main characters.
On another note, during her press tour of the book, Elin Hildebrand shared that she was recently diagnosed with breast cancer and a few days after the book release she would be having a double mastectomy. She shares that as she created Dabney’s voice she attempted to think how she would respond to a cancer diagnosis. Surprisingly, she found she did not respond as she had expected. I feel that most of us would be the same way. Theorizing and reality are two very different places.
Although cancer plays a part of the plot it does not become the whole story and the reader is left with the importance of staying true to who you love. The Matchmaker is well worth a read and can be finished in a few days. Thus, it is perfect for a weekend at the pool or beach (or a late night in your bed).
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Was just thinking that I need a good book to read. This one just might be it…
🙂