Castaways was totally enjoyable reading to me. The story revolves around 8 close friends and quickly you feel that you know all eight of them. It was suspenseful, especially in the beginning where there is sad news. The rest of the book is flashbacks to the beginning, which was wonderfully unique. Due to the sad scene, six of the characters all grew into the person who they either really are or were meant to be, by the ending. I'm going to look for the other books by this author now!

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I liked this book. The secret lives of these friends was interesting and entertaining. Good beach read.

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In the midst of tragedy, this book shows how people cope with it. It's a page turner from the word go. I really enjoyed it! I can't wait to read her next one!

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Quite possibly (at least in my opinion) the best of all of her books. I absolutely LOVED it!

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Hilderbrand has written a wonderful light mystery in the voices of 6 of the 8 main adult characters. Easy to track despite each "chapter" being voiced by a different person and bouncing back and forth in time. Serious subject matter involves affairs between members of this group of 4 married couples, a suspected teacher/student affair, prescription drug and alcohol abuse, and the care of orphaned children. I will definitely look for more of Hilderbrand's island novels!

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This one gets three and a half stars as a summer read that runs just a bit too long, like a group vacation where you're tired of the company a day or two before time to go home.

That in fact is one of the sequences in this tale of four couples, each brought by circumstance or quirk to Nantucket Island, where they form a tight-knit group -- socializing together, often vacationing together, trading off child care, party planning, and bed partners in more or less random fashion.

Then a sudden tragedy leaves an unmendable breach in the group, and layers upon layers of deception and betrayal begin to unfold.

Hildebrand juggles six main voices in the tale, which eventually gets so tangled that it seems the threads can never be pulled out again. The ultimate resolution, when it comes, is about 50 pages too late, as readers will have already gotten there, eaten the hors d'oeuvres, had too many martinis, and gotten tired of waiting for the rest of the meal to arrive.

(It's also about the fifth book I've read in which the author does not have a firm grasp of the differences between rifles and shotguns and the characteristics of their respective cartridge loads.)

However, if you're looking for a read to keep you entertained over a long lazy weekend, you could do worse.

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Great book! The author captures the characters and the changes in their lives well.

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Good Book...pulls at the heart strings and forces you to examine your own relationships!

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