28 Summers
When Mallory Blessing's son, Link, receives deathbed instructions from his mother to call a number on a slip of paper in her desk drawer, he's not sure what to expect. But he certainly does not expect Jake McCloud to answer. It's the late spring of 2020 and Jake's wife, Ursula DeGournsey, is the frontrunner in the upcoming Presidential election. There must be a mistake, Link thinks. How do Mallory and Jake know each other? Flash back to the sweet summer of 1993: Mallory has just inherited a beachfront cottage on Nantucket from her aunt, and she agrees to host her brother's bachelor party. Cooper's friend from college, Jake McCloud, attends, and Jake and Mallory form a bond that will persevere—through marriage, children, and Ursula's stratospheric political rise—until Mallory learns she's dying.
Themes & atmosphere
What you might want to know about 28 Summers
The questions readers send us most often, answered without spoilers.
Mallory and Jake meet at a Nantucket bachelor party in 1993 and agree to one weekend a year, every Labor Day, no matter what. Twenty-eight summers later, Mallory is dying and her son finds Jake's number in her desk.
28 Summers is a standalone novel by Elin Hilderbrand. Hilderbrand has written more than 30 novels, many set on Nantucket, but 28 Summers shares no characters or storyline with her others.
28 Summers includes sexual content but is not graphically explicit. The romance between Mallory and Jake spans 28 years through alternating perspectives. Most readers consider it a moderate-spice contemporary romance.
Yes, loosely. Elin Hilderbrand has said the premise was inspired by the 1978 film Same Time, Next Year about two married people who meet annually for an affair. The book updates the conceit across decades and adds a contemporary backdrop.
28 Summers is 472 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, 28 Summers takes most readers 7 to 10 hours to finish.
28 Summers is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.