by Suzanne Daub
If you’ve everfelt the pull of Nantucket while reading an Elin Hilderbrand novel—the salt air, the fragrance of rose-covered cottages, the excitement of the brewery and The Box—there’s a way to actually experience it. The Elin Hilderbrand Nantucket Blue Book Tour, designed by Heather Thorpe and operated by Nantucket Island Tours offers fans an opportunity to enjoy Nantucket in real life: a ride across our island with someone who knows Elin not just as an author, but as a sister.
Heather Thorpe grew up on the Main Line in Pennsylvania. Her mother and Elin’s father married when the two girls were quite young, and the two sisters grew very close in their blended family. “She’s my best friend, and I’m a super fan!” Heather said enthusiastically.
The family spent summers on Cape Cod, and when Elin moved to Nantucket Island in her 20s, Heather visited her sister here as often as she could. Two years ago, Heather relocated to Cape Cod year-round, and our island quickly became her second home. That’s when Thorpe’s idea for the tour took shape.
The seed had actually been planted some years earlier. Heather and Elin, along with the Nantucket Hotel, had collaborated for several years on a Bucket List Weekend, an off-season event for Hilderbrand fans. Every year the special weekend included a tour of the island, mostly focused on history, with Heather weaving in an “Elin commentary.” The tours were a popular part of the weekends, and when Heather moved to the Cape, she reached out to Nantucket Island Tours and pitched the concept of offering a regularly scheduled tour designed around Hilderbrand’s favorite spots. With the publication of Elin’s The Blue Book in 2025, the timing was perfect.
To prepare, Heather spent the winter of 2024-2025 re-reading all of Elin’s novels. Since Elin’s fans tend to know her books inside and out, Heather knew she needed a refresher. “It was such fun to revisit them all,” she reminisced.
What sets this tour apart isn’t just the subject matter—it’s the tone. Heather is a former teacher who describes talking as her superpower. “No one was shocked when I told them I was going to be a tour guide,” she laughed. Her tour is scripted, but she welcomes questions and the topics often “veer off in different directions.” Every group is different, and the conversation shifts accordingly. “I think what fans like is they are getting an inside scoop…[the tour is] not me talking at you… it’s us talking together,” Heather explained. “They are comfortable asking me questions they might not ask any one else… it’s a unique perspective, and they can tell how close we are—how much I love her comes through.”
The Blue Book Tour runs approximately two hours and fifteen minutes, covering several area, not only the heart of town. “Nantucket is not just downtown,” Heather is quick to point out. “Elin writes about the entire island across her novels. She carefully includes all areas and seasons… She tries to give all of Nantucket its due,” said Heather. During the Blue Book Tour, she makes a point of highlighting places that reveal a different side of Elin: the high school, the hospital, the Boys & Girls Club. “It brings attendees to the Elin who really was a resident: takes her out of Author Elin and brings her into Mom Elin, Friend Elin…People love hearing about the woman who built a life here, raised her children here, and wove the whole island into her work because she genuinely loves it,” Heather explained. “I try to impart Elin’s true love of Nantucket: you don’t write 32 novels about a place if you don’t love it in its entirety. When they read her books, people really feel like they’ve been on Nantucket.” This summer, Heather has also woven into her tour island details from The Five-Star Weekend, since the series is due to be released this month.
The tour also notes Elin’s favorite beaches, shops, and restaurants, and includes a visit to Sconset, where guests may get off the bus at the iconic Sankaty Light fence. This time of year, when the ‘Sconset roses are in bloom, the reaction from guests is palpable. But perhaps no stop on the tour lands quite like The Box, where the tour ends with each tourgoer enjoying a glass of prosecco served in a souvenir glass. Elin mentions The Box in nearly every novel, sometimes as a full scene and sometimes just a passing reference. For Elin fans, finally standing in front of it feels like stepping out of the pages.
Even after leading the tour many times, there are two moments that never lose their power for Heather. The first is the story of Elin’s breast cancer journey: the experience that inspired her novel Golden Girl. “I tell the story because it resonates with so many… Elin is a real person. I only cried once telling it, but it is a special moment during the tour among us all.” It’s the moment, she says, “when everyone on the bus comes together.”
The second is the story of how Elin and Chip met. On her very first ferry ride to Nantucket, Elin fell madly in love with the island, and, on that same trip at Cliffside, she fell madly in love with a boy named Chip, who was working there. Elin’s most recent novel, Swan Song, is dedicated to him.
The guests who climb aboard the Nantucket Island Tours bus to take The Blue Book Tour visit from every state in our country, from the UK, and beyond. Last summer, a woman traveled solo from Australia specifically to take the tour, drawn by Elin’s imagery in her novels. “It is a privilege to extend that on the tour,” Heather says.
She customizes the tour to the audience, whether she is speaking to a bus full of superfans who have read every word Elin has written or to a mix of readers and friends along for the ride who are discovering the island for the first time. Either way, Heather meets them where they are.
She strives to help tourgoers feel like they’ve truly seen Elin’s version of Nantucket and understand the complexities and joys of living on Nantucket. “Elins books are happy beach reads… I want them to walk away with the joy that you feel when you read one of Elin’s novels…that I have presented Nantucket in a way that would make Elin proud, and that they would experience in her books.
“I love it: I get such joy from giving the tour…I’d do it seven days a week if I could. I get to talk about my best friend for two hours!”
Elin Hilderbrand Blue Book Tour of Nantucket is offered by Nantucket Island Tours on Wednesday, Thursday, & Sunday through October 18, 2026 Tickets at nantucketbustours.com