Books like The Hotel Nantucket

28 Summers is Hilderbrand at her most ambitious and emotional, tracing a love affair between two people who meet on Nantucket over the course of 28 consecutive Labor Day weekends. The novel shares The Hotel Nantucket's deep love for the island, but here the setting becomes a character in the truest sense, with the changes in Nantucket's landscape mirroring the evolution of the central relationship. Both books feature Hilderbrand's signature ability to make readers feel the specific sensory details of island life: the salt air, the gray-shingled cottages, the rhythm of a seasonal community.

28 Summers operates on a different emotional register than The Hotel Nantucket's lighter ensemble approach, with the long-running affair carrying genuine weight and consequence. Hilderbrand structures each chapter as a self-contained visit, creating a novel that feels like a photo album of a relationship. The political backdrop, spanning from Clinton to Trump, grounds the love story in real time in a way that makes it feel more substantial than a typical romance.

This is the pick for readers who loved The Hotel Nantucket's Nantucket setting and want a deeper, more bittersweet treatment of the island and the relationships it holds.

Golden Girl follows a Nantucket novelist who dies in a hit-and-run and is granted the ability to watch over her three adult children from the afterlife for one final summer. Hilderbrand's novel shares The Hotel Nantucket's supernatural element, the ghost, but here the ghostly presence is the protagonist rather than a supporting mystery. Both books use their ensemble casts to tell multiple interconnected stories across a single Nantucket summer, with each character's arc reflecting a different facet of island life.

Hilderbrand handles the afterlife conceit with a light touch, using Vivi's observations to comment on her children's choices without turning the book into a meditation on death. The three-sibling structure gives Golden Girl a family-drama engine that The Hotel Nantucket's staff-drama engine mirrors in a different key. Both books are structured to resolve their many storylines in satisfying ways by summer's end, creating a sense of seasonal completeness.

The writing is warm and observational, with Hilderbrand's insider knowledge of Nantucket restaurants, beaches, and social rituals making every scene feel specific. Golden Girl is a slightly more emotional read than The Hotel Nantucket, with the mother-watching-from-beyond premise adding tenderness to the comedy.

The Identicals follows twin sisters separated by divorce, one living on Nantucket and the other on Martha's Vineyard, who swap islands for the summer. Hilderbrand uses the twin premise to compare two island communities side by side, much as The Hotel Nantucket uses the hotel's various guests and staff to create a cross-section of the people drawn to island life. Both books share Hilderbrand's talent for making the social dynamics of a seasonal community feel vivid and specific, from the year-rounders who keep things running to the summer people who bring money and chaos in equal measure.

The twin-swap structure gives The Identicals a comedic momentum that matches The Hotel Nantucket's lighter tone, with both books built around the question of whether their characters can reinvent themselves in new surroundings. Hilderbrand writes sibling relationships with the same emotional accuracy she brings to romantic ones, and the twins' estrangement gives the book its emotional spine. The Martha's Vineyard sections offer a change of scenery for readers who have read every Nantucket-set Hilderbrand novel.

This is a good entry point for readers who want Hilderbrand's style in a slightly more structured, high-concept package.

Malibu Rising moves the coastal ensemble drama from the East Coast to 1980s California, where four siblings throw an annual end-of-summer party that becomes legendary. Taylor Jenkins Reid's novel shares The Hotel Nantucket's structural approach of gathering a large cast in one location and letting the interpersonal dynamics generate drama. Both books use a single setting as a crucible, with the beach house party in Malibu Rising serving the same function as the hotel in Hilderbrand's novel.

Reid writes with more literary polish than Hilderbrand, and her books carry a slightly darker edge, but the core appeal is identical: attractive people in a beautiful coastal setting, navigating relationships that are more complicated than they appear. The 1980s period setting gives Malibu Rising a nostalgic glamour that Hilderbrand achieves through Nantucket's old-money aesthetic. Both books build toward climactic events that bring all their storylines together, creating satisfying resolutions for characters readers have invested in across 400 pages.

Reid's pacing is tighter than Hilderbrand's, with the party night framework creating urgency. Readers who love Hilderbrand's coastal settings and want to try something with a bit more literary ambition will find this transition smooth and satisfying.

The Castaways is Hilderbrand's mystery-infused ensemble novel, following a group of Nantucket friends after a couple from their circle dies in a boating accident. The investigation into whether the deaths were truly accidental reveals the secrets each friend has been keeping, and the novel shares The Hotel Nantucket's technique of rotating perspectives to build a complete picture of a community. Both books understand that the enclosed world of an island amplifies interpersonal drama, because there is nowhere to hide and everyone talks.

The mystery element here is more central than The Hotel Nantucket's ghost subplot, giving The Castaways a propulsive quality that Hilderbrand's lighter books do not always aim for. The friend-group dynamics feel authentic, with Hilderbrand capturing the specific way close friends enable each other's worst impulses while also providing genuine support. The Nantucket setting is rendered with the same loving detail as in The Hotel Nantucket, with restaurants, beaches, and seasonal rhythms anchoring every scene.

This is the recommendation for readers who want Hilderbrand's signature warmth combined with a darker, more suspenseful plot.

Barefoot is Hilderbrand's earlier novel about three women who flee their problems on the mainland for a summer on Nantucket, and it shares The Hotel Nantucket's theme of the island as a place where people go to heal. The three protagonists, a new mother, a woman battling cancer, and a young woman escaping a bad relationship, arrive on the island with different needs and find community, romance, and clarity over the course of a single summer. The smaller cast gives Barefoot a more intimate feel than The Hotel Nantucket's busy ensemble, letting Hilderbrand develop each woman's story with more depth.

Both books use the rhythm of summer, the beaches, the cookouts, the long evenings, as a structural device that gives the narrative a natural arc from arrival to departure. Hilderbrand's descriptions of Nantucket are at their most evocative here, with the island functioning as a restorative force that the characters and readers both need. The novel is lighter on plot and heavier on character than The Hotel Nantucket, making it a good choice for readers who want the setting and the feeling without the complications of a large cast.

Barefoot is one of Hilderbrand's most beloved books for a reason: it delivers summer comfort with real emotional substance.

It Happened One Summer brings the small-coastal-town energy of Hilderbrand's Nantucket to the Pacific Northwest, with a fish-out-of-water heroine who adds comedic friction that The Hotel Nantucket achieves through its ghost and TikTok reviewer. Tessa Bailey's novel follows Piper, an LA socialite banished to her late father's bar in a Washington harbor town, where she clashes with a grumpy local fisherman. The setting is grittier and more working-class than Hilderbrand's polished Nantucket, but both books use their coastal communities as self-contained worlds where everyone knows everyone's business.

Bailey writes with more overt heat than Hilderbrand, leaning fully into the romance genre, but both authors share a knack for making their heroines' personal transformations feel earned rather than convenient. The small-town cast of regulars who meddle in Piper's life mirrors the hotel staff dynamics in Hilderbrand's novel. Both books are ideal summer reads that balance humor, romance, and setting in a way that feels effortless but requires real skill.

It Happened One Summer is the recommendation for readers who want The Hotel Nantucket's coastal comfort with more explicit romance and a younger, edgier voice.