Elin Hilderbrand Reveals Retirement from Beach Reads: 'I Have Run Out of Really Good Ideas'
"I really feel like this is the time to go," the queen of summer reading said, in a recent interview
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Elin Hilderbrand and 'Swan Song' book coverElin Hilderbrand is done writing beach reads.
The author, 52, known for her romantic novels that take place in Nantucket, Mass., opened up to The Wall Street Journal about her career change.
"I have run out of really good ideas for Nantucket novels, and I don’t ever want to put out a product that is subpar," Hilderbrand told the outlet. "I want it to be interesting, and I don’t want to repeat myself, and I really feel like this is the time to go."
Her final Nantucket novel will be the aptly named Swan Song, set to come out from Hachette Books on June 11. The novel follows chief of police Ed Kapenash and an impending divorcee named Sharon.
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Elin HilderbrandDrama ensues when the mysterious Richardsons purchase a $22 million summer home and Ed, Sharon and everyone in the community gets swept up in the drama of it all, according to the book's description.
"The Richardsons throw lavish parties, flirt with multiple locals, flaunt their wealth with not one but two yachts and raise impossible hopes of everyone they meet," it continues. "When their house burns to the ground and their most essential employee goes missing, the entire island is up in arms."
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The author teased that the book will reunite characters from previous favorites and include a twist that will make her readers "freak out." And even though this is the last trip to Nantucket with Hilderbrand, she's not quite hanging up her pen just yet.
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Hilderbrand is "thinking about taking on a work of literary fiction," she told WSJ. She has a podcast called Books, Beach, & Beyond — which she launched last year — and also has an adaptation of her novel The Perfect Couple in the works at Netflix.
Hilderbrand’s first novel The Beach Club was released in 2000, followed by Nantucket Nights and Summer People.
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The author first announced her retirement in 2021, telling the outlet Maria Shriver that her output makes it "very, very hard to sustain the quality of the storylines." She continued to share that she "wanted to retire with Golden Girl" – which came out in 2021 – but wasn’t "quite ready."
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