The Identicals

April 15, 2017
A tale of identical twins and not-so-identical islands.When blue-blooded Boston designer Eleanor Roxie-Frost divorces electrical contractor Billy Frost, the rift consigns their 17-year-old identical twin daughters to separate islands. When they're home from college, Tabitha spends the summers with Eleanor on Nantucket and Harper lives on the Vineyard with Billy, and they visit the opposite parents for holidays. Now the twins are 39 and haven't gotten along in years. For reasons that will remain obscure until the end, Tabitha blames Harper for the death of her premature son, Julian. Neither Tabitha nor Harper has ever married. Tabitha had daughter Ainsley and, later, son Julian out of wedlock with her long-term boyfriend, Wyatt (now married to someone else and effectively out of Ainsley's life). Tabitha, who has lived her entire adult life in Eleanor's thrall, occupies her mother's carriage house and manages the ERF boutique on Nantucket, a stodgy purveyor of preppy resort wear on the verge of going bust. Harper, whose past includes menial jobs and a brush with the law, is now a total pariah on the Vineyard: she'd been having an affair with Billy's doctor, Reed, which is discovered by his wife, Sadie, on the night Billy dies. The fun accelerates when Eleanor, Ainsley (now 16), and Tabitha attend Billy's memorial service only to have Sadie toss a flute of champagne in Tabitha's face. Then Eleanor, who could never handle champagne, breaks a hip. For complicated reasons, the twins end up trading islands, with Tabitha heading to the Vineyard to renovate Billy's house and then sell it while Harper goes to Nantucket to look after her niece. Hilderbrand makes the most of the complications caused by twinship and small island worlds: Tabitha's most recent ex, Ramsay, approaches Harper and decides to pursue this less uptight look-alike, and Tabitha, after some initial difficulties occasioned by Harper's reputation, falls for master builder Franklin--who is Sadie's brother. The most poignant scenes feature Ainsley, whose teen angst is quelled by Harper's nurturing. The romantic relationships seem tacked on to satisfy the demands of the genre, but this beach read doesn't shy from the grittier side of all that sand. Intelligent escapism with heart.

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February 1, 2017

Mistress of the summertime novel, Hilderbrand here gives us identical twin sisters Tabitha and Harper Frost, separated by more than the salty Atlantic stretching between Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard. But a family crisis compels them to overcome their mutual enmity. With a 300,000-copy first printing.

Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

June 1, 2017

Tabitha and Harper are identical twins yet as different in nature as the rival Massachusetts islands they inhabit. But this wasn't always the case. After their parents divorced, and Tabitha stayed with their mother on Nantucket and Harper moved to Martha's Vineyard to live with their father, the siblings grew apart. Then Tabitha blamed Harper for the loss of her baby son and their relationship deteriorated even further. When their father dies unexpectedly and their mother is suddenly hospitalized, they end up working together out of desperation. Tabitha needs someone to care for her teenage daughter, and Harper's life is such a mess that she needs to leave town ASAP, so they essentially switch lives. The realization that each twin could benefit from becoming a bit more like the other is soon apparent but isn't enough to mend their relationship. That will take an even greater force. VERDICT Engaging family relationships mixed with vivid landscape descriptions create an effortless read. For fans of Hilderbrand's other novels as well as other novels with a beach setting such as those by Nancy Thayer. [See Prepub Alert, 1/8/17.]--Karen Core, Detroit P.L.

Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.